Rockport, Maine: Birthplace of the Inventor of the Doughnut Hole

Hanson Gregory was a sailor who invented the doughnut hole in 1847. A small plaque, erected on the captain's birth site, commemorates that world-changing event.

You might not think much about the hole in the donut -- the snack, not the Medicare coverage gap -- but someone had to invent it, and that someone was Hanson Crockett Gregory. He was a sailor, only 15 years old, when he grew sick of the blobs of half-raw dough he was fed aboard ship, and realized that they would fry much better with a hole in the middle. The date was June 22, 1847, and 100 years later his hometown of Rockport, Maine, erected a monument at his birthplace to honor this gastronomic visionary. Hanson lived long enough to be celebrated for his invention, but he could hardly have dreamed of how vital his creation would be to the modern motel breakfast bar, corporate meeting snack tray, and those who must eat and drive.