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On This Day in Business History

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Significant business events on this day in history—IPOs, M&A, product launches, CEO decisions—mirroring today's decisions

On This Day in Business History05/21/2026, 08:42:52 PM

Three May 21 Disasters: All Predictable, All Preventable

Three May 21 moments across 31 years — Transamerica's forced sale of United Artists after Heaven's Gate destroyed the studio (1981), Olivetti's David-vs-Goliath hostile takeover of Telecom Italia that debt then unwound (1999), and Nasdaq's infinite-loop glitch that stranded 30,000 retail investors on Facebook's IPO day (2012). Each shows a different version of the same lesson: preventable failures that institutional players could see coming.

On This Day in Business History05/20/2026, 08:47:34 PM

Three decisions that landed on May 20

Three May 20 moments across 146 years — Levi Strauss's patent (1873), Yahoo's $1.1B Tumblr bet (2013), and Google's Huawei cutoff (2019) — and what each one still teaches about moats, M&A, and supply-chain leverage.

On This Day in Business History05/15/2026, 05:08:31 PM

Five Decisions That Landed on May 15

Five May 15 moments — from the TSE to Amazon's IPO — and what they still teach.

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