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October 1, 1879

New home for NYSE

An American legend goes on sale

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October 2, 1922

NYSE's new home

Thurgood Marshall sworn in

Chief Justice Earl Warren swears in Thurgood Marshall, the first black justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. As chief counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the 1940s and '50s, Marshall was the architect and executor of the legal strategy that ended the era of official racial segregation.

The great-grandson of a slave, Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1908. After being rejected from the University of Maryland Law School on account of his race, he was accepted at all-black Howard University in Washington, D.C. At Howard, he studied under the tutelage of civil liberties lawyer Charles H. Houston and in 1933 graduated first in his class. In 1936, he joined the legal division of the NAACP, of which Houston was director, and two years later succeeded his mentor in the organization's top legal post.

As the NAACP's chief counsel from 1938 to 1961, he argued more than a dozen cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, successfully challenging racial segregation, most notably in public education. He won nearly all of these cases, including a groundbreaking victory in 1954's Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, in which the Supreme Court ruled that segregation violated the equal rights clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution and was thus illegal. The decision served as a great impetus for the civil rights movement and ultimately led to the abolishment of segregation in all public facilities and accommodations.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals, but his nomination was opposed by many Southern senators, and he was not confirmed until the following year. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson appointed Marshall to be solicitor general of the United States. In this position, he again successfully argued cases before the Supreme Court, this time on behalf of the U.S. government.

On June 13, 1967, Johnson nominated Marshall to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark. Of his decision to appoint Marshall, Johnson said it was "the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man, and the right place." After a heated debate, the Senate confirmed Marshall's nomination by a vote of 69 to 11 on August 30. Marshall was officially sworn in to the nation's highest court at the opening ceremony of the Supreme Court term on October 2.

During his 24 years on the high court, Associate Justice Marshall consistently challenged discrimination based on race or sex, opposed the death penalty, and vehemently defended affirmative action. He supported the rights of criminal defendants and defended the right to privacy. As appointments by a largely Republican White House changed the ideology of the Supreme Court, Marshall found his liberal views increasingly in the minority. He retired in 1991 because of declining health and died in 1993.

October 2, 1975

Retail giant goes belly-up

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October 3, 1776

A costly revolution

Ford workers strike again

The United Auto Workers (UAW) called the first company-wide strike against Ford Motor Company since the Ford's first union contract was signed in 1941. During the late 1930s, Ford was the last of the Big Three auto firms still holding out against unionization, and it employed strong-arm tactics to suppress any union activity. In 1937, tension between Ford and its workers came to a head at the "Battle of the Overpass," an infamous event where Ford's dreaded security force beat union organizers attempting to pass out UAW leaflets along the Miller Road Overpass in Dearborn, Michigan. Several people were brutally beaten while many other union supporters, including 11 women, were injured in the melee that followed. It took four more years of struggle and a 10-day strike before Ford agreed to sign its first closed-shop contract with the UAW, covering 123,000 employees. The ascension of Henry Ford II, Henry Ford's grandson, to the Ford leadership position in 1945 brought a period of stability in Ford-UAW relations, especially after Henry Ford II fired the powerful Personnel Chief Harry Bennett, whose anti-union stance had made Ford notorious for its bad labor relations. But in 1961, negotiations between the Ford Motor Company and the UAW fell apart again, and it took 17 days of striking before a tenuous three-year agreement was signed.

October 3, 1997

Slow job growth jolts market

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October 6, 1814

Dallas takes office

Cord's dream of grandeur

Automobile manufacturer E. L. Cord had a vision: his company was going to produce the finest and most luxurious automobile the world had ever seen. Already a financial success with his prestigious Auburn and Cord lines, Cord wanted to go one step further. In the early 1920's, two German-American engineers from Iowa, Frederick and August Duesenberg, had begun to command the automotive world's attention with their exquisitely constructed racing cars. In 1921, a Duesenberg car won the 24-Hour race in Le Mans, France, and in 1924 and 1925 their cars won the Indy 500. In 1926, E. L. Cord offered to purchase the Duesenberg company, with the sole purpose of obtaining the design expertise of Fred Duesenberg--the one man he believed could construct the grand automobile he envisioned. On this day in 1926, Duesenberg was incorporated into the Auburn-Cord company, and the Duesenberg brothers began working toward Cord's dream. Two years later, Cord introduced the Duesenberg Model J to the American public. It was of typical Duesenberg design, but on a grander scale. No other automobile of the time could approach the sheer power of the Model J. The engine displaced 420 cubic inches and sported twin overhead camshafts that operated four valves per cylinders, all adding up to an impressive 165hp. And in elegance it was incomparable--the chassis was huge and the bodies were custom-built by the leading coach builders of the day. At a price tag beginning around $17,000, the Model J was a true luxury car, and movie stars and millionaires soon vied for ownership of "Duesies." But Cord's Duesenberg line could not survive the difficulties of the Depression, and it folded along with the rest of Auburn-Cord in 1937. Yet, for a short time, Cord had accomplished his dream of grandeur, and the Duesenberg Model J is still widely regarded as one of the finest automobiles ever manufactured.

