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Betty White is a legend in her own right. This sweetest little lady has not only won the hearts of virtually everyone for her uplifting personality, she has also earned a Guinness World Record for the longest TV career for a female entertainer.

The comic dynamo has been performing for more than 74 years in the entertainment industry, and it makes us wonder how come she is not a superhero!

Well, Betty was born on January 17, 1922, which makes her only two years away from celebrating her hundredth birthday. It means this almost centenarian actress is older than sliced bread, and color television, and… well, the list of important inventions is down below. And it really puts Betty’s legend into a historical perspective!

Image credits: Angela George
#1

Penicillin

Penicillin

Penicillin was discovered in 1928 by professor Alexander Fleming.

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#2

Sliced Bread Was Intented In 1928

Sliced Bread Was Intented In 1928

Sliced bread was invented in 1928. Otto Frederick Rohwedder created the Chillicothe Baking Company, which sold the first loaf that utilized Rohwedder's bread-slicing machine.

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#3

Color Television

Color Television

June 25, 1951 was the day when CBS broadcast its first color TV show. Unfortunately, no one could tell because they all had black-and-white TV sets. The first program in color was called "Premiere."

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Anna Te
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I was born in 1983 in Russia and we didn't have a color TV there at that time as well.

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Betty White, who has spanned more than 80 years in the entertainment industry, is regarded as one of the television pioneers. The famous actress is also known as the first woman to produce a sitcom, “Life With Elizabeth,” which led her to receive the honorary title Mayor Of Hollywood in 1955.

In 1939, just after graduating high school, Betty began her radio career, soon switching to television. Her career skyrocketed. But with WWII, she shelved her ambitions and joined the American Women's Voluntary Services. Of that era, she told Cleveland Magazine, "It was a strange time and out of balance with everything." 

#4

Scotch Tape

Scotch Tape

1929 was the year when this life-saving tape was invented.

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#5

Canned Beer

Canned Beer

Although we've had canned beverages since 1813, mass production of them only started in 1935.

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#6

The Electric Traffic Signal Was Created In 1923

The Electric Traffic Signal Was Created In 1923

After witnessing an accident between an automobile and a horse-drawn carriage, African American inventor, Garrett Morgan, filed a U.S. patent for a traffic signal. Patent] was granted on 20 November 1923 for Morgan's three-position traffic signal.

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Rabbit Carrot
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3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The world's first traffic light was a manually operated gas-lit signal installed in London in December 1868. I’m not sure she’s quite that old yet. The first automated traffic control system dates back to 1910.

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Betty was a regular on the game show circuit when she met her match in 1961, hosted by Allen Ludden. He became Betty’s third and last husband, and their stars on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame sit side by side to this day.

In Betty’s more than eight decades in the business, her trademark smile, gracious demeanor, and clever wit have made her a living legend.

#7

Frozen Food

Frozen Food

Before 1929, frozen food was not a thing.

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#8

Bubble Gum

Bubble Gum

In 1928, Walter E. Diemer, an accountant for the Fleer Chewing Gum Company in Philadelphia, was experimenting with new gum recipes. These experiments turned out to be successful.

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#9

The Slinky

The Slinky

In 1943, the mechanical engineer Richard James accidentally came up with the toy when he was trying to find a way of keeping products on ships undamaged.

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#10

Nuclear Fission

Nuclear Fission

The discovery of nuclear fission occurred in December 1938 by Lise Meitner, Otto Frisch, and Otto Hahn. Meitner and Frisch were physicists and Hahn was a nuclear chemist.

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#11

1957: Birth Control Pill

1957: Birth Control Pill

Enovid, a drug the FDA approved for menstrual disorders, came with a warning: The mixture of synthetic progesterone and estrogen also prevents ovulation. Two years later, more than half a million American women were taking Enovid—and not all of them had cramps. In 1960, the FDA approved Enovid for use as the first oral contraceptive.

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#12

Automatic Wrist Watches

Automatic Wrist Watches

Automatic wrist watches became a thing back in 1923.

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AntiNutjob
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Automatic (self winding) wrist watches in 1923. Automatic pocket watches were invented over 100 years earlier.

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#13

Trampoline

Trampoline

The first modern trampoline was built by George Nissen and Larry Griswold in 1936. Nissen was a gymnastics and diving competitor and Griswold was a tumbler on the gymnastics team.

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#14

LSD

LSD

LSD was first synthesized on November 16, 1938, by Dr. Albert Hoffman.

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#15

Jukeboxes

Jukeboxes

In 1927, Betty White was already five years old when the first jukebox that automatically shifted records was introduced to the public.

