• Milestones: this is how the 4th Earl of Sandwich invented the sandwich in the 18th century

  • Drinks.Pérignon, the monk who invented champagne in the cellar of an abbey

This Wednesday marks

40 years since

the death in Louiseville of

Harland David Sanders,

the famous colonel who founded

KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken)

.

The news then shocked his followers, both in the United States and abroad.

However, its trajectory and legacy continue in the minds of fried chicken lovers, who continue to fill their premises.

In fact, according to Restaurant Business, KFC's profits soared this year and in May the company

broke its own sales record.

An achievement Sanders could have been proud of ... However, the American did not

care

too much

for the company he founded.

Colonel Sanders was born in September 1890, in a town called Henryville, and despite the fact that he grew up

in a consolidated family,

he was forced to make a living from an early age.

His father passed away

when he was five years old and his loved ones needed him to work to help the family finances.

Thus, the young man

decided to leave school

when he was only 12 years old and started working on a farm.

But four years later, he made an even more radical decision: to

join the military,

even though he wasn't old enough to do so.

According to History, Sanders

forged his birth certificate

to enter the military.

And he succeeded ... He even managed to do military service in

Cuba

, where he spent several months.

Despite this, the future businessman chose not to continue with his military career and moved to

Alabama

, where he worked in different jobs.

Among them:

lawyer, midwife, railroad firefighter and insurance salesman.

However, in 1930 he took a path that would soon change his life:

partnering with Shell

and taking over a gas station in Corbin, Kentucky.

Sanders had

learned to cook from a young age,

and to make extra money at his gas station, he decided to

offer his food to

passing

carriers

.

And what was your star dish?

The fried chicken.

A chicken so crispy that within months

it became popular in Kentucky

and sparked the envy of its competition.

According to Josh Ozersky in his book

Colonel Sanders and the American Dream

, Sanders had a constant feud with a businessman named Matt Swart, another gas station worker.

In the beginning,

their rivalry was rather peaceful.

But everything changed when Stewart damaged - for the second time - one of Sanders' billboards and he wanted to fight.

But the argument

got out of hand

and Stewart fatally shot one of the Shell executives, so Sanders also decided to open fire and hit his opponent in the shoulder.

Despite the shocking event, in 1935 Sanders became immensely popular and received the honorary title of Colonel from the Governor of Kentucky.

A recognition that made him even more famous and motivated him to expand his service station, with a

dining room for 150 people.

A couple of years later, Sanders' restaurant was

featured in a food guide

, and thanks to that, he made the decision to dive into hospitality entirely.

On the other hand, he also wanted to

improve his chicken recipe.

And after numerous experiments, he came to the conclusion that the perfect chicken needed

11 herbs and spices

and that by selling his preparation he could make more money.

In this way, Sanders convinced his friend Pete Harman and he set up

a chicken franchise

in Salt Lake City, which he named Kentucky Fried Chicken.

A name that attracted attention and that made the colonel's dishes gain a lot of fame.

But the former military man was not satisfied with just one restaurant, which made him take his 1946 Ford to travel throughout the United States and try to sell franchises.

In 12 years, the colonel managed to make a small fortune and

decided to sell KFC,

in 1964. Even so, he continued to be the face of the company.

However, things got complicated between Sanders and his former company four years later, when he said he found

the food they sold so disgusting

that he was going to open a restaurant to

compete

with them.

But KFC was unwilling to compete with anyone, so the executives chose to block the founder's plans.

Something that Sanders responded with with

a lawsuit for $ 120,000,000.

According to some of his biographies, Colonel Sanders was a hothead, who liked to constantly curse.

He was also known to be

a great womanizer and even very unfaithful.

For example, Sanders cheated on his first wife, the mother of

his three children,

and later

married his lover,

whom he also betrayed.

On the other hand, Sanders had a reputation as a macho and stalker.

He had

a low opinion of overweight people

and, according to one of his biographers, some women were afraid of him because he

"touched them excessively."

That's why, in 1980, when Sanders

passed away from acute leukemia,

not many publicly mourned his death.

Except for the fans of fried chicken, who always remain loyal to the colonel with the white mustaches and friendly smile.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

See links of interest

  • Last minute

  • TV programming

  • Spanish translator

  • Holidays 2021

  • Holidays 2020

  • Movies Today

  • Topics

  • Coronavirus

  • Pulpileño - Lugo

  • Eintracht Frankfurt - Borussia Mönchengladbach

  • Udinese - Crotone

  • Marchamalo - Huesca

  • Real Madrid - Athletic Bilbao, live