The Indian myth tells a story of a woman sent by gods to save a human kind from famine. Wherever her right hand touched – potato grew, and wherever her left hand touched – corn grew. When the world was saved and the land was fertile, the woman sat down to rest. When she stood up, there appeared tobacco…
Tobacco plants are 6000 years old…
The first European smoker is believed to be Rodrigo de Jeres (one of the Columbus’ sailors)…
In early 16th century tobacco reached Japan where it was quickly spread by Buddhist monks…
The mighty Inquisition prosecuted people for smoking…
In 1560m French ambassador in Portugal described as no less than a panacea…
In the early 17th century Mongolian and Chinese emperors executed smokers…
At the same time Russian tsars offered similar punishment for the offence of smoking: first time offenders were beaten, their noses were cut off or they were sent to Siberia. Second-time offenders were put to death…
Roughly at the same time in the American colonies John Rolfe marries an Indian princess Pocahontas (one of her many names), cultivates and grows tobacco thus saving poorly organized and unprepared settlers…
*Could you ever imagine Santa Clause, or a former president, or a doctor advertising cigarrettes?!
1619 the first “mail-order” brides arrived to America. Why? Because tobacco growers needed companionship… and physical help…
During World War I and World War II, soldiers were given cigarettes as part of their rations…
Bidis are legally imported from India and are thin unfiltered cigarettes hand-wrapped in Brown leaves and tied with short pieces of thread and are popular with school kids under 18 because they are cheaper than the cost of cigarettes and come in a variety of flavors including root beer, orange, lemon-lime and strawberry…
*Also the advertising trend of the 50s and the 60s - dancing and prancing cigarette boxes...
In 1845, the sixth US President, John Quincy Adams, wrote a letter to Rev. Samuel Cox in Brooklyn, who was in the process of writing a book about tobacco and smoking. Adams told Cox that when he was a young man, he had been addicted to both smoking and chewing tobacco. When he decided to quit it took him three months…
The longest "cigarette commercial" (or anti-commercial) existing today is Mad Men. See for yourself in Every Cigarette Smoked in Mad Men
