On This Day in Soup

On 4 November 1922 Howard Carter uncovered the first step down to Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. A find that made the whole world look at Egypt earns Egypt's best-loved green soup, molokhia, finished with a sizzle of garlic and coriander.

Maria Skłodowska, later Marie Curie and the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, was born in Warsaw on 7 November 1867. Poland's golden Sunday rosół, the broth that gathers Polish families round the table, is our prize for her birthday.

On 8 November 1895 Wilhelm Röntgen noticed a strange glow in his darkened Würzburg lab and discovered X-rays, the rays that let us see through things. The perfect bowl for the day is the one you can see straight through: consommé, a stock clarified until it is completely transparent.

On the night of 9 November 1989 the Berlin Wall opened, and East and West Berliners poured through the checkpoints to hug, cheer and celebrate together. Reunions call for home cooking, so the day gets Kartoffelsuppe, the German potato soup that is a classic of family kitchens.

John T. Dorrance, born on this day in 1873, worked out how to condense soup and made canned soup cheap for American families. His birthday belongs to Campbell's chicken noodle, first sold in 1934 as "Noodle with Chicken" and the best-known can his idea ever filled.

On 14 November 1902 Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear on a Mississippi hunt, and a newspaper cartoon of the moment inspired Brooklyn shopkeepers Morris and Rose Michtom to sew a toy they called Teddy's Bear. The world's favourite cuddly toy was born in a Jewish immigrant family's shop, so we serve a soup from Jewish family kitchens: golden chicken broth with matzo balls.

On 18 November 1928 Steamboat Willie opened at the Colony Theatre in New York, and Mickey Mouse whistled his way into the world in one of the first cartoons with synchronised sound. A Manhattan premiere earns a Manhattan bowl: the red, tomato-based clam chowder that carries the name of the island where Mickey was born.

Pelé scored the 1,000th goal of his career from the penalty spot at the Maracanã on 19 November 1969. Brazil's hero gets the soup Brazilians turn to at home, chicken and rice canja de galinha, a golden bowl for the King.

On 21 November 1783 Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes lifted off from the Château de la Muette in a Montgolfier hot-air balloon and drifted over Paris for 25 minutes, the first people ever to fly free. They rose on nothing but heat, so we toast them with a soup made from little more than that: aigo boulido, Provence's garlic soup, whose name means 'boiled water'.

On 22 November 1497 Vasco da Gama's fleet rounded the Cape of Good Hope, opening the sea road from Portugal to India. A Portuguese sailor's milestone gets Portugal's most famous soup: caldo verde, ribbons of green cabbage in potato broth with a slice of chouriço.

On 23 November 1996 Bandai released the Tamagotchi in Japan, an egg-shaped digital pet that needed feeding and attention every single day. Daily care deserves Japan's everyday soup: miso soup, the quiet companion served with almost every Japanese meal.

On 24 November 1859 John Murray published Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in London. A book about how creatures change over time gets a British bowl with a tail of its own: rich, slow-simmered oxtail soup.

On 28 November 1520 Ferdinand Magellan's three ships slipped out of the strait at the tip of South America into an ocean so calm he named it the Pacific, the peaceful sea. The strait lies in today's Chile, so the day belongs to caldillo de congrio, the conger eel soup of Chile's Pacific coast.

On 29 November 2018 UNESCO listed Jamaican reggae as world heritage. Jamaica's music gets Jamaica's Saturday pot, red pea soup with spinner dumplings and a whole scotch bonnet, best simmered with the volume up.

Michael Jackson's Thriller was released on 30 November 1982 and went on to become the best-selling album of all time. Jackson grew up in Gary, Indiana, in America's corn belt, so the King of Pop gets a creamy American corn chowder.

On 1 December 1990 Graham Fagg from Dover and Philippe Cozette from Calais broke through the last wall of chalk under the Channel and shook hands, joining Britain and France on foot for the first time since the Ice Age. A handshake between neighbours deserves something warm and simple to share: leek and potato, one of Britain's best-loved home soups, ladled out for two.

On 2 December 1981 France met "La Soupe aux choux", the cult comedy starring Louis de Funès. In the film a bowl of cabbage soup wins over a visitor from space, so here is the real farmhouse recipe, slow-cooked with pork and root vegetables.

The very first Nobel Prizes were handed out on 10 December 1901, four of them in Stockholm. Alfred Nobel was Swedish, so the day stays in his country with ärtsoppa, the yellow pea soup with mustard that Swedes still serve on Thursdays.

Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg on 18 December 1892 and became the Christmas ballet the whole world knows. Its Russian home gets a Russian classic for a winter night: ukha, the clear soup made from river fish.

