1995: The Foundation for New Era Philanthropy — which had claimed to match (2 for 1) the money it raised for charities from such wealthy donors as investor Sir John Templeton, former U.S. Treasury Secretary William E. Simon and ex-Goldman Sachs co-chairman John C. Whitehead — files for bankruptcy protection as founder John G. Bennett confesses the whole thing was a Ponzi scheme. (Even the world's richest and smartest people sometimes forget that "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.")

Martin S. Fridson, It Was a Very Good Year: Extraordinary Moments in Stock Market History (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1998), p. 188.

1941: The world's first successful jet aircraft, a Gloster E28/39 powered by a W1 engine designed by Frank Whittle, takes off and lands at Farnborough, England.

1911: The Supreme Court upholds the U.S. government's decision to break up John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Co. on the grounds that it is such a powerful monopoly that it violates the "rule of reason."

Ron Chernow, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (Random House, 1998), pp. 554-555.

1878: The Tokyo Stock Exchange Co., Ltd., is established, primarily to trade bonds.