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January 24: Beer in a Can

On this day in 1935, for the first time ever, beer was sold in a can. It went down in Richmond, Virginia at the behest of the Krueger Brewery. Back then, crushing an empty beer can in your fist actually carried some menace, because they were constructed of heavy-gauge steel. You also needed to keep something called a church key on hand to punch triangular holes in the tops of the cans because the pop top was years away. Nevertheless, cans were an immediate hit with drinkers, mostly because it made for cheaper beer and you didn’t have to deal with the whole bottle-deposit thing.