September 29, 1952: The New York Stock Exchange ended the Saturday trading session to create a five day work-week. To even out the reduced number of days, a half hour was added to the close of the Monday-Friday trading sessions. That made the sessions open from 10AM -3:30PM. Sources: MarketWatch, Friends of Business History Read Read More …
September 25, 1986: Honeywell announced partnership discussions to join one of its computer operations with the Japanese firm NEC and France’s Groupe Bull. This consolidation was in part due to IBM’s large market size, controlling over 50% in 1986. According to a company official quoted in the New York Times, ”We can’t deal with computers Read More …
September 24, 1936: Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, was born in Greenville, Mississippi. His passion for puppets started in high school, and he would go on to create lovable characters such as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Bert & Ernie, and Oscar the Grouch. His organizations The Jim Henson Company and the Jim Henson Read More …
September 15, 2008: After arduous but unsuccessful negotiations with the federal government and the leading investment banks of the world, Lehman Brothers files for the largest bankruptcy in American history. The company was originally founded in Montgomery, AL in 1850, and moved to New York City in 1869. The bankruptcy blindsided the American economy, leading Read More …
August 29 1997: Netflix was founded in Los Gatos, CA. They mailed DVDs in little red envelopes, with a huge collection of movies and tv shows to choose from. Ten years later, in 2007, Netflix started offering subscribers the option to stream movies online. Sources: 6 Famous Companies That Launched in Summer (so Don’t Take Time Read More …
August 23, 1956: The “Picture Phone,” an experimental product from Bell Labs, sent picture along with sound over telephone lines. The 2”x3” screen allowed individuals to see each other talking. They let the public experiment with this product much later at the 1964 New York World’s Fair – with eight picture phones letting visitors call neighboring booths. Read More …
August 22, 1966: In St. Paul, Minnesota, a small store called Sound of Music opened its doors to customers in late August of 1966. Fifty years later, Best Buy (the company changed its name in 1983) is a multinational retailer with nearly $40 billion in annual revenue. Source: Company Website Read more from the Goizueta Read More …
August 3, 1811: It’s the birthday of Elisha Graves Otis, born 205 years ago in Halifax, Vt. who found his inspiration while working in a Yonkers, N.Y., factory that needed to move heavy equipment to its upper floor. Using a hoist came with the risk of equipment crashing to the ground if the cable broke, so Read More …
July 31, 1912: Milton Friedman is born in Brooklyn, NY. Friedman, winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize for Economics, is best known for his scholarship on the free market economy and monetary policy, namely the quantity theory of money which states that the amount of money in circulation has a direct and proportional relationship to prices. Sources: Milton Friedman: A Read More …
July 23, 1903: The freshly incorporated Ford Motor Company sells its very first Model A, ushering in a new era of transportation for Americans. Having spent nearly all of its initial cash investment of $28,000 prior to its first sale, in less than two months, the company profited $37,000. Source: Ford Motor Company Website Read Read More …
