2000: Total trading volume for the day on NASDAQ tops 2 billion shares for the first time, as 2,008,438,100 shares change hands and the NASDAQ Composite Index closes above 4500 for the first time, finishing the day at 4548.92.

1874: Thomas J. Watson is born in Campbell, NY. After working as a bookkeeper, an itinerant peddler of musical instruments, and a salesman for NCR, he becomes the dynamic head of IBM who helps computerize the modern world. His famous motto, "THINK," is shortened from his favorite remark, " 'I didn't think' has cost the world millions of dollars."

1753: The earliest known description of an electrical telegraph, entitled "An expeditious method for conveying intelligence," is published in Scots' Magazine. The author, identified only as "C.M." from the Scottish town of Renfrew, proposes a series of 24 wires, each attached to a small copper ball that will activate a letter of the alphabet at the other end of the wire when an electric current is transmitted. C.M. seems to suggest in his (her?) letter that the system has already been tested experimentally, but nothing more is known of its fate.