27 January

1970 – James M. Schlatter from G. D. Searle & Co. received a patent for “Peptide Sweetening Agents” (U.S. No. 3,492,131), an invention which led to the marketing of aspartame under the name NutraSweet. Schlatter accidentally discovered the compound when picking up a paper, he had licked his finger. The sweet trace came from a flask that he had handled earlier. It contained L-aspartyl-L-phenylalnine methyl ester. The U.S. FDA approved aspartame for use as food sweetener on 22 October 1981.

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1940 – David Murray Cowie died (1872 – 27 January 1940), was an American pediatrician who promoted the iodisation of table salt sold in the U.S. to reduce the incidence of goitre. Cowie, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan gathered support from the Michigan State Medical Society and persuaded several table salt producers to add 0.01% sodium iodide to their product. On on May 1st 1924 the first iodized salt was on Michigan grocers’ shelves.

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