1992: America Online, Inc. goes public on NASDAQ at the original price of $11.50.

1792: Wall Street has its first major crash in history, on "Black Monday," as 6% Treasury bonds lose 10% of their value and shares in the Bank of the United States drop 12%. Speculator William Duer, a friend of Alexander Hamilton, has borrowed too much money and is about to be thrown in debtors' prison, spreading panic through the cobblestone streets of downtown Manhattan.

Richard Sylla, "William Duer and the Stock Market Crash of 1792," Friends of Financial History, No. 46 (1992), pp. 26-29.

1720: Shares in the South Sea Co., the hot new seller of speculative annuities, take off on the sharpest upswing the young British stock market has ever seen, rocketing from 218 to 320 by March 21 on rumors of financial chaos in France. But by year-end the shares will be nearly worthless, and investors will nearly beat several stockbrokers to death.

John Carswell, The South Sea Bubble (The Cresset Press, London, 1960), pp. 120, 201, 210.