Eugenio Blefari (1889 - 1977)

Refresh this page to see various historical events that occurred during Eugenio's lifetime.

In 1889, in the year that Eugenio Blefari was born, on January 15th, the Coca-Cola Company was incorporated - originally as the "Pemberton Medicine Company". The Coca-Cola drink was originally created by John Stith Pemberton, first as a patent medicine and then as a soda fountain drink. Pemberton had sold the company in 1888, shortly before he died.

In 1906, Eugenio was 17 years old when author Upton Sinclair exposed the public-health threat of the meat-packing industry in his book The Jungle. While his intent was to show the lives of exploited lives of immigrants in Chicago and other industrialized cities, most people were horrified by how the meat that ended up on their tables was handled. There was such an outcry that legislation was passed to regulate meat packing. Sinclair said " "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."

In 1938, by the time he was 49 years old, on June 25th (a Saturday) the Fair Labor Standards Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt (along with 120 other bills). The Act banned oppressive child labor, set the minimum hourly wage at 25 cents, and established the maximum workweek at 44 hours. It faced a lot of opposition and in fighting for it, Roosevelt said "Do not let any calamity-howling executive with an income of $1,000 a day, ...tell you...that a wage of $11 a week is going to have a disastrous effect on all American industry."

In 1965, Eugenio was 76 years old when the television show "I Spy" premiered in the fall season on NBC. The stars were Bill Cosby and Robert Culp, making Cosby the first African American to headline a television show. Four stations - in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama - refused to air the show.

In 1977, in the year of Eugenio Blefari's passing, on January 20th, Jimmy Carter became the 39th President of the United States. Running against incumbent Gerald Ford, he won 50.1% of the popular vote to Ford's 48.0%. He was elected to only one term.