Breakfast Cereal

Breakfast cereal refers to a food product commonly consumed as a breakfast meal. It typically consists of processed grains, such as wheat, rice, oats, or corn, that are often shaped into flakes, puffs, or other forms. Cereal can be served with milk, yogurt, or fruit, and it's a convenient and quick breakfast option for many people.

Cereals come in various types and flavors, including but not limited to:

Hot cereals: Examples include oatmeal, cream of wheat, or grits.

Cold cereals: These are often ready-to-eat and include options like corn flakes, wheat flakes, puffed rice, granola, and more. They can be served with cold milk or yogurt.

Cereal is often fortified with vitamins and minerals, making it a source of essential nutrients. It has been a popular breakfast choice for decades due to its convenience and versatility.

BREAKFAST CEREAL HISTORY

The English word cereal is derived from 'Ceres', the Roman goddess of harvest and agriculture.

Dr James C. Jackson was a follower of the Seventh-day Adventists, who wished to avoid consumption of animal foods. In 1863 Jackson created at the Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek, Michigan, the first ready-to-eat breakfast cereal, which he is called “Granula”. Granula is whole grain flour dough baked into dry loaves, broken into chunks and baked again, and then ground into still smaller chunks. But it was far from convenient; it had to be soaked overnight before it was even possible to chew the dense, bran-heavy nuggets.

A Denver, Colorado lawyer, Henry Perky, who suffered from indigestion and had become converted to health foods, invented in 1892 a new product, Shredded Wheat biscuits and a machine for making them. His original intention was to sell the machines, not the biscuits, which he gave out from a horse-drawn wagon in an attempt to market the idea. It was known at the time as The Cereal Machine Company. The biscuits proved more popular than the machines, however, so Perky opened in 1893 his first bakery in Boston, Massachusetts.

Seventh-day Adventist surgeon John Harvey Kellogg was the superintendent of the Battle Creek Sanatorium. Kellogg was interested in nutrition, and he was earnestly striving to develop bran-rich foods that weren't too bland. A vegetarian, he wished to replace meat on the breakfast table. Eventually, in 1895 John Harvey Kellogg, along with his younger brother and general office assistant at the Sanatorium, William Keith Kellogg, developed a breakfast food that was easy to chew. It was a cereal flake made of wheat, which they called Granose.

Around the same time a former patient of Kellogg, Charles William Post developed Postum, a wheat and molasses based hot beverage. Post advertised it widely claiming there was no limit to the number of physical and moral ills (even divorce or juvenile delinquency) caused by coffee, but it could all be improved with Postum.

Postum was a success, and Charles William Post's, Postum Cereal Company then had an even greater achievement. Grape Nuts was a failure as a grain beverage, as Post originally marketed it, but it turned out to be a very popular breakfast cereal. (It was sweetened with maltose, which Post erroneously called grape sugar, and he thought it had a nut-like flavour as a result of toasting, hence the name.)

C.W. Post introduced the grocery coupon in 1895 when he offered “once cent off” to kick off sales for his new cereal, Post’s Grape Nuts.

John Harvey Kellogg developed a new cereal, an improvement on the Granose idea. This new product came about by accident, after some boiled corn was left alone, one of his cooks found it had broken into crispy flakes. He served corn flakes for the first time to his patients at his hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan on March 7, 1896.

March 7th is celebrated each year as National Cereal Day.

In 1906 the profit-minded William Kellogg broke away from his brother to found the Kellogg Toasted Corn Flake Company to market their new corn flakes cereal.

The very first cereal gift offer was made available in 1909. The Funny Jungleland Moving Pictures Booklet was offered with the purchase of two packages of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes. 

In 1901, Dr Alexander P. Anderson developed the method for making puffed rice in New York, and he introduced it to the world at the St. Louis World's Fair. Anderson had made the discovery that rice kernels, after being heated to a high temperature, then quickly cooled would immediately expand to several times their normal size making a tasty breakfast cereal.

Battle Creek, Michigan, became a breakfast battlefield once the secret of puffing cereals was unleashed by Anderson. Suddenly, the town wasn't just known for its sanatoriums and pious pronouncements - it was the epicenter of a breakfast brawl! Kellogg's and Quaker Oats, two names that still echo in pantries nationwide, emerged as the gladiators of this sugary scrum. They wielded puffing guns like battering rams, transforming humble grains into airy, milk-sogging morsels.

This wasn't your grandma's oatmeal, friends. This was breakfast reimagined! Flakes danced, puffs pirouetted, and squares marched triumphantly onto plates across America. The competition was fierce, fueled by advertising campaigns as outlandish as the cereals themselves. Remember Snap, Crackle, and Pop? Those weren't just mascots, they were breakfasttime assassins, each vying for cereal supremacy.

