About.....A Long History of Tobacco

  IN THE BEGINNING . . .

Huron Indian myth has it that in ancient times, when the land was barren and the people were starving, the Great Spirit sent forth a woman to save humanity. As she traveled over the world, everywhere her right hand touched the soil, there grew potatoes. And everywhere her left hand touched the soil, there grew corn. And when the world was rich and fertile, she sat down and rested. When she arose, there grew tobacco . . .

TOBACCO TIMELINE - A Fascinating Journey

The sacred origin of tobacco and the first pipe......

• c. 6000 BC: Experts believe the tobacco plant, as we know it today, begins growing in the Americas.
• c. 1 BC: Experts believe American inhabitants begin finding ways to use tobacco, including smoking (via a number of variations) and in enemas.
• 600-1000 AD: UAXACTUN, GUATEMALA. First pictorial record of smoking: A pottery vessel found here dates from before the 11th century. On it, a Maya is depicted smoking a roll of tobacco leaves tied with a string. The Mayan term for smoking was sik'ar.

Introduction: The Chiapas Gift, or.......the Indians' Revenge?

• 1492-10-15: Columbus Discovers Smoking
• 1531: SANTO DOMINGO: European cultivation of tobacco begins.
• 1554: ANTWERP: 'Cruydeboeck' presents first illustration of tobacco.
• 1556: FRANCE: Tobacco is introduced.
• 1558: PORTUGAL: Tobacco is introduced.
• 1559: SPAIN: Tobacco is introduced.
• 1560: PORTUGAL: Jean Nicot de Villemain, France's ambassador to Portugal, writes of tobacco's medicinal properties.
• 1565: ENGLAND: Tobacco is introduced.
• 1566: FRANCE: Nicot sends snuff to Catherine de Medici, Queen of France, to treat her migraine headaches.
• 1568: FRANCE: Andre Thevet provides first description of tobacco use. In Brazil, he wrote, the people smoke it and it cleans the "superfluous humours of the brain". Thevet smoked it himself.
• 1571: SPAIN: MEDICINE: Monardes, a doctor in Seville, reports the latest craze among Spanish doctors - the wonders of the tobacco plant, which herbalist's are growing all over Spain. Monardes lists 36 maladies tobacco cures.
• 1573: ENGLAND: Sir Francis Drake returns from Americas with 'Nicotina tobacum'.
• 1575: MEXICO: LEGISLATION: Roman Catholic Church passes a law against smoking in any place of worship in the Spanish Colonies.
• 1577: ENGLAND: MEDICINE: Frampton translates Monardes into English. European doctors look for new cures--tobacco is recommended for toothache, falling fingernails, worms, halitosis, lockjaw & cancer.
• 1580: CUBA: European cultivation of tobacco begins.
• 1586: GERMANY: 'De plantis epitome utilissima' offers one of first cautions to use of tobacco, calling it a "violent herb".
• 1587: ANTWERP: First published work totally on tobacco, 'De herbe panacea', with numerous recipes and claims of cures.
• 1588: Hariot writes about tobacco in Virginia.
• 1595: ENGLAND: Tabacco, the first book in the English language devoted to the subject of tobacco, is published.
• 1595: Matoaka is born to Chief Powhatan. She is given the nickname Pocahontas - "Frisky," "Playful One" or "Mischief".

Seventeenth Century--"The Great Age of the Pipe"

Tobacco comes into use as "Country Money" or "Country Pay." Tobacco continues to be used as a monetary standard - literally a "cash crop" - throughout the 17th and 18th Centuries, lasting twice as long as the gold standard.

• 1600: BRAZIL: European cultivation of tobacco begins.
• 1602: ENGLAND: Publication of Worke of Chimney Sweepers by anonymous author identified as 'Philaretes' states that illness of chimney sweepers is caused by soot and that tobacco may have similar effects.
• 1602: ENGLAND: Roger Markecke writes A Defense of Tobacco, in response to Chimneysweeps.
• 1604: ENGLAND: King James I writes "A Counterblaste to Tobacco".
• 1604: ENGLAND: King James I increases import tax on tobacco 4,000%.
• 1606: SPAIN: King Philip Ill decrees that tobacco may only be grown in specific locations - including Cuba, Santo Domingo, Venezuela and Puerto Rico. Sale of tobacco to foreigners is punishable by death.
• 1607: Jamestown saga begins.
• 1610: ENGLAND: Sir Francis Bacon writes that tobacco use is increasing and that it is a custom hard to quit.
• 1610: ENGLAND: Edmond Gardiner publishes William Barclay's The Trial of Tobacco and provides a text of recipes and medicinal preparations. Barclay defends tobacco as a medicine but condemns casual use.
• 1614: SPAIN: King Philip III establishes Seville as tobacco center of the world. Attempting to prevent a tobacco glut, Philip requires all tobacco grown in the Spanish New World to be shipped to a central location, Seville, Spain. Seville becomes the world center for the production of cigars. European cigarette use begins here, as beggars patch together tobacco from used cigars, and roll them in paper(papeletes). Spanish and Portuguese sailors spread the practice to Russia and the Levant.
• 1614-04: John Rolfe and Pocahontas (Rebecca) are married.
• 1614: ENGLAND: First sale of Virginia tobacco in England.
• 1616-06-03: John Rolfe and Pocahontas arrive in London.
• 1617: Dr. William Vaughn writes:
  1. Tobacco that outlandish weede
  2. It spends the braine and spoiles the seede
  3. It dulls the spirite, it dims the sight
  4. It robs a woman of her right
• 1619: First Africans brought into Jamestown. John Rolfe writes in his diary. About the last of August came in a dutch man of warre that sold us twenty negars.
• 1620: ENGLAND: 40,000 lbs of tobacco imported from Virginia.
• 1621: ENGLAND: Tobias Venner publishes "A briefe and accurate treatise, concerning....tobacco" claiming medicinal properties, but condemning use for pleasure.
• 1631: European cultivation of tobacco begins in Maryland.
• 1632: Massachusetts forbids public smoking.
• 1638: CHINA: Use or distribution of tobacco is made a crime punishable by decapitation.
• 1660: ENGLAND: The court of Charles II returns to London from exile in Paris, bringing the French court's snuffing practice with them; snuff becomes an aristocratic form of tobacco use.
• 1661: VIRGINIA Assembly begins institutionalizing slavery, making it de jure.
• 1665: EUROPE: THE GREAT PLAGUE. Smoking tobacco is thought to have a protective effect.
• 1675: SWITZERLAND: The Berne town council establishes a special Chambres de Tabac to deal with smokers, who face the same dire penalties as adulterers.

The Eighteenth Century--Snuff holds sway

* ENGLAND: George III's wife known as "Snuffy Charlotte"

* FRANCE: Napoleon said to have used 7 lb. of snuff per month

• 1701: MEDICINE: Nicholas Andryde Boisregard warns that young people taking too much tobacco have trembling, unsteady hands, staggering feet and suffer a withering of “their noble parts.''
• 1705: VIRGINIA Assembly passes a law legalizing lifelong slavery. . . . all servants imported and brought into this country, by sea or land, who were not Christians in their native country . . . shall be . . . slaves, and as such be here bought and sold notwithstanding a conversion to Christianity afterwards."
• 1727: ECONOMY: "Tobacco notes" attesting to quality and quantity of one's tobacco kept in public warehouses are authorized as legal tender in Virginia. Used as units of monetary exchange throughout 18th Century.
• 1730: LEGISLATION: Virginia Inspection Acts come into effect, standardizing and regulating tobacco sales and exports to prevent the export of "trash tobacco" - shipments diluted with leaves and household sweepings, which were debasing the value of Virginia tobacco. Inspection warehouses were empowered to verify weight and kind and kind of tobacco.
• 1747: LEGISLATION: Maryland passes its own Maryland Inspection Act.
• 1753: SWEDEN: In the mid-1700s, Swedish Botanist Carolus Linnaeus names the plant genus, nicotiana. and describes two species, nicotiana rustica. and nicotiana tabacum."
• 1760: BUSINESS: Pierre Lorillard establishes a "manufactory" in New York City for processing pipe tobacco, cigars, and snuff. P. Lorillard is the oldest tobacco company in the US.
• 1761: ENGLAND: John Hill performs perhaps first clinical study of tobacco effects, warns snuff users they are vulnerable to cancers of the nose.
• 1761: ENGLAND: Dr. Percival Pott notes incidence of cancer of the scrotum among chimneysweeps, theorizing a connection between cancer and exposure to soot.
• 1763: Patrick Henry argues a tobacco case. The clergy had been paid in tobacco until a late 1750s Virginia law which decreed they should be paid in currency at the rate of 2 cent/lb, when tobacco was selling for 6 cents/lb. The law was vetoed by the Crown, but was still sometimes adhered to in Virginia, and some clergy sued their parishes. Henry defended one such parish (Hanover County) in court. He berated England's interference in domestic matters, and convinced the jury to give the plaintiff/clergyman only one penny in damages.
• 1776: AMERICAN REVOLUTION: British tobacco taxes are a major factor along "Tobacco Coast" (the Chesapeake), where the Revolutionary War was variously known as "The Tobacco War." Tobacco helps finance the Revolution by serving as collateral for loans from France.
• 1789-1799: FRENCH REVOLUTION. French masses begin to take to the cigarito, as the form of tobacco use least like the aristocratic snuff.
• 1794: The U.S Congress passes its first tax on tobacco. The tax of 8 cents applies only to snuff, not the more plebian smoking tobacco. The tax is 60% of snuff's usual selling price.
• 1795: Sammuel Thomas von Soemmering of Maine reports on cancers of the lip in pipe smokers.
• 1798. Famed physician Benjamin Rush writes on the medical dangers of tobacco and claims that smoking or chewing tobacco leads to drunkenness.

