Picture this: A ship caught in the throes of a tempest. At the steering wheel is American seaman and Captain Hanson Crockett Gregory. With one hand on the wheel and a regular donut (the one without the hole) in the other, navigation was getting difficult. So he simply went on to push the donut down one of the spokes of the wheel that to right through the middle. And ta-da! The modern donut was invented on June 22, 1847.

Now don't be surprised if you hear a different version of the story elsewhere, like the one where he was suddenly stuck with inspiration which led to the donut we have come to know, which is also the version he regaled The Washington Post with. But we have presented to you the version we like the best, because why not?

Anyway, this donut claimed to be invented by the captain solved one major problem. Once fried, the edges would be as scrumptious as they were capable of being but the insides were still raw and particularly "tough on the digestion", as he said. And by the virtue of him being a sailor, he made this particular way of making donuts extremely popular so much so that we don't really picture any other version other than this one when one says, "Donuts!"