1810: Phineas Taylor Barnum, America's first marketing genius, is born in Bethel, Conn., to Philo and Irena Taylor Barnum. He later founds Barnum's American Museum, full of curiosities and "freaks"; brings singer Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale, to the U.S. for the first great concert tour; creates a sensation with the 25-inch-tall dwarf, Gen. Tom Thumb; buys Jumbo the Elephant, giving the English language a new synonym for "big"; and, in 1870, creates what becomes the Barnum & Bailey Circus. He never, however, says "There's a sucker born every minute."

1784: Bank of Massachusetts, ancestor of FleetBoston Financial (now a part of Bank of America), is founded by a group of leading businessmen including James Bowdoin and John Hancock. The bank prints its own currency and closes for business only one day a year (Commencement Day at Harvard College).