1982: It's Friday the 13th, and one of the greatest bull markets of all time begins — but no one believes it is happening. The Federal Reserve cuts its discount rate by a half-point to 10.5%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumps 11.13 points from the previous day's level of 776.92, closing at 788.05. Ronald Koenig of Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co., tells The New York Times that the Dow Jones Industrial Average "could drop to as low as the 730 to 740 level before any meaningful recovery takes place." Kenneth G. Catanella of E.F. Hutton & Co. tells the Wall Street Journal that the market is in the grip of "outright capitulation and panic selling by both large and small investors."

Phyllis S. Pierce, ed., The Dow Jones Averages 1885-1985 (DowJones Irwin, Homewood, IL, 1986), not paginated;The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 13, 1982, p. 33;The New York Times, August 13, 1982, pp. D1, D6

1981: Pres. Ronald Reagan signs into law the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, the biggest tax cut in American history, which streamlines the Federal income tax brackets, lowers the top rate to 36%, and creates the universally-deductible Individual Retirement Account.

1979: BusinessWeek's cover proclaims THE DEATH OF EQUITIES: "Only the elderly, who have not understood the changes in the nation's financial markets, or who are unable to adjust to them, are sticking with stocks…. the U.S. economy probably has to regard the death of equities as a near-permanent condition — reversible some day, but not soon…. It turns out that this "near-permanent condition" will last three years to the day.