1973: The members of the Ministerial Committee of the Gulf Members of OPEC, meeting in Kuwait, announce an immediate hike in the price of crude oil to $5.12 a barrel, to exercise their sovereign right to determine the price of their natural resources."

1929: Yale professor Irving Fisher, probably the foremost economist in the U.S., declares: Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau…. I expect to see the stock market a good deal higher than it is today within a few months." By 1932 stocks lose 87.7% of their value — and the Dow does not rise above the level of Oct. 16 1929 until June 29, 1954 a mere quarter-century after Prof. Fisher said it would."

Edward Angly, Oh Yeah? (Fraser Publishing Co., Burlington, VT, 1992 ed.), p. 38;Phyllis S. Pierce, ed., The Dow Jones Averages 1885-1980 (DowJones Irwin, Homewood, IL, 1982), not paginated

1878: Thomas Alva Edison, backed by J.P. Morgan, establishes the Edison Electric Light Co. to commercialize his month-old incandescent light.

1833: The New York Stock Exchange hikes up its initiation fee for new members to $150 (or more than $3,100 in today's money).