1960: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela convene in Baghdad to form the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which nearly brings the industrial world to its knees in the 1970s by jacking up the price of oil.

1846: Elias Howe patents his sewing machine, which can buzz 250 stitches across a bolt of cloth in a single minute–outracing the fastest human hands by a factor of five.

1831: The Madrid Stock Exchange (La Bolsa de Madrid) is established.

Museum of American Financial History

1711: The South Sea Company is chartered in London to trade with Latin America, sell annuities and manage the public debt. It shortly becomes the heart of the greatest speculative boom Britain has ever seen, as the stock rises more than 800% in a few months in 1720–and then, just as quickly, the worst bust in British history, as it loses roughly 80% of its value in a matter of weeks.

John Carswell, The South Sea Bubble (The Cresset Press, London, 1960), p. 57.