1883: John Maynard Keynes, who ends up doing more than any other individual to undo the legacy of Adam Smith, is born in Cambridge, England. Between World War I and World War II, Keynes devises the theories that lead to massive government intervention in economies around the world. His criticisms of free markets, however, do not deter him from making a small fortune on the stock market.

1723: Adam Smith, the intellectual father of capitalism, is baptized in Kirkaldy, County Fife, Scotland, son of the widow of a local customs officer who had died five months earlier. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but Smith's Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, lives on as the manifesto of capitalism.