Kix is an American brand of breakfast cereal introduced in 1937 by the General Mills company of Golden Valley, Minnesota. This Minnesota-made marvel isn't just puffed corn cereal; it's a testament to breakfast innovation. The puffing process they perfected paved the way for other breakfast legends like Cheerios Trix, Cocoa Puffs, and even Reese's Puffs!

Cheerios was first introduced by General Mills on May 1, 1941 under the name Cheerioats. The name was changed to Cheerios in 1945 after a trade name dispute with Quaker Oats. 

Cheerios are made from whole grain oats that are rolled into small, round shapes. They are then cooked and dried. Cheerios are a good source of fiber and vitamins, and they are low in sugar. They are a popular breakfast cereal for people of all ages.

Sugar Bear (the mascot for Golden Crisps) first appeared in the 1940s when the cereal was called Sugar Crisp.

The first cereals for the sweet tooted were introduced in 1958; General Mills’ Cocoa Puffs and Kelloggs' Cocoa Krispies.

The original flavor for Cap'n Crunch cereal was created in 1963, by Pamela Low, a flavorist at Arthur D. Little, and a graduate of the University of New Hampshire with a microbiology degree. The flavor was inspired by her grandmother, who used to serve brown sugar and butter over rice.

The cereal Cookie Crisp was created in 1977 by Purina, the pet food company.

In 2004, Denmark indeed restricted the sale of 18 Kellogg's products, including Special K, due to their fortification with vitamins and minerals. The Danish government expressed concerns about the excessive levels of nutrients in these products compared to their recommended daily intake, especially for children. They argued that consuming fortified cereals regularly could potentially lead to adverse health effects like liver or kidney damage.

FUN BREAKFAST CEREAL FACTS

When actor John C. Reilly was 12 year old, he and his friends stole 500 boxes of Corn Pops from a freight train.

A cornflake the shape of Illinois was sold on eBay in 2008 for $1,350.

The rooster on the Corn Flakes box is called Cornelius. They chose a rooster because the word "ceiliog," Welsh for cockerel, sounds a bit like Kellogg.

Honey Nut Cheerios don't contain nuts, they contain a "natural almond flavor" made from peach and apricot pits.

It would take approximately 3,155,524,416 Cheerios to circle the Earth at the equator.

In 2008 a marketer for Kraft Foods rotated their square Shreddies cereal 45 degrees, and re-marketed them as the new “Diamond Shreddies”. The new product showed a large increase in sales and test groups even reported a difference in flavor.

Cereal packets are placed on shelves at the eye height for a reason. Researchers have found consumers are 16% more likely to trust a brand of cereal when the characters on the boxes on the supermarket shelves look them straight in the eye.

It costs more to make the cardboard box that Shredded Wheat comes in than it does to make the Shredded Wheat itself.

Battle Creek, Michigan is referred to as the "Cereal Bowl of America." The city produces the most breakfast cereals than any other city in the world.

Pebbles was actually named after the shape of the cereal and not the Pebbles Flintstone character.

Cheetos are naturally gray before they're given a bright orange artificial color.

Even though Froot Loops are different colors, they are all the same flavor.

Some breakfast cereals, like Wheaties, are fortified with enough iron that individual flakes can be lifted and carried using common magnets.

After four years of eating Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries, a woman sued the distributor of Cap'n Crunch because she discovered that she was eating brightly-colored cereal balls, and that "Crunchberries" aren't a real fruit like she had thought.

In Spain, it is common to pour chocolate milk or cafe au lait on cereal for breakfast.

The average American will eat about 11.9 pounds or 160 bowls of cereal per year.

A study of 700 pregnant women found that women who ate at least one bowl of breakfast cereal daily were 87% more likely to have a boy than those who ate no cereal.

Sources Food For Thought: Extraordinary Little Chronicles of the World by Ed Pearce, Greatfacts.com

Breakfast

Breakfast is the first meal of the day, typically consumed in the morning. It is often considered an important meal as it provides the body and brain with the necessary fuel and nutrients after a period of fasting during the night. 

The composition of breakfast can vary widely across cultures and individuals, but common breakfast foods include cereal, eggs, toast, fruit, yogurt, and beverages such as coffee or tea. The specific foods people eat for breakfast can depend on regional customs, personal preferences, and dietary habits.

Eating a nutritious breakfast is often recommended for maintaining energy levels and supporting overall health.

BREAKFASTS IN HISTORY

The word breakfast was coined due to the fact that after sleeping for hours, we are "breaking our fast."

Breakfast for most Ancient Greeks was a hot porridge made from cereal.