Groundhog Day began with the Pennsylvania Dutch, who brought a German Candlemas weather custom to Pennsylvania. Whatever the groundhog predicts, the day belongs with their own chicken corn soup with rivels, the soup of Lancaster County's farms.

Galileo was born in Pisa on 15 February 1564 and went on to point a telescope at the sky. Garmugia comes from Lucca, just up the road, and its peas and broad beans make a little solar system of green planets in the bowl.

Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green came out in Japan on 27 February 1996, and a generation of trainers set off to catch them all. Dango-jiru catches a whole field in one bowl: burdock, taro, daikon, carrot and shiitake with hand-pulled dumplings in miso broth.

On 10 March 1876 Alexander Graham Bell spoke the first words down a telephone line: "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." Bell was born in Edinburgh, so his famous call is answered from home, with a bowl of Scotch broth.

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, in Swabia, on 14 March 1879. Swabia's own big idea is the Maultasche, a pasta parcel that hides its filling, so the region's most famous son gets the region's signature dish in clear broth. Relatively speaking, the perfect birthday bowl.

On 29 March 1974 farmers digging a well near Xi'an struck the first pieces of the Terracotta Army. The warriors' home city has its own famous soup, and yangrou paomo rewards patience too: you break the bread into tiny pieces yourself before the lamb broth goes in.

Vincent van Gogh was born in Zundert in the Netherlands on 30 March 1853. A Dutch painter of bright colour deserves a colourful Dutch home classic: groentesoep, clear vegetable soup with carrot, leek and tiny meatballs.

Gustave Eiffel raised the French flag at the top of his tower on 31 March 1889. Paris's most famous landmark gets Paris's most famous soup: onion soup under bubbling cheese, once the late-night meal of porters at the old Les Halles market.

Hans Christian Andersen, born in Odense on 2 April 1805, wrote a fairy tale about mice trying to make soup from a sausage peg. On his birthday we give them a proper recipe from his own Denmark: golden chicken soup with two kinds of dumplings.

The first modern Olympics opened in Athens on 6 April 1896. Games reborn in Greece deserve a Greek winner on the table: avgolemono, the silky golden egg and lemon soup Greeks count among their great comfort foods.

On 12 April 1961 Yuri Gagarin circled the Earth in 108 minutes, the first person ever to leave the planet. Back on the ground, a bold flight gets a bold bowl from his Russian homeland: solyanka, packed with pickles, olives and capers.

Leonardo was born near Vinci in Tuscany on 15 April 1452. His home region's classic soup suits a man who kept reworking his ideas: ribollita, "reboiled", is even better on its second day.

On 30 April 1993 CERN, the physics lab on the Swiss border at Geneva, gave the World Wide Web software to the world for free. A gift that cost nothing meets a Swiss soup made from almost nothing: Basler Mehlsuppe, just browned flour, onion and stock.

On 22 May 1980 Namco first put Pac-Man in front of players at a Tokyo arcade, and the hungry yellow hero has been munching through mazes ever since. Tonjiru suits his appetite: a miso soup packed with pork, daikon, carrot, burdock, taro, tofu and konnyaku to gobble one after another.

Star Wars opened in US cinemas on 25 May 1977, and Luke Skywalker's desert planet Tatooine was filmed in southern Tunisia and named after the town of Tataouine. That makes Tunisia's garlicky chickpea soup, lablabi, the real taste of a galaxy far, far away.

Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa stood on top of Everest on 29 May 1953. The mountain rises between Nepal and Tibet, and thukpa, the noodle soup of those high valleys, brings its world to the table, though we make no claim about what the climbers carried.

Alexey Pajitnov finished the first Tetris in Moscow on 6 June 1984. A game about small pieces slotting neatly into place meets its Russian soup double in okroshka, with everything diced and fitted together in one cold bowl.

Ulysses follows Leopold Bloom around Dublin on a single day, 16 June 1904, and Dubliners still celebrate it as Bloomsday. A day that wanders all over Dublin ends with Dublin's own pot: coddle, sausages, rashers and potatoes cooked slowly under a lid.

On 22 June 2013 UNESCO added Mount Fuji to the World Heritage List. Hōtō, the thick miso and pumpkin noodle soup of Yamanashi, comes from the mountain's own doorstep, so it is the natural bowl for Fuji's big day.

Antoni Gaudí, the architect of the Sagrada Família, was born in Reus, Catalonia, on 25 June 1852. Catalonia's great soup, escudella i carn d'olla, is built up over hours with one giant meatball in the pot, ambitious enough for the man behind the basilica.

On 1 July 2018 UNESCO added Göbeklitepe in Şanlıurfa to the World Heritage List: T-shaped pillars raised by hunter-gatherers some 11,500 years ago. Einkorn wheat was first farmed in the nearby Karacadağ hills, so firik, south-east Türkiye's smoky green-wheat soup, carries that story to the table.

