"Corn" is one of those terms that in the ancient world actually covered a number of other grains. For example, ancient Egyptian records make frequent mention of corn, but archaeology and study of cultural remnants indicate that what they actually were growing and eating was barley. Even when there is reference to "popped corn", they were heating and breaking the husk of the barley grains.

When more northern countries became civilized the same confusion of terms existed, with corn serving as a generic term for England's wheat and the oats of Scotland. It wouldn't be until mariners convinced people the world was round, that voyages to the New World would discover the Inca and other Indian cultures that grew maize, and not only grew it, but popped it as well!

How they discovered that corn would pop goes unrecorded, but it is suspected by historians that it was initially a self-combustion process, perhaps in stored cobs or kernels that became overheated. It would be the 15th century before Cortez and company met up with the Aztecs and their popped corn, which was not only a food, but used in ceremonial dress, and as tributes to the gods.

From there, the cultivation of maize grew by leaps and bounds, until the 1800s when it became highly popular as an agricultural crop and a treat when popped. In 1893, the C. Cretors and Company introduced the first popcorn machine/carts at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Today, the world's only popcorn museum, in Marion, Ohio has as one of its prize exhibits, the third oldest of these carts still in existence.