The Nineteenth Century--The Age of the Cigar

• 1826: ENGLAND is importing 26 pounds of cigars a year. The cigar becomes so popular that within four years, England will be importing 250,000 pounds of cigars a year.
• 1826: MEDICINE: The purified form of the nicotine compound is obtained.
• 1828: GERMANY: Heidelberg students Ludwig Reimann and Wilhelm Heinrich Posselt write exhaustive dissertations on the pharmacology of nicotine, concluding it is a "dangerous poison."
• 1830s: First organized anti-tobacco movement in US begins as adjunct to the temperance movement. Tobacco use is considered to dry out the mouth, "creating a morbid or diseased thirst" which only liquor could quench.
• 1839: BUSINESS: Charcoal used in flue-curing for the first time in North Carolina. Not only cheaper, its intense heat turns the thinner, low-nicotine Piedmont leaf a brilliant golden color. This results in the classic American "Bright leaf" variety, which is so mild it virtually invites a smoker to inhale it.
• 1836: USA: Samuel Green of the New England Almanack and Farmers Friend writes that tobacco is an insecticide, a poison, a filthy habit, and can kill a man.
• 1843: MEDICINE: The correct molecular formula of nicotine is established.
• 1845: ART: Prosper Merimee's novel, Carmen, about a cigarette girl in an Andalusian factory, is published.
• 1846-1848: MEXICAN WAR. US soldiers bring back a taste for the darker, richer tobacco favored in Latin countries, leading to an explosive increase in the use of the cigar.
• 1847: ENGLAND: Philip Morris opens shop; sells hand-rolled Turkish cigarettes.
• 1849: BUSINESS: J.E. Liggett and Brother is established in St. Louis, Mo., by John Edmund Liggett.
• 1852: Washington Duke, a young tobacco farmer, builds a modest, two-story home near Durham, NC, for himself and his new bride. The house, and the log structure which served as a "tobacco factory" after the Civil War may still be seen at the Duke Homestead Museum.
• 1853-1856: EUROPE: CRIMEAN WAR. British soldiers learn how cheap and convenient the cigarettes of the French and Turkish soldiers are, and bring the practice back to England.
• 1854: ENGLAND: BUSINESS: Philip Morris begins making his own cigarettes.
• 1856-1857: ENGLAND: A running debate among readers runs in the British medical journal, Lancet. The argument runs as much along moral as medical lines, with little substantiation.
• 1859: Reverend George Trask publishes tract "Thoughts and stories for American Lads: Uncle Toby's anti-tobacco advice to his nephew Billy Bruce". He writes, "Physicians tell us that twenty thousand or more in our own land are killed by [tobacco] every year.
• 1860: The Census for Virginia and North Carolina list 348 tobacco factories, virtually all producing chewing tobacco. Only 6 list smoking tobacco as a side-product (which is manufactured from scraps left over from plug production).
• 1861-1865: USA: THE CIVIL WAR: Tobacco is given with rations by both North and South; many Northerners introduced to tobacco this way.
• 1863: SUMATRA: Nienhuys creates Indonesian tobacco industry Dutch businessman Jacobus Nienhuys travels to Sumatra seeking to buy tobacco, but finds poor growing and production facilities; his efforts to rectify the situation are credited with establishing the Indonesian tobacco industry.
• 1863: US Mandates Cigar Boxes. Congress passes a law calling for manufacturers to create cigar boxes on which IRS agents can paste Civil War excise tax stamps. The beginning of "cigar box art."
• 1864: First tax levied on cigarettes.
• 1868: UK: Parliament passes the Railway Bill of 1868, which mandates smoke-free cars to prevent injury to non-smokers.
• 1873: BUSINESS: Philip Morris dies. (Yes, that Philip Morris).
• 1874: BUSINESS: Washington Duke, with his sons Benjamin N. Duke and James Buchanan Duke, builds his first tobacco factory.
• 1875: BUSINESS: Allen and Ginter offer a reward of $75,000 for cigarette rolling machine.
• 1875: BUSINESS: R. J. Reynolds founds R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company to produce chewing tobacco.
• 1875: BUSINESS: Richmond, VA: Allen & Ginter cigarette brands ("Richmond Straight Cut No. 1," "Pet") begin using picture cards to stiffen the pack and give the buyer a premium. Some themes: "Fifty Scenes of Perilous Occupations," "Flags of All Nations," boxers, actresses, famous battles, etc. The cards are a huge hit.
• 1875: ART: Georges Bizet's opera, Carmen, based on Merimee's novel about a cigarette girl in an Andalusian factory, opens.
• 1878: BUSINESS: J.E. Liggett & Brother incorporates as Liggett & Myers Company. By 1885 Liggett is world's largest plug tobacco manufacturer; doesn't make cigarettes until the 1890's.
• 1878: BUSINESS: Trading cards and coupons begin being used in cigarette packs.
• c.1880s: USA: Women's Christian Temperance Movement publishes a "Leaflet for Mothers' Meetings" titled "Narcotics", by Lida B. Ingalls. Discusses evils of tobacco, especially cigarettes. Cigarettes are "doing more to-day to undermine the constitution of our young men and boys than any other one evil" (p. 7).
• c.1880s: ENGLAND: BUSINESS: Mssrs. Richard Benson and William Hedges open a tobacconist shop near Philip Morris in London.
• 1880: Bonsack machine granted first cigarette machine patent.
• 1881: BUSINESS James Buchanan ("Buck") Duke enters the manufactured cigarette business, with Duke of Durham brand. Duke's factory produces 9.8 million cigarettes, 1.5 % of the total market.
• 1884: BUSINESS: Duke buys 2 Bonsack machines. This year Duke produces 744 million cigarettes, more than the national total in 1883.
• 1886: USA Patent received for machine to manufacture plug tobacco.
• 1887: PALESTINE: A traveler reports that the Arabs of the Syrian Desert get giddy and headaches from a few whiffs of tobacco. They smoke a local plant 'Hyoscyamus'.
• 1887: USA: Advice from the cigar and tobacco price list of M. Breitweiser and Brothers of Buffalo, Item #5 - "If you think smoking injurious to your health, stop smoking in the morning".
• 1887: USA: Two men held pipe smoking contest that lasted one and a half hours. Victory was declared when one man filled his pipe for the tenth time, his opponent did not.
• 1889: Langley and Dickinson have published landmark studies on the effects of nicotine on the ganglia; they hypothesize that there are receptors and transmitters that respond to stimulation by specific chemicals.
• 1889: USA: BUSINESS: Buck Duke is spending $800,000 marketing his cigarettes.
• 1889-04-23: BUSINESS: The five leading cigarette firms, including W. Duke Sons & Company, form the American Tobacco Company. It's president is Buck Duke.
• c.1890s: USA: Women's Christian Temperance Movement publishes "Narcotics", by E. B. Ingalls. Pamphlet discusses evils of numerous drugs, tobacco, cocaine, ginger, hashish, and headache medicines. Offers 16 suggestions to workers.
• 1890: 26 states and territories have outlawed the sale of cigarettes to minors (age of a "minor" in a particularly state could be anything from 14-24.)
• 1890: BUSINESS: Dukes establish the American Tobacco Company, which will soon monopolize the entire US tobacco industry. ATC will be dissolved in Anti-Trust action in 1911.
• 1892: POLITICS: Reformers petition Congress to prohibit the manufacture, importation and sale of cigarettes. The Senate Committee on Epidemic Diseases, while agreeing that cigarettes are a public health hazard, finds that only the states have the authority to act. The committee urges the petitioners to seek redress from state legislatures.
• 1893: The state of Washington bans the sale and use of cigarettes.
• 1894: BUSINESS: By now, Philip Morris has passed from the troubled Morris family, and is controlled by the Thompson family.
• 1894: BUSINESS: Brown & Williamson formed as a partnership in Winston-Salem, making mostly plug, snuff and pipe tobacco.
• 1898: SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR: Congress raises taxes on cigarettes 200%.
• 1899: Lucy Payne Gaston, who claims that young men who smoke develop a distinguishable "cigarette face," founds the Chicago Anti-Cigarette League, which grows by 1911 to the Anti-Cigarette League of America, and by 1919 to the Anti-Cigarette League of the World.
• 1899: LEGISLATION: Iowa, Tennessee and North Dakota have outlawed the sale of cigarettes.
• 1899: The Senate Finance Committee, in secret session, rolls back the wartime excise tax on cigarettes.
• 1899: BUSINESS: Liggett & Myers taken into Duke's Tobacco Trust.
• 1899: BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company incorporates.

