| Discovered when... | Discovery |
| ...a chocolate bar melted in Percy Lebaron Spencer's pocket as he stood by a megnetron. | |
| ...a stall was running out of ice cream dishes at the 1904 Word's Fair. | |
| ...George Crum became fed up with a restaurant customer who kept insisting his potatoes were too thick and soggy. | |
| ...some boiled wheat went stale after Will Keith Kellogg left it sitting out. | |
| ...James Wright dropped boric acid into silicone oil while trying to create a synthetic rubber substitute. | |
| ...researcher Constantine Fahlberg spilled a chemical on his hands and forgot to wash them before eating lunch. | |
| ...Joseph and Noah McVicker tried to make a wallpaper cleaner. | |
| ...1-year-old Frank Epperson tried to make soda pop and left the mixture out on the porch overnight. | |