1939, the world is at war, and in a devastating blow to snackers, potato chips are deemed a non-essential food item.

Production grinds to a halt.

1945, the war is over.

We won!

In the late '40s and early '50s, eating potato chips and making babies is back in a big, big way.

Increases in supermarkets and mass production methods lead the way for a potato chip boom that had almost every food manufacturer throwing their potato skins into the chip game.

But, with increased popularity came new scrutiny.

Consumers started calling out some very debilitating problems with the conventional construction of the American potato chip.

Number one: they get all greasy.

Number two: they go stale way too quickly.

Number three: they break in the bag before you even eat them.

Surely, there must be some simple, possibly cylindrical, solution to this problem.

1956, Proctor & Gamble, the world's largest producer of frying oils, takes matters into their own hands to create a potato chip completely void of imperfections.

They enlist chemist Fredric J. Baur who uses a geometric formula to construct a saddle-shaped chip with a tubular, vacuum-sealed can.

Baur's flawless beauties are perfectly stackable, safely encased in a cardboard sheath, and the unique stacking device stops a majority of the grease spread, but there's one big problem.

They kinda suck.

So, P&G temporarily ditches the chip idea.

By the mid-1960s, the Beatles were touring America, most of our parents were experimenting with drugs, and P&G was on the hunt for new products.

In classic corporate American fashion, they simply dig up an old idea, and call it new.

Baur's Saddle Chips.

They develop a brand new, sounds-bad-but-tastes-awesome recipe of dehydrated potatoes, rice, corn, and wheat paste, complete with a dusting of savory flavor.

Using a cookie cutter-type device, each chip is perfectly stamped out in the same size, shape, and weight, then placed in a protective can, that can even stand rolling around on the floor of your mom's minivan.

They named this wonder food Pringles, new-fangled potato chips.

Quick tangent.

No one knows exactly where the name Pringles comes from.

One theory is that they're named after Mark Pringles, whose work was cited by Proctor & Gamble in a patent.

Another theory credits two Proctor advertising employees who lived on Pringle Drive in Finneytown, Ohio.

While some believe the name was just picked at random from the Cincinnati phone book for its pleasing sound.

Anyway, back to the story.

1971, Pringles hit the shelves across the United States, but they're not the smash hit P&G anticipated.

Soon, they try to appeal to the masses with new flavors like barbecue, sour cream and onion, and cheddar cheese.

1975, other chip makers catch wind of Pringles and cry foul.

These are not chips, they claim, as they are technically not made with purebred potatoes.

The FDA weighs in, says, "Yeah, you guys actually have a point," and tells Pringles they need to lose the word "chip."

So, they rebrand as crisps, and lose the new-fangled.

In the early 1980s, Pringles starts to take off.

No one knows precisely what causes the spur in the spud product's popularity, but some attribute to an advertising campaign called, Fever for the Flavor of Pringles.

Others credit a Brad Pitt commercial.

I think the '70s tennis boom conditioned consumers to subconsciously opt for products in tall cylinders, but hey, who knows?

1986, the Pringles mascot, aka Julius Pringles, undergoes the first of many, many, many makeovers.

As Pringles surge in the US, they shift their focus to new international markets in Europe, South America, and Asia.

The international expansion brings with it interesting new flavors like prawn cocktail, seaweed, serrano ham, roast chicken, and blueberry.

1996, Julius Pringle loses his rosy cheeks and mouth, but his mustache keeps getting bigger and bigger, which makes us wonder exactly what he's hiding under there.

1998, I'm taught how to do the original version of the duck face, which is when you put two opposite facing Pringles in your mouth, and not this.

2008, Pringles inventor Fredric J. Baur passes away.

His family honors his completely normal request to bury his cremated remains in a Pringles can.

And yes, this is actually true, he's buried in a Pringles can.

2009, Julius Pringles is arrested for tax fraud.

No, we're just kidding, he's not a real person.

2013, the ultimate Pringles hack is revealed, in which you slip a piece of paper into the can and slide out all the chips intact.

It's a fool proof way to avoid the dreaded Pringles claw, the only down side to Pringles.

That same year, another Pringles trick makes the rounds on the internet.

The Pringles Ringle is a free standing ring-shaped structure made entirely of Pringles.

No adhesives, just physics and potato crisps, baby.

2016, I head to the Pringles factory to create my own flavor in their lab, and come up with Buffalo chicken pizza.

And if you want to see that flavor in stores, please write Congress and CC Pringles.

Invented as a scientifically savvy alternative to potato chips, now a billion-dollar product sold across the world in 30-plus flavors.

Thank you Pringles for popping and then just refusing to stop-ping.