Refresh for new random facts
1. Bill Bowerman, co-founder of Nike, first got the inspiration for creating Nike shoes after staring at a waffle iron.
2. With 535, Edwin Land, inventor of the Polaroid camera, is second to only Thomas Edison for U.S. patents awarded for inventions...He trails him by a measly 558.
3. Fortune cookies were invented in America, in 1918, by Charles Jung.
4. J.C. Penney's initials stand for James Cash, founder of the store chain in 1902.
5. Secure, high-yielding stocks came to be known as "blue chips," because in poker blue chips are more valuable than red or white.
6. The first words heard over the newly invented telephone were, "Mr. Watson, come here. I want you!" when Alexander Graham Bell spilled acid on his trousers.
7. Bank of America was originally called "The Bank of Italy." It was founded by Amadeo Giannini in 1904 to cater to Italian immigrants in San Francisco.
8. The oldest business known to be currently operating in the United States is the cymbal company Zildjian, founded in Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1623.
9. Citibank adopted its cable address as its official name. It was originally known as the "City Bank of New York."
10. 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.
When me and old Abe used to sit by the fire he would tell me the darndest tales about this great land of ours.
