Famed American investor Jesse Livermore made millions when the stock market crashed in 1929

JP Morgan Jr. once angered the nation with his zero-dollar tax bill

In the aftermath of the Great Depression, Congress learned that Morgan and his banking partners had avoided paying any federal income tax in 1931 and 1932. By claiming their losses in the stock market, they seemingly erased what they owed.

The 1929 stock market crash is a defining example of a financial bubble burst

Fueled by margin speculation and intense optimism, stock prices soared to unsustainable levels before collapsing in late October—erasing billions in market value within days.

A rush to invest in British rail in the 1840s led to investor ruin

During “Railway Mania,” speculative excitement pushed British rail shares to extreme valuations as investors chased rapid expansion. When costs ballooned and profits failed to materialize, the bubble collapsed in 1847—wiping out fortunes across the country.

Twain was a notoriously bad investor

After becoming a famous writer, Twain invested in railroad stocks, a magnetic telegraph, and a printing press that weighed four tons. Eventually, he founded his own publishing company, which ultimately led to his bankruptcy. “He is, in business,” one lawyer said, “just a big overgrown boy.”

How one man placed the first short against the Dutch East India Company

Isaac Le Maire, a Dutch businessman and cofounder of the Dutch East India Company, is said to be history's first short seller, betting against the Dutch East India Company's stock price. Le Maire, who had been fired from the spice trading company over an unclear financial dispute, began spreading false rumours about the company to encourage people to sell their stock in order to tank its value.

Ray Dalio started his career as a golf caddy in Long Island

When Dalio was 12 years old, he worked as a golf caddy at the Links Golf Club. That's where he heard about the stock market for the first time and decided to invest in Northeast Airlines—the only stock he knew that was selling for less than $5 a share. Dalio ended up tripling his profit and became fascinated with the stock market—ultimately laying the foundation for his legendary career as a hedge fund manager.

Eleven of modern history's greatest investors

The greatest investors have all made a fortune off of their success and, in many cases, have helped millions of others achieve similar returns. Read about the lives and approaches of Carl Icahn, Warren Buffett, George Soros, and more.

In 2008, the 'Big Short' mastermind Michael Burry made more than $700M

Before the 2008 housing crisis, Burry used credit default swaps to bet against subprime mortgage-backed securities that fueled the 2008 housing crisis. His firm made more than $700M for its investors, and Burry made more than $100M in personal profits.

Play a game that reveals if investors with a crystal ball make better trades

The "crystal ball" game reveals how well you would do trading stocks and bonds if you could see the front page of the Wall Street Journal one day in advance.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was created in the aftermath of a financial crisis

Charles Dow introduced the index in 1896, following the Panic of 1893—a severe economic downturn. The DJIA offered investors a straightforward tool to track recovery and gauge the health of America’s emerging industrial economy.

A bankrupt flour merchant in debtor’s prison helped inspire the Erie Canal

In 1807, Jesse Hawley, jailed for debt after struggling with high transport costs, published essays under the pen name “Hercules.” His writings laid out the canal’s route and benefits, galvanizing support for the project.

Investment banking giant Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in September 2008 when it had $619B in debt, making it the largest bankruptcy ever in the US

Nearly all of its 26,000 employees immediately lost their jobs. But in London, a few hundred remained tucked away, working for another decade to wind down the bank’s European business.

Soybean oil fraud almost decimated American Express in 1963

A New York commodities trader who had defrauded the American government over uninspected meat for school lunches, Anthony "Tino" De Angelis, used American Express warehouses to sell soybean oil. However, Angelis had actually filled the tanks with water and placed just enough soybean oil on top of the tanks to pass inspection. American Express was liable for many of the tanks and its stock faced a huge downturn, opening the door for a then 33-year-old Warren Buffett to make his first purchase in the company.

How John D. Rockefeller became the world's first billionaire

From a young age, John D. Rockefeller knew he was interested in business. He worked as a bookkeeper and sold candy prior to starting the business empire that would help cement the Rockefeller name in history: Standard Oil.

