Since sliced bread

We all know that chocolate chip cookies are the best thing since sliced bread. But what is older than sliced bread? Well, the list is long: Betty White. Sidney Poitier. The ex-pope.

Sliced bread is not as old as you think. Bread? That’s old. Slicing bread? Probably about as old. But sliced bread as we think of it – bread sliced by a machine so that each slice is the same width – was first sold on July 7, 1928.

The machine in question was invented by Otto Frederick Rohwedder. He’s from Iowa but the machine was first used by a baking company in Missouri. The bread was advertised as “the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped.” So, in other words, sliced bread was the best thing since wrapped bread.

Betty White was born in 1922, so she’s six years older than sliced bread. Sidney Poitier and the former pope Benedict XVI are a year older than sliced bread. And incidentally, chocolate chip cookies weren’t invented until 1938.

• Sliced bread
• Betty White
• Sidney Poitier
• Pope Benedict XVI
• Chocolate chip cookie