Stuff You Missed in History Class

In the 1950s, two men tried to corner the market on onions on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and manipulate futures contracts. Then Congress took up legislation to expressly forbid contracts for the sale of onion futures.
Research:
Butz, Earl L. “VINCENT W KOSUGA, SAM S. SIEGEL, AND NATIONAL PRODUCE DISTRIBUTORS, INC.” Docket 73. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. CEA Cases. 6/18/1956. https://www.cftc.gov/sites/default/files/idc/groups/public/@lrceacases/documents/ceacases/kosuga-jun1956-644.pdf
Chicago Tribune. “Chicago Onion Dealer Named for Price Fix.” 6/22/1956. Page 43.
Chicago Tribune. “Siegel Denies Manipulating Onion Futures.” 6/22/1956. Page 43.
Commodity Exchange Authority. “Futures Trading in Onions.” United States Department of Agriculture. December 1956.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission. “History of the CFTC.” https://www.cftc.gov/About/HistoryoftheCFTC/history_precftc.html
Commodity Futures Trading Commission. “VINCENT W. KOSUGA, SAM S. SIEGEL, AND NATIONAL PRODUCE DISTRIBUTORS, INC.” Decision and Order. 6/3/1960. https://www.cftc.gov/sites/default/files/idc/groups/public/@lrceacases/documents/ceacases/kosuga-jun1960-555.pdf
Lambert, Emily. “The Futures: the Rise of the Speculator and the Origins of the World’s Biggest Markets.” Basic Books. 2011.
Miller, Rena S. “Introduction to Derivatives and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.” U.S. Congress. Report. 3/13/2025. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48451
Mininger, Wayne. “Public Comment: Agricultural Commodity Definition, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Final Rule: Pages 25-26.” SEC. https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-16-11/s71611-13.pdf
NPR Planet Money. “Episode 657: The Tale Of The Onion King.” 10/14/2015. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/10/14/448718171/episode-657-the-tale-of-the-onion-king
Romer, Keith and Robert Smith. “The tale of the Onion King (Update).” NPR Planet Money. 6/22/2022. https://www.npr.org/2022/06/22/1106861476/the-tale-of-the-onion-king-update
Romer, Keith. “The Great Onion Corner And The Futures Market.” NPR Planet Money/Morning Edition. 10/22/2015. https://www.npr.org/2015/10/22/450769853/the-great-onion-corner-and-the-futures-market
S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. “Vincent W. Kosuga, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Jack H. Kelly, Defendant-appellant, 257 F.2d 48 (7th Cir. 1958).” October 13, 1958. https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/257/48/78496/
S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. “Chicago Mercantile Exchange v. Tieken, 178 F. Supp. 779 (N.D. Ill. 1959).” 12/2/1959. https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/178/779/1642330/
S. Supreme Court. “Kelly v. Kosuga, 358 U.S. 516 (1959).” 2/24/1959. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/358/516/
Warwick Valley Dispatch. “Vince Kosuga to be Named Pine Island Citizen of the ” 10/14/1987. https://www.pineislandny.com/Scrapbook/0048_sp_sm.pdf
Binghamton Press Bureau. “Both Engines Are Torn Off as Ship Makes Forced Landing.” Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin. Page 1. 9/7/1948.
Roesch, Roberta Fleming. “Couple’s Success Recipe: ‘We Know Our Onions.’” Wilkes-Barre Record. Page 9. 10/23/1964.
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This 2022 episode covers Helen Duncan, sometimes described inaccurately as Scotland’s last witch, or the last person imprisoned for witchcraft in Britain, or the last person to be tried under the UK’s 1735 Witchcraft Act.
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Tracy shares her surprise at discovering some of the details of Montague Summers's life. Holly talks about bickering within the Society for Psychical Research.
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Major Edward Moor reported strange bell ringing at his home in Great Bealings in 1834. Was it a poltergeist, a hoax, or something else?
Research:
Briggs, Stacia, and Siofra Connor. “Weird Suffolk: Poltergeist activity at Great Bealings.” East Anglia Daily Times. Feb. 1, 2019. https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/21445662.weird-suffolk-poltergeist-activity-great-bealings/
Britannica Editors. "Mysore Wars". Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Feb. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/event/Mysore-Wars
Cohen, Daniel. “In Search of Ghosts.” Dodd, Mead. 1972. https://openlibrary.org/books/OL5708323M/In_search_of_ghosts.
Hall, Trevor Henry. “New Light on Old Ghosts.” London. Gerald Duckworth & Co. 1965.