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M O'Connell
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Automatic disc changing music boxes became a thing in 1899, so this is more of a stretch.

#16

Barbie

Barbie

In 1959, the world was introduced to Barbie.

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David Butler
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Who was an American remake of "Lilli", a fashion doll launched on 12 August 1955, created by Rolf Hausser in the likeness of the main character of a single-panel cartoon by Reinhard Beuthien for the German "Bild" newspaper, first appearing on 24 June 1952. While there were definitely knock-offs by rival toy companies, Ruth Handler -- who may or may not have wanted to create such a doll to replace paper dolls -- bought one while on holiday in Switzerland in 1956, "adapted" the design with the help of Jack Ryan, and launched "Barbie" on 9 March 1959. Post-WW2 anti-German prejudice may have been involved, but when Mattel bought the copyright in 1964 (after being sued for copyright infringement in 1961 by Louis Marx and Company, who had the legal license for the doll) the newspaper could no longer print the cartoon nor the toy company the doll.

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#17

Bean Bag Chair

Bean Bag Chair

1969 was the year of Woodstock and when beanbag chairs became a thing.

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Andy Mutch
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Unfortunately, the inventor is still trying to get out of his!

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#18

The Ballpoint Pen Was Invented In 1924

The Ballpoint Pen Was Invented In 1924

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Viktor Feurer
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Unfortunately not. The first mass produced ballpoint pen was patented in 1924. In 1938 an upgraded one was invented/patented.

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#19

Notebooks With Spiral Bindings Were Invented In 1924

Notebooks With Spiral Bindings Were Invented In 1924

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#20

M&m’s Candy Invented 1941

M&m’s Candy Invented 1941

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Bridget Price
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I used to think that different colors were different flavors for some reason

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#21

Big Mac

Big Mac

The Big Mac wasn't introduced until 1967. McDonald's was originally a hot dog stand that only turned to burger-making in 1948.

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#22

Electric Razor

Electric Razor

Up until 1931, non-electric razors were not only a choice, but also the only possibility.

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Dave P
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

1931 was the first commercial released one, the first working prototype was in 1910, and several more models existed until Jacob Shick (as in Shick's Razors) perfected it and released it to Market.

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#23

The Rubik's Cube – Invented 1974

The Rubik's Cube – Invented 1974

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#24

Instant Coffee

Instant Coffee

Coffee may have existed for centuries, but instant coffee has been here with us since 1938.

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#25

1982: Computer Virus

1982: Computer Virus

Fifteen-year-old Rich Skrenta created an application called Elk Cloner as a prank—and ended up creating the first virus to spread outside its home network. Elk Cloner spreads via floppy disk and attaches to the Apple OS II operating system. When users boot from the disk, Elk Cloner transfers the computer's memory; any additional disks inserted without rebooting are also infected. On every fiftieth boot, the computer displays text written by Skrenta:
Elk Cloner: The program with a personality / It will get on all your disks / It will infiltrate your chips / Yes it's Cloner! / It will stick to you like glue / It will modify ram too / Send in the Cloner!

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Raine Soo
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Why compare a lovely lady like Betty White to something as annoying as a virus?

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#26

The Internet

The Internet

In the 1950s, first computers were created. By 1965, MIT released the first wide area network (WAN). Four years later, the first successful internet message was sent from UCLA to Stanford Research Institute. But it took a while for memes to become a thing.

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#27

Microwave Oven

Microwave Oven

In 1945, the heating effect of a high-power microwave beam was accidentally discovered by Percy Spencer. In 1947, Raytheon built the "Radarange," the first commercially available microwave oven.

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Kelly Hartle
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

He realized it could be used for cooking when he turned it on and the chocolate bar he had in his pocket melted.

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#28

1956: Hard Drive

1956: Hard Drive

IBM released the first computer hard disk drive, the 2,000-pound-plus, refrigerator-sized IBM 305 RAMAC, which introduced magnetic disk storage. Up until then, files were either kept on spools of magnetic tape or on good old-fashioned paper, with no way to jump right to the record you wanted to pull up. With the RAMAC, a mechanical arm would retrieve data by storing data at a particular magnetic orientation. This technology went on to be used (at a smaller size) in laptops and computer servers everywhere.

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Marek Yanchurak
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Forget hard drives, what is essentially the first electronic, digital, programmable computer (i.e. what we think of as a computer today), ENIAC, was only completed in 1945.

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#29

Garages

Garages

C.G. Johnson invented the electric garage door opener in 1926.

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#30

Garbage Disposal

Garbage Disposal

The garbage disposal unit was invented in 1927 by John W. Hammes, an architect working in Racine, Wisconsin. He applied for a patent in 1933 that was issued in 1935.

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