October 6, 1995

Boeing machinists strike

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October 7, 1913

Moving Assembly Line at Ford

For the first time, Henry Ford's entire Highland Park, Michigan automobile factory is run on a continuously moving assembly line when the chassis--the automobile's frame--is assembled using the revolutionary industrial technique. A motor and rope pulled the chassis past workers and parts on the factory floor, cutting the man-hours required to complete one "Model T" from 12-1/2 hours to six. Within a year, further assembly line improvements reduced the time required to 93 man-minutes. The staggering increase in productivity effected by Ford's use of the moving assembly line allowed him to drastically reduce the cost of the Model T, thereby accomplishing his dream of making the car affordable to ordinary consumers.

In introducing the Model T in October 1908, Henry Ford proclaimed, "I will build a motor car for the great multitude." Before then, the decade-old automobile industry generally marketed its vehicles to only the richest Americans, because of the high cost of producing the machines. Ford's Model T was the first automobile designed to serve the needs of middle-class citizens: It was durable, economical, and easy to operate and maintain. Still, with a debut price of $850, the Model T was out of the reach of most Americans. The Ford Motor Company understood that to lower unit cost it had to increase productivity. The method by which this was accomplished transformed industry forever.

Prototypes of the assembly line can be traced back to ancient times, but the immediate precursor of Ford's industrial technique was 19th-century meat-packing plants in Chicago and Cincinnati, where cows and hogs were slaughtered, dressed, and packed using overhead trolleys that took the meat from worker to worker. Inspired by the meat packers, the Ford Motor Company innovated new assembly line techniques and in early 1913 installed its first moving assembly line at Highland Park for the manufacture of flywheel magnetos. Instead of each worker assembling his own magneto, the assembly was divided into 29 operations performed by 29 men spaced along a moving belt. Average assembly time dropped from 20 minutes to 13 minutes and soon was down to five minutes.

With the success of the magneto experiment, Ford engineers put the Model T motor and then the transmission on moving assembly lines. On October 7, 1913, the chassis also went on the moving assembly line, so that all the major components of the Model T were being assembled using this technique. Ford rapidly improved its assembly lines, and by 1916 the price of the Model T had fallen to $360 and sales were more than triple their 1912 level. Eventually, the company produced one Model T every 24 seconds, and the price fell below $300. More than 15 million Model T's were built before it was discontinued in 1927, accounting for nearly half of all automobiles sold in the world to that date. The affordable Model T changed the landscape of America, hastening the move from rural to city life, and the moving assembly line spurred a new industrial revolution in factories around the world.

October 7, 1982

Traders go on buying spree

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October 8, 1990

Congress avoids a shutdown

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October 9, 1936

Hoover Dam begins transmitting electricity to Los Angeles

On this day in 1936, harnessing the power of the mighty Colorado River, Hoover Dam begins sending electricity over transmission lines spanning 266 miles of mountains and deserts to run the lights, radios, and stoves of Los Angeles.

Initially named Boulder Dam, work on the dam was begun under President Herbert Hoover's administration but completed as a public works project during the Roosevelt administration (which renamed it for Hoover). When it was finished in 1935, the towering concrete and steel plug was the tallest dam in the world and a powerful symbol of the new federal dedication to large-scale reclamation projects designed to water the arid West. In fact, the electricity generated deep in the bowels of Hoover Dam was only a secondary benefit. The central reason for the dam was the collection, preservation, and rational distribution of that most precious of all western commodities, water.

Under the guidance of the Federal Reclamation Bureau, Hoover Dam became one part of a much larger multipurpose water development project that tamed the wild Colorado River for the use of the growing number of western farmers, ranchers, and city dwellers. Water that had once flowed freely to the ocean now was impounded in the 115-mile-long Lake Mead. Massive aqueducts channeled millions of gallons of Colorado River water to California where it continues to this day to flow from Los Angeles faucets and irrigate vast stretches of fertile cropland.

With Hoover Dam, the federal government set out to demonstrate that the aridity of a region once called the Great American Desert need be no serious obstacle to its full settlement and development. However, as rapidly growing western cities like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Phoenix today face increasing difficulties in obtaining the water they need, it remains to be seen if the Great American Desert might still dictate its own limits to western growth.

