1986: Microsoft Corp. goes public at an initial offering price of $21 a share, raising $61 million just one day after Oracle Corp.'s own IPO. Microsoft closes the day at $28.

1928: Amid a buying frenzy for high-tech radio stocks, Radio Corp. of America hits $160 a share in intraday trading, up 33% in just two days.

Frederick Lewis Allen, Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1997, reprint of 1931 ed.), p. 224.

1882: To quell rumors that he is on the verge of bankruptcy, robber baron Jay Gould displays his wealth to journalists assembled in his office. He opens a safe, pulls out a tin box, opens it and holds up certificates for $23 million in Western Union stock, $12 million in Missouri Pacific, $6 million Manhattan Elevated, $2 million in Wabash, and $10 million in various bonds (nearly $1 billion in 2004 dollars). "He offered to show $30 million additional railway stocks, but his visitors had seen enough."

Henry Clews, Twenty -Eight Years in Wall Street (Irving Publishing, New York, 1888), p. 518.