Refresh for new random facts
1. One of the twelve original companies listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1896 was Distilling & Cattle Feeding Whiskey Trust...believe it or not.
2. Henry Ford invented the charcoal briquettes that are commonly used by the grilling enthusiasts of today, to make use of scrap wood left over in the manufacture of the Model T.
3. Brothers Isaiah and John Wesley Hyatt developed plastic in 1869 while competing for a $10,000 prize offered by a company looking for a substitute for ivory in billiard balls.
4. Bill Bowerman, co-founder of Nike, first got the inspiration for creating Nike shoes after staring at a waffle iron.
5. 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.
6. Alexander Graham Bell was one of the founders of National Geographic magazine.
7. David McConnell named his company Avon after the birthplace of William Shakespeare, Stratford on Avon.
8. IBM was founded by an ex employee of National Cash Register. The name International Business Machines was his attempt at one-upmanship.
9. The Mall, the biggest departmental store in Washington, D. C. is 1.4 times bigger than the Vatican City.
10. Before its name was changed in 1924, IBM was known as C-T-R, or Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company.
When me and old Abe used to sit by the fire he would tell me the darndest tales about this great land of ours.