October 9, 1996

Americans turn to mutual funds

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October 10, 1795

Mint hires first women

Vice President Agnew resigns

Less than a year before Richard M. Nixon's resignation as president of the United States, Spiro Agnew becomes the first U.S. vice president to resign in disgrace. The same day, he pleaded no contest to a charge of federal income tax evasion in exchange for the dropping of charges of political corruption. He was subsequently fined $10,000, sentenced to three years probation, and disbarred by the Maryland court of appeals.

Agnew, a Republican, was elected chief executive of Baltimore County in 1961. In 1967, he became governor of Maryland, an office he held until his nomination as the Republican vice presidential candidate in 1968. During Nixon's successful campaign, Agnew ran on a tough law-and-order platform, and as vice president he frequently attacked opponents of the Vietnam War and liberals as being disloyal and un-American. Reelected with Nixon in 1972, Agnew resigned on October 10, 1973, after the U.S. Justice Department uncovered widespread evidence of his political corruption, including allegations that his practice of accepting bribes had continued into his tenure as U.S. vice president. He died at the age of 77 on September 17, 1996.

Under the process decreed by the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, President Nixon was instructed to the fill vacant office of vice president by nominating a candidate who then had to be approved by both houses of Congress. Nixon's appointment of Representative Gerald Ford of Michigan was approved by Congress and, on December 6, Ford was sworn in. He became the 38th president of the United States on August 9, 1974, after the escalating Watergate affair caused Nixon to resign.

October 10, 1995

U. of Chicago wins another Nobel Prize

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October 14, 1857

Birth of an inventor

A miscalculated prophecy

In the early days of the automobile, many doubted that owning a "horseless carriage" would ever be within the reach of an average citizen. Indeed, some critics of the noisy and expensive invention went so far as to prophesize its eventual demise once the wealthy got over the novelty of owning one. On this day the Literary Digest declared that "the ordinary horseless carriage is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and although its price will probably fall in the future, it will never, of course, come into common use as a bicycle." But what critics of the automobile failed to foresee were the types of revolutionary manufacturing techniques that would be developed by Henry Ford and others. Less than a decade after the Literary Digest predicted that the automobile would remain a luxury of the wealthy, Ford revolutionized the automotive industry with his affordable Model T built for the average American. Ford was able to keep the price down by retaining control of all raw materials, and by employing revolutionary mass production methods. When it was first introduced, the "Tin Lizzie" cost only $850 and seated two people, and by the time it was discontinued in 1927, nearly 15,000,000 Model Ts had been sold.

October 14, 1939

Ralph Lauren, designer of popular western-style clothing, is born in New York

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October 16, 1911

The Progressives lose out

Hudson's Hornet stings

In 1948, Hudson launched its new Monobuilt design, an innovation that is still found in most cars to this day. The Monobuilt design consisted of a chassis and frame that was combined in a unified passenger compartment, producing a strong, light-weight design, and a beneficial lower center of gravity that didn't affect road clearance. Hudson coined this innovation "step-down design" because, for the first time, passengers had to step down in order to get into a car. Most cars today are still based on the step-down premise. On this day in 1951, Hudson introduced the Hornet, and put some sting into the step-down design. The Hornet was built with a 308 cubic-inch flat head in-line six cylinder motor, producing generous torque and a substantial amount of horsepower. And it was with this popular model that Hudson first entered stock car racing in 1951. After ending their first season in a respectable third place, Hudson began a three-year domination of the racing event. In 1952 alone, Hudson won 29 of the 34 events. A key factor in Hudson's racing success was the innovative step-down design of their cars. Because of their lower centers of gravity, Hornets would glide around corners with relative ease, leaving their clunky and unstable competitors in the dust.

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October 17, 1931

Capone goes to prison

On this day in 1931, gangster Al Capone is sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion and fined $80,000, signaling the downfall of one of the most notorious criminals of the 1920s and 1930s.
Alphonse Gabriel Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1899 to Italian immigrants. He was expelled from school at 14, joined a gang and earned his nickname "Scarface" after being sliced across the cheek during a fight.
By 1920, Capone had moved to Chicago, where he was soon helping to run crime boss Johnny Torrio's illegal enterprises, which included alcohol-smuggling, gambling and prostitution. Torrio retired in 1925 after an attempt on his life and Capone, known for his cunning and brutality, was put in charge of the organization. Prohibition, which outlawed the brewing and distribution of alcohol and lasted from 1920 to 1933, proved extremely lucrative for bootleggers and gangsters like Capone, who raked in millions from his underworld activities.
Capone was at the top of the F.B.I.'s "Most Wanted" list by 1930, but he avoided long stints in jail until 1931 by bribing city officials, intimidating witnesses and maintaining various hideouts. He became Chicago's crime kingpin by wiping out his competitors through a series of gangland battles and slayings, including the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929, when Capone's men gunned down seven rivals. This event helped raise Capone's notoriety to a national level.
Among Capone's enemies was federal agent Elliot Ness, who led a team of officers known as "The Untouchables" because they couldn't be corrupted. Ness and his men routinely broke up Capone's bootlegging businesses, but it was tax-evasion charges that finally stuck and landed Capone in prison in 1931.
Capone began serving his time at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, but amid accusations that he was manipulating the system and receiving cushy treatment, he was transferred to the maximum-security lockup at Alcatraz Island, in California's San Francisco Bay. He got out early in 1939 for good behavior, after spending his final year in prison in a hospital, suffering from syphilis. Plagued by health problems for the rest of his life, Capone died in 1947 at age 48 at his home in Palm Island, Florida.

