Today is National Nacho Day in the United States, marking more than 80 years of the popular snack. In 1943 a group of military wives visiting Piedras Negras, a small Mexican city just across the border from Fort Duncan in Eagle Pass, Texas, dropped by a local restaurant. They encountered Ignacio Anaya García, who said the restaurant was closed. But García felt sorry for the group so he quickly whipped up something: fried tortilla pieces covered with shredded cheese and jalapeño peppers. He named the snack after his nickname, and so the nacho was born.

Today marks the birth anniversary of Belgian inventor Adolphe Sax, whose enduring legacy is the saxophone. Sax, the son of a musical-instrument maker and a musician himself, was attempting to improve the tone of the bass clarinet when he instead developed a new single-reed instrument made of brass. Although Sax left no formal account of its development, the saxophone was quickly adopted by the French army and spread from there to other countries.

Today also marks the birth anniversary of American bandmaster John Philip Sousa, who composed 136 military marches, including “Semper Fidelis” (1888), the official march of the U.S. Marine Corps, and “The Stars and Stripes Forever” (1897). In the 1890s he also redeveloped a type of bass tuba called the helicon, made to his specifications and eventually called the sousaphone.