1770: A Year, a Town, and the Sweet Victory of the Vanilla Slice War

The year 1770 was so chock-full of quirks and peculiarities that even the most stone-faced historian might find themselves stifling a chuckle behind their powdered wig. It was the year when Marie Antoinette, the soon-to-be queen with a sweet tooth as infamous as her eventual guillotine appointment, tied the knot with Louis XVI. Louis was destined to learn that being king was far less about feasts and far more about facing the music. He would soon discover that wearing the crown isn’t quite the fairy tale it’s cracked up to be. Joseph Priestley Discovers the Eraser Meanwhile, across the soggy English Channel, Joseph Priestley, one of those rare British chemists who could take something blindingly obvious and make it seem like the discovery of the century, proposed using rubber to erase pencil marks....