July 5, 1841

Posted on July 5, 2019 by Joel Byers

On July 5, 1841, Thomas Cook of Leicester, England started the first travel agency. On that date in 1841, Thomas Cook escorted 500 people, who paid one shilling each to travel from Leiscester Campbell railway station to a teetotaler rally in Loughborough, eleven miles away. Cook thought if people were willing to pay a shilling each to go from Leicester to Loughborough just to hear a bunch of sober gits rant about the evils of alcohol, how much would they pay to go to Switzerland, Italy, Egypt, Belgium, Germany, France and the United States where they could drink without their neighbors ever learning about it. Thomas Cook and Sons was born and became extremely profitable.

[Facebook] [MySpace] [Twitter] More »

About Joel Byers

Born in North Georgia and educated at some very fine public institutions. Real education started after graduating from college and then getting married and raising two boys. Has the ability to see the funny and absurd in most things and will always remark on it, even if it means getting the stink-eye from his victims.
This entry was posted in 19th Century, Historical Facts and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *