Writer of Pop Culture

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One Small Change Changed Everything for Levi’s Jeans (May 20)

Although it seems as if Levi’s jeans have always been in fashion, it wasn’t until the 1950s when consumers began to see them other than workwear.

May 20, 2026

2–3 minutes

Many of us can’t imagine what life would be like if we didn’t have our Levi’s jeans. Even Neil Diamond sang about being “Forever in Blue Jeans”. But Levi’s have been around since 1873, as workwear. They didn’t become fashionable until much later.

1873: Levi Strauss Patents Copper-Riveted Pants

A pair of Levi jeans — *(Wikimedia Commons)*

Though Levi’s Jeans are an American icon now, the original copper-riveted jeans were a creation from a Bavarian immigrant – Levi Strauss. Strauss arrived in the US during 1847 and began selling dry goods along the East Coast but was encouraged by his brother-in-law to move to San Francisco. He arrived in 1853 with supplies that he had hoped to sell to mining camps but found that large roll of canvas didn’t sell well.

However, Levi came up with the idea of creating pants out of the material since the miners complained that regular pants wore out too quickly. In 1872, Strauss received a letter from Jacob Davis, a tailor in Reno, Nevada who told him that the product could be improved if he added copper rivets to the pocket seams.

On this day in 1873, Strauss put in his patent for the pants. Soon, he would switch from canvas to denim. Blue jeans have always been worn as workwear for men, but in the 1930s, women began to wear them too. In the 1950s, blue jeans became fashionable for everyone thanks to Hollywood stars like James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. Jeans were seen as symbol of teenage rebellion and youth.

Today it is estimated that the company sells more than 450 million pairs of blue jeans in the U. S. every year.

2018: Zombie Attack Warning!

A sign that reads, "Close gate in case of zombie outbreak" — *(Wikimedia Commons)*

It was on this day in 2018 that residents of Lake Worth, Florida were woken up to warnings of “extreme zombie activity” at 1:41 a.m. The alert was meant to warn the citizens of a power outage but instead the warning said something totally different.

“Power outages and zombie alert for residents of Lake Worth and Terminus…There are now far less than seven thousand three hundred and eighty customers involved to extreme zombie activity. Restoration time is uncertain.”

No one know for sure what happened. “We are looking into the reports that the system mentioned zombies,” said Ben Kerr the city spokesman. “I want to reiterate that Lake Worth does not have any zombie activity and apologize for the system message.”

Well, that’s a relief.