On 4 July 1862, rowing up the Thames from Oxford, Lewis Carroll first told the story that became Alice in Wonderland. Its Mock Turtle, who sings "Beautiful Soup", is named after this very dish, so the day could only taste of mock turtle soup.

On 7.7.07 Chichén Itzá was named one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. The Maya city stands in Yucatán, so the wonder is toasted with Yucatán's own sopa de lima, chicken soup scented with the region's lima citrus.

Ernő Rubik, the Hungarian who invented the Rubik's Cube in 1974, was born in Budapest on 13 July 1944. Hungary's goulash soup is full of paprika-red cubes of beef, so the man who gave the world the cube gets a whole potful of them.

PSY released "Gangnam Style" on 15 July 2012, and the whole planet learned the horse dance. The song is named after a district of Seoul, so today calls for seolleongtang, the milky ox-bone soup Seoul eats for breakfast or late at night, perhaps after too much dancing.

On 18 July 1976 in Montreal, 14-year-old Nadia Comăneci scored the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics, and the scoreboard could only show 1.00. A Romanian star earns a Romanian classic, sour meatball soup with lovage, a perfect 10 in Romanian kitchens.

Apollo 11 touched down on the Moon on 20 July 1969, and NASA's menu for the crew included cream of chicken soup. SoupWiki has no cream of chicken yet, so America's classic chicken noodle stands in as the closest bowl back on Earth.

On 21 July 1910 the Tour de France rode over the Tourmalet and the Aubisque for the first time, and Octave Lapize called the organisers "assassins". The Aubisque stands in the Béarn, and only the Béarn's garbure, a cabbage and bean soup thick enough to stand a spoon in, could match a day that tough.

On 29 July 2014 the giant panda Ju Xiao gave birth to triplets at Chimelong Safari Park in Guangzhou, and Meng Meng, Shuai Shuai and Ku Ku became the world's only surviving panda triplets. Their hometown's Cantonese kitchen offers a gentle bowl to share between three: winter melon soup, simmered until the melon turns soft and translucent.

Uruguay beat Argentina 4–2 in Montevideo on 30 July 1930 to win the first World Cup. Buseca, the tripe and bean soup cooked on both banks of the River Plate, is a bowl both finalists can call their own.

Usain Bolt ran 100 metres in 9.58 seconds in Berlin on 16 August 2009, a world record. Jamaica's party soup, peppery goat mannish water served in cups, fits a night that gave the island so much to celebrate; it simmers for hours, so start well before the 9.58.

Duke Kahanamoku, born in Honolulu on 24 August 1890, won Olympic swimming gold and carried surfing to the world. Chicken long rice, the gentle ginger soup Hawaiians share at big gatherings, is our wave back to the islands' most famous waterman.

On 25 August 1958 Momofuku Ando put the first instant noodles on sale in Japan and called them Chicken Ramen. He modelled them on the bowls of Japan's ramen shops, so today we go back to the original: rich broth, tare and springy noodles.

Michael Schumacher sealed a record seventh Formula One title at Spa on 29 August 2004. A German record calls for a German celebration, and Hochzeitssuppe is the clear broth that traditionally opens a German wedding feast.

Super Mario Bros. came out in Japan on 13 September 1985. Mario took his name from a real Italian-American, Mario Segale, and Italian wedding soup is a favourite in Italian-American homes and diners, so the plumber gets his bowl, meatballs and all.

HMS Beagle reached the Galápagos on 15 September 1835, with a young Charles Darwin on board. The islands belong to Ecuador, so today goes to caldo de bolas from Ecuador's coast: plantain dumplings in beef broth, cooked beside the same Pacific the Beagle was crossing.

On 30 September 1791 Mozart conducted the first night of The Magic Flute in Vienna. He grew up in Salzburg, in the Austrian Alps, so the premiere gets an Alpine favourite: golden cheese dumplings floating in clear broth.

The Sydney Opera House was officially opened on 20 October 1973, its white sails finally finished. An Australian icon gets Australia's most theatrical soup, the pie floater, a meat pie upside down in green pea soup, even though it hails from Adelaide rather than Sydney.

Auguste Escoffier, the chef who put French cooking in order in Le Guide Culinaire, was born on 28 October 1846. His book says every clear soup starts from a perfect consommé, so honouring him with any other bowl would miss the point.

Godzilla stomped into Japanese cinemas on 3 November 1954, rising out of the sea off Japan. A monster that grand, and that salty, deserves a bowl from the same waters: Okinawa's irabu-jiru, slow-simmered from smoked sea snake.