Gelert

Gelert by Charles Burton Barber (1884)

Trump's tweet activity from his first tweet in May 2009 until June 2020

Coat of arms of the Indies Company, with the reclining figure representing the Mississippi River taken from Law's Compagnie d'Occident , and the motto Florebo quocumque ferar taken from Louis XIV's East India Company

Welsh prince Llywelyn killed his hound Gelert for apparently savaging his infant son — then found the baby unharmed, a dead wolf beneath the cradle. He never smiled again. The grave at Beddgelert still draws visitors.

Ferrer movement

Francisco Ferrer opened a Barcelona school in 1901 with no grades, no priests, no corporal punishment. Spain blamed him for a workers' uprising he didn't lead and executed him by firing squad in 1909.

Use of X by Donald Trump

Trump tweeted 'South Africa' and 'large scale killing of farmers' after a Tucker Carlson segment in August 2018 — Pretoria summoned the U.S. ambassador within hours and land prices dropped before markets closed.

Thirty Meter Telescope

A $2.4 billion telescope was stopped cold by Native Hawaiian protectors on Mauna Kea — elevation 4,205 meters, home of 13 existing observatories and a mountain the Kanaka Maoli consider a living ancestor.

Sodder children disappearance

Five Sodder children disappeared in a Christmas Eve fire in 1945 in Fayetteville, West Virginia. Fire investigators found no bone fragments in the ash. Their mother ran a billboard on US-119 for 40 years asking where they were.

John Law's Company

John Law — a Scottish gambler who killed a man in a duel — convinced France to replace gold with paper backed by Louisiana swampland. Within two years, the word 'millionaire' was coined, then the crash.

John Law (economist)

A Scottish duelist who killed a man in 1694 talked his way into running France's entire money supply — then collapsed it. He fled Paris in a stolen carriage, died broke in Venice.

Hamilcar Barca

Hamilcar Barca made his nine-year-old son Hannibal swear eternal war on Rome over a sacrificial animal's bleeding entrails — then spent the rest of his life building Spain into a weapon for that oath.

Angora rabbit

Ottoman sultans kept Angora rabbits as living luxury objects in the Topkapi Palace; their wool — harvested monthly by hand — was spun into garments reserved for imperial gift-giving.