M&Ms

                 Forrest Mars, the founder of the Mars Company, got the idea for the confection in the 1930s during the Spanish Civil War when he saw soldiers eating chocolate pellets with a hard shell of tempered chocolate surrounding the inside, preventing the candies from melting. On March 3rd, 1941 the production of the M&M began. In 1950, a black "M" was imprinted on the candies. It was changed to white in 1954. Peanut M&M's were introduced in 1954, but were only made in the tan color. In 1960, Peanut M&M's added the yellow, red, and green colors. Red candies were eliminated in 1976 due to health concerns over the dye amaranth. In 2000, "Plain" M&M's (a name introduced in 1954 when Peanut M&M's were introduced) were renamed "Milk Chocolate" M&M's (presumably because "plain" sounded too negative), and pictures of the candy pieces were added to the traditional brown and white packaging.In July 2006, Dark Chocolate M&M's reappeared in a purple package, followed in 2007 by Dark Chocolate Peanut M&M's. Also in 2006, the company piloted White Chocolate M&M's as a tie-in with their Pirates of the Caribbean promotion. The company also offered eight new flavors of M&M's via online sales, as well as at M&M's World locations. Here following is a summary of the changes to the colors of the flagship (milk chocolate) flavor of M&M's, the only filling manufactured since the beginning of the brand. From 1941 until 1987, each package contained M&M's in five different colors; when red M&M's were reintroduced in 1987, they were added as a sixth color instead of replacing any of the existing colors.