The ancient Greeks served at breakfast watered down wine to a constituency of three parts of water to one part of wine. As it spoiled easily, often cheese, herbs, honey or other flavorings were added to enhance its taste and the Greeks often liked to dip their bread into the drink. Indeed the Greek term akratidzomai meaning “to breakfast,” literally translates as “to drink undiluted wine.”

For upper class Romans in Britain, the day began with a light breakfast of bread and fruit whilst wealthy citizens in Rome started the day with such items as bean meal mash and unleavened bread-cakes.

The wealthy section of the Roman population generally drank water for breakfast that was either warm or cooled with snow. 

In medieval Europe, almost no one ate breakfast for its association with gluttony and fear of being labeled "low status". Only two formal meals were eaten per day—one at mid-day and one in the evening. 

In Old English the word “disner” from which “dinner” derives meant "to have breakfast." The word “breakfast” only came into general use in the 15th century, by which time a later “dinner” was the main meal of the day.

Queen Elizabeth I of England disliked gluttony and retained a reasonably slim figure. Her regular breakfast was a biscuit and undercooked boiled beefsteaks with a half pint of strong ale.

Before his execution in 1649, Charles I of England had a condemned man’s breakfast of claret and swan pie.

Oliver Cromwell's family ate for breakfast toast topped with a variety of toppings such as hot honey, ginger and cinnamon. They drank a spiced hot drink made from ale, thickened with egg yolks and sweetened with honey.

In North America, colonial housewives served popcorn with sugar and cream for breakfast. The corn was popped by means of a cylinder of thin sheet-iron that revolved on an axle in front of the fireplace.

Ten years after Dorothy Jones became America’s first coffee trader in 1660, the new drink had replaced beer as the favorite breakfast beverage for many New England colonists.

Previously in England, when making such dishes as toasted cheese, the toast was generally moistened in wine. By the turn of the 18th century, the fashion was to butter it and hot buttered toast was being eaten at breakfast.

The great 18th century Italian lover Casanova recommended eating 50 oysters for breakfast.

The Scottish economist Adam Smith (1723-1790) was notoriously absent-minded. On one occasion falling into discourse with a certain Mr Damer during breakfast, Smith took a piece of bread and butter, and after rolling it round and round put in into the teapot and poured the water to brew it. Shortly after he poured out a cup, and on tasting it declared it was the worst tea he had ever met with.

A typical seaman’s breakfast in the British navy at the turn of the 19th century was burgoo, made of boiled oatmeal seasoned with salt, sugar and butter, and accompanied by ‘Scots coffee’ - made of hard-baked ships biscuits burnt to a charcoal, then crushed and mixed with hot water.

In 1824, boarding house keepers in New York, responding to the high cost of living, voted to serve boarders only four prunes each for breakfast.

A 19th century breakfast for an American cowboy included salt pork or bacon, and eggs, which being shipped west for considerable distances, sometimes went bad.

A typical Victorian Royal breakfast consisted of five courses. There would be an egg dish, bacon, grilled trout or turbot, a meat dish, and woodcock, snipe or chicken. But Queen Victoria herself ate only a boiled egg-scooped with a gold spoon from a gold egg cup.

French novelist George Sand ate her breakfast from the same bowl as her cat, Minou.

Breakfast for England's King Edward VII was eggs followed by large thick slices of bacon then fish (turbot, lobster or salmon) with finally steak or chops with a little game or poultry.

Marmalade was the breakfast of choice for Sherlock Holmes, who ate the jam with prawns on toast, calling it ‘his brain food.’

U.S. President Calvin Coolidge liked to eat breakfast in bed while having his head rubbed with Vaseline.

The  Oslo Breakfast is a meal that began to be served to Norwegian schoolchildren from 1932. A typical version included an orange, milk, whole-wheat bread, rye biscuit, cheese, carrot and a spoon of cod-liver oil. It reportedly increased the average height of 14 year olds by 4 inches (10 cms). By the late 1950s the provision of Oslo breakfasts by schools had largely ceased.

The saying "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" was originally coined in 1944 by a marketing campaign from General Foods, the manufacturer of Grape Nuts, to sell more cereal. During the campaign, grocery stores and radio ads promoted the importance of breakfast.

President John F. Kennedy would read about six newspapers while having breakfast every morning.

In 1975, Margaret Thatcher became the first woman to lead a major British political party. Before her first Shadow Cabinet meeting, she had a breakfast of grapefruit, poached egg and coffee.

On September 24, 1989, the French Health Education committee launched a campaign for healthier breakfasts, suggesting bacon and eggs.

FUN BREAKFAST FACTS

35% of Americans eat breakfast everyday.

Photo: SymmetryBreakfast/Instagram

31 million Americans skip breakfast every day.

The translation for 'breakfast' in Brazil is 'cafe da manha' which literally translates to 'coffee of the morning'.

