1728: Matthew Boulton is born near Birmingham, England, the son of a hardware dealer. Boulton later establishes the Soho Manufactory to produce buckles, buttons, Sheffield plate (silver-coated copperware) and copper coins for the Royal Mint and the East India Co. In 1768-1769 he becomes fascinated with James Watt’s steam engine, uses it to power his factory, and soon forms a partnership with Watt to sell steam engines to other entrepreneurs (including Robert Fulton, father of the steamboat, and potter Josiah Wedgwood).
1929: On a sweltering 94-degree day, the steamy canyons of lower Manhattan are full of stock speculators back from the Labor Day hiatus. The Dow Jones Industrial Average peaks at 381.17, setting a new all-time high and closing up 27.1% for the year to date. Volume is a blistering 4.43 million shares. Radio Corp. of America, the hottest growth stock of them all, closes at $505 a share, up from $94.50 just 18 months earlier. Unfortunately, the Dow will not surpass this day’s closing price for another quarter-century; it finally rises above 381.17 on November 23, 1954. When you hear about “stocks for the long run,” do you realize how long “long” can be?
1946: The S&P index plunges by 6.73%, leading the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to appoint an investigative task force that concludes that the crash was caused when believers in the Dow Theory of technical analysis all sold at once.
1720: After hitting nearly 1,000 in the summer, the price of South Sea Co. stock plunges to 180 a share on the London stock market. The first great speculative stock boom has collapsed--and hundreds of the smartest and most powerful people in England are left with losses of up to 80% in a matter of weeks. One legislator proposes tying each South Sea director up in a sack with a monkey and a snake, and throwing him into the river; angry mobs assault and nearly lynch stockbrokers in the streets; and an investor who laughs at a joke is knocked off his feet in Exchange Alley.
1882: The first hydroelectric power plant goes into service in Appleton, Wisc., turning the falling water of the Fox River into electricity that powers H.F. Rogers’ paper mill and lights up two neighboring buildings.
1958: The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index closes above 50 for the first time, finishing the day at 50.06.
1981: Uncle Sam issues new 20-year Treasury bonds at a 15.78% yield, an all-time record-high interest rate for any U.S. government issue. Analysts say they expect that yields will have to go higher “to attract stronger demand.” Yields promptly begin going down, and keep going down for the next twelve years.
1985: The New York Stock Exchange moves up the opening of the trading day from 10 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
|
