If you like cookies or pie, you owe a debt of gratitude to Gus Baumgarten. In 1917, he was fooling around with a thermometer in his oven and invented the oven thermostat to regulate heat for baking. Baumgarten died in 1960 and is buried in the Schulenburg City Cemetery in Schulenburg, Texas.

According to a 2019 report from the Break Free From Plastic global movement, Coca Cola was found for the second year in a row to be the most polluting brand in a global audit of plastic trash.

Among Hong Kong’s woes is a shortage of guide dogs for the blind: Old laws have limited the number of trainers.

Harriet Tubman, who died in 1913, was the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War.

This article appears in November 8 • 2019.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US