Twentieth Century--The Rise of the Cigarette; 1900-1950: Growing Pains

• 1900: US Supreme Court upholds Tennessee's ban on cigarette sales. One Justice, repeating a popular notion of the day, says, "there are many [cigarettes] whose tobacco has been mixed with opium or some other drug, and whose wrapper has been saturated in a solution of arsenic.".
• 1900: BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds reluctantly folds his company into Duke's Tobacco Trust.
• 1901: BUSINESS: Duke fuses his Continental Tobacco and American Tobacco companies into Consolidated Tobacco.
• 1901: BUSINESS: Duke's Consolidated buys the British Ogden tobacco firm, signaling a raid on the British industry.
• 1901: BUSINESS: The largest British tobacco companies unite to combat Duke's take-over, forming the Bristol-based Imperial Tobacco Group.
• 1902: BUSINESS: In an end to the war, Imperial and American agree to stay in their own countries, and unite to form the British American Tobacco Company (BAT) to sell both companies' brands abroad.
• 1901: 3.5 billion cigarettes smoked; 6 billion cigars sold.
• 1902: Philip Morris sets up a corporation in New York to sell its British brands, including one named "Marlboro."
• 1902: BUSINESS: ENGLAND: King Albert, long a fan of Philip Morris, Ltd., appoints the Bond St. boutique royal tobacconist.
• 1902: USA: Sears, Roebuck and Co catalogue (page 441) sells "Sure Cure for the Tobacco Habit". Slogan "Tobacco to the Dogs". The product "will destroy the effects of nicotine".
• 1903-08: The August Harpers Weekly says, "A great many thoughtful and intelligent men who smoke don't know if it does them good or harm. They notice bad effects when they smoke too much. They know that having once acquired the habit, it bothers them . . . to have their allowance of tobacco cut off."
• 1904: MEDICINE: The first laboratory synthesis of nicotine is reported.
• 1904: New York City. A woman is arrested for smoking a cigarette in an automobile. "You can't do that on Fifth Avenue," the arresting officer says.
• 1904: Kentucky tobacco farmers form a violent "protective association" to protect themselves against rapacious tactics of large manufacturers, mostly the Duke combine. They destroy tobacco factories, crops, and even murder other planters. Disbanded in 1915.
• 1905: POLITICS: Indiana legislature bribery attempt is exposed, leading to passage of total cigarette ban.
• 1906 BUSINESS: R.J. Reynolds introduces Prince Albert pipe tobacco.
• 1906: Food and Drug Administration begins; originally, nicotine is on the list of drugs; after tobacco industry lobbying efforts, nicotine is removed from the list.
• 1907: REGULATION: Teddy Roosevelt's Justice Department files anti-trust charges against American Tobacco.
• 1907: Business owners are refusing to hire smokers. On August 8, the New York Times writes: "Business ... is doing what all the anti-cigarette specialists could not do."
• 1908: CANADA: The Tobacco Restraint Act passed. Bans sales of cigarettes to those under 16; never enforced.
• 1908: BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds release, Prince Albert pipe tobacco, "the Joy Smoke.", catapulting Reynolds to a national market.
• 1909: 15 states have passed legislation banning the sale of cigarettes.
• 1909: SPORTS: Baseball great Honus Wagner orders American Tobacco Company take his picture off their "Sweet Caporal" cigarette packs, fearing they would lead children to smoke. The shortage makes the Honus Wagner card the most valuable of all time, worth close to $500,000.
• 1910: THE STATE OF TOBACCO: Per capita consumption: 138/year. Because of the heavy use of the inexpensive cigarette by immigrants, New York still accounts for 25% of all cigarette sales. The New York Times editorializes praises the Non Smokers Protective League, saying anything that could be done to allay "the general and indiscriminate use of tobacco in public
• places, hotels, restaurants, and railroad cars, will receive the approval of everybody whose approval is worth having."
• 1911: BUSINESS: THE INDUSTRY IN 1911:
  • Duke's American Tobacco Co. controls 92% of the world's tobacco business.
  • Leading National Brand: Fatima, (15 cents for 20) from Liggett & Myers, a Turkish/domestic blend. Most popular in Eastern urban areas.
  • Leading Brand in Southeast: Piedmont, an all-Bright leaf brand.
  • Leading Brand in New Orleans: Home Run, (5 cents for 20) an all-Burley leaf brand.
• 1910: TAXES: Federal tax revenues from tobacco products are $58 million, 13% from cigarettes.
• 1911: "Trustbusters" break up American Tobacco Co. US Court of Appeals dissolves Duke's trust. The major companies to emerge are: American Tobacco Co., R.J. Reynolds, Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company (Durham, NC), Lorillard and BAT. RJ Reynolds says, "Now watch me give Buck Duke hell."
• 1911: Dr. Charles Pease states position of the NonSmokers' Protective League of America.
• 1912: BUSINESS: Newly freed Liggett & Myers introduces "Chesterfield" brand cigarettes, with the slogan: They do satisfy.
• 1912: BUSINESS: George Whelan puts his United Cigar Stores company under a holding company, Tobacco Products Corporation, and starts buying small tobacco independents. They do satisfy.
• 1912: USA: Reprint of report of the perfection of a nicotine oil spray. This makes it easier to apply the nicotine extract as an insecticide to plants.
• 1912: USA: The members of the Non-Smokers' Protective League received editorial ridicule in various newspapers. One newspaper states, "Smoking may be offensive to some people, but encourages peace and morality". Pipes and cigars are easily defended, but cigarettes may be a problem.
• 1912: USA: Article on substitutes for tobacco, such as ground coffee, coffee bean, hemp, leaves of the tomato or potato or holly or camphor, or "the egg plant, and the colt's foot".
• 1912: USA: Article titled "How some men stop smoking"; in which they never stop for more than a few hours. The question is raised, "How can we break ourselves of it? -- not the tobacco, but the thought that we ought to stop it?"
• 1912: THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC: Men in tuxedos are observed smoking cigarettes as they await their fate.
• 1913: American Society for the Control of Cancer is formed to inform the public about the disease. It will later become the American Cancer Society.
• 1913: BUSINESS: Birth of the "modern" cigarette: RJ Reynolds introduces Camel.
• 1914: HEALTH: Lung cancer death rate is 0.6 per 100,000 (US Census Bureau); 371 cases reported in the US.
• 1914: OPINION: Thomas Edison writes to Henry Ford that the health danger of cigarettes actually lies in "the burning paper wrapper" which emits acrolein. Acrolein has an irreversible "violent action on the nerve centers, producing degeneration of the cells of the brain, which is quite rapid among boys. . . I employ no person who smokes."
• 1915: Liggett & Myers reconstitutes Chesterfield in the Camel mode; shortens slogan to: They Satisfy.
• 1915: POETRY:
  1. Tobacco is a dirty weed. I like it.
  2. It satisfies no normal need. I like it.
  3. It makes you thin, it makes you lean,
  4. It takes the hair right off your bean.
  5. It's the worst darn stuff I've ever seen.
  6. I like it.
• --Graham Lee Hemminger, Penn State Froth, Tobacco
• c. 1915: OPINION: Release of poster with quote from biologist Davis Starr Jordan, "The boy who smokes cigarettes need not be anxious about his future, he has none".
• 1916: Henry Ford publishes anti-cigarette pamphlet titled "The Case against the Little White Slaver".
• 1916: BUSINESS: To compete with the phenomenal success of RJR's Camel, American introduces Lucky Strike, the name revived from an 1871 pipe tobacco brand that referenced the Gold Rush days. On the package, the motto: "It's Toasted!" (like all other cigarettes.) .
• 1917-18: WORLD WAR I: Cigarette rations determined by market share, a great boost to Camel, which had over a third of the domestic market.
• Virtually an entire generation return from the war addicted to cigarettes.
• Turkish leaf is unavailable; American tobacco farmers get up to 70 cents/pound.
• Those opposed to sending cigarettes to the doughboys are accused of being traitors. According to General John J. Pershing:
• You ask me what we need to win this war. I answer tobacco as much as bullets.
• Tobacco is as indispensable as the daily ration; we must have thousands of tons without delay.
• 1918: Frederick J. Pack publishes his "Tobacco and Human Efficiency," the most comprehensive compilation of anti-cigarette opinion to date.
• 1919: HEALTH: Washington University medical student Alton Ochsner is summoned to observe lung cancer surgery--something, he is told, he may never see again. He doesn't see another case for 17 years. Then he sees 8 in six months - all smokers who had picked up the habit in WW I.
• 1919: Richard Joshua (R.J.) Reynolds, 68, dies.
• 1919: The 18th Amendment ratified by states.
• 1919: Evangelist Billy Sunday declares "Prohibition is won; now for tobacco". The success of alcohol prohibition suggested to some the possibility of tobacco prohibition.
• 1919: Lucy Payne Gaston's tactics are attracting lawsuits; she is asked to resign from Anti-Cigarette League of the World.
