Refresh for new random facts
1. Arby's was named for brothers Forrest and LeRoy Raffel (the Raffel Brothers, or RB)
2. The Burpee seed catalogue originally sold real chickens when first introduced by 17-year old Washington Atlee Burpee in 1876.
3. Thomas Jefferson invented the first hideaway bed ever patented in the United States.
4. Coca-Cola's name is derived from the coca leaves and kola nuts used as flavoring.
5. Steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie would be worth upwards of $200 billion in today's dollars, adjusted for inflation.
6. Diners Club issued its first card to only two hundred customers and it could only be used at twenty seven restaurants in New York City.
7. Pierre Omidyar had formed a web consulting firm called Echo Bay Technology Group in 1995. When he tried to register EchoBay.com, though, he found that Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company, had gotten it first. Ebay was born.
8. The only American to have two cars named after him was Ransom E. Olds- the Oldsmobile and the long-discontinued Reo, which was produced from 1904 to 1936.
9. It took about 95 minutes to construct a Model T Ford in 1914.
10. Believe it or not, the shopping cart wasn't invented until 1937, by Oklahoma grocery store owner Sylvan Goldman, who had only an 8th grade education. The design was based on a wooden folding chair.
When me and old Abe used to sit by the fire he would tell me the darndest tales about this great land of ours.