Oil producers raise prices

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October 21, 1902

Striking miners return to work

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October 22, 1914

Nation's first income tax

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October 23, 1869

NYSE seats up for sale

America gives Toyota its full attention

Only five days after 11 Arab oil producers increased oil prices and cut back production in response to the support of the United States and other nations for Israel in the Yom Kippur War, Toyota U.S.A. held its first national news conference in Los Angeles, California. Central on the agenda for the three-day conference was the discussion of the remarkable fuel efficiency of Toyota automobiles. In the days following the oil crisis, concerned American consumers suffered gasoline rationing, a quadrupling of prices, and huge lines at gas stations. The small percentage of Americans who owned a Toyota, a Honda, or a Nissan found themselves the envy of other domestic car owners, whose American automobiles typically averaged less than 15 miles per gallon. Even after the oil embargo crisis was resolved, American consumers had learned an important lesson about the importance of fuel efficiency, and foreign auto manufacturers flourished in the large American market. The public turned to imports in droves, and suddenly Japan's modest but sturdy little compacts began popping up on highways all across America. The Big Three rushed to produce their own fuel-efficient compacts, but shoddily constructed models like the Chevy Vega and Ford Pinto could not compete with the overall quality of the Toyota Corollas and Honda Civics. It took years for the Big Three to bounce back from the blow, eventually winning back American consumers with their introduction during the 1980s of quality compacts like the Chevy Cavalier and Ford Escort, that proved on level with the quality of the foreign competition.

October 23, 1975

Middle class gets a break

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October 29, 1929

Stock market crashes

Black Tuesday hits Wall Street as investors trade 16,410,030 shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors, and stock tickers ran hours behind because the machinery could not handle the tremendous volume of trading. In the aftermath of Black Tuesday, America and the rest of the industrialized world spiraled downward into the Great Depression.

During the 1920s, the U.S. stock market underwent rapid expansion, reaching its peak in August 1929, a period of wild speculation. By then, production had already declined and unemployment had risen, leaving stocks in great excess of their real value. Among the other causes of the eventual market collapse were low wages, the proliferation of debt, a weak agriculture, and an excess of large bank loans that could not be liquidated.

Stock prices began to decline in September and early October 1929, and on October 18 the fall began. Panic set in, and on October 24--Black Thursday--a record 12,894,650 shares were traded. Investment companies and leading bankers attempted to stabilize the market by buying up great blocks of stock, producing a moderate rally on Friday. On Monday, however, the storm broke anew, and the market went into free fall. Black Monday was followed by Black Tuesday, in which stock prices collapsed completely.

After October 29, 1929, stock prices had nowhere to go but up, so there was considerable recovery during succeeding weeks. Overall, however, prices continued to drop as the United States slumped into the Great Depression, and by 1932 stocks were worth only about 20 percent of their value in the summer of 1929. The stock market crash of 1929 was not the sole cause of the Great Depression, but it did act to accelerate the global economic collapse of which it was also a symptom. By 1933, nearly half of America's banks had failed, and unemployment was approaching 15 million people, or 30 percent of the workforce. It would take World War II, and the massive level of armaments production taken on by the United States, to finally bring the country out of the Depression after a decade of suffering.