The British used to call mainland Europe "The Continent." As more continental European tourists travelled to England and the Americas, they pushed for a breakfast of pastry, fruit, and coffee they normally eat. That is why hotels serve a "Continental Breakfast." Also because it's cheap.

Eating breakfast will help you burn from 5-20% more calories throughout the day.

The proportion of British families who eat marmalade from breakfast is down from 36 per cent 40 years ago to just 7 per cent today. Generations of kids have been put off by the bitter taste from the use of Seville oranges from Spain and the chewy bits of peel. The result is that the market has become limited to the over 45s.

Sources Daily Mail May 30, 2012, Daily Express, Food For Thought: Extraordinary Little Chronicles of the World by Ed Pearce

Bread

Bread is a staple food made from flour, water, yeast, and salt, usually baked in an oven. It's been a crucial part of human diets for millennia and appears in countless diverse variations across cultures and cuisines.

 

HISTORY

Evidence that humans were grinding wild barley and grass seeds to make dough at least 22,000 years ago has been found on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

The first bread was made from acorns or beechnuts, or seeds of wild grains crushed, they were ground between stones, mixed with water, and cooked on flat hot stones heated directly in a fire.

Later in Europe, bread was made from spelt, a type of primitive, tough grain with a tight-fitting husk that protected against pests and diseases but was hard to grind. Pounding stones were used to crush the grain, which was then moistened, compacted and cooked on a hot stone.

By 5000 BC, hot stones were being covered with an inverted pot to contain the heat. Bread was being baked by this method in several areas including Bulgaria, Egypt and Mesopotamia.

The earliest form of leavening is a type of yeast, or breadmash, discovered accidentally approx 2600 BC by an Egyptian when a piece of dough had become sour. With dough made by mixing a type of flour made from ground nuts, salt, water and leaven the Egyptians were able to make over 50 types of a raised and coarse bread. They varied the shape and use such flavouring materials as poppyseed and sesame.

Moldy bread has been used to disinfect cuts as far back as ancient Egypt.

The Greeks and Romans both liked their bread white; and color was one of the main tests for quality. Pliny wrote, “The wheat of Cyprus is swarthy and produces a dark bread, for which reason it is generally mixed with the white wheat of Alexandria”.

Freed Roman slave Marcus Virgilius Euryasaces invented the first bread-maker in the first century AD. Powered by a donkey or horse walking in circles, it kneaded dough in a basin.

The Romans often flavoured their bread with cumin, parsley or poppy. There were certain miserly bakers who knead the meal with sea-water to save the price of salt. Pliny did not approve of this.

In medieval Western Europe, each citizen ate over 600 grams (just over 20 ounces) of bread each day, but the type of bread eaten by individuals depended on their income. The upper and middle classes preferred white wheaten bread. The poor for whom bread represented three-quarters of their budget had to be content with black or brown bread, made from bran, oats, rye, or barley.

A trencher was a piece of stale bread that food was once served on in medieval times. Once the trencher had soaked up the juices of the meal only then could it be eaten. Bread was considered so important that it made up the table setting.

In the 1500s bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Bread did not exist in Japan until 1543, when it was brought to the archipelago by Portuguese missionaries. The new food was initially popular, but disappeared once the country cut ties with the west. It would not be eaten again until the 19th century.

Bread has been used since the 17th century to clean the frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.

The term "upper crust" comes from the habit of rich people in the 17th century slicing off the bottom of loaves dirtied by the bread-oven floor.

It was Napoleon who gave the baguette its long shape. His soldiers found it easier to carry their bread around on the battlefield in this shape and kept it down their trousers for ease when moving about, as they were short on backpack space.

The Ancient Egyptians used to pay workers in bread and beer but the use of “dough” in English as slang for “money” dates back only to 1851.

The year round availability of wheat bread in Britain only happened around 1850 after the repeal of the corn laws.

For the first time the cost of white bread in England dropped below brown bread in the mid 1860s. A contributing factor was white bread was frequently diluted with meal made from other cereals or vegetable seeds.

Hovis bread takes its name from the Latin phrase 'Hominis vis" literally translating as 'Strength of man.' The name was coined in 1890 by London student Herbert Grime in a national competition set by S. Fitton & Sons Ltd to find a trading name for their patent flour which was rich in wheat germ. The company became the Hovis Bread Flour Company Limited in 1898.

In 1928 Otto Frederick Rohwedder, a retired jeweller from Missouri came up with a machine that both wrapped and sliced bread. He had worked for many years on developing a bread slicer, starting 16 years previously. At first Rohwedder came up with the idea of a device that held the slices together with hat pins but bakers warned him that the sliced bread would quickly go stale. Eventually, Rohwedder designed a slicer that would also wrap the bread.

