Refresh for new random facts
1. Starbucks was originally going to be called "Pequod," after the fishing vessel in Herman Melville's novel, Moby-Dick. The founders settled on Starbuck, the first mate on the ship, instead.
2. The first major deodorant company in the U.S. was called Odorono; its first ad led hundreds of women to cancel their subscriptions to Ladies Home Journal in 1919.
3. David McConnell named his company Avon after the birthplace of William Shakespeare, Stratford on Avon.
4. Samuel F.B. Morse, renowned inventor of the telegraph and Morse Code, twice ran for mayor of New York City...and lost both times.
5. The soft drink industry spends more than $100 million a year in stopping thefts involving their vending machines.
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 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.
8. The Mall, the biggest departmental store in Washington, D. C. is 1.4 times bigger than the Vatican City.
9. Thomas Jefferson invented the first hideaway bed ever patented in the United States.
10. Citibank adopted its cable address as its official name. It was originally known as the "City Bank of New York."
When me and old Abe used to sit by the fire he would tell me the darndest tales about this great land of ours.
