7-Eleven celebrates birthday with Slurpee giveaway

Jul 11, 2017, 10:07 AM | Updated: 8:57 pm

(AP Photo)

Continuing a birthday tradition that began over a dozen years ago, 7-Eleven stores will be giving away Slurpee drinks Tuesday.

The convenience store chain has turned 90 and for the past 16 years has given away its iconic frozen drink on July 11, aka 7/11.

The company expected to serve up 9 million free small Slurpees from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time. There are almost 11,000 stores in North America.

The Slurpee made its debut in 1966. According to company statistics, it has sold 7.4 billion Slurpees (it didn’t get its name until the next year) since then.

That is a lot of slurping and brain freeze.

As it turns out, 1966 was a year of note. Here are more than seven but fewer than 11 pretty big events from then:

The television show "Batman" debuted on ABC, back when there were only three national networks. (Screenshot)

Pan Am Airlines put in an order for the first 747 jets, forking over $525,000 for the jumbo flyers, a move that transformed the industry. (Wikipedia Photo/Eduard Marmet)

A man's arrest in Phoenix would lead to a legal landmark -- the Miranda warning. Ernesto Miranda confessed to a slew of crimes under police interrogation. In 1966, the Supreme Court ruled that criminal suspects had to be advised of their rights before being questioned.

Don Haskins' Texas Western College became the first team with an African-American lineup to win the NCAA basketball title. The school would later become the University of Texas-El Paso. (AP File Photo)

For the first time, warnings of the potential dangers of smoking appeared on cigarette boxes. It was a mandatory notice from the government. (Pixabay.com Photo)

In March 1966, John Lennon announced the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus" in an interview. That did not go over well in some parts. Many parts, actually. Kids gathered to burn their Beatles albums, there were protests and threats were made against the band during its U.S. tour. Lennon reluctantly apologized. (AP File Photo)

The Russians successfully soft-landed an unmanned spacecraft on the moon on Feb. 3, 1966. That was big deal because the Luna 9 was relatively undamaged,
meaning at some point, a larger craft carrying men could survive touching down. (Pixabay.com Photo)

A former Marine sniper, Charles Wittman, climbed into a clock tower on the University of Texas campus and shot 13 people to death. The mass shooting, the first of its type at a school, stunned the nation. (AP File Photo)

Future Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan made his first big league appearance for the New York Mets on Sept. 11. The Mets lost but the Ryan Express was just getting started. The hard-throwing eight-time All-Star would become baseball's leader in no-hitters (seven) in a career that lasted four decades. The right-hander, whose fastball regularly topped 100 mph, retired after the 1993 season. (AP File Photo)

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