The photograph below depicts a "new electrical bread slicing machine" in use by an unnamed bakery in St. Louis in 1930.

Frank Bench, a personal friend of Rohwedder's, installed the bread slicing machine at the Chillicothe Baking Company in Missouri. The first ever pre-sliced loaf of bread using Rohwedder’s machine was sold to a customer on July 7, 1928. The pre-sliced bread was labeled “Sliced Kleen Maid Bread”.

By 1933 80% of all bread sold in the US was sliced and wrapped and the phrase “the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped” was coined. This led to the popular phrase “the best thing since sliced bread."

Not only did sales of sliced bread take off in the early 1930s, but also toasters became a popular vehicle for toasting sliced bread.

During World War II, bakers in the United States were ordered to stop selling sliced bread for the duration of the war on January 18, 1943. Only whole loaves were made available to the public. It was never explained how this action helped the war effort.

The first documented reference to the phrase, "best thing since sliced bread " is thought to be in a 1952 interview where the famous comedian Red Skelton “advised” the Salisbury Times to “not worry about television. It’s the greatest thing since sliced bread.”

Astronauts are not allowed to take bread into space. This is due to astronaut John Young smuggling a corned beef sandwich on Gemini III in 1965. The sandwich crumbled apart and launched crumbs in all directions, creating a potential safety and equipment hazard.

Ciabatta bread was invented in 1982 by Arnaldo Cavallari, a miller who wanted to give Italy its own bread to stop baguette imports from France that threatened to monopolize the lucrative sandwich market in Italy.

The French Bread Law of 1993 outlines specific rules for the sale of bread in France. Specifically, baguettes can not be frozen before sale and must be made fresh with no additives. It even specifies a maximum pH level and bacteria counts for sourdough starters.

The record for the longest loaf of bread belongs to a team of Italian bakers in Umberto, Italy. They baked a loaf that measured 3,619 feet (1,103 meters) long in 2023, dethroning the previous record holder - a 1,211.6-meter loaf baked in Portugal in 2005. The feat involved 18 bakers working through the night, using 2,500 pounds of flour to create the behemoth loaf in 2,000 separate sections. The loaf itself was a challenge to bake, requiring a specially constructed oven and a unique baking technique.

In 2008, British chef Paul Hollywood created an almond and roquefort sourdough recipe that was said to be the most expensive bread in Britain, being sold for £15 per loaf at Harrods. The roquefort was supplied from a specialist in France at £15 per kilo, while the flour for the bread was made by a miller in Wiltshire. Hollywood described it as a "Rolls-Royce of loafs".

FUN BREAD FACTS

There are more than 200 varieties of bread available in the United Kingdom today.

Bread is bought by 99% of British households.

The equivalent of over 12 million loaves are sold each day in the United Kingdom.

Approximately 75% of the bread eaten in the UK is white and sandwiches are thought to account for 50% of overall bread consumption.

It takes around 350 ears of wheat to make enough flour for one 800g loaf of bread.

A wheat crop will produce on average 7.5 tonnes of grain per hectare - that's enough to make 11,500 loaves of bread.

One acre of wheat can produce enough bread to feed a family of four people for about ten years.

Much of the bread marketed in the U.S. as "wheat" is actually white bread dyed brown with caramel food coloring.

Germany has the most diverse selection and production of bread in the world with 300 types of bread. The country is renowned for their rye breads like pumpernickel and dark rye, wheat breads like pretzels and schwesingerla, and regional specialties like stollen and weserwaldbrot. Their long history of baking traditions and diverse grain cultivation contribute to their bread variety.

Paris holds an annual contest to find the city’s best baguette. Around 200 bakers each submit two baguettes to be graded on quality, look, smell, taste, and crunch. The winner wins €4000 and a contract to supply the French president fresh baguettes every day for a year.

Hverabrauð, a traditional bread from Iceland, is baked by burying it by a geothermal spring for 24 hours.

People in Turkey eat more bread than any other European country, averaging about 104kg (229lb) a year per person.

Scandinavian traditions hold that if a boy and girl eat from the same loaf, they are bound to fall in love.

Sources Food For Thought: Extraordinary Little Chronicles of the World by Ed Pearce, Daily Expressbarley

Brazil

BRAZILIAN HISTORY

On April 22, 1500,  Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral and his crew became the first Europeans to land in Brazil when they anchored at Monte Pascoal ("Easter Mount", it being the week of Easter).

Cabral (center-left, pointing) sights the Brazilian mainland for the first time on 22 April 1500.

On landing at the newly discovered land, Cabral built a wooden cross and together with his crew they knelt before it and kissed it. This was to demonstrate to the natives their veneration for the cross. Cabral named this new land, “Vera Cruz,” meaning “True Cross,” though it soon became known as ‘Brazil’ after the brazilwood found on the coast.

