-
-
Christopher Columbus brought a few tobacco leaves and seeds with him back to Europe. Europeans didn't get their first taste of tobacco until the mid-16th century, when adventurers and diplomats like France's Jean Nicot -- for whom nicotine is named -- began to popularize its use.
-
-
The first successful commercial crop was cultivated in Virginia in 1612 by Englishman John Rolfe
-
By 1760, many Virginian tobacco planters were in debt to Great Britain because of taxes
-
the tobacco industry continued to flourish. The cigar became popular.
-
-
smoking was banned in Boston because it posed
fire hazards. -
In 1884, Buck Duke produced 744 million cigarettes and undercut the prices of other tobacco companies
-
In 1890, tobacco was included in the government’s official listing of drugs.
-
In 1917, the Trading With The Enemy Act was established, which prohibited importing Cuban cigars.
-
n 1941 in Kentucky, America’s tobacco companies were convicted of price fixing and monopolizing.
-
in 1900,
Washington, Iowa, Tennessee, and North Dakota outlawed the sale of cigarettes. -
In 1904, a group of
growers known as the Tobacco Night Riders began committing violent acts, known as the Black Patch
War, in protest of the low prices -
Antitrust charges were filed against the American Tobacco Company in 1907.