Failure™ Magazine

This Day in Failure

August 21

2009: Guaranty Bank of Austin, Texas, becomes the second-largest U.S. bank to fail in 2009, costing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) an estimated $3 billion, making this the 10th-largest bank failure in U.S. history.

2007: The St. Paul (Minnesota) Saints Baseball Club gives away Michael Vick chew toys to the first 1,500 fans who enter the ballpark for the team’s game against the Lincoln Saltdogs.

1997: Hudson Foods closes a Nebraska plant after it recalls millions of pounds of ground beef potentially infected by E Coli, making it the largest food recall in U.S. history.

1997: Sergeant Clayton Lonetree is convicted of spying for the Russian KGB, making it the first time a U.S. Marine is convicted of spying.

1986: An eruption of lethal gas from Lake Nyos in Cameroon wipes out four villages and kills nearly 2,000 people.

1911: Without any security measures to prevent its theft, the Leonardo Da Vinci masterpiece Mona Lisa is stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris by Vincenzo Perruggia, a petty crook and part-time house painter. More than two years later it is found in Florence, Italy, and returned to the Louvre, where it can be viewed today behind a shield of bulletproof glass.