• 1919: BUSINESS: George Whelan Tobacco Products picks up tiny Philip Morris & Company, Ltd. Inc, including PM's brands Cambridge, Oxford Blues, English Ovals, Players, and Marlboro.
• 1919: BUSINESS: Manufactured cigarettes surpass smoking tobacco in poundage of tobacco consumed.
• 1919: BUSINESS: ADVERTISING: Lorillard unsuccessfully targets women with its Helmar and Murad brands.
• 1921: BUSINESS: RJR spends $8 million in advertising, mostly on Camel; inaugurates the "I'd Walk a Mile for a Camel" slogan.
• 1921: Iowa becomes first state to add its own cigarette tax (2 cents a pack) onto federal excise levy (6 cents).
• 1922: BUSINESS: RJR takes Industry leadership. from American for first time.
• 1922: BUSINESS: Manufactured cigarettes surpass plug in poundage of tobacco consumed to become US's highest grossing tobacco product.
• 1922: OPINION: "Is There a Cigarette War Coming?" in Atlantic magazine says, "scientific truth" has found "that the claims of those who inveigh against tobacco are wholly without foundation has been proved time and again by famous chemists, physicians, toxicologists, physiologists, and experts of every nation and clime."
• 1922: Lucy Payne Gaston runs for President of the U.S. against "cigarette face" Warren G. Harding, whom she asks to quit smoking. Within two years they both will be dead, he of a stroke mid-term, she of throat cancer. (There is no record of her ever having smoked.)
• 1923: BUSINESS: Camel has 45% of the US market.
• 1923: ARTS: "Confessions of Zeno" by Italo Svevo.
• 1923: BUSINESS: Camel has over 40% of the US market.
• 1924: Lucy Payne Gaston dies if throat cancer.
• 1924: BUSINESS: Philip Morris introduces Marlboro, a women's cigarette that is "Mild as May".
• 1924: Durham, NC: James B. Duke creates Duke University. Duke gives an endowment to Trinity College. Under provisions of the fund, Trinity becomes Duke University.
• 1925: HEALTH: Lung cancer death rate is 1.7 per 100,000 (US Census Bureau).
• 1925: BUSINESS: Philip Morris' Marlboro, "Mild as May," targets "decent, respectable" women. "Has smoking any more to do with a woman's morals than has the color of her hair?" A 1927 ad reads, "Women quickly develop discerning taste. That is why Marlboros now ride in so many limousines, attend so many bridge parties, and repose in so many handbags."
• 1925: BUSINESS: Both Percival Hill and Buck Duke die by end of the year; George Washington Hill becomes President of American Tobacco Co.
• 1925: OPINION: "American Mercury" magazine: "A dispassionate review of the [scientific] findings compels the conclusion that the cigarette is tobacco in its mildest form, and that tobacco, used moderately by people in normal health, does not appreciably impair either the mental efficiency or the physical condition."
• 1926: BUSINESS: P. Lorillard introduces Old Gold cigarettes with expensive campaigns. John Held Flappers, Petty girls, comic-strip style illustrations and "Not a Cough in a Carload" helped the brand capture 7% of the market by 1930.
• 1926: BUSINESS: ADVERTISING: Chesterfield targets women for second-hand smoke in "Blow some my way" ad.
• 1927: LEGISLATION: Kansas is the last state to drop its ban on cigarette sales.
• 1927: BUSINESS: British American Tobacco acquires the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, and introduces the 15-cent-pack Raleigh. Raleigh soon re-introduces the concept of coupons for merchandise.
• 1927: BUSINESS: ADVERTISING: Luckies target women A sensation is created when George Washington Hill aims Lucky Strike advertising campaign at women for the first time, using testimonials from female movie stars and singers. Soon Lucky Strike has 38% of the American market. Smoking initiation rates among adolescent females triple between 1925-1935.
• 1928: HEALTH: Lombard & Doering examine 217 Mass. cancer victims, comparing age, gender, economic status, diet, smoking and drinking. The New England Journal of Medicine report finds overall cancer rates only slightly less for nonsmokers, but finds 34 of 35 site-specific (lung, lips, cheek, jaw) cancer sufferers are heavy smokers.
• 1929: HEALTH: Statistician Frederick Hoffman in the "American Review of Tuberculosis" finds "There is no definite evidence that smoking habits are a direct contributory cause toward malignant growths in the lungs."
• 1929: BUSINESS: Whelan's Tobacco Products Corporation crashes shortly before the market; Philip Morris is picked up by Rube Ellis, who calls in Leonard McKitterick to help run it.
• 1930: HEALTH: 2,357 cases of lung cancer reported in the US.
• 1930: TAXES: Federal tax revenues from tobacco products are over $500 million, 80% from cigarettes.
• 1930: HEALTH: 2,357 cases of lung cancer reported in the US.
• 1931-06: Cigarette Price Wars begin. Cigs sold for 14 cents a pack, 2-for-27 cents in the depths of the depression. Even with cheap leaf prices and manufacturing costs, and with "Luckies" advancing, RJ Reynolds President S. Clay Williams ups "Camel" prices a penny a pack. Others follow suit. The major TCs are seen as greedy opportunists. Dime-a-pack discount cigs eat into the majors' market share, taking as much as 20% of the market in 1932; PM releases "Paul Jones" discount brand. In 1933, TCs lower prices. Discounts maintain 11% of the market for the rest of the 30s.
• 1932: BUSINESS: Zippo lighter invented by George G. Blaisdell.
• 1933: LEGISLATION: The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 institutes price supports, saves tobacco farmers from ruin.
• 1933: BUSINESS: B&W introduce a menthol cigarette, Kool, to compete with Axton-Fisher's Spud, the only other mentholated brand.
• 1933: BUSINESS: Philip Morris resuscitates and revitalizes its Philip Morris as a tony, but only premium-priced ("Now only 15 cents") "English Blend" brand.
• 1933: BUSINESS: Page boy Johnny Roventini is discovered in the New Yorker hotel and soon becomes the world's first living trademark, his distinctive voice making the famous, "Call for Philip Morris."
• 1933: ADVERTISING: Chesterfield begins running ads in the New York State Journal of Medicine, with claims like, "Just as pure as the water you drink . . . and practically untouched by human hands."
• 1934: LEGISLATION: Garrison Act is passed outlawing marijuana and other drugs; tobacco is not considered.
• 1936: BUSINESS: B&W introduces Viceroy, the first serious brand to feature a filter of cellulose acetate.
• 1937: Federal Government establishes the National Cancer Institute at Bethesda, MD.
• 1937: BUSINESS: 'Printers Ink' reports that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., and Ligett & Myers Tobacco Co. each spent at least two million dollars on advertising in the first half of 1937.
• 1937: BUSINESS: By the end of the year, Camels are outselling Luckies and Chesterfield by about 40%.
• 1938: LEGISLATION: 1938 Agriculture Adjustment Act sets production quotas low enough to sustain government prices for the commodity. Farmers must agree to grow no more than their allotted quota each year, with the expectation that they will earn in return a predictable income..
• 1938: MEDIA: Consumer Reports rates 36 cigarette brands.
  • CR notes that Philip Morris lays "great stress in their advertising upon their substitution of glycol for glycerin. The aura of science surrounding their 'proofs' that this makes a less irritating smoke, does not convince many toxicologists that they were valid. Of the many irritating combustion products in tobacco smoke, the modification of one has probably little more than a psychological affect in reducing irritation felt by the smoker."
  • In blindfold tests, finds little to distinguish brands
  • Knocks "the obvious bias of cigarette manufacturers, as well as of the 'scientists' whom they directly or indirectly subsidize."
  • Rates nicotine content, finding:
    • Chesterfield: 2.3 mg nicotine
    • Marlboro: 2.3 mg nicotine
    • Philip Morris: 2.2 mg nicotine
    • Old Gold: 2.0 mg nicotine
    • Camel: 1.9 mg nicotine
    • Lucky Strike: 1.4 mg nicotine
• 1938: BUSINESS: MARKET SHARE:
  1. Chesterfield
  2. Camel
  3. Marlboro
  4. Philip Morris
  5. Old Gold
• 1939: HEALTH: "Tobacco Misuse and Lung Carcinoma" by Franz Hermann Muller of the University of Cologne's Pathological Institute finds extremely strong dose relationship between smoking and lung cancer.
• 1939: BUSINESS: Tobacco companies are found price-fixing.
• 1939: BUSINESS: ATC introduces "king size" Pall Mall. With Pall Mall and Lucky Strike, American will rule the 40s.
• 1939: Fortune magazine finds 53% of adult American males smoke; 66% of males under 40 smoke.
• 1939: GERMANY: Hermann Goring issues a decree forbidding the military to smoke on the streets, on marches, and on brief off duty periods.
• 1939-1945: WORLD WAR II. As part of the war effort, Roosevelt makes tobacco a protected crop. Cigarettes are included in GI's C-Rations. Tobacco consumption is so fierce a shortage develops. Tobacco companies send millions of free cigs to GI's, mostly the popular brands; the home front had to make do with off-brands like Rameses or Pacayunes. By the end of the war, cigarette sales are at an all-time high.
• 1940: HEALTH: 7,121 cases of lung cancer reported in the US.
• 1940: STATISTICS: Adult Americans smoke 2,558 cigarettes per capita a year, nearly twice the consumption of 1930.
• 1940: BUSINESS: MARKET SHARE BY COMPANY:

