November 7, 1891- First patent for a slide fastener applied for by Judson L Whitcomb, then of Chicago... application entitled "Clasp Locker or Unlocker for Shoes" (U.S. Patent No. 504,038)

1894 - Universal Fastener Company organized in Chicago

1900 - Harry Earle goes to Europe in hopes of selling rights to the invention, without success

1904 - Judson makes his last contributions to the cause...

1905 - The newly organized Automatic Hook & Eye Company brings it's "C-curity" fastener to the market

1909 - Gideon Sundback marries Peter Aronson's daughter Elvira

1911 - Patent issued in Switzerland to Katharina Kuhn-Moos and Henri Forster of Zurich for their slide fastener

1912 - Gideon Sundback invents the Hookless #1

1913 - Gideon Sundback invents the Hookless #2

October 28, 1914- Colonel Walker's son Wallace sells the first examples of Hookless #2

1914 - Colonel Walker sends his sons to New York City to try and sell the new invention

March 20, 1917 - Patent issued in U.S.A to Gideon Sundback for Hookless #2 (Patent No. 1,219,881)

1923 - B.F. Goodrich uses the Hookless #2 in rubber boots... names them Zipper Boots... the name "Zipper" sticks

1930's - People still think of the zipper as a novelty... even though it was invented almost 50 years earlier

1937 - The zipper finally breaks into the world of fashion... in both men's and women's clothing

1939 - 300,000,000 zippers sold... twice more than in 1937