July 7, 1880 – American engineer and inventor of the bread-slicing machine, Otto Frederick Rohwedder, is born in Davenport, Iowa. His 1928 invention that gave standardized slices also boosted sales of the recently invented automatic pop-up toaster.
July 8, 1831 – The pharmacist who created Coca-Cola, John Pemberton, is born in Knoxville, Georgia. He developed the drink after being wounded during the Civil War and intended it to be a substitute for morphine.
July 11, 1767 – Sixth U. S. President John Quincy Adams (the son of Second President John Adams) is born in Braintree, Massachusetts.
July 12, 1817 – American philosopher Henry David Thoreau is born in Concord, Massachusetts.