Refresh for new random facts
1. Nathaniel C. Wyeth, son of artist N.C. Wyeth, brother of artists Andrew, Carolyn and Henriette Wyeth, developed the plastic soda bottle while working as an engineer for the DuPont Company.
2. Schoolboy Antonio Gentile of Suffolk, Virginia, received $5 for his winning drawing in a Planters Peanut 1916 contest. Mr. Peanut was born.
3. J.C. Penney's initials stand for James Cash, founder of the store chain in 1902.
4. The waterproof disposable diaper was first invented in 1951 by Marion Donovan, using only a sewing machine and a shower curtain.
5. Arby's was named for brothers Forrest and LeRoy Raffel (the Raffel Brothers, or RB)
6. 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.
7. The last mass marketed 12 cylinder car produced in the United States was the 1948 Lincoln Continental.
8. Due to a family feud, the Waldorf-Astoria hotel was once two separate hotels built next to each other owned by John Jacob Astor IV and his cousin William Waldorf Astor.
9. 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.
10. Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller would be worth upwards of $300 Billion in today's dollars, adjusted for inflation.
When me and old Abe used to sit by the fire he would tell me the darndest tales about this great land of ours.
