fracas

In 1912, a cookie was born that would become the best selling cookie of the 20th century.

Oreo.

The year was again, 1912. The day, March 6th. On this day, the first Oreo cookies were sold and we who 96 years later, increase our blood sugar by scarfing them down as cookies, pie crust, snack bars, truffles, ice cream, pizzas and even deep fried, should stop for a moment and say:

Happy Birthday little fella… we love ya.

From WikiAnswers: 

Oreos were introduced by Nabisco Corporation, an American company, in February 1912 mainly to target the British market, whose biscuits were seen by Nabisco to be too ‘ordinary’. ^[2] Originally, Oreos were mound-shaped and available in two flavors; lemon meringue and cream. In America, they were sold for 30 cents a pound in novel tin cans with glass tops, which allowed customers to see the cookies.

A newer design for the cookie was introduced in 1916, and as the cream filling was by far the more popular of the two available flavors, Nabisco discontinued production of the lemon meringue filling during the 1920s. The modern-day Oreo was developed in 1952 by William A Turnier, ^[3] to include the Nabisco logo.

There are many theories pointing to the origin of the name ‘Oreo’, including derivations from the French word ‘Or’, meaning gold (as early packaging was gold), or the Greek word ‘Oros’, meaning mountain or hill (as the original Oreo was mound shaped) or even the Greek word ‘Oreos’, meaning beautiful. Other theories are that the ‘re’ from cream was ’sandwiched’ between the two Os from chocolate, or the word ‘just seemed like a nice, melodic combination of sounds’.

Oreos are very similar to the Hydrox cookie manufactured by Sunshine, which was introduced in 1908, leading to speculation that Oreo obtained the idea from Sunshine. Having lost market share to Oreo for years, Hydrox cookies were withdrawn in 1996^[4] (and subsequently reintroduced under the Droxies name three years later).

Today, fracas celebrates the birth of the Oreo cookie, by offering you all things Oreo. Please don’t lick the screen. (Well, ok.. if you have to, go ahead.)

1. Nabisco World’s Oreo Page
2. Recipe: Fried Oreo Cookies
3. History of the Oreo Cookie at About.com
4. Recipe: Homemade Oreo Cookies
5. Crocheted Oreo Cookies
6. Pimp That: Oreo
7. Recipe: Oreo Cookie Recipe Page
8. Oreo at Wikipedia
9. Recipe – Yummy Oreo Cookie Bars
10. Play Online Oreo Shuffleboard
11. Oreo Cookie Turkeys
12. Video: Oreo Cookie Coma
13. Oreo Cookie Eating Contest Rules
14. Oreo Video: Goodbye Art
15. 2007 Oreo Jingle Contest Winners
16. Oreo Moon Phases Activity
17. More Oreo Videos

And finally, here’s Weird Al Yankovic’s Oreo Song…

[Oreo Images: Thrifty Fun]