2000: U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson issues a final ruling finding that Microsoft Corp. had violated Federal antitrust law. Microsoft stock plunges 14.5%, shedding $80 billion in market value, and the NASDAQ suffers one of its worst days ever, plunging 349.15 points, or 7.6%.

The Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2000, pp. A1, A12, C1, C22.

1948: The U.S. Congress passes (and Pres. Harry S. Truman immediately signs) the Marshall Plan to finance the reconstruction of Western Europe after the devastation of World War II–helping to keep Communism at bay and laying the groundwork for the global economic boom of the 1950s.

1860: The Pony Express takes off at a gallop, as riders simultaneously set out riding west from St. Joseph, Mo. (the nation's most westerly telegraph terminal) and east from Sacramento, Calif. The riders reach the opposite cities, nearly 2,000 miles apart, just ten days later–cutting the time it takes news to travel across the continent from more than two months to less than two weeks. What's more, the Pony Express proves to railroad and telegraph companies alike that a transcontinental link is feasible. However, the Pony Express loses hundreds of thousands of dollars and soon goes bankrupt.