Every 70’s tabloid has a slogan and National Informer claimed to offer “truthful news of all the facts of life.” Truthful? That might be a stretch. But it’s one of the more entertaining tabs from the period. We have more of these to scan and upload, but for today we have only this cover that hit newsstands today in 1970, which we’re using as a reminder that we have the most vintage tabloids to be found on the internet, including fourteen issues of National Informer and seven of National Informer Weekly Reader. You can access all those at our tabloid index here.
1937—Carothers Patents Nylon
Wallace H. Carothers, an American chemist, inventor and the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont Corporation, receives a patent for a silk substitute fabric called nylon. Carothers was a depressive who for years carried a cyanide capsule on a watch chain in case he wanted to commit suicide, but his genius helped produce other polymers such as neoprene and polyester. He eventually did take cyanide—not in pill form, but dissolved in lemon juice—resulting in his death in late 1937.