Dick Van Dyke turned 100 years old on Saturday (13), which made many fans realize that the Hollywood star is older than a curious invention.
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“[Van Dyke is] the best thing before and after sliced bread,” wrote one user on X, formerly Twitter. “He was the best even before sliced bread,” said another.
Dick Van Dyke was born on December 13, 1925, three years before sliced bread reached supermarket shelves. The invention became available to American consumers on July 7, 1928.
Sliced bread appeared in the early 20th century and did not seem like a long-lasting idea for bakers of the time, according to Gold Medal Bakery, a manufacturer based in Massachusetts.
Archaeological evidence of the existence of bread is older than Dick Van Dyke himself. There are reports that it first appeared around 30,000 years ago.
However, it was Otto Frederick Rohwedder, an inventor and jeweler, who came up with the idea of creating a bread-slicing machine. He continued refining his project even after his factory was destroyed by a fire in 1917.
In 1928, he had created a metal box about 3 meters long, with a row of sharp blades that could both slice and package bread.
Photos: Pexels and Instagram @official_dick_van_dyke. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
