The Spanish-American War doesn’t get talked about a lot these days – there were no particularly memorable battles, heroes, or “damn the torpedoes” catch phrases. It was extremely short. They don’t make movies or TV shows about it, its memorial is at best underwhelming, and there is no Call of Duty: 1898.

The war’s most enduring legacy, however, is one of the best tax anecdotes there is. To help finance the war, Congress passed a federal excise tax on long-distance phone calls. It was sensible at the time from a supply standpoint (as a new technology, phones were an untapped revenue source) as well as demand (wars use stuff), but Congress – somehow – has let this little taxes legacy last longer than three month-long war: 108 years to be precise.