Although the official Portuguese discovery of Brazil was by Pedro Álvares Cabral, some historians believe that three months earlier Spanish navigator Vicente Yáñez Pinzón already had set anchor in a bay in Cabo de Santo Agostinho on January 26, 1500, which he named Cabo de Santa María de la Consolación.

The city of Salvador da Bahia was founded on March 29, 1549 by a fleet of Portuguese settlers headed by Thomé de Souza, the first Governor-General of Brazil,  Built on a high cliff overlooking All Saints bay as the first colonial capital of colonial Brazil, it quickly became its main sea port and an important center of the sugar industry and the slave trade. It is now the third largest city in the country, after São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Historic Center (Salvador) By Adam Jones Adam63 -Wikipedia Commons

The origins of the city of São Paulo lie in the founding of the Jesuit Colégio de São Paulo de Piratininga mission on January 25, 1554 by Jesuit missionaries José de Anchieta and Manoel da Nóbrega. The structure was located on top of a steep hill between the rivers Anhangabaú and Tamanduateí. The name of the college was chosen as it was founded on the celebration of the conversion of the Apostle Paul of Tarsus.

Founding of São Paulo, 1913 painting by Antonio Parreiras

It is estimated that about four million slaves were taken from Africa to Brazil during the slave trade, which was about forty-five percent of all slaves brought to the Americas.

French Antarctique was a French colony in Brazil. Founded in 1555 it was captured by the Portuguese in 1567 who then established the city of Rio de Janeiro there.

In 1578 Jean De Léry published the first account of Brazilian music, Viagem à Terra do Brasil. Léry provides detailed descriptions of Tupinambá musical instruments, dances, and rituals, including chants and song fragments. He even attempts to transcribe some of the music using European musical notation.

The Brazilian coffee industry began in 1727 with seedlings given as a gift from the wife of the governor of French Guiana to a Lt. Col. Francisco de Melo Palheta. The Brazilian Palheta was in French Guiana to mediate a border dispute between the French and Dutch only to find himself involved in an affair with the governor’s wife. When he returned to Brazil he passed the cuttings on to his emperor who was keen to obtain a share of the booming coffee market.

As of January 2024, Brazil accounts for around 35% of the world's coffee production. This makes it the world's undisputed leader in coffee production by a significant margin.

The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century nation that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom Pedro I and his son Dom Pedro II. On September 7, 1822, Pedro declared the independence of Brazil from Portugal on the shores of the Ipiranga creek in São Paulo and, after waging a successful war against his father's kingdom, was acclaimed on October 12 as Pedro I, the first Emperor of Brazil.

Emperor Dom Pedro I at age 35, 1834

Despite his role in Brazilian independence, Pedro I became the king of Portugal in 1826.

The last Emperor of Brazil was Pedro II who reigned from 1831 until he was overthrown in 1889. Pedro II was a popular and respected figure, and his reign is often considered a golden age for Brazil. He oversaw significant progress in areas like education, infrastructure, and the economy. However, he was also overthrown in a military coup, marking the end of the Empire of Brazil.

Brazil abolished slavery on May 13, 1888 with the passage of the Lei Áurea ("Golden Law"),

Brazil's flag (see below) is decorated with an image of the night sky as it appeared over Rio de Janeiro on November 15, 1889, the day Brazil declared itself a federal republic. The current design was adopted on November 19, 1889, just a few days later. The flag underwent some modifications over the years, but the basic design with the stars representing the night sky over Rio de Janeiro remains a key element.

Belo Horizonte, the first planned modern city in Brazil, was founded on December 12, 1897. It was planned and constructed to replace Ouro Preto as the capital of Minas Gerais, which was felt to be a symbol of the monarchic Brazilian Empire. Now Brazil was a republic, it was agreed that a new state capital, in tune with a modern and prosperous Minas Gerais, had to be set. The downtown street plan for Belo Horizonte included a symmetrical array of perpendicular and diagonal streets named after Brazilian states and Brazilian indigenous tribes.

Founding of the city in 1897

During World War II there was a saying that "It's more likely for a snake to smoke a pipe, than for Brazil to go the front and fight". When Brazil joined the war in August 1942 on the allied side, their troops became known as "Cobras Fumantes", or "the Smoking Snakes".

Brasília was built in the center of Brazil on a previously undeveloped plateau and was intended to be a modern, planned city that would symbolize Brazil's progress and move the capital away from the coastal cities that were vulnerable to foreign attack. Lúcio Costa was the main urban planner and architect responsible for the city's design, and he worked closely with the renowned Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, who designed many of the city's notable buildings, including the Presidential Palace and the National Congress. 

