2001: The NASDAQ, after slumping as low as 1619.58, finishes the day at 1638.80, down an astonishing 67.5% since its record high of 5048.62 just over one year earlier. Lucent Technologies hits $6.75, down from its 52-week high of $62.98, as Wall Street buzzes with rumors that Lucent is about to go bankrupt. Three other tech companies — Broadbase Software, Metawave Communications, and Onyx Software — lose at least 40% apiece on earnings disappointments. Could things get any worse? Evidently not; over the next two months, the NASDAQ gains 31.6%.

The Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2001, pp. C1, C2, C6, and June 5, 2001, p. A10,

2000: Wall Street has one of its wildest days ever. The NASDAQ drops 574.57 points, or 13.6%, by lunchtime and the Dow falls 503.53 points, or 4.5%. Both indexes struggle back, with the NASDAQ closing at 4148.89, off 74.79, and the Dow finishing at 11,165, down 57.09. Analysts just shrug: "A lot of the nervous Nellies have fled," says Marshall Acuff of Salomon Smith Barney. "The fundamentals have not changed for technology stocks," insists Thomas Galvin of Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette. "At midday," declares Charles Pradilla of S.G. Cowen & Co., "we saw the beginning of the end of this correction in technology stocks." Make that the beginning of the beginning: By yearend, NASDAQ falls 40.5% more, to 2470.52.

The Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2000, pp. A1, C1, C2;USA Today, April 5, 2000, pp. 1B, 4B, 5B.

1996: AT&T Corp. spins off 112 million shares of Lucent Technologies Inc. at an initial price of $27 per share, raising $3.02 billion in what is, so far, the biggest IPO of all time. The issue is four to five times oversubscribed, meaning investors are seeking to buy at least four shares for each one that's actually available — even though the offering price has been jacked up from the early estimate of $22 to $25. More than 42 million shares are traded, accounting for 11% of the day's volume on the New York Stock Exchange, and Lucent closes at $30.625, up 13.4%. Five years later, Lucent is at $6.75 — or, after adjusting for two 2-for-1 splits, $27 per share. Despite (or because of) investors' early enthusiasm, the stock has gone exactly nowhere.

The Wall Street Journal, April 5, 1996, p. C1, and April 3, 1996, p. C1

1877: The world's first regular telephone line, connecting Charles Williams' metalworking shop on Court Street in Boston with his home in Somerville, Mass., goes into service. "I went into his office this afternoon," marvels Alexander Graham Bell, "and found him talking to his wife by telephone. He seemed as delighted as could be." The opening of the phone line causes a sensation in the Boston press, and within weeks Bell is signing up his first paying customers.

Robert V. Bruce, Bell: Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1990), p. 228.

1808: U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin submits his "Report on Roads and Canals" to Congress. In it he argues that the federal government should give financial support to the creation of a nationwide network of "artificial roads" and canals. His initial proposal: $20 million in financing. Although Gallatin's recommendations were only partially followed, they set the precedent for massive government funding of canals and railroads over the coming decades.

Robert Sobel, The Money Manias: The Eras of Great Speculation in America, 1770-1970 (Weybright and Talley, New York, 1973), pp. 40-42