The Panic of 1907 was a financial crisis that occurred in the United States
when its stock market fell close to 50 percent from its peak the previous
year. Primary causes of the run included a retraction of market liquidity by
a number of New York City banks, a loss of confidence among depositors, and
the absence of a statutory lender of last resort. The crisis occurred after
the failure of an attempt in October 1907 to corner the market on stock of
the United Copper Company. When this bid failed, banks that had lent money
to the cornering scheme suffered runs which later spread to affiliated banks
and trusts, leading a week later to the downfall of the Knickerbocker Trust
Company—New York City's third-largest trust. The collapse of the
Knickerbocker spread fear throughout the city's trusts as regional banks
withdrew reserves from New York City banks. The panic would have deepened if
not for the intervention of financier J.P. Morgan, who pledged large sums of
his own money, and convinced other New York bankers to do the same, to shore
up the banking system. By November the contagion had largely ended. The
following year, Senator Nelson W. Aldrich established and chaired a
commission to investigate the crisis and propose future solutions, leading
to the creation of the Federal Reserve System.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1907
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Today's selected anniversaries:
425:
Valentinian III became Emperor of the Western Roman Empire at the age of
six.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentinian_III)
1642:
The Battle of Edgehill, the first pitched battle of the First English Civil
War between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians, was fought to an
inconclusive result near Edge Hill and Kineton in southern Warwickshire.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Edgehill)
1955:
Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem defeated Emperor Bao Dai in a fraudulent
referendum supervised by his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu on the future of the
monarchy in South Vietnam.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_State_of_Vietnam_referendum)
1958:
In his comic series Johan and Peewit in the weekly magazine Spirou, Belgian
cartoonist Peyo introduced a new set of small sky blue characters known as
The Smurfs.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peyo)
1983:
Lebanese Civil War: Suicide bombers destroyed two barracks in Beirut,
Lebanon, killing 241 U.S. Marines and 58 French paratroopers of the
international peacekeeping force.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Beirut_barracks_bombing)
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
kwassa kwassa: (n) A dance rhythm from the Congo (DRC), where the hips move
back and forth while the hands move to follow the hips.
(
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kwassa_kwassa)
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I often observed to my brother, You see now how little nature requires to be
satisfied. Felicity, the companion of content, is rather found in our own
breasts than in the enjoyment of external things; And I firmly believe it
requires but a little philosophy to make a man happy in whatsoever state he
is. This consists in a full resignation to the will of Providence; and a
resigned soul finds pleasure in a path strewed with briars and thorns.
--Daniel Boone
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Boone)