Brasília was officially inaugurated as the capital of Brazil on April 21, 1960, and it has since become an important symbol of Brazilian modernist architecture and design.

The Monumental Axis By Governo do Brasil - Portal da Copa, Wikipedia Commons

FUN BRAZIL FACTS

Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's president from 2011 to 2016, is half Bulgarian, but only visited the birthplace of her father for the first time in 2011.

Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world by landmass with 5.35 million square miles (behind Russia, Canada, China and the United States). Its only 300,000 square miles smaller than the US.

Brazil is the longest country in the world, and spans approximately 2800 miles from north to south via land.

Brazil covers 47.3 percent of South America. It has borders with every country in that continent except Ecuador and Chile.

Brazil is the seventh-largest country in the world by population with 203,062,512 inhabitants (2022).

The largest Japanese community outside Japan is in Brazil.  Over 2 million people of Japanese descent call Brazil home representing roughly 1% of Brazil's total population. São Paulo, the country's financial and cultural hub, boasts the largest concentration of Japanese people outside Japan. 

Being late in Brazil is so part of the culture, if they want to start on time they say “com pontualidade britânica” which means “with British punctuality.”

Brazil boasts the largest population of Catholics in the world at 58% of its population, about 123 million of the country’s total population.

Brazil is the location of the world's widest road. The Monumental Axis in Brasília, Brazil is a wide avenue with 6 main lanes in each direction, totalling 12 lanes, along with a massive median strip that has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the widest median of any highway.

Due to its remoteness and virtually constant dense cloud cover, Brazil's tallest mountain - Neblina Peak - remained undiscovered until the 1950s. The exact date and circumstances are obscure and not documented,

Pico da Neblina in 1998 without the usual clouds. By Robson Esteves Czaban 

Brazil is the only country to have played in every World Cup soccer tournament. It has won the World Cup five times, more than any other nation.

Brazil is home to an estimated 32,109 plant species, which is about 19% of the world's total. The country's biodiversity is due to a number of factors, including its large size, varied climate, and diverse topography. 

Brazil has six major biomes: the Amazon rainforest, the Atlantic forest, the Cerrado, the Caatinga, the Pantanal, and the Pampas. Each of these biomes has its own unique plant life, which contributes to the country's overall biodiversity.

Brazil also has the most species of freshwater fish and mammals.

The weight of coffee produced in Brazil is twice the weight of tea produced in India.

Brazil became 100% energy independent in 2006, making a full turn around from years past when imported oil was as high as 70% of the country's needs.

193 is the fire emergency number in Brazil.

Sources Celebratebrazil.com, Pakistantribe.com

Eva Braun

Eva Braun was the longtime companion and later wife of Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany during World War II. 

Eva Braun By Bundesarchiv,  https://commons.wikimedia.org/

Eva Braun was born in Munich on February 6, 1912. She was the second daughter of school teacher Friedrich "Fritz" Braun and Franziska "Fanny" Kronberger, who had worked as a seamstress before her marriage.

She worked as a photographer's assistant and model before meeting Hitler.

Eva Braun was 17 when she first met Hitler, 23 years her senior, at Heinrich Hoffmannin's photographic studio in Munich in October 1929. Their relationship began in 1932, and despite being kept largely secret, Eva Braun became Hitler's companion. 

Despite facing pressures and difficulties, Braun remained by Hitler's side throughout his rise to power and the Nazi regime's reign of terror.

Evan Braun stayed out of the public eye and did not participate in official events, maintaining a private life.

Eva Braun attempted suicide in 1932 by shooting herself in the chest with her father's pistol. Historians feel the attempt was not serious, but was a bid for Hitler's attention. In 1935 she attempted suicide again by overdose, when Hitler failed to make time for her in his life.

Braun was an enthusiastic photographer often capturing candid moments of Hitler and their social circle. Though some argue it was a hobby, others see it as a potential influence on how she wanted to be perceived.

She was also a skilled swimmer and skier, enjoying active leisure pursuits despite the restrictions of her relationship.

Braun had a keen interest in fashion and was considered stylish by contemporaries. Despite the austerity of the Nazi regime, she kept up with trends and favored elegant feminine styles.

Eva Braun married Adolf Hitler on April 29, 1945, in a brief ceremony in the Führerbunker, an underground bunker in Berlin. Just a day later , as the Allies closed in on Berlin and the defeat of Nazi Germany was imminent, Hitler and Eva Braun took their own lives on April 30, 1945.

Eva Braun's role in history is often overshadowed by her connection to Hitler. She left behind photographs and films that provide a glimpse into the private life of the Nazi leader, offering insights into the personalities and relationships within the inner circle of the Nazi regime.

Brass Band

A brass band is a musical ensemble that primarily consists of brass instruments, percussion instruments, and occasionally woodwind instruments. 

