Photo of Strauss public domain

Also, on this day in 1929, Levi Strauss was born. An immigrant, a Jew, and very possibly a queer, he received a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets in 1843. His firm Levi Strauss & Co. began in 1847 in San Francisco. A year later, the “Castro Clone” look began, and gym memberships soared.

Strauss died in 1902. He left his company to his four nephews. His estate was worth about $125 million, equivalent to $4 billion in 2019 bucks.