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November 5, 1895

Selden receives first automobile patent

On this day, inventor George B. Selden received a patent for his gasoline-powered automobile, first conceived of when he was an infantryman in the American Civil War. After 16 years of delay, United States Patent No. 549,160 was finally issued to Selden for a machine he originally termed a "road-locomotive" and later would call a "road engine." His design resembled a horse-drawn carriage, with high wheels and a buckboard, and was described by Selden as "light in weight, easy to control and possessed of sufficient power to overcome any ordinary incline." With the granting of the patent, Selden, whose unpractical automotive designs were generally far behind other innovators in the field, nevertheless won a monopoly on the concept of combining an internal combustion engine with a carriage. Although Selden never became an auto manufacturer himself, every other automaker would have to pay Selden and his licensing company a significant percentage of their profits for the right to construct a motor car, even though their automobiles rarely resembled Selden's designs in anything but abstract concept. In 1903, the newly created Ford Motor Company, which refused to pay royalties to Selden's licensing company, was sued for infringement on the patent. Thus began one of the most celebrated litigation cases in the history of the automotive industry, ending in 1909 when a New York court upheld the validity of Selden's patent. Henry Ford and his increasingly powerful company appealed the decision, and in 1911, the New York Court of Appeals again ruled in favor of Selden's patent, but with a twist: the patent was held to be restricted to the particular outdated construction it described. In 1911, every important automaker used a motor significantly different from that described in Selden's patent, and major manufacturers like the Ford Motor Company never paid Selden another dime.

November 5, 1912

Wilson wins landslide victory

Richard Nixon elected president

Winning one of the closest elections in U.S. history, Republican challenger Richard Nixon defeats Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Because of the strong showing of third-party candidate George Wallace, neither Nixon nor Humphrey received more than 50 percent of the popular vote; Nixon beat Humphrey by less than 500,000 votes.

Nixon campaigned on a platform designed to reach the "silent majority" of middle class and working class Americans. He promised to "bring us together again," and many Americans, weary after years of antiwar and civil rights protests, were happy to hear of peace returning to their streets. Foreign policy was also a major factor in the election. Humphrey was saddled with a Democratic foreign policy that led to what appeared to be absolute futility and agony in Vietnam. Nixon promised to find a way to "peace with honor" in Vietnam, though he was never entirely clear about how this was to be accomplished. The American people, desperate to find a way out of the Vietnam quagmire, were apparently ready to give the Republican an opportunity to make good on his claim.

During his presidency, Nixon oversaw some dramatic changes in U.S. Cold War foreign policy, most notably his policy of detente with the Soviet Union and his 1972 visit to communist China. His promise to bring peace with honor in Vietnam, however, was more difficult to accomplish. American troops were not withdrawn until 1973, and South Vietnam fell to communist forces in 1975.

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November 11, 1921

Dedication of the Tomb of the Unknowns

Exactly three years after the end of World War I, the Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia during an Armistice Day ceremony presided over by President Warren G. Harding.

Two days before, an unknown American soldier, who had fallen somewhere on a World War I battlefield, arrived at the nation's capital from a military cemetery in France. On Armistice Day, in the presence of President Harding and other government, military, and international dignitaries, the unknown soldier was buried with highest honors beside the Memorial Amphitheater. As the soldier was lowered to his final resting place, a two-inch layer of soil brought from France was placed below his coffin so that he might rest forever atop the earth on which he died.

The Tomb of the Unknowns is considered the most hallowed grave at Arlington Cemetery, America's most sacred military cemetery. The tombstone itself, designed by sculptor Thomas Hudson Jones, was not completed until 1932, when it was unveiled bearing the description "Here Rests in Honored Glory an American Soldier Known but to God." The World War I unknown was later joined by the unidentified remains of soldiers from America's other major 20th century wars and the tomb was put under permanent guard by special military sentinels.

In 1998, a Vietnam War unknown, who was buried at the tomb for 14 years, was disinterred from the Tomb after DNA testing indicated his identity. Air Force Lieutenant Michael Blassie was returned to his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, and was buried with military honors, including an F-15 jet "missing man" flyover and a lone bugler sounding taps.

November 11, 1989

Jaguar becomes a subsidiary of Ford

In 1935, British car designer William Lyons introduced the SS Jaguar 100 as a new marque for his Swallow Sidecar Company. Swallow Sidecar had been manufacturing complete luxury cars for four years, but the SS Jaguar 100 was Lyons' first true sports car. During World War II, Lyons dropped the Swallow Sidecar name, and the politically incorrect SS initials, and Jaguar Cars Ltd. was formally established. The first significant postwar Jaguar, the XK 120, was introduced in 1948 at the London Motor Show to great acclaim. Capable of speeds in excess of 120mph, the XK 120 was the fastest production car in the world, and is considered by many to be one of the finest sports cars ever made. Over the next three decades, Jaguar became the epitome of speed coupled with elegance, and the company flourished as its racing division racked up countless trophies. On this day in 1989, Jaguar entered a new era when the company became a subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company. The integrity of the Jaguar marque was recognized and maintained, and throughout the 1990s the company continued to produce distinguished automobiles such as the Jaguar XK8 and the luxurious Vanden Plas.

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November 12, 1934

Treasury launches new initiative

On November 12, 1934, the ever industrious Treasury Department rolled into action with the Treasury International Capital (TIC) initiative. Under the auspices of TIC, the Treasury beefed up its investigations, and released reports on the "flow" of international capital.

