On this day in US history, businessman Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis were given a patent to create work pants with metal rivets, also known as blue jeans, on May 20, 1873. Originally known as “waist overalls,” the garment was first manufactured by seamstresses out of the men’s homes. But by the 1880s, they would open their own factory, and by the 1920s, they would grow to be the top-selling men’s work pants in the US.


