1985: The U.S. government begins allowing Treasury securities to be carved up, creating "STRIPS," or Separate Trading of Registered Interest and Principal of Securities. Investors can now hedge much more easily against changes in interest rates by trading either the interest or the principal portion of a given bond, vastly increasing the liquidity of the government bond market.

Mark Grinblatt and Francis A. Longstaff, "Financial Innovation and the Role of Derivative Securities: an Empirical Analysis of the Treasury STRIPS Program," Journal of Finance, June, 2000, p. 1417.

1966: "Gunslinging" fund manager Gerald Tsai opens his Manhattan Fund, hoping to raise $25 million. Frenzied investors, whipped up by his 49.5% return the year before at Fidelity Capital Fund, pour $247 million into the Manhattan Fund before it even opens. In 1967, Manhattan gains 39.4% — then goes on to lose a disastrous 76.3% by the end of 1974. As always, the people who chase the hottest returns are the ones who get burned the worst.

John Brooks, The Go-Go Years (Weybright & Talley, New York, 1973), pp. 145-147;Joseph Nocera, A Piece of the Action: How the Middle Class Joined the Money Class (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1994), pp. 50-52;Jason Zweig, "Look Back and Learn," Money, April, 1999, p. 95.

1809: Cyrus Hall McCormick is born on a farm in Rockbridge County, VA. He goes on to perfect the mechanical reaper — the technological breakthrough that turns the Midwestern plains of the U.S. into the breadbasket of the world.