November 12, 1946

First drive-through bank opens

This day marks the launch, in 1946, of a uniquely American invention: the drive-through bank. Indeed, on this day the Exchange National Bank in Chicago unveiled the nation's first ten drive-up teller windows, which no doubt delighted Americans who neither had the time to park nor the inclination to ever leave their cars.

November 12, 1979

Carter shuts down oil imports from Iran

On this day in 1979, President Jimmy Carter responds to a potential threat to national security by stopping the importation of petroleum from Iran.

Earlier that month, on November 4, 66 Americans at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran had been taken hostage by a radical Islamic group. The alarming event led Carter and his advisors to wonder if the same or other terrorist groups would try to strike at American oil resources in the region. At the time, the U.S. depended heavily on Iran for crude oil and Carter’s cultivation of a relationship with Iran’s recently deposed shah gave the radicals cause, in their view, to take the Americans hostage. Not knowing if future attacks were planned involving American oil tankers or refineries, Carter agreed with the Treasury and Energy Departments that oil imports from Iran should be discontinued immediately. This ended America’s formerly friendly association with the oil-rich nation.

The U.S. and Iran had previously enjoyed a healthy diplomatic relationship; Carter had even enlisted the Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s help in reconvening peace talks between Israel and Egypt. Carter also sought Iran’s help in supporting nuclear non-proliferation talks with the Soviet Union. Carter and the shah affirmed their desire to collaborate on alternative energy and oil conservation. He even once toasted Iran under the shah as "an island of stability" in the Middle East.

While Carter and the shah planned closer collaboration on energy issues and the Middle East peace process, an Islamic revolution was brewing in Iran. The shah, who was reviled by the revolutionaries as catering to evil Western influences, was deposed in January 1979 and replaced by a clerical regime led by the Ayatollah Khomeini. In October 1979, the exiled shah came to the United States for cancer treatment. Carter’s hospitality toward the shah enraged the group of radical Iranian students who, on November 4, stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 66 Americans hostage.

The ensuing hostage crisis, which lasted 444 days, eroded Carter’s popularity and he lost his bid for re-election to Republican Ronald Reagan. Reagan went on to serve as president from 1980 to 1988.

November 12, 1996

Jackson takes on Texaco

Reverend Jesse Jackson turned up the heat on Texaco on this day, threatening to lead a potentially crippling boycott against the company if the oil giant failed to settle a lingering racial-discrimination lawsuit. Six Texaco employees initially filed the $520 million suit in 1994; the ensuing years saw the case mushroom into a complaint backed by some 1,400 workers. Despite growing pressure, Texaco was slow to respond to the case. However, Jackson's involvement, coupled with the revelation of a "secret" audio tape that captured Texaco executives making racial slurs and plotting to derail the lawsuit, helped bring the case to a close. On November 15, Texaco announced what was believed to be a $ 175 million settlement to the case, which included a one-time salary boost for minority employees, as well as the establishment of "diversity training and sensitivity programs".

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November 14, 1914

The first Dodge

On this day, John and Horace Dodge completed their first Dodge vehicle, a car informally known as "Old Betsy." The same day, the Dodge brothers gave "Old Betsy" a quick test drive through the streets of Detroit, Michigan, and the vehicle was shipped to a buyer in Tennessee. John and Horace, who began their business career as bicycle manufacturers in 1897, first entered the automotive industry as auto parts manufacturers in 1901. They built engines for Ransom Olds and Henry Ford among others, and in 1910 the Dodge Brothers Company was the largest parts-manufacturing firm in the United States. In 1914, the intrepid brothers founded the new Dodge Brothers Motor Car Company, and began work on their first complete automobile at their Hamtramck factory. Dodge vehicles became known for their quality and sturdiness, and by 1919, the Dodge brothers were among the richest men in America. In early 1920, just as he was completing work on his 110-room mansion on the Grosse Point waterfront in Michigan, John fell ill from respiratory problems and died. Horace, who also suffered from chronic lung problems, died from pneumonia in December of the same year. The company was later sold to a New York bank, and in 1928, the Chrysler Corporation bought the Dodge name, its factories, and the large network of Dodge car dealers. Under Chrysler's direction Dodge became a successful producer of cars and trucks marketed for their ruggedness, and today Dodge sells a lineup of over a dozen cars and trucks.

November 14, 1986

Ivan Boesky confesses to illegal stock trading activity

Wall Street arbitrageur Ivan Boesky pleads guilty to insider trading and agrees to pay a $100 million fine and cooperate with the Securities and Exchange Commission's investigation. "Boesky Day," as the SEC would later call it, was crucial in exposing a nationwide scandal at the heart of the `80s Wall Street boom.

