Secretly Named After People
This wireless short-range connectivity standard found in virtually all modern smartphones was named after Harald "Blåtand", a 10th-century Scandinavian Viking king who united Denmark and Norway.
What is Bluetooth?
While Sydney and Melbourne fiercely competed to be this nation's seat of government, a custom-planned inland compromise city was chosen in 1908 and designed by American architect Walter Burley Griffin.
What is Canberra (Australia)?
Long before creating Super Mario, Zelda, or the Game Boy, this Kyoto-based entertainment giant was founded in 1889 as a producer of handmade "Hanafuda" playing cards.
What is Nintendo?
In 1943 at the Victory Club near the Texas-Mexico border, maître d' Ignacio Anaya quickly whipped up this stadium-favorite snack by melting Colby cheese and jalapeños over tortilla chips.
What are Nachos?
It isn't Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo; in 1960, this modernist, airplane-shaped planned city officially replaced Rio as the nation's federal capital.
What is Brasília (Brazil)?
After World War II and before launching luxury supercars to rival Enzo Ferrari, founder Ferruccio made his original fortune building these heavy agricultural vehicles out of surplus military parts.
What are Tractors (Lamborghini)?
When a group collectively refuses to buy goods from or deal with a company or country as a form of protest, they are utilizing a tactic named after Charles, an ostracized 19th-century British land agent in Ireland.
What is a Boycott?
While Toronto and Montreal boast larger populations, Queen Victoria selected this Ontario lumber town on the Quebec border in 1857 because its inland location made it safer from potential American invasion.
What is Ottawa (Canada)?
Before dominating the global market for televisions, semiconductors, and Galaxy smartphones, this South Korean conglomerate started in 1938 as a small export firm trading local groceries, noodles, and dried fish.
What is Samsung?
This heavy-duty internal combustion engine type—used globally in freight trains, cargo ships, and industrial machinery—bears the surname of the French-German engineer who patented it in the 1890s.
What is Diesel (Rudolf Diesel)?
Istanbul remains the country’s financial and cultural powerhouse, but founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk designated this ancient central Anatolian city as the official capital in 1923.
What is Ankara (Turkey)?
Decades before its durable 3310 phone became an internet meme and its networks powered global telecommunications, this Nordic giant was founded in 1865 as a wood pulp mill and later produced rubber boots and tires.
What is Nokia?
The dark, solid outline or shadow portrait of a person set against a lighter background owes its name to Étienne de ________, an 18th-century French finance minister whose aggressive penny-pinching became synonymous with doing things on the cheap.
What is a Silhouette?
Neither financial capital Zurich nor diplomatic hub Geneva holds the title; this charming medieval city on the Aare River serves as the de facto federal seat of government for its confederation.
What is Bern (Switzerland)?
In 1971, Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman abandoned their original business name, "Blue Ribbon Sports," and rebranded to this short, iconic name inspired by the Greek winged goddess of victory.
What is Nike?