The Day Corn Flakes Were Born

Today marks the day that Will Kellogg is credited with inventing corn flakes. The Kellogg family single-handedly put Battle Creek on the map and changed the way the America starts their day. All I can add is that I think "they're great!". (uh, sorry)

Will Keith Kellogg was born in the small town of Battle Creek, Michigan, on April 7, 1860. He never had much in the way of formal schooling, and when he was fourteen, he left school entirely. His father had a small business making brooms, and Will began his working career as a traveling salesman for his father's brooms. Will's older brother, John Harvy Kellogg, was a physician who directed a health facility in Battle Creek. John was a strong advocate of a healthy lifestyle, especially when it came to exercise and diet. His recommendations for his patients included a diet heavily weighted toward vegetables and cereal grains. After selling brooms for a few years, Will joined his brother at the facility, and the two focused on the nutritional needs of the patients at the Battle Creek facility. Their experiments with cereal grains finally led to the discovery that they could roll out a mash of wheat and turn the cooked dough into flakes. They served the concoction to the patients, and it was a hit. John was content to focus on the health and nutrition of the facility's patients, but Will saw the potential for creating a product that might be more widely accepted. Continuing to experiment, they found that corn could also be flaked, and yielded a very tasty, crunchy breakfast food. These flakes of corn became the foundation for a minor revolution in America's breakfast habits.
(more about Will Kellogg...)