Boesky testified that he had gained his $200 million fortune using illegal inside information about impending mergers to trade stock in the companies involved. As a result of Boesky's confession, subpoenas were issued to some of the world's most famous financiers, including "Junk Bond King" Michael Milken. Boesky's testimony brought Milken and Drexel Burnham Lambert, an investment banking company, to justice for their participation in the illegal schemes. Milken paid over a billion dollars in fines and restitution and was sentenced to 10 years in prison; two years later his sentence was reduced to time served. In addition to his own financial penalty, Boesky received a three-year sentence, 22 months of which he served at Lompoc Federal Prison in California. Following this insider trading scandal, Congress increased the penalties for securities violations.

After prison, Boesky divorced his wife and relocated to La Jolla, California. In contrast to Milken and others involved, Boesky has largely avoided public attention since the scandal, though he has surfaced to testify in still-unresolved legal proceedings. Despite his cooperation with the authorities, Ivan Boesky was demonized as a national symbol of greed and an example of the dangers of `80s-era excess.

November 14, 1986

Boesky banned from Wall St.

Until 1986, Ivan Boesky was one of wealthiest and most successful figures on Wall Street. But, after November 14, 1986, his name was inextricably linked with the scandal and corruption that engulfed the industry during the 1980s. Indeed, on this day, Boesky consented to a stern settlement on charges that he had engaged in insider trading. Specifically, he and Wall Street veteran Dennis B. Levine had been involved in an improper trade relationship: Levine furnished tips and information that Boesky then used to make big-money trades. In return, Boesky paid Levine a percentage of the profits from these trades. The union proved to be quite lucrative, as Boesky reeled-in roughly $50 million from illegal trades. But, when the Securities and Exchange Commission started probing into Levine's affairs, he wilted under the heat and handed over his partner to the authorities. The ensuing settlement called for Boesky to return his illegally gained profits to the SEC, as well as pay a $50 million fine. Along with emptying his once-considerable coffers, the sentence also banned Boesky from the securities industry and called for him to serve a maximum of five years in prison.

November 14, 1991

Credit card interest rate caps discussed

In 1991, the American economy was in the throes of a slump. Political and fiscal leaders cast about for ways to reverse these woes and on this day, the press reported that President Bush and the Senate were mulling a move to place limits on credit card interest rates. Needless to say, this notion didn't sit well with Wall Street; a day of panicked trading ensued and the Dow posted a hefty 120-point loss

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November 17, 1906

Honda founder born in Hamamatsu, Japan

On this day, Honda Motor Company founder Soichiro Honda was born the son of a blacksmith in Hamamatsu, Japan, about 150 miles southwest of Tokyo. Honda, who displayed remarkable mechanical intuition even at a young age, began working in an auto repair shop in Tokyo at age 15. In 1928, Honda returned to Hamamatsu to set up another branch of the repair shop, and also began pursuing his youthful passion for motor car racing. In 1936, Honda won his first racing trophy at the All-Japan Speed Rally, but nearly died when his car crashed shortly after setting a speed record. After a prolonged recovery, Honda left racing, and during World War II constructed airplane propellers for his country. When the war was over, Japan's industry was in shambles, and Honda saw an opportunity to beat swords into plowshares by starting an automotive company of his own. He bought a surplus of small generator engines from the military at a bargain price and began attaching them to bicycle frames. Honda's fuel-efficient vehicles were popular in a time when fuel was scarce, and in September of 1948, with only $1,500, Honda formed the Honda Motor Company in Hamamatsu. The company began building a full line of powerful and well-made motorcycles that by 1955 led motorcycle production in Japan. Honda proved as effective a company manager as he was a talented engineer, and by the early 1960s, Honda was the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles. From this immense success, Honda was inspired to begin automobile production in 1962. Honda's first vehicle, the pint-size S-360, failed to make a dent in the American market, and it was not until 1972, and the introduction of the Civic 1200, that Honda became a serious contender in the industry. The fuel crisis of 1973 was the catalyst that thrust Honda and other Japanese auto manufacturers into the forefront of the international market. Cars like the Honda Civic proved far more durable and fuel efficient than anything being produced in Detroit at the time, and American consumers embraced Japanese-made automobiles. In 1973, Soichiro Honda retired from the top position at Honda, but the company he founded went on to become an industry leader, establishing such successful marques as the Accord, which by 1989 was the best-selling car in America.

November 17, 1968

The Heidi Bowl

On November 17, 1968, the Oakland Raiders score two touchdowns in nine seconds to beat the New York Jets--and no one sees it, because they’re watching the movie Heidi instead. With just 65 seconds left to play, NBC switched off the game in favor of its previously scheduled programming, a made-for-TV version of the children’s story about a young girl and her grandfather in the Alps. Viewers were outraged, and they complained so vociferously that network execs learned a lesson they’ll never forget: "Whatever you do," one said, "you better not leave an NFL football game."

