1993: Apple Computer boss John Sculley makes the stunning announcement that he will become chairman and CEO of a tiny wireless outfit, Spectrum Information Technologies, Inc., whose stock instantly soars by $248.5 million. Sculley signs on after a Spectrum executive sends a fax from a handheld Apple Newton to Sculley's fax machine without a phone line. But the awestruck Sculley forgets to do his homework: Spectrum is being accused of securities fraud, has been scolded by AT&T for issuing a misleading press release, and is tied to notorious stock promoter Rafi Khan. Four months later, Sculley flees Spectrum like a man running from a burning house.

The New York Times, October 19, 1993, p. D1

1937: On word of cutbacks in government spending and rumors that the Roosevelt administration will crack down on Wall Street, the stock market crashes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average loses 10.57 points, or 7.8%, to close the day at 125.73. Suddenly, Roosevelt's proposed reforms of the New York Stock Exchange don't seem like such a bad idea.

John Brooks, Once in Golconda: A True Drama of Wall Street, 1920-1938 (Harper & Row, New York, 1969), p. 243;Phyllis S. Pierce, ed., The Dow Jones Averages 1885-1980 (DowJones Irwin, Homewood, IL, 1982), not paginated

1931: President Herbert Hoover announces the creation of an unemployment-relief commission to cast sunshine into the habitations of despair." He also uses the word "depression" to describe the U.S. economy adding that it "has deepened by events from abroad which are beyond the control of either our citizens or our government."

Edward Angly, Oh Yeah? (Fraser Publishing Co., Burlington, VT, 1992 ed.), p. 19