Celebrating Bubble Gum Day the first Friday of February every year doesn’t burst many people’s bubble. It’s a fun way to chew your favorite flavor of bubble gum, blow some spectacular bubbles and raise money, too.
- 7000 BC – Evidence suggests that humans have had a penchant for gnawing on a chewy item for a long time! Even 9000 years ago, some northern Europeans may have chewed on the tar that comes from birch bark–perhaps for enjoyment as well as for medicinal reasons
- 1848 – John Curtis of Maine was the first to commercialize chewing gum. He developed a machine to mass produce it and started up a factory that produced eighteen hundred boxes a day. However, this gum needed to be dipped in powdered sugar to stay sweet.
- 1540 – Written by a friar, a series of books documents the various social norms for Aztec peoples, including the rule that men and married women who chewed gum in public were considered to be “bad” people. Children and old women were exceptions.
- 1869 – Doctor William F. Semple designed and patented chewing gum from rubber he claimed could help with tooth decay and strengthen your jaw. The ingredients in his gum included powdered licorice and charcoal
- 1906 – Frank Fleer invented the first bubble gum but it turned out to be too sticky. The short-lived chew was called Blibber Blubber.
- 1928 – After decades of failure by those before him, Walter Diemer created the first bubble producing gum. He used a pink dye because that’s all that was available. His employer, the Fleer Chewing Gum Company, marketed it as “Dubble Bubble”.
- 1930 – As an incentive for purchase, the Fleer Company added black and white comics inside the Double Bubble Bubblegum wrappers, featuring characters named “Dub” and “Bub”. These became all the rage with kids so other brands eventually followed suit, including the famous, Bazooka Joe.
- 1940s – During WWII, U.S. military personnel spread the popularity of chewing gum by trading it and giving it as gifts to people in Europe, Africa, Asia, and around the world.
- 1947 – The iconic gum, introduced in 1947, features a wrapper with a “Bazooka Joe” comic.
- 1950s – Bubblegum Alley in San Luis Obispo, California, is famous for its walls covered in used bubble gum. This quirky landmark has been accumulating gum since the 1950s.
- 1960s – “Bubblegum music” described upbeat, catchy pop songs aimed at young audiences. The term reflects the music’s light, fun nature, similar to the experience of chewing bubble gum.
- 1975 – Bubble Yum was the first soft bubble gum on the shelves.
- 2004 – The largest bubble gum bubble ever blown was 50.8 centimeters (20 inches) in diameter. Chad Fell of Haleyville, Alabama blew the bubble with three pieces of Dubble Bubble on April 24, 2004, at Double Springs High School in Winston County, Alabama.
- 2006 – Created by children’s book author, Ruth Spiro (also a mom of two children), this day was inspired as a way for children to raise money for school without having to hold fundraisers. It was created as the one day of the year where kids are allowed to chew gum! But they pay for the privilege and the money goes to the special projects
- Kids in North America spend approximately half a billion dollars on bubble gum every year.
- 100,000 tons of bubble gum is chewed every year.
- Sixty to 70 percent of bubble gum is sugar.
- The average American chews around 300 sticks of gum a year.
- If your popped bubblegum gets stuck in your hair, you can remove it by rubbing the piece stuck with peanut butter.
- The color of the first successful bubble gum was pink because it was the only color that was left with the inventor.
- The first bubble gum ever marketed was done so under the name “Blibber-Blubber”.
- Turkey is the country with the most gum companies; the United States is second.
- Chewing gum while cutting onions can help a person from crying.
- Studies have shown that chewing gum helps people concentrate and may improve long-term working memory. Chewing gum has also been shown to reduce muscle tension and increase alertness.
- Chewing gum burns around 11 calories per hour. The calories count even though you don’t swallow the gum.
- One piece of bubble gum contains approximately 29 calories.
- In the U.S. alone, the total amount of chewing gum sold in one year would make a stick 3.5 million miles long. That’s long enough to reach the moon and back seven times or to circle the earth’s equator 150 times.
- Cinnamon, spearmint, and peppermint are among the most popular flavors of chewing gum today.
- Bubble gum produces larger bubbles and is typically sweeter. While chewing gum can still produce bubbles, they are neither as large or as lasting as those made with bubble gum.
- Richard Walker holds the record for chewing gum for the longest continuous stretch. He chewed 135 sticks of gum successively for eight hours straight.
- Hubba Bubba comes in a roll similar to a tape measure or scotch tape. Each roll is six feet long.
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