What Happened 73 Years Ago on January 5th?

January 5, 1943: George Washington Carver, American scientist, botanist, educator & inventor, died. Since he was born into slavery in Missouri, exact day & year of his birth is unknown (best estimate is January 1864). After the Civil War, he helped revolutionize Southern agricultural economy where cotton & tobacco monoculture farming had depleted the soil. Boll weevil infestations further devastated cotton crop yields. Carver's work on peanuts was intended to provide an alternative crop. He demonstrated to impoverished farmers how fertility could be restored to their land by diversification, especially by planting peanuts & sweet potatoes. Carver didn’t invent peanut butter. However, he did play a significant role in popularizing it.