Brass bands are known for their bright, brassy sound and are often associated with various musical genres, including classical, jazz, and traditional or ceremonial music. They are commonly used in parades, festivals, and other outdoor events. Brass bands can vary in size, ranging from small groups to larger ensembles with multiple sections of brass and percussion instruments.

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The instruments of a brass band usually include (in descending order of pitch) the cornet, flugelhorn, tenor horn, B flat baritone, euphonium, trombone, and bombardon (bass tuba), as well as drums and other percussion as needed. While they are usually made of brass today, in the past they were made of wood, horn, and glass.

Many countries have brass bands (which differ from military bands in having no woodwind instruments), but it was in Britain that a particularly strong tradition developed of amateur bands linked with places of work, particularly in Lancashire and Yorkshire. In England the brass band began to replace the earlier bands of the town waits (public musicians) and of village churches at the beginning of the 19th century. Employers in industrial areas encouraged the formation of such bands, in an apparent effort to distract workers from politics in their leisure time.

The Stalybridge Old Band, established by 1814, is usually quoted as the first brass band. Stalybridge gained particular distinction in the 1840s when they transitioned to using all piston-valved brass instruments, becoming one of the first bands to do so and contributing significantly to the evolution of the traditional brass band sound.

The development of the cornopean, a predecessor of the cornet, and of a family of brass instruments with similar fingering invented by the French instrument builder Adolphe Sax facilitated the adoption of brass instruments by amateur players and the growth of brass bands in northern England.

In 1878 Charles Fry, a Methodist preacher and musician, and his three sons brought their brass instruments to support Salvation Army open-air meetings in Salisbury, England. Their spirited music attracted crowds and proved highly effective in engaging listeners. It also was a good way of dealing with hecklers. This event is widely considered the spark that ignited the passion for brass bands within the Salvation Army.

The Fry family band, fondly known as "The Happy Band," gained fame through their association with William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army. They accompanied him on campaigns and helped establish the brass band tradition within the organization.

The first recognized Salvation Army brass band, a corps band, was formed in Consett, England in 1879. This band operated within the structure of the Army and served a specific community.

By 1900 in England, band concerts were regular events in village life. Many factories organized employees' bands. An employee would work at a job in the factory and then "double in brass" in the company band.

Louis Armstrong was 13 when he celebrated the New Year by running out on the street and firing a pistol that belonged to the current man in his mother's life. At the Colored Waifs Home for Boys, he learned to play the bugle and the clarinet and joined the home's brass band.

Some classical composers have written for the brass bands, including Edward Elgar in his Severn Suite (1930) and Grimethorpe Aria (1973) by Harrison Birtwistle.

"The Floral Dance" famously featured in the 1996 film Brassed Off. The original piece was written by Katie Moss, a classically trained musician and singer who studied at the Royal Academy Of Music, and was first recorded in 1912, by the Australian classical singer Peter Dawson. The best known recording is probably the instrumental version recorded by the Brighouse & Rastrick Brass Band.

Souces Hutchinson, Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc.

Brass

Brass is a metallic alloy made primarily of copper and zinc. The proportions of copper and zinc can vary, resulting in different types of brass with varying properties. Small amounts of other elements may also be included to achieve specific characteristics.

The addition of zinc to copper imparts several beneficial properties to brass, including increased strength, corrosion resistance, and machinability. 

Brass colored bowls

Brass has long been a popular material for its bright gold-like appearance. It is commonly used for doorknobs, drawer pulls, hinges, light fixtures, and other decorative hardware due to its warm color, resistance to corrosion, and workability.

Brass is still commonly used in applications where corrosion resistance and low friction are required, such as locks and keys. Brass screws, nuts, bolts, and other fasteners are used for their corrosion resistance and aesthetic appeal.

It is used extensively for musical instruments like trumpets, tubas, trombones, and saxophones because of its excellent sound properties and resonance.

Brass is used in costume jewelry and fashion accessories due to its affordability, malleability, and ability to mimic more expensive metals like gold.

The first Roman coins were made of brass and weighed up to 1lb each.

Brass doorknobs (or any other brass objects) sterilise themselves after about eight hours since bacteria have a hard time surviving on brass. This is called the Oligodynamic Effect.

During World War II, the United States government confiscated brass from theaters to use in the war effort. This was because brass was a valuable metal that could be used to make ammunition and other war supplies.

The Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago was one of the theaters that was affected by this policy. The owners of the building painted all of the brass in the theater white to hide it from the government. This way, the government would think that the theater did not have any brass, and they would not confiscate it.

The brass was then forgotten about until a 1999 renovation. During the renovation, the paint was removed from the brass, and it was rediscovered. The brass was then restored to its original condition, and it is now a part of the theater's history.