Seen this morning on the Wordsmith list by Anu Garg:
In late seventeenth century, William III of UK imposed a window tax, levied on each window in a house.
Three hundred years later, William III of US imposed a Windows tax, levied on each personal computer manufactured, whether it had Windows or not.
Wow, it’s allegedly true: “The tax was introduced in 1696 under King William III of England and was designed to impose tax relative to the prosperity of the taxpayer.” — Wikipedia
I’m amazed it took this long before someone noticed this. :)