What does 420 mean? The 'stoner holiday' has a deep history.

These days, the 4/20 holiday is to weed lovers what May the 4th is to Star Wars fans — a once-small celebration that may have gone a little too mainstream. Everyone and their mothers seem to know that "420" refers to cannabis smoking; the concept of the number as a code is long gone.?

What follows is a brief history of 420, starting with a pretty weird coincidence.?

1936:?Horror writer H.P. Lovecraft wrote his first and only science-fiction short story, "In the Walls of Eryx," which would be published after his death in?Weird Tales?in 1939. It's narrated by an explorer on the jungle planet of Venus, who encounters a "mirage plant" with a "shaggy stalk" and "mottled blossoms" that gives off "gaseous, dream-breeding exhalations."?

1967:?A 19-year-old from San Jose, Gary Newman, enlisted in the Coast Guard, and was stationed at Point Reyes on the west coast of Marin County, north of San Francisco. At a property near a famous hundred-year-old lighthouse, Newman and another Coast Guard member planted some cannabis seeds.??

1971: Around the time President Richard Nixon gave his infamous "war on drugs" speech, Newman retired from active service and started to get nervous about his bumper crop of weed on federal land.?

1972:?A friend of the Waldos named Patty made a tie-dye "420" flag with a cannabis leaf in arts and crafts class. The flag also contains the word "Eyot," something the Waldos coined to confuse outsiders.?

2014:?The 420-mile marker on Interstate 70 in Colorado, which legalized recreational cannabis in 2012, has been stolen so many times that?officials replace it with a "419.99" mile sign. Which is also stolen.?

2018:?"Am considering taking Tesla private at $420 a share,"?writes Elon Musk in a tweet "Funding secured." The tweet would lead to?5 years?of?legal trouble?for Musk, forcing him to settle with the SEC and step down from the role of chairman.?

2019:?The first attempt at marijuana legalization in the U.S. Congress is designated?House Resolution 420. Unfortunately, the bill dies in the forestry committee.?

2023:?Elon Musk is?found not guilty?in a trial brought by Tesla investors over the $420 tweet. Separately, Musk causes eyes to roll when he announces that Twitter will remove verification checkmarks from accounts that aren't paying for the privilege?… on 4/20.?