On January 23, 1957, machines at the Wham-O toy company rolled out the
first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs—now known to millions of
fans all over the world as Frisbees. 

The story of the Frisbee began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where William
Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871. Students from nearby
universities would throw the empty pie tins to each other, yelling “Frisbie!”
as they let go. In 1948, Walter Frederick Morrison and his partner Warren
Franscioni invented a plastic version of the disc called the “Flying Saucer”
that could fly further and more accurately than the tin pie plates. After
splitting with Franscioni, Morrison made an improved model in 1955 and
sold it to the new toy company Wham-O as the “Pluto Platter”–an attempt
to cash in on the public craze over space and Unidentified Flying Objects
(UFOs).

Walter Fredrick "Fred" Morrison
(January 23, 1920 – February 9, 2010)