926: Tank Jun 22, 2017

Modern tanks were first used during WWI by the British. When they were employed the goal was to surprise the Germans and break through the front line, but they didn't want the Central Powers to know what they were. For that reason, some people have claimed that if the Americans invented the tanks first that they could have been called 'barrels', but not because of gun-barrels or anything like that. Instead, this is due to the fact that 'tank' in 1915 and 1916 was the code-word used to denote the war-machine, as it was hoped that the British might fool the Germans into thinking that they were simply vehicles for transporting water at first. At the time, the term 'tank' and 'barrel' were synonymous, much like today, but 'barrel' was more common in the United States to describe what would be called a 'tank' in Britain.