10 Big Moments in Breakfast

Eating breakfast can do everything from boosting your memory to helping you lose weight.

1600's: Pilgrim's Brew. Mornings were harsh in the New World's first settlements, but that's not why colonists knocked back a pint with breakfast. Beer or hard cider was safer to drink than the not-so-potable water. The settlers also downed "mush" a maize porridge they picked up from their Native American neighbors.

1700's: The Dutch Do Doughnuts. Immigrants from the Netherlands introduced oliebollen (oil balls) what we now call doughnuts. These deep fried dollops of dough later became ring-shaped as part of an effort to speed production time and solve the soggy middle problem.

1902: Radical Flakes. Dr John H Kellogg and his brother, Will, baked up the first batch of corn flakes in a sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan. Kellogg was a pioneer in proclaiming grains a healthy food. His growing business of mail-order cereal soon helped him spread the word.

1906: The Presidential Whopper. William Howard Taft was a big fan of breakfast. On a visit to Savannah, Georgia in 1906, the 350 pound POTUS broke his fast one morning by eating shrimp with hominy, potted porridge, boiled venison, waffles with maple syrup, hot rolls, and a grapefruit. Fellow diners reportedly watched in awe.

1940's: Orange Juice Goes To War. OJ was just a season treat until WWII, when the government charged the Florida Citrus Commission with finding a way to ship Vitamin C packed juice overseas to prevent scurry among the troops. Their solution, frozen concentrate, was literally created in a vacuum. By the war's end reconstituted juice had reached the front lines. And by the 50's housewives were stirring up OJ for breakfast year round.

1960: Green Eggs and Ham. The Dr Seuss book became the fourth biggest selling children's title of all time.

1961: Audrey Hepburn Gets It To Go. The trailer for Breakfast at Tiffany's promised the "wildest night New York ever knew" but it was Holly Golightly's early morning idyll outside Tiffany's that became the film's most iconic scene. With takeout coffee and danish in hand Hepburn made brown-bagging it look positively elegant.

1970's: The Birth of the Power Breakfast. New York's Regency Hotel claims to have launched the power breakfast trend when its hotel chairmen met with city leaders to forge a plan to save the Big Apple from bankruptcy.

The Crunchy Set. What travels well in rucksacks, goes with nuts and berries, and doubles as code for "hippie?" When granola caught on with the kids in the 70's everyone else gained a whole new way to label the eco-friendly.

2008: Breakfast of Champions. Swimmer Michael Phelps' eight gold medals were big news, but so was his standing order: three fried egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions, and mayonnaise; two cups of coffee, one five-egg omelet; one bowl of grits; three slices of french toast topped with sugar; and three chocolate chip pancakes.