1997: Amazon.com, Inc. goes public on the NASDAQ, offering 3 million shares at an initial price of $18 per share.

1884: The Panic of 1884 hits as railroad stocks crash amid price competition and excess capacity. Two leading commercial banks and an investment bank, Grant & Ward (in which former Pres. Ulysses S. Grant was a partner) go bust after lending massively to stock speculators buying on margin. Interest rates hit 4% a day, and "all securities were unsalable, unless at ruinous rates." Losses are estimated at $240 million (roughly $4.5 billion in today's money).

Clement Juglar, A Brief History of Panics (G.P. Putnam's, New York, 1916;reprinted, Fraser Publishing Co., Burlington, VT, 1993), pp. 102-107;Henry Clews, Twenty -Eight Years in Wall Street (Irving Publishing, New York, 1888), p. 520.