It’s Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day! This holiday started being celebrated on the last Monday in January after a radio station in Bloomington, Indiana received a shipment of new microphones wrapped in Bubble Wrap and then broadcast the sound of it being popped. Bubble wrap was invented in 1957 by 2 engineers who were attempting to come up with a textured wallpaper. They glued two shower curtains together, creating an array of air bubbles. Not surprisingly, the product was unsuccessful as wallpaper. They then tried to sell it as greenhouse insulation, but this also wasn’t a successful venture. They founded Sealed Air Corporation in 1960, and in 1961, they finally discovered its usefulness as a packing material. They learned that IBM was preparing to ship their 1401 decimal computers, which were both expensive and fragile. So they pitched IBM on the idea of shipping them wrapped in Bubble Wrap, and the company became t their first client. By 1969, Sealed Air had $4 million in sales. The term “bubble wrap” is owned by Sealed Air, but it has become a generic trademark over the years, much like Kleenex and Band-Aid. Learn more here.