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Timeline: A History of 7-11

By Nate Odenkirk | Staff Writer

1776: U.S. Constitution includes the controversial “take a penny, leave a penny” clause.

1873: Tesla and Edison both claim to have invented the hot dog roller at the same time. They don’t really fight about that one, though.

1903: Polish immigrant Sivan Elevensberg opens the very first 7-11 in Manhattan’s Jewish quarter. He sells old world Polish street fare, like mini beef taquitos, jalapeno rollers, and his nonna’s loaded buffalo poppers.

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Sivan Elevensburg tending to his gently rolling hot dogs, 1911. 

1907: Albert Einstein puts forth a theory for the existence of a “Double Big Gulp” in the universe, which at that point had yet to be discovered.

1919: Archaeological excavations of the Egyptian pyramids yield a 2,000-year-old blue flavored Slurpee, still drinkable but really melty and gross, you know the type.

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1936: Development of the “scooper straw” for Slurpees placed on hold so researchers can work on the Manhattan Project.

1990: 7-11 begins selling lottery tickets. Kuwait liberated.

2012: Osama Bin Laden is killed by elite U.S. special forces for shoplifting a “share” size Peanut M&Ms, among other crimes.

2020: In response to the coronavirus pandemic, 7-11 offers to coat all masks in a protective layer of nacho cheese. Nearly every president declines the offer. ♦


Images deftly edited by @Famousronsoriginal

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