April 23, 2013: When Twitter Triggered a Sell-Off
It took just one tweet. "Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured." That message came from the official Twitter account of the Associated Press on April 23, 2013. ...
The Time Google Paid $600,000 For Its Own Domain Name
It happened in 2015. Sanmay Ved, a former Google employee, made a late-night discovery. While casually browsing Google Domains, he noticed something strange: Google.com was available for purchase. ...
The Day a Congressman Beat a Senator Unconscious in the Senate
On May 22nd, 1856, a sitting Congressman walked into the U.S. Senate chamber and unleashed a brutal assault on a fellow lawmaker. Rep. Preston Brooks of South Carolina entered the chamber with a ca...
The Plot to Steal Abraham Lincoln's Corpse
It sounds like fiction. But it isn't. In 1876, a group of counterfeiters tried to steal Abraham Lincoln's body from his tomb in Springfield, Illinois. The goal? Ransom. At the time, the Secre...
The Day Vice President Dick Cheney Shot a 78-Year-Old in the Face
It was February 11th, 2006. Vice President Dick Cheney was hunting quail on a ranch in Texas. The group had split up. Visibility was limited. Cheney fired at a bird. Instead, he hit Harry Whitti...
The 79-Day Soda Rebellion
April 23, 1985. Coca-Cola made one of the most infamous marketing decisions in corporate history. They changed the formula. "New Coke" was meant to halt Pepsi's growing market share. Internal te...
Why Did Canada Enforce a Digital Services Tax - and Make It Retroactive?
Canada just pulled the trigger on its long-threatened Digital Services Tax. It's a 3% levy on gross revenue tied to Canadian users. Not profit - revenue. That includes digital advertising, user dat...
Who Could Be Trump's Pick to Run the Fed?
Donald Trump has been back in the White House for months, and one priority is already dominating the agenda: slashing interest rates. On June 27, Trump made it crystal clear: he will only appoint a...
Crypto Could Now Help You Buy a House
Can crypto help you buy a house? That's no longer a fringe question. It's now federal policy. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been ordered to explore it - officially. The FHFA (Federal Housing F...
A History of National Guard Deployments During Unrest
Throughout U.S. history, the National Guard has been called in to deal with unrest. Labor uprisings. Race riots. Campus protests. Civil disorder. Each time, the deployment was a signal: something had ...
Can the President Fire the Fed Chair?
Can the President of the United States fire the Chairman of the Federal Reserve? Short answer: no. Not easily. Not without a fight. The Federal Reserve Act gives the Chair of the Fed a four-year...
How Many Times Have Presidents Gone to War Without Congress?
American presidents have a habit of going it alone. They say it's urgent. They say there's no time to wait for Congress. And then the bombs start falling. From Vietnam to Syria, military actions have ...
Has the Strait of Hormuz Ever Actually Been Closed?
The Strait of Hormuz has never been shut. Not once. But oil markets don't wait for that. Even the hint of trouble sends prices jumping. Roughly 20% of the world's oil moves through that narro...
The Highest Presidential Approval Rating in U.S. History
George W. Bush holds the highest presidential approval rating ever recorded. Ninety percent. That number is almost unthinkable in today's political climate, where polarization is the norm and ev...
When the New York Times Almost Got Delisted
In early 2009, shares of The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) dropped below $4. Yes - $4. This was a company that had once been among the most respected and influential media empires in the wo...