Join The History Guy from YouTube in conversation about his videos and various topics in history. Here you can find behind-the-scenes peeks of the set and The History Cats. Share ideas for future videos or ask questions of both the community and The History Guy himself. Early releases and the occasional extras are available for supporting members.
In 1907 a professor of chemistry at Tokyo Imperial University named Kikunea Ikeda was eating dinner when he noticed that his broth was particularly delicious. A year later, on July 25, 1908 he determined why. Professor Ikeda had identified a chemical compound that today represents a nearly seven billion dollar industry, and one of the world’s most common, and controversial food additives. The complex history of the sodium salt of gluconic acid called "monosodium glutamate" deserves to be remembered.
During the civil war, the manufacture of powder and explosives was often handled by the most vulnerable, young women and children, whose labor was needed when so many men had been sent off to war. On March 13, 1863, the confederacy experienced a munitions disaster, in the confederate capitol of Richmond.
The appeal of one strange object, which achieved dizzying popularity in my lifetime, and today lives on mostly for nostalgia, is not so difficult to explain. All you need to do is turn one on and wait.
