National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day
The first peanut butter and jelly sandwich recipe may have been printed in 1901, in The Boston Cooking School Magazine of Culinary Science & Domestic Economics. The recipe called for "three very thin layers of bread and two of filling, one of peanut paste, whatever brand you prefer, and currant or crab-apple jelly for the other." The recipe's creator, Julia David Chandler, said that "the combination is delicious, and, so far as I know, original."
Popular peanut butter brands such as Skippy and Peter Pan began being sold in the 1920s and 1930s, but it wasn't until the years of World War II that peanut butter and jelly sandwiches began becoming popular. On the home front, supplies and food like butter, sugar, and meat were rationed and expensive, while peanut butter was not rationed and was cheap. Overseas, peanut butter and jelly were on the ration lists of soldiers during the war. Peanut butter was an inexpensive alternative to meat for them, and it is believed that soldiers made it more appetizing by adding jelly to it. After the war, soldiers brought their love of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches home with them, helping to make them popular across the country.