Stock Market Timeline

This stock market timeline is for anyone interested on how the stock market came to be in the United States.

1602 - The first company (Dutch East India) issued stocks. It paid an 18% dividend and had 358 shareholders.

1789 - Alexander Hamilton because the first Secretary of Treasure in the US. During his term he would start the US stock exchange by selling government debt on Wall Street.

1792- a group of stock brokers meet to sign the “Button Agreement” stating the rules of security transaction.

1817 - NYSE is formally established.

1829 - Daily stock market volume reaches 5000 for the first time in history.

1869 - “Black Friday” was created as a group of gold speculators lead by Jake Cook and Jim Fiske tried to cover the gold market. This set off a great panic.

1873-Jay Cooke and Company Brokerage firm fails leading to the panic of 1873.

1877-Jesse Livermore “The greatest trader who ever lived” was born.

1878 - 1st telephone established in the NYSE building.

1884-Grand Ward Brokerage Firm goes under leading to the collapse of 15 other firms.

1886 - Trading volume on the NYSE reaches 1 million.

1907 - The panic of 1907 threatens to destroy the stock exchange.

1920s - The roaring 20s hit causing people to believe stocks could no longer go down.

1928 - Alexander Graham Bell began teaching his new theory called Value Investing.

1929 “Black Monday” was the largest single day loss up to that point. The stock market fell 22.6%.

1932 - Dow Jones was down 89% from its peak, the worst decline ever.

1987 - The worst 1 day drop in history. The stock market was down 22.91%.

2000 - Dot com bubble burst leading to a bears market.

2003 - Bottom hits

2007 - Financial Crisis hits the US leading to the failure of many large corporations such as General Motors, Fannie and Freddie, Countrywide, and IndyMac.

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