6. The first Oreos were sold in Hoboken, New Jersey
Milk’s favorite cookie, the Oreo, is a New York City invention, but residents of Hoboken were among the first to taste it. Created by the National Biscuit Company, then headquartered at what is now Chelsea Market, the Oreo was first sold to S.C. Theusen, the owner of a grocery store on 10th and Washington Streets.
Hoboken also has ties to other sweets and inventions such as the waffle cone. Italo Marchiony patented a machine to produce these edible bowls. Marchiony sold ice cream and ices from a pushcart on the streets of Hoboken in glass cups, though people kept breaking them, so the waffle cone was an economical solution. A similar cone also debuted at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis.
Hoboken played a role in the development of helpful pieces of technology, including the wireless phone. In 1914, Hoboken’s DL&W Terminal was the site of testing for the first wireless telephone, created by Guglielmo Marconi. A few years later, Hoboken was one of the first cities with wireless towers, which could transmit signal 400 miles. Among Hoboken’s other inventions was the slide rule, which was first produced at the Keuffel and Esser Complex, which has been converted into apartments. The zipper was also first manufactured at Hoboken’s Automatic Hook & Eye Company beginning in 1906.