Bar code creator marks innovation's 35th anniversary
June 3 was the 35th anniversary of the Universal Product Code (UPC) bar code, developed and administered by GS1 US for more than 200,000 U.S. businesses.

The organization marked the event with a giant UPC-adorned birthday cake for more than 800 attendees at its annual U Connect Conference in Orlando, Fla.

The UPC comprises a row of 59 machine-readable black and white bars and 12 human-readable digits. Both the bars and the digits convey the identity of a specific product and its manufacturer.

Originally developed to help supermarkets speed up checkout, the first live use of a UPC took place in a Marsh Supermarkets store in Troy, Ohio, in June 1974, when a cashier scanned a package of Wrigley's gum. Its use ushered in economic and productivity gains, and simplified product returns and rebates.