This It happened week!

● British writer Roald Dahl, author of the children’s classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was born in South Wales, in 1916. Dahl might never have written the book (which became a classic movie starring Gene Wilder) had the Cadbury chocolate company not chosen him and his boarding school classmates to periodically receive samplers of new candy bars to taste and grade. As Dahl recalled, this triggered dreams of factories full of “inventing rooms” with pots of chocolate and fudge and “all sorts of other delicious fillings bubbling away on the stoves!”

● Senator John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier exchanged “I do’s”

in 1953. Jackie despised her traditional ball-gown wedding dress and almost got to wear a simpler one when, a week before the ceremony, both her’s and her bridesmaids’ gowns were ruined by a burst pipe in the designer’s studio. Alas, although the dresses had originally taken eight weeks to make, the designer’s team was able to remake them in just days!

● One of America’s favorite crime shows— Law & Order— made its NBC debut in 1990. The multi Emmy-winning series is tied with Gunsmoke as the longest-running primetime drama in TV history— it is closely followed by one of its very own spinoffs, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, now in its 19th season!

● American author Johnny Gruelle received a patent for his Raggedy Ann doll in 1915. Today, the soft- cloth, huggable doll with red yarn hair, a triangle nose and an “I love you” heart on her chest boasts a worldwide fan club. Her biggest devotee? Robyn Amato, whose decades of collecting has made the Tampa, Florida, resident the owner of more than 3,000 dolls!