By: History.com Editors

1986

African American inventor Lonnie Johnson patents the Super Soaker water gun

History.com Editors

Published: February 23, 2024

Last Updated: January 24, 2025

On May 27, 1986, the U.S. Patent Office grants a patent to African American inventor Lonnie Johnson for his toy design simply titled ”Squirt Gun.” After a few name changes and additional patents, Johnson’s invention—ultimately re-named the “Super Soaker®”—would become the best-selling water toy of all time, eventually earning its rightful place in the American National Toy Hall of Fame.

The Spirit That Built America: Lonnie Johnson Creates the Super Soaker

How many of us remember hot summer days running around with a super soaker in hand? What you might not know is that your summer fun was all thanks to a nuclear engineer who also worked on the stealth bomber! His name is Lonnie Johnson, and he gave the world the super soaker...sort of by accident.

Johnson’s concept for the Super Soaker began by accident in his own basement bathroom in 1982. At the time, he was employed as a nuclear engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, working on the Galileo mission to Jupiter. While brainstorming a heat pump that would use pressurized water vapor instead of environmentally hazardous freon, Johnson hooked up a nozzle to his bathroom sink. It accidentally sprang a leak, shooting water across the bathroom in a strong stream. A lightbulb went off: This design could make one heck of a powerful water gun.

Years later, while working on the Air Force’s B-52 stealth bomber by day, Johnson tinkered in his free time on a wide range of projects, including this one. (A lifelong inventor, he made his own rocket fuel on the kitchen stove as a kid and built an award-winning robot in 1968 while attending a segregated Alabama high school, before going on to receive a master's degree in nuclear engineering from Tuskegee University.) He eventually worked up a prototype for his water gun idea, made with plexiglass, PVC pipes and a two-liter soda bottle for the reservoir. When he gave the device to his 7-year-old daughter Aneka to try, she proceeded to super-soak every other kid on the Air Force base.

It wasn’t until 1989 that he found a production partner in the toy business, Philadelphia-based Larami, which manufactured it under the name “Power Drencher.” The toy was an instant hit, selling two million units in 1991. Toy giant Hasbro purchased Larami—and the rights to the gun, which it renamed the “Super Soaker.”

After selling more than 250 million units and earning well over $1 billion dollars, the Super Soaker was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2015.

Over the years, Johnson has continued to patent ideas and inventions in the fields of engineering and energy technology, along with more quotidian and playful products like a wet diaper detector and Nerf blasters. Johnson currently holds more than 130 U.S. patents and is the author of several publications related to the field of spacecraft power systems.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on May 27th

1703

St. Petersburg founded by Peter the Great

After winning access to the Baltic Sea through his victories in the Great Northern War, Czar Peter I founds the city of St. Petersburg as the new Russian capital on May 27, 1703.

1813

Thomas Jefferson writes to John Adams

On May 27, 1813, former President Thomas Jefferson writes former President John Adams to let him know that their mutual friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush, has died.

1831

Comanche kill mountain man Jedediah Smith

Jedediah Smith, one of the nation’s most important trapper-explorers, is killed by Comanche tribesman on the Santa Fe Trail.

1887

Chinese gold miners are slaughtered in the Hells Canyon Massacre

The Hells Canyon Massacre begins on May 27, 1887, in Lewiston, Washington Territory, in what is now Idaho. The mass slaughter of Chinese gold miners by a gang of white horse thieves was one of many hate crimes perpetrated against Asian immigrants in the American West during this period.

1897

“Dracula” goes on sale in London

According to the Daily News of London, the first copies of the classic vampire novel Dracula, by Irish writer Bram Stoker, go on sale on May 27, 1897.

1905

The Battle of Tsushima

During the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Baltic Fleet is nearly destroyed at the Battle of Tsushima. The decisive defeat, in which only 10 of 45 Russian warships escaped to safety, convinced Russian leaders that further resistance against Japan’s imperial designs for East Asia was hopeless.

1937

Golden Gate Bridge opens

San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, a stunning technological and artistic achievement, opens to the public after five years of construction. On opening day—“Pedestrian Day”—some 200,000 bridge walkers marveled at the 4,200-foot-long suspension bridge, which spans the Golden Gate Strait at the entrance to San Francisco Bay and connects San Francisco and Marin County. The next day, on May 28, the Golden Gate Bridge opened to vehicular traffic.

1939

Ship carrying hundreds of Jewish refugees, fleeing Nazi Germany, is turned away in Cuba

A boat carrying 937 refugees, almost all of whom are Jews fleeing Nazi persecution, is turned away from Havana, Cuba, on May 27, 1939. Only 28 immigrants are admitted into the country. After appeals to the United States and Canada for entry are denied, the rest are forced to sail back to Europe, where they’re distributed among several countries including Great Britain and France.

1940

British evacuation of Dunkirk turns savage as Germans commit atrocity

On May 27, 1940, units from Germany’s SS Death’s Head division battle British troops just 50 miles from the port at Dunkirk, in northern France, as Britain’s Expeditionary Force continues to fight to evacuate France.

1941

FDR proclaims an unlimited national emergency in response to Nazi threats

President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces a state of unlimited national emergency in response to Nazi Germany’s threats of world domination on May 27, 1941. In a speech on this day, he repeated his famous remark from a speech he made in 1933 during the Great Depression: the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

1941

British navy sinks the German battleship Bismarck

On May 27, 1941, the British navy sinks the German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic near France. The German death toll was more than 2,000.

1943

U.S. Olympian Louis Zamperini’s plane goes down in the Pacific

On May 27, 1943, a B-24 carrying U.S. airman and former Olympic runner Louis Zamperini crashes into the Pacific Ocean. After surviving the crash, Zamperini floated on a raft in shark-infested waters for more than a month before being picked up by the Japanese and spending the next two years in a series of brutal prison camps. His story of survival was featured in the 2010 best-selling book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.

1949

Marilyn Monroe poses for “red velvet” nude photo session

On May 27, 1949, unemployed 22-year-old model-actress Marilyn Monroe receives $50 for posing nude for a Los Angeles photographer against a red velvet backdrop. The picture will go on to become the most famous calendar photo in history and the principal attraction in the first issue of Playboy magazine. It will also risk destroying Monroe’s budding movie career.

1963

Dylan’s breakthrough album, “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” is released

On May 27, 1963, Bob Dylan releases his second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, which goes on to transform him from a popular local act to a global phenomenon.

1971

Sweden announces support to Viet Cong

In Sweden, Foreign Minister Torsten Nilsson reveals that Sweden has been providing assistance to the Viet Cong, including some $550,000 worth of medical supplies. Similar Swedish aid was to go to Cambodian and Laotian civilians affected by the Indochinese fighting. This support was primarily humanitarian in nature and included no military aid.

1994

Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn returns to Russia after exile

Two decades after being expelled from the USSR, Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn returns to Russia in an emotional homecoming.

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Citation Information

Article title
African American inventor Lonnie Johnson patents the Super Soaker water gun
Website Name
History
Date Accessed
March 24, 2025
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Last Updated
January 24, 2025
Original Published Date
February 23, 2024

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