Moor, Edward. “Hindu Infanticide.” London. J. Johnson. 1811. Accessed online: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=W7YIAAAAQAAJ&rdid=book-W7YIAAAAQAAJ&rdot=1
Moor, Edward. “The Hindu Pantheon.” London. 1810. Accessed online: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc1.cu58661581&seq=7
Moor, Edward. “Suffolk Words and Phrases: Or, An Attempt to Collect the Lingual Localisms of that County. 1823. J. Loder. London. Accessed online: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=6BMLAAAAQAAJ&rdid=book-6BMLAAAAQAAJ&rdot=1
Moor, Edward. “Bealings Bells: The Suffolk Poltergeist Mystery.” Woodbridge. John Loder. 1841. (Reprint.)
Moor, Edward. “To the Editor of the Ipswich Journal.” Ipswich Journal. March 1, 1834. https://www.newspapers.com/image/390311876/?match=1&terms=Bealings&search-id=adc3c27c-67f1-4077-9a3e-ee9434b6159f&search-rank=6
Podmore, Frank. “On Poltergeists.” Journal of Society for Psychical Research. June 1899. https://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/wallace/zPodmore1899JSocPsyRes2.pdf
Stephen, Leslie, ed. “Dictionary of National Biography.” Volume 38. 1885-1900. Accessed online: https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofnati38stepuoft
“To the Editor of the Ipswich Journal.” Ipswich Journal. March 8, 1834. https://www.newspapers.com/image/390311986/?match=1&terms=Bealings&search-id=89f037b5-7abe-4ea6-a92e-093ecb6de2e6&search-rank=2
Willin, M. “Trevor Hall.” Psi Encyclopedia. 2021. https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/trevor-hall
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Montague Summers wrote numerous books on witches, werewolves, vampires, black magic, and ghosts, and he edited and published numerous works and claimed to be a clergyman. But who was he, really?
Research:
"(Alphonsus) (Joseph-Mary Augustus) Montague Summers." Merriam Webster's Biographical Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, 1995. Gale OneFile: Fine Arts, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1680086368/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=03e855eb. Accessed 7 Oct. 2026.
Babcock, R.W. “The Reverend Montague Summers as Editor of Otway.” PMLA, Vol. 48, No. 3 (Sep., 1933). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/458356
Batley, Rebecca. “A Sacred Order for Sexual Outsiders.” G&LR. March-April 2025. https://glreview.org/article/a-sacred-order-for-sexual-outsiders/
Britannica Editors. "Oxford movement". Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Aug. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/event/Oxford-movement. Accessed 8 October 20
Davies, Robertson. "Summers, (Augustus) Montague [name in religion Alphonsus Joseph-Mary] (1880–1948), literary scholar, occultist, and eccentric." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. October 04, 2012. Oxford University Press. Date of access 7 Oct. 2026, https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-39387
De Beer, E.S. “Mr. Montague Summers and Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy.” The Review of English Studies , Oct., 1932, Vol. 8, No. 32 (Oct., 1932). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/508177
Doherty, Bernard. “From Decadent Diabolist to Roman Catholic Demonologist: Some Biographical Curiosities from Montague Summers’ Black Folio.” Literature & Aesthetics 30 (2) 2020.
Frank, Frederick S., editor. “Montague Summers : a bibliographical portrait.” Montague Summers : a bibliographical portrait. 1988.
Hillard, David. “UnEnglish and Unmanly: Anglo-Catholicism and Homosexuality.” Victorian Studies, Winter, 1982, pp. 181-210. https://anglicanhistory.org/academic/hilliard_unenglish.pdf
Hume, Robert D. “The Uses of Montague Summers: A Pioneer Reconsidered.” Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660-1700, Fall 1979. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43291376
Learning Services Team. “The Mysterious Montague Summers.” London Borough of Richmond and Thames Libraries. 10/31/2017. https://libraryblog.lbrut.org.uk/2017/10/montague-summers/
Montague Summers Papers, GTM-110501. Georgetown University Manuscripts. https://findingaids.library.georgetown.edu/repositories/15/resources/12229 Accessed October 07, 2026.
O'Sullivan, Gerard. “The Manuscripts of Montague Summers, Revisited.” Antigonish Review, Fall 2009, Issue 159.
Sugg, Richard. “Blood Libel: The Origins of a Conspiracy Theory.” History Today. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/blood-libel-origins-conspiracy-theory
Summers, Montague. “The Vampire In Europe True Tales Of The Undead.” With foreword by Father Brocard Sewell. University Books. 1968.
Summers, Montague. “The Vampire, His Kith and Kin.” New Hyde Park, N.Y., University Books. 1960.
"The mysterious Montague Summers." Bristol Post [Bristol, England], 14 Apr. 2020, p. 8. Gale OneFile: News, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A675410096/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=28734f51. Accessed 7 Oct. 2026.
Weeks, Jeffrey. “Coming Out: Homosexual Politics in Britain from the Nineteenth Century to the Present.” London. Quartet Books. 1977.
Workman, Richard et al. “British Sexological Society: An Inventory of Its Records at the Harry Ransom Center.” Harry Ransom Center. https://research.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadID=01214
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