"December 16: Colonel Harland Sanders lost his battle with leukaemia on this day in 1980, leaving behind a global restaurant franchise that he had grown to despise.
Sanders was affectionately known as the Colonel after being awarded Kentuckys highest honour the title of Kentucky Colonel in 1935, despite not serving in the military.
Born in Henryville, Indiana in 1890, Sanders worked a string of oddjobs (including a stint as a steam engine stoker, and as an insurance salesman) during his early career before finding success selling fried chicken from a roadside restaurant in 1930.
Over the next nine years, Sanders developed his patented recipe for chicken, which he kept a secret until 1952, when he sold his first franchise to a restaurant in Salt Lake, and Kentucky Fried Chicken was born."