Hear how the Piggly Wiggly grocery store founder attempted to squeeze short sellers by cornering the grocery store's stock

Founded in 1916 in Memphis, TN by Clarence Saunders, Piggly Wiggly was the first modern grocery store with aisles for customers to shop for themselves. In 1922, investors placed short positions, sensing that the stock may be overvalued after several Piggly Wiggly franchises in the Northeast went bankrupt. Saunders attempted to squeeze short sellers by taking out $10M and buying up nearly 99% of all available Piggly Wiggly stock. Ultimately, the fiasco ended with Piggly Wiggly's stock being permanently banned from the New York Stock Exchange and Saunders leaving Piggly Wiggly and filing for bankruptcy.

The first US stock exchange dates back to the 1790s in Philadelphia

Only two years after that stock exchange in Philadelphia started, the largest stock exchange in the US to date was created: the New York Stock Exchange.

'Rocky Road' was designed to help people cope with the stock market crash

In 1929, ice cream maker William Dreyer marketed Rocky Road as a sweet treat intended to distract consumers from the poor state of the economy. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Often dubbed the 'king of bank robbers,' George Leonidas Leslie stole an estimated $7M (equivalent to $200M today) and charged other criminals a $20K fee to evaluate their heist plans

Leslie studied architecture and used blueprints of safes and banks to execute meticulously planned bank heists across the Northeast between 1869 and 1878. Although Leslie was an infamous bank robber by night, he posed as a member of high society by day, providing critical intel on the institutions he'd rob and helping conceal his crimes. Months before his largest planned heist, where he planned to turn on his gang, Leslie's body mysteriously washed up along the Hudson River. His killer remains a mystery.

Apple’s third cofounder was its angel investor

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak are well-known for cofounding Apple, but the company had a third founder who acted as an angel investor: Mike Markkula, who invested $250K in 1977.

Bear raiding is a manipulative tactic to bring a stock price down—and part of why short selling can be controversial

Bear raids occur when short sellers use manipulative tactics—like spreading false rumors or coordinating trades—to artificially drive down a stock's price and profit from short positions. Although bear raids are an illegal form of market manipulation, they can spook investors, prompting large selloffs of shares and causing a company's value to plummet. As a result, investors may be hesitant to invest in the company in the future, creating a feedback loop of stock downturn.

How the Bank of Italy became Bank of America

Amid the devastation of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, Italian immigrant and local banker Amodei Giannini managed to keep hold of a substantial amount of currency. On a handshake, Giannini loaned needy locals money to rebuild. The enterprising banker would go on to form one of the first banks for the middle class, the Bank of Italy, which would go on to become the Bank of America in 1930. Read about the founder here.

Read Jeff Bezos' letter to Amazon shareholders from 2000, when shares were down more than 80%

"Ouch. It's been a brutal year for many in the capital markets and certainly for Amazon.com shareholders," the letter begins. Amazon shares were down more than 80% from the prior year at the time.

Red Lobster lost $11M on endless shrimp promotions—but its real estate holdings were what dragged it to bankruptcy

Golden Gate Capital, a PE firm, bought Red Lobster in 2014 for $2.1B. Golden Gate then sold Red Lobster's real estate, more than 500 storefronts, which generated $1.5B in revenue and helped finance the PE firm's acquisition of the company. Analysts say increased debt, high rent costs, and low equity put Red Lobster in an impossible position, leading to its 2024 bankruptcy filing—although the shrimp bill probably didn't help.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

A $50 bet led to the first coast-to-coast road trip

In 1903, Dr. Horatio Jackson took a $50 wager that he could drive from San Francisco to New York. Soon after, Jackson and his mechanic set out on the cross-country voyage without a map. They arrived in New York 63 days later. The trip cost them $260K in today’s money.

When a radio company was the biggest tech stock around

The Radio Corporation of America was the biggest stock during the 1920s. Originally called Marconi Wireless, the company transformed radio technology. The company pioneered broadcasting, created NBC, and became a tech giant. After remarkable growth and challenges, RCA was acquired by General Electric in 1986, marking the end of its 67-year independent existence.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

The idea for the Federal Reserve was conceived in secret in 1910—with bankers donning duck hunt gear for disguise while traveling to a remote country club on Georgia's Jekyll Island

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

Roughly 43 million US borrowers owe roughly $1.7T in student debt, the second-largest source of consumer debt behind mortgages.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

Poison ivy's characteristic rash is caused by an allergic response to an oily compound in the plant called urushiol.

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

Volcanic activity may have triggered the Black Death by spewing gases that led to crop failures in Europe, thus forcing the import of grain ships with plague-infested fleas.