Sliced Bread Banned in the United States

On this day in 1943 an order of Federal Government banned the sale of sliced bread as an economy measure to free up resources and assure the winning of World War II.

No, I'm not kidding. Wikipedia has the story here, and they reference this fine article about other edicts that came out of Washington during the war.

Rubber and gasoline rationing lasted the entire war, but the ban on sliced bread was both resented and ridiculed so it only lasted about two months before being rescinded.

Now things have come full circle and here in food-obsessed Northern California no one would dream of getting their Acme, Boudin, or Tartine bread sliced. Oh, the horror!

Update: for trvia fans here is a good blog post about the history of sliced bread.