Refresh for new random facts
1. William Randolph Hearst's father struck it rich mining silver and gold in Nevada in 1859 and had the largest private mining firm in the U.S. The HBO show Deadwood was based on one of his mines.
2. Thomas Jefferson invented the first hideaway bed ever patented in the United States.
3. 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.
4. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.
5. Steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie would be worth upwards of $200 billion in today's dollars, adjusted for inflation.
6. The U.S. steel industry introduced the 5 Day, 40 hour work week in 1923.
7. 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.
8. Kleenex tissues were marketed as a cold cream remover when first introduced in 1924.
9. 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.
10. Fortune cookies were invented in America, in 1918, by Charles Jung.
When me and old Abe used to sit by the fire he would tell me the darndest tales about this great land of ours.
