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The Footnote July 25, 2026 · London

The Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894, When Cities Calculated They Would Drown in Dung

By the 1890s London and New York ran on tens of thousands of horses, each producing over 10 kilograms of manure a day. Urban commentators projected streets buried metres deep within decades; the 1898 international urban planning conference reportedly broke up with no solution. The automobile made the entire problem vanish — a favourite parable with a catch: its most famous quotation cannot be traced.

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The Footnote July 25, 2026 · New York

The Halley's Comet Panic of 1910, When Earth Passed Through the Tail and Con Men Sold Comet Pills

Astronomers announced that on 18-19 May 1910 the Earth would pass through the tail of Halley's Comet — and that the tail contained cyanogen, a poison. Amplified by newspapers and a famous astronomer's speculation, the news spawned sealed rooms, comet pills, and gas masks. Mark Twain, born under the comet in 1835, died as it returned — as he had predicted.

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The Cabinet July 25, 2026 · North Brother Island, New York

Mary Mallon, the Cook Known as Typhoid Mary, Quarantined for 26 Years as America's First Identified Healthy Carrier

Mary Mallon, an Irish-born cook in New York, was the first person in the United States identified as a healthy carrier of typhoid fever. Linked to at least 53 cases and 3 deaths, she was quarantined on North Brother Island from 1907 to 1910, released on condition she stop cooking — and caught cooking again in 1915. She spent the rest of her life in quarantine.

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The Cabinet June 27, 2026 · New York Stock Exchange

The Wall Street Crash of October 1929 That Triggered the Decade-Long Global Great Depression

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 12.8 percent on Black Monday 28 October 1929 and 11.7 percent on Black Tuesday 29 October 1929. The Crash initiated a global Great Depression that bottomed in 1933 with US unemployment at approximately 25 percent and approximately 9,000 US banks failed. Industrial production took a decade to return to 1929 levels.

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The Coroner’s Report June 27, 2026 · Old Head of Kinsale

The British Cunard Liner Torpedoed Off Ireland in 18 Minutes on 7 May 1915 With the Loss of 1,198 Lives Including 128 Americans

The Cunard liner RMS Lusitania was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20 approximately 18 km off the southern Irish coast at 2:10 p.m. on 7 May 1915. She sank in 18 minutes. 1,198 of 1,959 aboard died, including 128 American citizens. The sinking shifted American public opinion against Germany and contributed to the eventual 1917 American entry into the First World War.

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The Footnote June 27, 2026 · Shoreham, Long Island

The Long Island Tower That Was Meant to Broadcast Wireless Power to the World and Was Demolished for Scrap in 1917

Nikola Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower on Long Island was 187 feet tall, built between 1901 and 1903 as a global wireless-power transmission station. J.P. Morgan stopped funding it in 1903. Tesla mortgaged the tower in 1915 and lost the property in 1917 when the steel was sold for $1,750 scrap value. The site is now the Tesla Science Center.

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The Coroner’s Report June 27, 2026 · North Atlantic

The 1912 Sinking of the RMS Titanic After She Struck an Iceberg on Her Maiden Voyage and Carried Lifeboats for Only Half of Her Passengers

The White Star liner RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 11:40 p.m. on 14 April 1912 and sank at 2:20 a.m. on 15 April. Of 2,224 people aboard, 1,517 died. The ship carried lifeboats for 1,178 — about half the maximum capacity. The disaster substantially changed maritime safety regulation.

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