1995: The NASDAQ Composite Index rises 6.56 points to close at 1005.89, its first finish above the 1000 barrier.

1861: The first paper money payable on demand, whose color gives our bills the nickname "greenbacks," is issued by the U.S. government.

1763: John Jacob Astor is born in Waldorf, Germany. He immigrates to the U.S. in 1783, founding the American Fur Co., one of the first large corporations to open the Western frontiers to trading. Astor ends up buying large tracts of real estate on Manhattan Island and, at his death in 1848, is the richest man in the U.S.