Kentucy Fried Chicken Story

9/9/1890 Harland Sanders is born just outside Henryville, Indiana. 1900-1924 Harland Sanders holds a variety of jobs including: farm hand, streetcar conductor, army private in Cuba, blacksmith's helper, railyard fireman, insurance salesman, tire salesman and service station operator for Standard Oil. 1930 In the midst of the depression, Harland Sanders opens his first restaurant in the small front room of a gas station in Corbin, Kentucky. Sanders serves as station operator, chief cook and cashier and names the dining area "Sanders Court & Café." 1936 Kentucky Governor Ruby Laffoon makes Harland Sanders an honorary Kentucky Colonel in recognition of his contributions to the state's cuisine. 1937 The Sanders Court & Café adds a motel and expands the restaurant to 142 seats. 1939 The Sanders Court & Café is first listed in Duncan Hines' "Adventures in Good Eating." Fire destroys The Sanders Court & Café, but it is rebuilt and reopened. The pressure cooker is introduced. Soon thereafter Colonel Sanders begins using it to fry his chicken to give customers fresh chicken, faster. 1940 Birthdate of the Original Recipe 1949 Sanders marries Claudia Price. 1952 The Colonel begins actively franchising his chicken business by traveling from town to town and cooking batches of chicken for restaurant owners and employees. The Colonel awards Pete Harman of Salt Lake City with the first KFC franchise. A handshake agreement stipulates a payment of a nickel to Sanders for each chicken sold. 1955 An interstate highway is built to bypass Corbin, Kentucky. Sanders sells the service station on the same day that he receives his first social security check for $105. After paying debts owed, he is virtually broke. He decides to go on the road to sell his Secret Recipe to restaurants. 1957 Kentucky Fried Chicken first sold in buckets 1960 The Colonel's hard work on the road begins to pay off and there are 190 KFC franchisees and 400 franchise units in the U.S. and Canada. 1964 Kentucky Fried Chicken has more than 600 franchised outlets in the United States, Canada and the first overseas outlet, in England. Sanders sells his interest in the U.S. company for $2 million to a group of investors headed by John Y. Brown Jr., future governor of Kentucky. The Colonel remains a public spokesman for the company. 1965 Colonel Sanders receives the Horatio Alger Award from the American Schools and Colleges Association. 1966 The Kentucky Fried Chicken Corporation goes public. 1969 The Kentucky Fried Chicken Corporation is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. 1971 More than 3,500 franchised and company-owned restaurants are in worldwide operation when Heublein Inc. acquires KFC Corporation. 1976 An independent survey ranks the Colonel as the world's second most recognizable celebrity. 1977 Colonel Sanders speaks before a U.S. Congressional Committee on Aging. 1979 KFC cooks up 2.7 billion pieces of chicken. There are approximately 6,000 KFC restaurants worldwide with sales of more than $2 billion. 12/16/1980 Colonel Harland Sanders, who came to symbolize quality in the food industry, dies after being stricken with leukemia. Flags on all Kentucky state buildings fly at half-staff for four days. 1982 Kentucky Fried Chicken becomes a subsidiary of R.J. Reynolds Industries, Inc. (now RJR Nabisco, Inc.) when Heublein, Inc. is acquired by Reynolds. 1986 PepsiCo, Inc. acquires KFC from RJR Nabisco, Inc. 1997 PepsiCo, Inc. announces the spin-off of its quick service restaurants - KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut - into Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc. 2002 Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc., the world's largest restaurant company, changes its corporate name to YUM! Brands, Inc. In addition to KFC, the company owns A&W® All-American Food® Restaurants, Long John Silvers®, Pizza Hut® and Taco Bell® restaurants. 2006 More than a billion of the Colonel's "finger lickin' good" chicken dinners are served annually in more than 80 countries and territories around the world. 2007 KFC proudly introduces a new recipe that keeps the Colonel's 11 herbs and spices and finger-lickin' flavor, but contains Zero Grams of Trans Fat per serving thanks to new cooking oil.