APRIL 29, 2014 – NATIONAL ZIPPER DAY – NATIONAL SHRIMP SCAMPI DAY

                NATIONAL ZIPPER DAY

NATIONAL ZIPPER DAY

This day celebrates something that we often do not think about and just automatically take for granted.  National Zipper Day is celebrated each year on April 29.

It was first in 1851 that Elias Howe, the inventor of the sewing machine, received a patent for an “Automatic, Continuous Clothing Closure”.  Howe did not market it and missed the recognition he may have received for his invention.

Forty two years later, Whitcomb Judson marketed the “Clasp Locker”.  Being very similar to Elias Howe’s patent, this device served as a more complicated hook-and-eye shoe fastener.  Judson started the Universal Fastener Company where he manufactured his new device and debuted it at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 but was met with little success.  This did give Judson credit for inventing the zipper as he was the first person to market it.

In 1906, Giden Sundback, a Swedish American electrical engineer, was hired to work Universal Fastener Company.  His good technical skills, design skills and devotion to the company led to his designing of the modern zipper in 1913.   The patent for the “Separable Fastener was issued in 1917.

In 1923, the B.F. Goodrich Company named the popular zipper.

** You can find the world’s longest zipper at the hotel in Fort Lauderdale’s Executive Airport.  The zipper measures 6,000 feet long.  The name of the hotel’s nightclub is “Zippers”. **

NATIONAL ZIPPER DAY HISTORY

Our research was unable to find the creator of National Zipper Day, an “unofficial” national holiday.

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                    NATIONAL SHRIMP SCAMPI DAY

Annually celebrated on April 29, it is National Shrimp Scampi Day.  Today we honor the delicious dish of shrimp cooked with butter, garlic, lemon juice and white wine.

“Scampi is a culinary name for a kind of small lobster known as Nephrops norvegicus, Norway lobster, Dublin Bay prawn, langoustine or ”true scampi”. The name is often used to loosely describe a style of preparation typical for this lobster.”

Enjoy your favorite Shrimp Scampi dish today!

Following is a link to a “tried and true” Shrimp Scampi recipe:
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/shrimp_scampi/