The brilliance that is Eddie Izzard rolled into Dallas last night for two shows (final show is tonight at the Majestic Theatre in Downtown Dallas). #eddieizzardtour
 

As part of his current Force Majeure U.S. Tour, he put a call out for individuals on his various tour stops to send in and/or post some ‘somewhat interesting and hopefully accurate Historical Facts from Your Hometown’.
 

 
As you see above, Wednesday was Dallas’ day to shine. Huge tip of the hat to the greatness that is Eddie Izzard, first of all, but also to Samantha W. who posted on Facebook the true origin of the German Chocolate Cake and its relationship to Dallas.
 

Up next was Sara on Instagram who has, obviously, listened to far more than her fair share of KERA fundraising drives over the years and was able to verify to Eddie that KERA, the PBS station in Dallas, was the first station in the U.S. to ever broadcast Monty Python’s Flying Circus! FYI, it was back in October 1974 that public television viewers in the U.S. were first introduced to Python.

The third and final factoid came from Tami on Facebook and was also something that seemed to be known to the great Mr. Izzard. Tami’s historical fact referenced the invention of the computer microchip, or integrated circuit, by Jack Kilby when he was at Texas Instruments in Dallas. FYI, Kilby is also credited with inventing the handheld calculator and thermal printer.

In case you haven’t seen the great work of producers Linda Stogner and Tom Pribyl about Kilby’s invention, we bring you The Chip That Jack Built for your viewing pleasure.