1980: Yecch! One of the most hated fees in financial history is born, as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission adopts Rule 12b-1, permitting mutual funds to pay for the marketing expenses of selling new shares with the assets of existing shareholders.

William P. Dukes and James B. Wilcox, The Difference between Application and Interpretation of the Law as It Applies to SEC Rule 12b-1 under the Investment Company Act of 1940

1976: More than 184 years after stock trading began on Wall Street, Alice Jarcho becomes the first woman ever to work regularly on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

1955: William H. Gates III, co-founder of Microsoft, is born in Seattle to attorney William H. Gates II and schoolteacher Mary Gates.