1. RJR

2. ATC

3. Liggett & Myers

4. Brown & Williamson

5. Philip Morris (7%)

• 1940: BUSINESS: MARKET SHARE BY BRAND:
  1. Camel (RJR) (24%)
  2. Lucky Strike (ATC) (22.6%)
  3. Chesterfield (18%)

- Combined 10 cent brands (12%)

1. Raleigh (B&W) (5.1%)
2. Old Gold (3%)
3. Pall Mall (PM) (2%)
4. 1941: MEDIA: Reader's Digest publishes "Nicotine Knockout"
5. 1942: HEALTH: British researcher L.M. Johnston successfully substituted nicotine injections for smoking. Johnston discusses aspects of addiction including tolerance, craving and withdrawal symptoms. He concludes: Clearly the essence of tobacco smoking is the tobacco and not the smoking. Satisfaction can be obtained from chewing it, from snuff taking, and from
6. the administration of nicotine. The experiment is reported in the British medical journal Lancet.
7. 1942: LITIGATION: 17-year-old Rose Cipollone begins smoking Chesterfields.
8. 1942: ARTS: FILM: Casablanca starring Humphrey Bogart, and Now Voyager with Bette Davis and Paul Henreid are released.
9. 1942: GERMANY: The Federation of German Women launch a campaign against tobacco and alcohol abuse; restaurants and cafes are forbidden to sell cigarettes to women customers.
10. 1942: ADVERTISING: Brown and Williamson claims that Kools would keep the head clear and/or give extra protection against colds.
11. 1943: ADVERTISING: Philip Morris places an ad in the National Medical Journal which reads: “'Don't smoke' is advice hard for patients to swallow. May we suggest instead 'Smoking Philip Morris?' Tests showed three out of every four cases of smokers' cough cleared on changing to Philip Morris. Why not observe the results for yourself?"
12. 1943-07: GERMANY: a law was passed forbidding tobacco use in public places by anyone under 18 years of age.
13. 1945: GERMANY: Cigarettes are the unofficial currency. Value: 50 cents each.
14. 1946: A letter from a Lorillard chemist to its manufacturing committee states: "Certain scientists and medical authorities have claimed for many years that the use of tobacco contributes to cancer development in susceptible people. Just enough evidence has been presented to justify the possibility of such a presumption." (Maryland "Medicaid" Lawsuit 5/1/96)
15. 1947: "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke That Cigarette" is national hit. Lyric "Puff, Puff, Puff, And if you smoke yourself to death" is later used in Cipollone case as defense that Rose Cipollone knew cigarettes were dangerous.
16. 1948: HEALTH: The Journal of the American Medical Association argues, "more can be said in behalf of smoking as a form of escape from tension than against it . . . there does not seem to be any preponderance of evidence that would indicate the abolition of the use of tobacco as a substance contrary to the public health."
17. 1948: HEALTH: Lung cancer has grown 5 times faster than other cancers since 1938; behind stomach cancer, it is now the most common form of the disease.
18. 1949: STATISTICS: 44-47% of all adult Americans smoke; over 50% of men, and about 33% of women.

    Twentieth Century--The Rise of the Cigarette

    1950 + : The Battle is Joined

    The Fifties - when the decade begins, 2% of cigarettes are filter tip; by 1960, 50% of cigarettes are filter tips.

    • 1950: STATISTICS: American cigarette consumption is 10 cigarettes per capita, which equals over a pack a day for smokers.
    • 1950: HEALTH: Three important studies provide the first powerful links between smoking and lung cancer.
      • In the May 27, 1950 issue of JAMA, Morton Levin publishes first major study definitively linking smoking to lung cancer.
      • In the same issue, "Tobacco Smoking as a Possible Etiologic Factor in Bronchiogenic Carcinoma: A Study of 684 Proved Cases," by Ernst L. Wynder and Evarts A. Graham of the United States, found that 96.5% of lung cancer patients interviewed were moderate heavy-to-chain-smokers.
      • In the Sept. 30, 1950 British Medical Journal, a study by Richard Doll and Bradford Hill found that heavy smokers were fifty times as likely as nonsmokers to contract lung cancer.
    • 1952: USA: Federal Trade Commission slaps Philip Morris on wrist concerning claims about Di-Gl reducing irritation.
    • 1952: BUSINESS: P. Lorillard introduces Kent cigarettes, with the "Micronite" filter. Its secret: asbestos.
    • 1952: BUSINESS: Hollingsworth & Vose gets 100% indemnity agreement from Lorillard on filters.
    • 1952: ADVERTISING: Liggett & Myers widely publicizes the results of tests run by Arthur D. Little, Inc. showing that "smoking Chesterfields would have no adverse effects on the throat, sinuses or affected organs." The ads run, among other places on the nationally popular Arthur Godfiey radio and television show.
    • 1953:: Reader's Digest publishes "Cancer by the Carton" article.
    • 1953: Dr. Ernst L. Wynder's landmark report finds that painting cigarette tar on the backs of mice creates tumors - the first definitive biological link between smoking and cancer.
    • 1953-12-15: Tobacco executives meet for first time since price-fixing scandal of 1939 to find a way to meet rising health concerns.
    • 1954: Eva Cooper sues R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company for her husband's death from lung cancer. He had smoked Camels. The court rules there was no evidence smoking caused his cancer.
    • 1954: LITIGATION: Philip Morris hires David R. Hardy to defend the company against a lawsuit brought by a Missouri smoker who had lost his larynx to cancer. This case was the beginning of PM's (and many tobacco firms') association with Shook, Hardy & Bacon. The case was won in 1962; the jury deliberated one hour. Tobacco Industry Research Committee (TIRC)
    • created.
      1954-01-04 Tobacco Industry Research Committee (TIRC) created.
    • 1954: BUSINESS: RJR introduces its Winston filter tips brand, emphasizing taste, not health.
    • 1954: BUSINESS: Philip Morris buys Benson & Hedges, and in the bargain gets its president, Joseph Cullman III.
    • 1954: ADVERTISING: Life Magazine runs ads for L&M featuring Barbara Stanwyck and Rosalind Russell testimonials for the brand's new ''miracle product,'' the ''alpha cellulose'' filter that is ''just what the doctor ordered.” These ads will figure prominently in the Cipollone trial 30 years later.
    • 1954: ADVERTISING: Marlboro Cowboy created for Philip Morris by Chicago ad agency Leo Burnett. "Delivers the Goods on Flavor" ran the slogan in newspaper ads. Design of the campaign credited to John Landry of PM. At the time Marlboro had one quarter of 1% of the American market, and Philip Morris was ranked sixth among the six US cigarette makers.
    • 1955: TV: CBS' "See It Now" airs first TV show linking cigarette smoking with lung cancer and other diseases. (For the first time on TV, Edward R. Murrow is not seen smoking. He had not quit; he felt it was "too late" to stop. Murrow died of lung cancer in 1965.)
    • 1955: LITIGATION: Rose Cipollone, now 30, switches from Chesterfield to L&Ms.
    • 1956: BUSINESS: P. Lorillard discontinues use of "Micronite" filter in its Kent cigarettes.
    • 1956: BUSINESS: RJR's Salem, the first filter-tipped menthol cigarette is introduced.
    • 1957: Readers Digest article links smoking with lung cancer.

    The Sixties - by now, the distribution of free cigarettes at annual medical and public health meetings has stopped.

    • 1962: UK: First Report of the British Royal College of Physicians of London: Smoking and Health.
    • 1992: STATISTICS: Per-capita consumption of cigarettes stands at 12 per day among adult Americans.
    • 1963: BUSINESS: PM dispenses with tattooed sailors, et. al., and settles on the cowboy as the sole avatar of the Marlboro Man.
    • 1964-01-11: First Surgeon General's Report: Smoking and Health.
    • 1964: Tobacco industry writer suggests tobacco control advocates have psychiatric certification that they are not suffering from pyrophobia and suppressed fear of the 'big fire' or atom bomb.
    • 1964: BUSINESS: Marlboro Country ad campaign is launched. "Come to where the flavor is. Come to Marlboro Country. Marlboro sales begin growing at 10% a year.
    • 1965-08-01: UK: TV cigarette ads are taken off the air
    • 1966-01-01: Health warnings on cigarette packs begin
    • 1966: BUSINESS: RJR's filter-tip Winston becomes top-selling cigarette in the US.
    • 1967: Surgeon General's Report finds evidence linking smoking to heart disease.
    • 1967: FCC applies TV Fairness Doctrine to cigarette ads.
    • 1968. LITIGATION: Rose Cipollone, now 43, switches from L&M to Virginia Slims and Parliaments.
    • 1968. BUSINESS: American Tobacco begins buying into Britain's Gallaher's.
    • 1968. BUSINESS: Philip Morris introduces Virginia Slims brand, aimed at women.
    • 1968. BUSINESS: 'Bravo', the attempt to create a non-tobacco based (lettuce based) cigarette, fails. (World Tobacco, 1968)
    • 1969: BUSINESS: Philip Morris gains a controlling interest in the Miller Brewing Company.
    • 1969. BUSINESS: American Tobacco drops "tobacco" from parent; American Brands, Inc. established with headquarters in Old Greenwich, CT, as parent company of American Tobacco Co.
    • 1969. BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds Tobacco drops "tobacco."
    • 1969: HEALTH: Surgeon General's Report confirms link between maternal smoking and low birth weight.

    The Seventies - cigarettes are the most heavily advertised product in America Magazines and newspapers stop covering the issue in depth.

