TOBACCO TIMELINE

c.1 BCE: Experts believe American inhabitants have begun finding ways to use tobacco, including smoking (in a number of variations), chewing and in probably hallucinogenic enemas (by the Peruvian Aguaruna aboriginals).

c. 1 CE: Tobacco was "nearly everywhere" in the Americas. (American Heritage Book of Indians, p.41).

  600-1000 CE: UAXACTUN, GUATEMALA. First pictorial record of smoking: A pottery vessel found here dates from before the 11th century. On it a Maya is depicted smoking a roll of tobacco leaves tied with a string. The Mayan term for smoking was sik'ar

  1492-10-12: Columbus Discovers Tobacco; "Certain Dried Leaves" Are Received as Gifts, and Thrown Away. On this bright morning Columbus and his men set foot on the New World for the first time, landing on the beach of San Salvador Island or Samana Cay in the Bahamas, or Gran Turk Island. The indigenous Arawaks, possibly thinking the strange visitors divine, offer gifts. Columbus wrote in his journal, the natives brought fruit, wooden spears, and certain dried leaves which gave off a distinct fragrance. As each item seemed much-prized by the natives; Columbus accepted the gifts and ordered them brought back to the ship. The fruit was eaten; the pungent "dried leaves" were thrown away.

  1586: ENGLAND: Tobacco Arrives in English Society. In July 1586, some of the Virginia colonists returned to England and disembarked at Plymouth smoking tobacco from pipes, which caused a sensation. William Camden (1551-1623) a contemporary witness, reports that "These men who were thus brought back were the first that I know of that brought into England that Indian plant which they call Tabacca and Nicotia, or Tobacco" Tobacco in the Elizabethan age was known as "sotweed." (BD)

  1665: HEALTH: ENGLAND: Samuel Pepys describes a Royal Society experiment in which a cat quickly dies when fed "a drop of distilled oil of tobacco."

  1727: ECONOMY: "Tobacco notes" Become Legal Tender in Virginia. Tobacco Notes attesting to quality and quantity of one's tobacco kept in public warehouses are authorized as legal tender in Virginia. Used as units of monetary exchange throughout 18th Century. The notes are more convenient than the acutal leaf, which had been in use as money for over a century.

  1830s: First organized anti-tobacco movement in US begins as adjunct to the temperance movement. Tobacco use is considered to dry out the mouth, "creating a morbid or diseased thirst" which only liquor could quench..

  1860: BUSINESS: Manufactured cigarettes appear. A popular early brand is Blackwell Tobacco Company's Bull Durham, which rose to become the most famous brand in world, and gave rise to the term "bull pen" for a baseball dugout.

  1889: Lung cancer is an extremely rare disease: there are only 140 documented cases worldwide ( Kaminsky M. Ein primres Lungencarcinom mit verhornten Plattenepithelien. Greifswald: Inaug. Diss, 1898.)

  1913: BUSINESS: Birth of the "modern" cigarette: RJ REYNOLDS introduces CAMEL. The massive, months-long "The Camels are Coming" campaign builds anticipation for Camels. Camel, like Prince Albert before it, consisted of a then-unique blend of 3 tobaccos, piedmont Bright, a flavored and sweetened burley from Kentucky, and 10% Turkish leaf. The half-price brand (10 cents for 20) is an instant hit, gaining 33% of the market by 1917, and 45% by 1923. Soon after, the American Tobacco Company introduces Lucky Strike and Liggett & Myers introduces Chesterfield, each with similar blends. The "modern" cigarette has arrived

  1939-1945: WORLD WAR II
As part of the war effort, Roosevelt makes tobacco a protected crop. General Douglas McArthur makes the corncob pipe his trademark by posing with it on dramatic occasions such as his wading ashore during the invasion and reconquest of the Philippines. Cigarettes are included in GI's C-Rations. Tobacco companies send millions of free cigs to GI's, mostly the popular brands; the home front had to make do with off-brands like Rameses or Pacayunes. Tobacco consumption is so fierce a shortage develops. By the end of the war, cigarette sales are at an all-time high.

1950: HEALTH: RICHARD DOLL and A BRADFORD HILL publish first report on Smoking and Carcinoma of the Lung in the British Medical Journal, finding that heavy smokers were fifty times as likely as nonsmokers to contract lung cancer.

  1965: LEGISLATION: Congress passes the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act requiring the following Surgeon General's Warning on the side of cigarette packs: "Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health." . .

  1998-11-23: AG SETTLEMENT: Attorneys General of 46 states and 5 territories sign agreement with tobacco companies to settle lawsuits.

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