Stock Exchanges in History

Stock Exchanges: NYSE

Historical Events

  • 1775-02-22 1st US joint stock company (to make cloth) offers shares at 10 cents
  • 1830-03-16 New York Stock Exchange slowest day ever (31 shares traded)
  • 1850-04-25 Paul Julius Reuter sets up carrier-pigeon service, using 40 pigeons to carry stock market prices between Aachen and Brussels
  • 1873-01-11 1st livestock market newspaper published, Drover's Journal, Chicago
  • 1873-05-09 Der Krach: Vienna stock market crash heralds the Long Depression
  • 1896-05-26 Dow Jones index begins with an average of 12 industrial stocks (closing is 40.94)

Event of interestEvent of Interest

1907-10-01 A downturn in the stock market leads to a run on the dollar; US President Theodore Roosevelt will be forced to call on financier J. P. Morgan to help manage the financial crisis

Industrialist and Banker J. P. Morgan
Industrialist and Banker
J. P. Morgan
26th US President Theodore Roosevelt
26th US President
Theodore Roosevelt
  • 1919-05-12 The Transvaal British Indian Association calls a mass meeting to organise opposition to the proposed Asiatics (Land and Trading) Amendment Act; in the Act, Transvaal Indians are prohibited from owning shares in limited companies

Another Panic, Another Market CrashAnother Panic, Another Market Crash

1929-10-24 "Black Thursday", start of stock market crash, Dow Jones down 12.8%

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A victim of the Wall Street crash puts his car up for sale in a desperate bid to raise cash
A victim of the Wall Street crash puts his car up for sale in a desperate bid to raise cash
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  • 1929-10-29 "Black Tuesday" Wall Street Stock Market crashes triggering the "Great Depression"
  • 1951-05-15 AT&T becomes the 1st US corporation to have a million stockholders after young car salesman Brady Denton purchases 7 shares worth $1,078
  • 1953-03-28 "Stock exchanges open, dikes closed" raises 5,200,000 guilders
  • 1957-03-04 The S&P 500 stock market index is introduced, replacing the S&P 90.
  • 1962-05-28 US stock market drops $20.8 B in 1 day
  • 1963-04-07 Public stock offering of 115,000 shares in Milwaukee Braves withdrawn after only 13,000 shares are sold to 1,600 new investors
  • 1971-02-08 Nasdaq Composite stock market index debuts with 50 companies and a starting value of 100

  • 1973-10-07 Iraq nationalizes Exxon and Mobil shares in Basrah Petroleum Company representing 23.75 percent equity in the company.
  • 1973-11-19 New York stock market takes sharpest drop in 19 years
  • 1975-12-09 Iraq completes nationalization by taking over the BP, CFP, and Shell shares of the Basrah Petroleum Company
  • 1978-04-17 63,500,000 shares traded on NY stock exchange (record)
  • 1980-12-12 Apple makes its initial public offering on the US stock market - 38 years later it would become the first US company valued at over $1 trillion
  • 1982-08-18 1st time NYSE tops 100 M figure, 132.69 M shares traded
  • 1982-08-18 NYSE sets trading record of 132,690,000 shares traded
  • 1984-08-03 365.7 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange
  • 1984-08-06 203.05 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange
  • 1986-01-02 191.66 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange
  • 1986-01-29 193.8 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange
  • 1986-03-11 187.27 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange
  • 1986-03-12 210.25 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange
  • 1986-03-21 199.22 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange
  • 1986-09-04 189.42 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange
  • 1986-09-11 Dow Jones Industrial Avg suffered biggest 1-day decline ever, plummeting 86.61 points to 1,792.89. 237.57 million shares traded
  • 1986-09-12 240.49 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange
  • 1987-02-11 British Airways begins trading stocks
  • 1987-10-16 338,500,000 shares traded on NY stock exchange (record)
  • 1987-10-19 Black Monday: Stock markets around the world crash, including the Dow Jones stock index, which falls 508.32 points (22%), 4½ times the previous daily record

  • 1987-10-20 Dow-Jones increases 102.27 pts/608,120,000 shares traded (record)
  • 1989-08-16 A solar flare from the Sun creates a geomagnetic storm that affects micro chips, leading to a halt of all trading on Toronto's stock market.
  • 1993-10-06 Sydney Australia Stock Market index above 2000, for 1st time
  • 2000-03-10 The NASDAQ Composite stock market index peaks at 5132.52, signalling the beginning of the end of the dot-com boom
  • 2008-01-21 Black Monday in worldwide stock markets. FTSE 100 had its biggest ever one-day points fall, European stocks closed with their worst result since 9/11, and Asian stocks drop as much as 15%.
  • 2008-10-24 "Bloody Friday" saw many of the world's stock exchanges experienced the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices.
  • 2012-06-04 Japan's stock market plummets to record lows with the S&P/TOPIX 150 reaching its lowest level since 1983

Event of interestEvent of Interest

2013-04-23 A 1% flash crash hits the US stock market after a news agency was hacked and claimed injury to President Obama

44th US President Barack Obama
44th US President
Barack Obama
  • 2015-08-24 China stock market's "Black Monday", Shanghai Composite loses 8.5%, sending other international markets lower
  • 2016-04-26 CEO of Chobani, Hamdi Ulukaya, announces that he will be giving his employees 10% of the shares in Chobani

Event of interestEvent of Interest

2018-01-10 Jeff Bezos becomes the second man worth over $100 billion as his wealth hits $106 billion due to a rise in Amazon's share price

Amazon Entrepreneur Jeff Bezos
Amazon Entrepreneur
Jeff Bezos
  • 2018-07-26 Facebook has the single worst day of any public company on the stock market - losing 19% or $119 billion market value
  • 2018-11-20 Sell-off in technology stocks leads stock market losses wiping out all 2018 market gains

Event of interestEvent of Interest

2019-01-02 Apple CEO Tim Cook blames below expectation Chinese iPhone sales for downturn in company's outlook, rocking international stock markets

CEO of Apple Tim Cook
CEO of Apple
Tim Cook
  • 2019-06-20 Shares for messaging site Slack start trading on the New York Stock Exchange to give it a valuation of $19.5 billion
  • 2019-07-11 US stock markets reach new records, the Dow tops 27,000 points for the first time and the S&P 500 hits 3,000 points

Famous Birthdays

  • 1906-02-09 André Kostolany, stock market expert and speculator (d. 1999)

Famous Deaths

  • 2002-10-03 Robert Krausz, Stock market advisor and investor (b. 1936)