1924: Today is the birthday of the American mutual fund industry. The Massachusetts Investors Trust, the first open-end fund, is founded in Boston by Edward G. Leffler, a former aluminum cookware salesman, and investment bankers Hatherly Foster, Jr., and Charles H. Learoyd. The minimum initial purchase of five shares costs $262.50, or $2.50 less than the price of a new Ford Model T runabout.

Jason Zweig, "Look Back and Learn," Money Magazine, April 1999, p. 94.

1868: In London, the prospectus for the earliest known mutual fund is published as the Foreign and Colonial Government Trust offers its shares to the public for 85 pounds sterling. It invests in emerging markets bonds: Argentina, Australia, Chile, Egypt, Peru, Turkey, and (of course) the U.S. Annual management fees are capped at 2,500 pounds, or approximately 0.46%. [The fund, now known as Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust, still exists and is traded on the London Stock Exchange.]

Arthur Scratchley, On Average Investment Trusts and Companies Dealing with Stock Exchange Securities… (Shaw & Sons, London, 1875), pp. 12-15.