    • 1970: BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. becomes a subsidiary of R.J. Reynolds Industries, Inc.
    • 1970-04-01: Mandatory cigarette label changed to read, "Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health."
    • 1971: BUSINESS: R.J. Reynolds Tobacco becomes R.J. Reynolds Industries.
    • 1971-01-02: TV: Cigarette ads are taken off the air.
    • 1971: United Airlines introduces separate sections for smokers and nonsmokers.
    • 1971: SPORTS: RJR sponsorship of NASCAR's Winston Cup Series begins.
    • 1971: SPORTS: Virginia Slims Tennis begins.
    • 1971-04: Cigarette manufacturers agree to put health warnings on advertisements. This agreement is later made into law.
    • 1971: UK: Second British Royal College of Physicians of London Report: Smoking and Health Now refers to cigarette death toll as "this present holocaust."
    • 1971: UK: Cigarette Smoking and Health - Report by an Interdepartmental Group of Officials finds that, all things considered, tobacco use brings in more money than it costs in health and disability. Report is unknown to the public until the Guardian publishes an account on May 6, 1980.
    • 1972: Surgeon General's Report addresses first study of "public exposure to air pollution from tobacco smoke".
    • 1972: Tobacco advertisements are required to carry health warnings.
    • 1972: BUSINESS: Marlboro becomes the best-selling cigarette in the world.
    • 1972: BUSINESS: Marlboro Lights introduced.
    • 1973: Surgeon General's report finds cigar and pipe smokers' health risks to be less than cigarette smokers, but more than nonsmokers.
    • 1973: Civil Aeronautics Board requires all airlines to create nonsmoking sections. This is the first federal restriction on smoking in public places.
    • 1973: Arizona becomes the first state to pass a comprehensive law restricting smoking in public places.
    • 1973: SPORTS: Marlboro Cup horse racing begins.
    • 1973: SPORTS: Tennis' "Battle of the Sexes." Billie Jean King, wearing Virginia Slims colors, and Virginia Slims sequins on her chest, defeats Bobby Riggs.
    • 1973: SCIENCE: RJR report on success of PM's Marlboro and B&W's Kool brands states, "A cigarette is a system for delivery of nicotine to the smoker in attractive, useful form. At normal smoke pH, at or below 6.0, the smoke nicotine is...slowly absorbed by the smoker. . . As the smoke pH increases above about 6.0, an increasing portion of the total smoke nicotine occurs in free form, which is rapidly absorbed by the smoker and...instantly perceived as a nicotine kick."
    • 1973-07-12: BUSINESS: RJR director of marketing and planning R.A. Blevins Jr writes in a memo that free nicotine, advertising expenditures and cigarette size of Winstons and Marlboros all affected market share "independently and collectively," but that "the variability due to 'free nicotine' was significant and its contribution was over and above that of advertising expenditures and [cigarette size]."
    • 1973-07-12: BUSINESS: RJR senior scientist Frank Colby sends Blevins a memo suggesting that the company "develop a new RJR youth-appeal brand based on the concept of going back--at least halfway--to the technological design of the Winston and other filter cigarettes of the 1950s," a cigarette which "delivered more 'enjoyment' or 'kicks' (nicotine)." Colby said that "for public relations reasons it would be impossible to go back all the way to the 1955-type cigarettes."
    • 1974-01-07: Monticello, Minnesota decides to go non-smoking for a day. The event goes statewide in November, and in 1977 goes national - the first Great American Smokeout.
    • 1974: LITIGATION: Rose Cipollone, now 49, switches to True cigarettes.
    • 1975. American Brands assumes control of Britain's Gallaher's.
    • 1975: BUSINESS: PM's Marlboro overtakes Winston as the best-selling cigarette in the U.S.
    • 1975-08-01: Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act, the nation's first statewide anti-second-hand smoke law goes into effect to protect "the public health and comfort and the environment by prohibiting smoking in public places and at public meetings, except in designated smoking areas." It is the first law to require separation of smokers' and nonsmokers.
    • 1976: SOCIETY: Formation of the Cigarette Pack Collectors Association and first of its conventions.
    • 1976: LITIGATION: Donna Shimp sues New Jersey Bell Telephone for not protecting her from second-hand smoke. Ruling in her favor, the judge said, "if such rules are established for machines, I see no reason why they should not be held in force for humans."
    • 1976: TV: Death in the West - The Marlboro Story made by Thames Television.
    • 1976-07-23: UK: BUSINESS: BAT Industries formed when Tobacco Securities Trust Company Limited (TST) merges with British-American Tobacco Company Limited (BAT).
    • 1976: SOCIETY: The Tobacco Institute provided funds to the Smithsonian Institute for the creation of a one-tenth scale model of the colonial ship Brilliant. The first cargo carried by the Brilliant was tobacco in 1775.
    • 1977: 1st Great American Smokeout.
    • 1977: UK: Royal College of Physicians of London third report: "Smoking or Health."
    • 1978: A Roper Report prepared for the Tobacco Institute concludes that the nonsmokers' rights movement is "the most dangerous development to the viability of the tobacco industry that has yet occurred."
    • 1978: BUSINESS: Philip Morris obtains the international cigarette business of the Liggett Group Inc. and also takes on the Seven-Up Company,
    • 1978: USA: A tobacco trade journal reports that "cigarette purchases are 2.5 times as great when an in-store display is present compared to when no advertising or display treatment is employed", and that cigarette sales drop when parents shop with their children. (Tobacco International, 22 Dec, 1978, p. 33).
    • 1979-01: Report of the US Surgeon-General, Dr Julius B. Richmond, first reviews health risks of smokeless tobacco.
    • 1979-01: The Health Consequences of Smoking for Women, US Surgeon General special report.
    • 1979-01: ADVERTISING: Mother Jones magazine publishes "Why Dick Can't Stop Smoking." According to MoJo in 1996, As a professional courtesy, Mother Jones gave tobacco manufacturers advance notice of the cover story so they could pull their ads from the issue. Philip Morris, Brown & Williamson, and others responded by canceling their entire commitment: several years' worth of cigarette ads. In a show of corporate solidarity, many liquor companies followed suit.
    • 1979: ADVERTISING: Tobacco Institute launches ad campaign against nonsmokers'-rights movement.

