In partnership with
Morning good people.
It’s Friday and May flowers have arrived. Let’s get the blood flowing with a treasure that has been hunted for for over 200 years.
🗓️ Today in History
May 1, 1931 – The tallest building in the world opens
On this day 95 years ago, the tallest building in the world opened in New York City. The Empire State Building. 102 floors. 1,250 feet tall. Built in 410 days. Let that sink in. They built the most iconic skyscraper on the planet in just over a year. At the peak of construction, workers were putting up four and a half floors every single week. No computers. No modern cranes. Just 3,400 guys showed up every day during the Great Depression.
President Herbert Hoover ceremonially turned on the lights by pressing a button from Washington DC and New York had its icon. The punchline? Nobody wanted to rent office space in it. For years, they called it the Empty State Building. It didn't turn a profit for almost two decades.
Didn't matter in the end. 95 years later, it's still the first thing you picture when someone says New York City.
❓ Trivia
During Prohibition’s repeal, FDR famously celebrated with what drink?
P.S. We’re now breaking down the answers at the end of each edition, so you get a little more insight.
World’s Longest Running Treasure Mystery
If there’s one mystery that refuses to die, it’s the legend of Oak Island, a small, unassuming patch of land off the coast of Nova Scotia that has swallowed fortunes, machinery, and even lives in the pursuit of something no one has ever actually seen.
It started in 1795, when a teenager named Daniel McGinnis noticed a strange depression in the ground and a block-and-tackle hanging from a tree above it, like someone had already been digging. He and a couple of friends grabbed shovels and went to work. What they found was bizarre. Layers of logs buried at regular intervals, deeper and deeper, as if someone had engineered a shaft on purpose. That hole became known as the “Money Pit,” and from that moment on, Oak Island stopped being just an island and became an obsession.
Over the next two centuries, engineers, investors, and treasure hunters poured in, convinced something valuable was hidden below. And the deeper they dug, the stranger it got. Flood tunnels seemed to booby-trap the pit, filling it with seawater the moment anyone got too close to the bottom. Artifacts popped up that didn’t quite make sense, bits of parchment, old tools, carved stones with supposed codes. Every time someone thought they were close, the island pushed back.
Naturally, theories went off the rails. Some say it’s pirate treasure, possibly linked to Captain Kidd. Others believe it could be something far bigger, lost religious artifacts, hidden riches from European powers, or even the missing works of Shakespeare. There’s zero consensus, which makes it more compelling.
Then there’s the part that keeps the story just a little darker: the so-called curse. Legend says seven people must die before the treasure is found. So far, six have. Accidents, collapses, and equipment failures have taken their toll, turning what started as a treasure hunt into something that feels a lot more like a battle against the island itself.
Even today, with modern tech, massive funding, and the spotlight from shows like The Curse of Oak Island, the mystery is still unsolved. No definitive treasure. No clear answers. Just more clues, more digging, and more questions. Oak Island isn’t just a mystery. It’s a reminder that not everything gets solved, and that might be exactly why no one can walk away from it.
Sponsored By HubSpot
Want to get the most out of ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a superpower if you know how to use it correctly.
Discover how HubSpot's guide to AI can elevate both your productivity and creativity to get more things done.
Learn to automate tasks, enhance decision-making, and foster innovation with the power of AI.
Dude of the Week
On Sunday morning in London, Kenyan runner Sabastian Sawe crossed the finish line at the London Marathon in 1 hour, 59 minutes, and 30 seconds. For context, that is 4 minutes and 33 seconds per mile. For 26 miles. Sports scientists have been saying this was impossible for decades. They were wrong, just like the people who said Roger Bannister couldn't run a mile in under four minutes back in 1954.
Now Eliud Kipchoge did technically run sub two hours in 2019, but that was a staged exhibition with 41 rotating pacers and a laser-projected line on the road telling him exactly where to run. Impressive, sure. But that wasn't a race.
Oh, and the guy who finished second? Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha threw down a 1:59:41. It was his first competitive marathon. Ever. The first time this man toed the line at a marathon in a competitive setting, he ran it faster than any human being in history, except for the guy 11 seconds ahead of him.
🍽️ Last Bite
🎰 Trivia Breakdown
FDR is remembered for leading America through the Great Depression and World War II, but some argue his finest moment came with the clink of a glass. In 1933, after signing the 21st Amendment and ending thirteen long years of Prohibition, he famously said, “I believe this would be a good time for a beer.” But his real drink of choice was the gin martini, and that’s where things got interesting.
The Roosevelt Martini was infamous among his friends and family. His own grandson called it “the worst” drink he had ever tasted, but that never stopped FDR from mixing another round and occasionally breaking into his old college fight song. Nobody could quite agree on his recipe, though most said it was way too heavy on the vermouth. For a man who rebuilt a nation, his bartending skills left a little room for improvement.
What’d you think of today’s edition? 👇
Pick a Response Below
|
|
Thanks for reading. |