1943: Women are allowed on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange for the first time in its 151-year history. With so many men off serving in the military, the Exchange allows women to fill some jobs. They are not allowed to trade, of course; but they do get to work as pages and reporters, shuttling other people's orders around the floor of the Exchange.

"Today in NYSE History," at www.nyse.com/about/TodayInNYSE.html

1854: In the very first "Kodak moment," George Eastman, future founder of the photographic industry, is born in Waterville, NY, the son of Maria Kilbourn and George Washington Eastman. His Eastman Kodak Co., which he founds in 1880, will make it possible for anyone to immortalize the most fleeting memories.

1793: The world's first optical telecommunications network is launched, as French engineer Claude Chappe demonstrates his wooden semaphore telegraph, which uses flashes of light to transmit coded signals across distances as great as 100 miles in as little as 45 minutes. Soon, much of France will be connected with optical telegraph towers.

1773: Jonathan's Coffee House, where brokers have met for decades to smoke, drink, and trade stocks and bonds, gets a new and more grandiose name: the London Stock Exchange.

Neil Brazil, press officer, London Stock Exchange.

1730: Josiah Wedgwood is baptized in Burslem, Staffordshire, England, son of potter Thomas Wedgwood. Josiah goes on to become one of the fathers of the Industrial Revolution — an early customer for James Watt's steam engine, designer of one of the world's first assembly lines, developer of the division of labor, fierce opponent of slavery, and grandfather of Charles Darwin.