www.stjude.org

On June 26, 1948, U.S. and British pilots began delivering food
and supplies by airplane to Berlin after the city is isolated by a
Soviet Union blockade.

When World War II ended in 1945, defeated Germany was divided
into Soviet, American, British and French zones of occupation.

As a result, beginning on June 24 the western section of Berlin
and its 2 million people were deprived of food, heating fuel and
other crucial supplies.

Though some in U.S. President Harry S. Truman’s administration
called for a direct military response to this aggressive Soviet
move, Truman worried such a response would trigger another
world war.

On the morning of June 26, 1974, at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio,
a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum became the first
grocery item scanned with a Universal Product Code, or UPC.

The result of years of scientific experimentation and industry cooperation, the UPC barcode would go on to be used well
beyond the grocery checkout counter, becoming a ubiquitous
feature of modern commerce, with billions of barcodes scanned
daily.