    The Eighties

    • 1980: The Health Consequences of Smoking for Women: A report of the Surgeon General, 1980: The Health Consequences of Smoking: The Changing Cigarette; A report of the Surgeon General, 1981.
    • 1981: LITIGATION: Rose Cipollone loses a lobe of her right lung to cancer; continues to smoke cigarettes.
    • 1981: LITIGATION: CBS Chicago news commentator Walter Jacobsen accuses Brown & Williamson of engaging in a lurid advertising campaign to get young people to smoke.
    • 1981: Insurance companies begin offering discounts for nonsmokers.
    • 1981: Stanton Glantz at UCSF receives a copy of "Death in the West".
    • 1982: The Health Consequences of Smoking: Cancer; : A report of the Surgeon General, 1982.
    • 1982: BUSINESS: Harrods' (department store) name goes on a cigarette; this is one of the first instances of tobacco companies "renting names" of other companies (See "Harley Davidson" cigarettes).
    • 1982: HEALTH: Surgeon General's Report (Koop) finds possibility that second-hand smoke may cause lung cancer.
    • 1982: LITIGATION: Rose Cipollone loses her right lung to cancer; continues to sneak cigarettes.
    • 1982: LEGISLATION: Congress passes the No Net Cost Tobacco Program Act, requiring the government's Commodity Credit Corporation, which pays for the government tobacco purchases, to recover all the money it spends on the price-support program. Now taxpayers no longer pay for losses incurred by the program, though they still pay about $16 million a year in
    • administrative costs to run it.
    • 1983: The Health Consequences of Smoking: Cardiovascular Disease: A report of the Surgeon General, 1983 cites smoking as a major cause of coronary heart disease.
    • 1983: LITIGATION: Cipollone suit filed; Rose finally quits smoking.
    • 1983: San Francisco passes first strong workplace smoking restrictions.
    • 1983-06-06: MEDIA: Newsweek runs a 4 page article, "Showdown on Smoking" on the nonsmokers' rights movement. Issues before & after carried 7-10 pages of cigarette ads. The June 6 issue carried none. Estimated loss of revenue as a result of publishing the article: $1 million. - Larry C. White, "Merchants of Death."
    • 1983: USA: BUSINESS: The creative director of a New York advertising agency spoke of working on tobacco advertisements, "We were trying very hard to influence kids who were 14 to start smoking". (Medical J of Australia, 5 March 1983, p.237).
    • 1984: The Health Consequences of Smoking: Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease, A Report of the Surgeon General, 1984 cites smoking as a major cause of chronic obstructive lung disease.
    • 1984: LITIGATION: Rose Cipollone dies of lung cancer at 58.
    • 1984: Tobacco industry is required to turn over a general list of cigarette additives annually to the Department of Health and Human Services' Office on Smoking and Health. The List is then locked in a safe. Disclosure to any other party is a crime. OSH allowed to study the list,
    • but lacks funds.
    • 1984: SPORTS: Champion Diver Greg Louganis almost represents American Cancer Society at Olympics.
    • 1984-03: MEDIA: The Saturday Evening Post stops accepting tobacco advertising. The Post's publisher is Cory SerVaas, MD.
    • 1985: HEALTH: Lung cancer surpasses breast cancer as #1 killer of women.
    • 1985: Stanford MBA student Joe Tye's 5 year old daughter becomes so delighted with a Marlboro billboard, she begins squealing with delight and says, "Look Daddy, horses!" Tye later founds STAT (Stop Teenage Addiction to Tobacco).
    • 1985: LITIGATION: Brown & Williamson sues CBS and Chicago news commentator Walter Jacobsen for libel for his 1981 commentary. B&W wins a $3.05 million verdict - the largest libel award ever paid by a news organization.
    • 1985: BUSINESS: Philip Morris buys food and coffee giant General Foods (Post's cereal, Jell-O, Maxwell House Coffee for $5.6 billion.
    • 1985: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Companies Inc. is founded as a diversified holding company with headquarters in New York City, and comprising Philip Morris Inc. and the General Foods Corporation.
    • 1985: BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds Industries buys food products company Nabisco Brands for $4.9B; renames itself RJR/Nabisco. Ex-Standard Brands/Nabisco head Ross Johnson takes control of company.
    • 1985: BUSINESS: A tobacco trade journal reports on the job of the tobacco "flavourist" and chemist. One job of the flavourist is to "ensure high satisfaction from an adequate level of nicotine per puff". One job of the chemist is "to ensure adequate levels of nicotine and tar in the smoke". (World Tobacco, March 1987, pp. 97-103).
    • 1986: The Health Consequences of Involuntary Smoking, A Report of the Surgeon General, 1986 finds that "Involuntary smoking can cause lung cancer in nonsmokers."
    • 1986: Surgeon General's Special Report, The Health Consequences of using Smokeless Tobacco, 1986 finds smokeless tobacco to be cancer-causing, and addictive.
    • 1986: BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds Industries, Inc. becomes RJR Nabisco Inc.
    • 1986: BUSINESS: Philip Morris sells off Seven-Up.
    • 1986: USA: The Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress wrote a 19 page document titled "The proposed prohibition on advertising tobacco products: A constitutional analysis". It concluded that (a) commercial speech does not have the same protection under law as non-commercial speech, (b) Congress had the authority to regulate tobacco advertising and (c) Congress had the authority to completely prohibit tobacco advertising under the conditions set in the Central Hudson case and/or the Posadas case.
    • 1986: AUSTRALIA: Leisel Sholem wins $50,000 in second-hand smoke suit, based on knowledge about ETS between 1975 and 1986.
    • 1986: UK: BUSINESS: Imperial Group is purchased by Hanson Trust PLC.
    • 1987: Congress bans smoking on domestic flights of less than two hours.
    • 1987: JAPAN: A tobacco trade journal reports on a group of Japanese "smoke lovers" who participated in a panel discussion on smoking. One panelist said, "The life expectancy of Japanese is said to be the world's longest now, and why must we be so timidly concerned about health? Let's enjoy life and smoking" (World Tobacco, Sept 87, p.18)
    • 1987: JAPAN: The Tokyo Customs Office attributes the increase in cigarette imports to the permeation of promotional activities of the suppliers of foreign tobacco products. (World Tobacco, Sept 87, p.7).
    • 1987: BUSINESS: Ross Johnson attempts a leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco.
    • 1987: BUSINESS: Introduction of "Go to Hell" cigarettes. Each pack comes with two messages, first, "I like'em and I'm going to smoke'em", second, "Cheaper than psychiatry, better than a nervous breakdown". (Tobacco International, p.31).
    • 1988-05-16: The Health Consequences of Smoking: Nicotine Addiction, A Report of the Surgeon General, 1988 defines nicotine as highly addictive. In 618-page summary of over 2,000 studies of nicotine and its effects on the body, SG C. Everett Koop declares, "It is now clear that . . . cigarettes and other form of tobacco are addicting and that actions of nicotine provide the pharmacological basic of tobacco addiction".
    • 1988: BUSINESS: Philip Morris acquires Kraft, Inc. for $12.9 billion.
    • 1988-01-06: LITIGATION: Merrell Williams begins work for lawfirm Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs analyzing secret Brown & Williamson tobacco documents.
    • 1988: LITIGATION: .Cipollone trial reveals "Motives and Incentives in Cigarette Smoking," a 1972 confidential report prepared by the Philip Morris Research Center of Richmond, Virginia. It reads in part, “The cigarette should be conceived not as a product but as a package. The product is nicotine. Think of the cigarette as a dispenser for a dose unit of nicotine. Think of a puff of smoke as the vehicle of nicotine. Smoke is beyond question the most optimized vehicle of nicotine and the cigarette the most optimized dispenser of smoke.”
    • 1988: LITIGATION: New Jersey Judge Lee H. Sarokin, presiding over the Cipollone trial, says he has found evidence of a conspiracy by 3 tobacco companies that is vast in its scope, devious in its purpose, and devastating in its results.
    • 1988-04-07: First World No-Tobacco Day, sponsored by World Health Organization as part of WHO's 40th anniversary.
    • 1988-06: LITIGATION: Liggett Group (L&M, Chesterfield) ordered to pay Antonio Cipollone $400,000 in compensatory damages for its contribution to his wife's death. In the years before the 1966 warning labels, Liggett found to have given Cipollone an express warranty its products were safe. First ever financial award in a liability suit against a tobacco company; award later overturned on technicality; plaintiffs, out of money, drop case.
    • 1988-Fall: BUSINESS: Ross Johnson informs RJR Nabisco board he intends to lead a management buy-out, and purchase the company for $17 billion. The ensuing debacle will become the largest LBO ever, with Henry Kravitz' KKR emerging the winner in 1989, paying a record $24.9 billion.
    • 1988-11-17: Great American Smokeout; ex-Winston model David Goerlitz quits smoking after 24 years.
    • 1988-12 to 1993-03: Jeffrey Wigand works at Brown & Williamson.
    • 1989: Reducing the Health Consequences of Smoking, 25 Years of Progress, a Report of the Surgeon General, 1989.
    • 1989: ADVERTISING: Saatchi and Saatchi design Northwest Airlines' Smoke-free Skies campaign; RJ Reynolds withdraws its Oreo account, which Saatchi had had for 18 years.
    • 1989: BUSINESS: Marlboro has 25% of the American market.
    • 1989: BUSINESS: KKR buys RJR Nabisco for $29.6B.
    • 1989: CANADA: The government requires cigarette manufacturers to list the additives and amounts for each brand. RJ Reynolds temporarily withdraws its brands, and reformulates them so they are different from their US versions. Philip Morris withdraws its cigarettes from the Canadian market entirely.
    • 1989: UAR: Dubai Islamic Bank in the United Arab Emirates has banned smoking by staff and customers because Islam forbids harming the body. (Reuters, 27 July 19189).

