On 1 February 2003 the Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart while re-entering the atmosphere over Texas and Louisiana, killing all seven astronauts aboard. The mission, STS-107, was the 28th flight of the orbiter and was devoted mainly to scientific research in a laboratory module in the cargo bay. During launch, a piece of insulating foam broke off the external fuel tank and struck the thermal protection tiles on the left wing. Foam shedding had happened on earlier flights, sometimes causing minor damage, but some engineers suspected that this strike was more serious. During re-entry, hot gases entered the damaged wing and destroyed its internal structure, causing the orbiter to become unstable and disintegrate. The disaster was the second loss of a shuttle after Challenger in 1986. NASA suspended shuttle flights for more than two years and changed its procedures, adding in-orbit inspections and rescue readiness, and shuttle flights afterwards were limited to the International Space Station.

In 1909 D. W. Griffith made a 14-minute film about a speculator who corners the wheat market and doubles the price of bread. A farmer sows his field while a 'Wheat King' gambles in the Chicago wheat pit; bakers raise the loaf from five cents to ten and the poor line up for bread. Griffith cut back and forth between the farm, the feast and the breadline, a technique called parallel editing, so audiences saw both ends of the economy at once. The film drew on Frank Norris's stories and on a real scheme: months earlier Chicago financier James Patten had cornered wheat, sent bread prices up and made about $5 million, roughly $185 million today.