The Super Bowl featured the now famous commercial of a man showering his pizza with Tabasco, getting bit by a mosquito, and smiling as the mosquito bursts into flames.
As a sign of hot sauce popularity in the American market, the Campbell Soup Company bought Pace, a maker of Mexican-style sauce, for $1.1 billion.
Salsa replaced ketchup as America's number one condiment.
Old El Paso, which would become a major player in the U.S. hot sauce market, made its debut.
Colonel Maunsell White, a local banker, grew the first recorded crop of tabasco chiles.