    The Nineties - The Millennia Approaches

    • 1990: Health Benefits of Smoking Cessation, A Report of the Surgeon General, 1990.
    • 1990: USA: Ellis Milan, president of the Retail Tobacco Distributors of America said, "President George Bush often talks of 1,000 points of light. I'd like to think those points of light are coming from the glowing ends of cigars, cigarettes and pipes across the country, and symbolize the cornerstone of this nation - tobacco".
    • 1990-01-01: Smoking is banned on all domestic flights of less than 6 hours, except to Alaska or Hawaii. Smoking is also banned on inter-city buses.
    • 1990: Ben & Jerry's joins RJR/Nabisco boycott by dropping Oreo cookies from its ice cream.
    • 1990-08-22: RUSSIA: Massive protest in Red Square over summer cigarette shortage threatens to bring down government.
    • 1990: INDIA: A tobacco trade journal reports that India is selling its first cigarette specifically aimed at women, MS Special Filters, "the sort of market targeting that can get you pilloried in the US." (World Tobacco, March 1990, p. 11).
    • 1991: LITIGATION: Mildred Wiley, a nonsmoker, dies of lung cancer at 56. Her husband will bring a suit that in December, 1995 will be the first to establish second hand smoke as a workplace injury eligible for workers' compensation. Philip E. Wiley, of Marion, Ind., on behalf of his wife, Mildred.
    • 1991-02-05: AUSTRALIA: The AFCO Case: Federal court examines ETS studies, finds data valid.
    • 1991: BRITAIN: The British government will no longer provide financial aid to tobacco companies in developing countries. (AP, 9 Feb 1991).
    • 1991: JAMA publishes 2 noted studies of Joe Camel and kids:
      • One finds that 91% of 6 year olds can match Joe Camel to his product (cigarettes), and is as recognized by preschoolers as Mickey Mouse.
      • The other study, by Joe DiFranza, finds that since the inception of the Joe Camel campaign in 1987, Camel's share of the under-18 market had risen from 0.5% to 32.8%.
    • 1991: BUSINESS: Johns Hopkins University announces that it will sell all its $5.3 million worth of tobacco stock.
    • 1991: BUSINESS: Marlboro Medium is introduced.
    • 1991: BUSINESS: PM Chairman Hamish Maxwell retires. Michael Miles becomes chairman & CEO, the first non-tobacco man to do so.
    • 1991: SPORTS: Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan asks sports fans to boycott events sponsored by tobacco companies, and urges promoters to shun tobacco money. His plea is ignored.
    • 1991: ADVERTISING: Saatchi and Saatchi unit Campbell Mithun tests a campaign for Kool that featured a cartoon smoking penguin wearing shades, a buzzcut and Day-Glo sneakers.
    • 1992: STATISTICS: Per-capita consumption of cigarettes stands at 7 per day among adult Americans.
    • 1992: Smoking and Health in the Americas A 1992 Report of the Surgeon General, in Collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization.
    • 1992: LITIGATION: Supreme Court rules that the 1965 warning label law does not shield tobacco companies from all lawsuits.
    • 1992: ENTERTAINMENT: Pinkerton Tobacco Co., under pressure from the FTC, agrees to cease advertising its products on TV during the "Red Man Pulling Series".
    • 1992: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Magazine folds.
    • 1992: MEDIA: Marvin Shanken publishes first issue of Cigar Aficionado.
    • 1992: BUSINESS: Marlboro Adventure Team contest is introduced. Philip Morris has called the MAT one of the most successful advertising campaigns in history.
    • 1992: BUSINESS: Financial World ranks Marlboro the world's No. 1 most valuable brand (value: $31.2 billion).
    • 1992-04: "Marlboro Man" Wayne McLaren asks Philip Morris to limit its advertising. Dying of lung cancer, McLaren appears at PM's annual shareholders meeting in Richmond, VA, and asks the company to voluntarily limit its advertising. Chairman Michael Miles responds: We're certainly sorry to hear about your medical problem. Without knowing your medical history, I don't think I can comment any further.
    • 1992-07-22: "Marlboro Man" Wayne McLaren, 51, dies of lung cancer.
    • 1993: BUSINESS: Philip Morris is the nation's #2 advertiser, behind Proctor and Gamble.
    • 1993: BUSINESS: Financial World ranks Marlboro the world's No. 1 most valuable brand (value: $39.5 billion).
    • 1993: BUSINESS: Philip Morris buys RJR Nabisco's North American cold cereal operation.
    • 1993: BUSINESS: Con-Agra's Charles Harper becomes CEO of RJR.
    • 1993: BUSINESS: UST introduces low-nicotine, cherry-flavored Skoal Long Cut.
    • 1993-01 FRANCE: Tobacco advertising is banned; Grand Prix auto race canceled because of tobacco advertising. In February, Grand Prix is re-instated, without direct tobacco advertising; drivers still allowed to wear sponsors' colors.
    • 1993: SOUTH AFRICA: First tobacco control law passed - bans sale of cigarettes to those under 16; largely ignored.
    • 1993-01: HEALTH: Environmental Protection Agency declares cigarette smoke a Class-A carcinogen.
    • 1993-04-02: BUSINESS: "Marlboro Friday"--PM Slashes Marlboro Prices.
    • 1993: USA: Tobacco BBS goes on-line.
    • 1993-09-29: LITIGATION: Wyatt, Tarant files suit against Merrell Williams over "secret" tobacco papers.
    • 1994: MEDIA: Frank Blethen's Seattle (Wash.) Times becomes the largest US newspaper to refuse tobacco advertising. "These ads were designed to kill our readers," said Times president H. Mason Sizemore, "so we decided to refuse them."
    • 1994: BUSINESS: Financial World ranks Marlboro the world's No. 2 most valuable brand behind Coca-Cola (value: $33 billion).
    • 1994: BUSINESS: Philip Morris sends out an estimated 19 million Marlboro promotional items; briefly becomes #3 mail order house in the US.
    • 1994-02: CANADA: Tobacco taxes are slashed to curb runaway bootlegging from the US.
    • 1994-03: ADVERTISING: Brown & Williamson Tobacco yanks cigarette accounts from Saatchi unit Campbell Mithun. Gives Kool account to Grey Advertising.
    • 1994-03-28 & 04-07: TV: ABC airs "Day One" segments concerning tobacco industry manipulation of nicotine.
    • 1994-03-29: LITIGATION: New Orleans, LA. Castano case begins; a 60-attorney coalition files what will become the nation's largest class-action lawsuit plaintiffs charge tobacco companies hid their knowledge of the addicting qualities of tobacco.
    • 1994-04: BUSINESS: BAT Industries agrees to buy American Tobacco from American Brands for $1 billion.
    • 1994-04-13: Tobacco Industry releases "The List" of 599 cigarette additives.
    • 1994-04-14: Seven Tobacco Company executives begin testifying in Congressional hearings.
    • 1994-04: MEDIA: Time and US News and World Report each run cover stories on tobacco; as with the June 6, 1983 Newsweek, neither has a single tobacco advertisement.
    • 1994-05-07: New York TImes front-page article reviews "secret" Brown & Williamson tobacco papers.
    • 1994-05-12: Stanton Glantz receives a box of "secret" Brown & Williamson tobacco papers from "Mr. Butts."
    • 1994-05-23: LITIGATION: Pascagoula, MS: Mississippi becomes the first state to sue tobacco companies to recoup health care costs associated with smoking. (The State of Mississippi v. American Tobacco et. al., filed in the Chancery Court of Jackson County, Mississippi (Case No. 94-1429).
    • 1994-05-31: FTC Clears Joe Camel.
    • 1994-06-02: LITIGATION: West Virginia sues tobacco companies to recoup smokers' Medicaid costs.
    • 1994-07: Ex-tobacco lobbyist Victor Crawford makes first national appearance for tobacco control. Dying of cancer, Crawford is featured with ex-surgeon general C. Everett Koop in a Coalition on Smoking and Health radio spot which urges a $2 federal cigarette tax to help fund health care reform.
    • 1994-08-17: LITIGATION: Minnesota and Blue Cross/Blue Shield sue tobacco companies for violating anti-trust laws by failing to disclose addictive qualities of tobacco.
    • 1994-12: POLITICS: FDA gets letters from Congress. 124 members of the House sent a sharply worded letter to the FDA, claiming the agency's tobacco proposal would put 10,000 jobs at risk and "trample First Amendment rights to advertise legal products to adults." Two weeks later, 32 senators signed a virtually identical letter. (According to Common Cause, those senators who signed the letter had received an average of $31,368 from tobacco, compared to $11,819 for those senators who did not sign. Similarly, the House signatories received an average of $19,446, in contrast to $6,728 for other Congress members.) - Mother Jones, 4/96
    • 1995: GOVERNMENT: Tobacco companies give the GOP $2.4 million in "soft" dollars. The top two soft money contributors to the GOP this year are Philip Morris ($975,149) and RJR Nabisco ($696,450). Tobacco industry PACs gave $841,120 to Republican members of Congress.
    • 1995: BUSINESS: Financial World ranks Marlboro the world's No. 2 most valuable brand behind Coca-Cola (value: $38.7 billion). The brand also has 29% of the US market--the highest market share it has ever had.
    • 1995-02-17: LITIGATION: CASTANO: US District Judge Okla B. Jones rules class action case may proceed.
    • 1995-02-22: LITIGATION: Florida sues tobacco companies to recoup health care costs.
    • 1995-03-19: CBS' "60 Minutes" airs segment featuring ex-tobacco lobbyist Victor Crawford.
    • 1995-05: USA: First appearance of Tobacco BBS on the internet.
    • 1995-05-26: BUSINESS: Philip Morris announces unprecedented recall of 8 billion cigarettes due to a suspected chemical contaminant.
    • 1995-06-30: "Secret" B&W papers become available on Internet.
    • 1995-07-12: AMA excoriates tobacco industry over "secret" B&W papers. AMA devotes entire July 19 issue of JAMA to a study of the papers, finds The evidence is unequivocal - the US public has been duped by the tobacco industry. No right-thinking individual can ignore the evidence. We should all be outraged, and we should force the removal of this scourge from our nation.
    • 1995-07-13: FDA declares nicotine a drug.
    • 1995-07-21: US under-age smoking found rising.
    • 1995-08-10: President Clinton declares nicotine an addictive drug; FDA sends President Clinton proposals for regulating the sale and marketing of tobacco products to minors.
    • 1995-08-10: LITIGATION: The 5 largest tobacco companies file suit in a North Carolina court challenging the FDA's authority to regulate tobacco and advertising. The advertising industry files in North Carolina within days. Smokeless tobacco manufacturers U.S. Tobacco Co. and Conwood Co file suit in Tennessee.
    • 1995-08-21: LITIGATION: ABC apologizes to Philip Morris for "Day One" program, pays PM an estimated $16 million in legal fees.
    • 1995-08-31: LITIGATION: $1.9 million awarded plaintiff Milton Horowitz in Kent Micronite filter case; only the 2nd time an award has been given in a liability case against a tobacco company. However, the suit concerned asbestos, not tobacco.
    • 1995-09-04: "Winston Man" Alan Landers, 54, joins anti-smoking movement.
    • 1995-09: RJR's faux-micro-brewery Moonlight Tobacco Co. introduces its artsy brands to New York, Chicago and Seattle: Politix, Sedona, Jumbos, North Star.
    • 1995-10-12: "Marlboro Man" David McLean dies of lung cancer at 73.
    • 1995-10-20: ART: Hans Haacke and 11 other artists hang their works with protests against their New York art show's sponsor, Philip Morris.
    • 1995-11-09: The NY Times reports that CBS has killed broadcast of a 60 Minutes interview with a former tobacco executive (soon revealed as Jeffrey Wigand). That day, a CBS affiliate in Los Angeles, KCBS, killed an anti-tobacco ad that had been running for weeks.
    • 1995-11-29: Ex-B&W research executive Jeffrey Wigand testifies to federal and state prosecutors in Pascagoula, Miss.
    • 1995-12-19: LITIGATION: Massachusetts sues tobacco companies for conspiring to "mislead, deceive and confuse" citizens on the hazardous effects of smoking.
    • 1996-01-31: LITIGATION: Florida state appeals panel allows Florida suit to proceed, but limits case to Florida residents.
    • 1996-02-04: CBS airs Wigand Interview on 60 Minutes.
    • 1996-02-05: POLITICS: Geoffrey Bible, CEO of Philip Morris Cos. Inc., chairs a dinner underwritten by Philip Morris for the Republican Governors Association, and speaks to the governors about tobacco's benefits to the economy. The gala dinner pulls in an unprecedented $2.6 million.
    • 1996-02-16: LITIGATION: : Gov. Kirk Fordice (R-Miss.) sues his own attorney general, Mike Moore, in order to block Moore's "Medicaid" lawsuit.
    • 1996-03-02: Victor Crawford, tobacco lobbyist-turned-tobacco-control-advocate, dies.
    • 1996-03-13: LITIGATION: Liggett Group makes dramatic break with industry, offers to settle Medicaid and addiction-based lawsuits.
    • 1996-03-15: LITIGATION: Liggett settles with 5 states over Medicaid lawsuits.
    • 1996-03-18: FDA releases statements of 3 more tobacco industry insiders claiming Philip Morris carefully controls nicotine levels in cigarettes.
    • 1996-05: MEDIA: The May Vanity Fair contains a massive, 22-page article by Marie Brenner on the inside story of the CBS/Wigand story. The issue contains no tobacco ads.
    • 1996-05-20: MEDIA: The May 20, 1996 People Weekly carries 2 tobacco