A s America celebrates its 250th birthday this year, there’s no better time to recognize the innovations, traditions, and cultural contributions born right here in New Orleans and Louisiana. From world- changing inventions and iconic brands to historic firsts and unforgettable fun facts, New Orleans and the Pelican State has played an important role in shaping America’s story. NEW ORLEANS COCKTAILS America’s first cocktail was created in the 1830s by Antoine Peychaud, a Creole apothecary who mixed French brandy, sugar, and his signature Peychaud’s Bitters to make Sazerac, named New Orleans’ official drink in 2008. CRAPS Craps is essentially a game played with dice in which the players make wagers on the outcome of the roll. While legend has it that Roman soldiers invented the game, fast forward to the American version, which was brought to New Orleans by a weather gambler and politician from colonial Louisiana. American dice maker John H. Winn, now known as the father of the modern game, corrected flaws in the game in the 19th century, allowing the game to flourish and spread throughout Louisiana and more. OPERA Louisiana, specifically New Orleans, has long reigned as America’s first city of opera. On May 22, 1796, the city hosted the first documented performance of an opera in North America when Sylvain by Andre Gretry was staged at the Theatre de la Rue St. Pierre in the French Quarter. COMMERCIAL MOVIE THEATERS: America’s first movie theater opened in New Orleans about 130 years ago. Two businessmen opened the first indoor seated movie theater on Canal Street, where patrons could watch 10 to 12 short films for 10 cents. PHARMACISTS: New Orleans was the first place that validated the practice of prescription, and the painkillers were often custom blends of alcohol. America’s first officially licensed pharmacist was New Orleans-born Louis J. Dufilho, Jr., and his apothecary on 514 Chartres in the French Quarter (the country’s first legitimate one), is now the site of the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum, which showcases vintage wares and boasts a killer courtyard. DENTAL FLOSS: In 1815, Dr. Levi Spear Parmly, a New Orleans-
the instrument to assist in his pioneering research on deadly 19th-century diseases like cholera and yellow fever. TABASCO Tabasco was first produced by Edmund McIlhenny on Avery Island, Louisiana. McIlhenny grew his first commercial pepper crop in 1868 and sent out 658 bottles of sauce at one dollar apiece the following year. He labeled it “Tabasco,” a word of Mexican Indian origin believed to mean “place where the soil is humid.” RAISING CANE’S: This popular fried chicken chain was born in Baton Rouge, where founder Todd Graves opened the very first restaurant, nicknamed “The Mothership,” near the North Gate of LSU in 1996. Above/behind the original location was a tiny apartment where Graves lived when he first started the business. SHRIMP PEELING MACHINE: It all began in 1949 when James Martial Lapeyre from Houma, Louisiana had received a challenge from his father, a shrimp plant owner, to design an automated shrimp peeler. James’s mental gears began turning one day when he stepped on a shrimp with his rubber boot and found that the meat had been cleanly shot out of it. James ran with an idea and began augmenting his mother’s washing machine with rubber rollers.
based dentist, developed the first modern form of dental floss by advising his patients to clean between their teeth using a thin, waxen silk thread. COTTON CANDY: While cotton candy itself was not invented in New Orleans, it did play a major role when New Orleans dentist Josef Lascaux invented an improved machine for spinning sugar in 1921 and was the first to popularize the name “cotton candy.” EARLY FORM OF ANESTHESIA: Dr. Rudolph Matas, a legendary surgeon at Tulane University, is credited with performing and publishing the first account of spinal anesthesia in the US. Dr. John Adriani, often called a giant and pioneer in the specialty, founded one of the first formal anesthesiology training programs in the country at Charity Hospital in New Orleans in the 1930s and 40s. SEWAGE PUMPING SYSTEM: The basic concept of a sewage or wastewater pumping system was not invented in New Orleans, but the city is home to revolutionary pumping inventions designed to handle catastrophic flooding and massive volumes of storm and wastewater. This includes A. Baldwin Woods’ screw pump in 1913 and trash pump in 1915, which were revolutionary in moving record volumes of water as well as massive debris without clogging. POKER: The game we know as poker is believed to have ancient roots that go back nearly 1,000 years across continents and cultures. The modern version of poker as we play today came from New Orleans, when the French colonists brought Poque to their settlements and adopted features of the modern game in 1834, including five cards for each player and a 52-card deck. JAZZ: I’d be remiss not to mention the ultimate New Orleans invention of jazz. The music originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Often acclaimed as America’s greatest art form, jazz started as a uniquely American sound, forged in the melting pot of cultures. LOUISIANA BINOCULAR MICROSCOPE: The first practical microscope was invented in Louisiana in the 1850s by Dr. John Leonard Riddell, a chemistry professor at what is now Tulane University. Riddell created
FUN FACTS
The term “Dixieland” originates from the antebellum nickname “Dixie” for the American South. Its geographical roots are generally tied to the French-speaking “dix” ($10) banknotes issued by early New Orleans banks or the Mason-Dixon Line. It was later adopted as a genre label for traditional New Orleans jazz. The current Louisiana State Capital is the tallest capitol building in the United States, standing at 450 feet with 34 floors. Completed in 1932, it features an observation deck with panoramic views of Baton Rouge.
Louisiana is the only state in the US divided into parishes rather than counties.
New Orleans is home to the first All-American mafia, and is also the city most haunted in America.
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