Hours after the Knicks won the 2026 NBA World Championship on Saturday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani shared a simple, three-word post on X. “Parade. Thursday. Manhattan.” The brief message carries almost 140 years of New York City history, with ticker-tape parades celebrating the accomplishments of U.S. heroes, welcoming international leaders, and signifying the end of global disputes. But what is a ticker-tape parade? And what is ticker tape? The first unofficial celebration took place on Oct. 28, 1886, when Wall Street workers spontaneously tossed ticker tape scraps, pieces of paper once used to transmit stock market data through telegraphs, out of...