January 23rd...This Day in History (Now with links to other events)

Toy company Wham-O produces first Frisbees 1957

 

On this day in 1957, machines at the Wham-O toy company roll out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs–now known to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees.

The story of the Frisbee began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871. Students from nearby universities would throw the empty pie tins to each other, yelling “Frisbie!” as they let go. In 1948, Walter Frederick Morrison and his partner Warren Franscioni invented a plastic version of the disc called the “Flying Saucer” that could fly further and more accurately than the tin pie plates. After splitting with Franscioni, Morrison made an improved model in 1955 and sold it to the new toy company Wham-O as the “Pluto Platter”–an attempt to cash in on the public craze over space and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).

In 1958, a year after the toy’s first release, Wham-O–the company behind such top-sellers as the Hula-Hoop, the Super Ball and the Water Wiggle–changed its name to the Frisbee disc, misspelling the name of the historic pie company. A company designer, Ed Headrick, patented the design for the modern Frisbee in December 1967, adding a band of raised ridges on the disc’s surface–called the Rings–to stabilize flight. By aggressively marketing Frisbee-playing as a new sport, Wham-O sold over 100 million units of its famous toy by 1977.

High school students in Maplewood, New Jersey, invented Ultimate Frisbee, a cross between football, soccer and basketball, in 1967. In the 1970s, Headrick himself invented Frisbee Golf, in which discs are tossed into metal baskets; there are now hundreds of courses in the U.S., with millions of devotees. There is also Freestyle Frisbee, with choreographed routines set to music and multiple discs in play, and various Frisbee competitions for both humans and dogs–the best natural Frisbee players.

Today, at least 60 manufacturers produce the flying discs–generally made out of plastic and measuring roughly 20-25 centimeters (8-10 inches) in diameter with a curved lip. The official Frisbee is owned by Mattel Toy Manufacturers, who bought the toy from Wham-O in 1994

 

 

 

 (More Events on This Day in History)

• American Revolution

• 1775 London merchants petition for reconciliation with America

• Automotive

• 2006 “Who Killed the Electric Car?” debuts

• Civil War

• 1865 Hood removed from command

• Cold War

• 1968 North Korea seizes U.S. ship Pueblo

• Crime

• 1991 Videotaped murder leads to convictions in Texas

• Disaster

• 1556 Deadliest earthquake in history rocks China

• General Interest

• 1849 First woman M.D.
• 1922 Insulin injection aids diabetic patient
• 1968 USS Pueblo captured
• 1997 Albright sworn in as secretary of state

• Hollywood

• 1983 The A-Team debuts on NBC

• Literary

• 1930 Derek Walcott is born

• Music

• 1976 Singer, actor, athlete, activist Paul Robeson dies

• Old West

• 1870 Soldiers massacre the wrong camp of Indians

• Presidential

• 1937 FDR writes letter to Baseball Writer’s Association
• 1992 Bush Sr. honors Women’s World Cup soccer champions

• Sports

• 1984 Hulk Hogan beats Iron Sheik to win first WWF title

• Vietnam War

• 1973 Nixon announces peace settlement reached in Paris

• World War I

• 1920 Netherlands refuses to extradite Kaiser Wilhelm to the Allies

• World War II

• 1941 Lindbergh to Congress: Negotiate with Hitler