The game between the Jets and the Raiders was already shaping up to be a classic: It featured two of the league’s best teams and 10 future Hall of Fame players. By the game’s last minute the two teams had traded the lead eight times. The game’s intensity translated into an unusual number of penalties and timeouts, which meant that it was running a bit long.

With a little more than a minute left to play, the Jets kicked a 26-yard field goal that gave them a 32-29 lead. After the New York kickoff, the Raiders returned the ball to their own 23-yard line. What happened after that will go down in football history: Raiders quarterback Daryle Lamonica threw a 20-yard pass to halfback Charlie Smith; a facemask penalty moved the ball to the Jets’ 43; and on the next play, Lamonica passed again to Smith, who ran it all the way for a touchdown. The Raiders took the lead, 32-36. Then the Jets fumbled the kickoff, and Oakland’s Preston Ridlehuber managed to grab the ball and run it two yards for another touchdown. Oakland had scored twice in nine seconds, and the game was over: They’d won 43-32.

But nobody outside the Oakland Coliseum actually saw any of this, because NBC went to commercial right after the Jets’ kickoff and never came back. Instead, they did what they’d been planning to do for weeks: At 7 PM, they began to broadcast a brand-new version of Heidi, a film they were sure would win them high ratings during November sweeps. Before the game began, network execs had talked about what they’d do if the game ran over its scheduled time, and they decided to go ahead with the movie no matter what. So, that’s what NBC programmer Dick Cline did. "I waited and waited," he said later, "and I heard nothing. We came up to that magic hour and I thought, ‘Well, I haven’t been given any counter-order so I’ve got to do what we agreed to do.’"

NBC execs had actually changed their minds, and were trying to get in touch with Cline to tell him to leave the game on until it was over. But all the telephone lines were busy: Thousands of people were calling the network to urge programmers to air Heidi as scheduled, and thousands more were calling to demand that the football game stay on the air. Football fans grew even more livid when NBC printed the results of the game at the bottom of the screen 20 minutes after the game ended. So many irate fans called NBC that the network’s switchboard blew. Undeterred, people started calling the telephone company, the New York Times and the NYPD, whose emergency lines they clogged for hours.

Shortly after the Heidi debacle, the NFL inserted a clause into its TV contracts that guaranteed that all games would be broadcast completely in their home markets. For its part, NBC installed a new phone--the "Heidi Phone"--in the control room that had its own exchange and switchboard. Such a disaster, the network assured its viewers, would never be allowed to happen again.

November 17, 1973

Nixon insists that he is not a crook

On this day in 1973, in the midst of the Watergate scandal that eventually ended his presidency, President Richard Nixon tells a group of newspaper editors gathered at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, that he is "not a crook."

Nixon made the now-famous declaration during a televised question-and-answer session with Associated Press editors. Nixon, who appeared "tense" to a New York Times reporter, was questioned about his role in the Watergate burglary scandal and efforts to cover up the fact that members of his re-election committee had funded the break-in. Nixon replied "people have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got." He did, however, admit that he was at fault for failing to supervise his campaign’s fund-raising activities.

At one point during the discussion, Nixon gave a morbid response to an unrelated question about why he chose not to fly with back-up to Air Force One when traveling, the usual security protocol for presidential flights. He told the crowd that by taking just one aircraft he was saving energy, money and possibly time spent in the impeachment process: "if this one [plane] goes down," he said, "they don’t have to impeach [me]."

Nixon was trying to be funny, but in fact the scandal was taking a toll on his physical and mental health. In Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward’s book All the President’s Men, Nixon is described at this time as being "a prisoner in his own house--secretive, distrustful…combative, sleepless." Nixon’s protestations of innocence with regard to the Watergate cover-up were eventually eroded by a relentless federal investigation. On August 8, 1974, he resigned the following day.

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November 20, 1789

New Jersey ratifies the Bill of Rights

On this day in 1789, New Jersey ratifies the Bill of Rights, becoming the first state to do so. New Jersey’s action was a first step toward making the first 10 amendments to the Constitution law and completing the revolutionary reforms begun by the Declaration of Independence.

The Anti-Federalist critics of the U.S. Constitution were afraid that a too-strong federal government would become just another sort of the monarchical regime from which they had recently been freed. They believed that the Constitution gave too much power to the federal government by outlining its rights but failing to delineate the rights of the individuals living under it. Before the Massachusetts ratifying convention would accept the Constitution, then, which they finally did in February 1788, the document’s Federalist supporters had to promise to create a Bill of Rights to be amended to the Constitution immediately upon the creation of a new government under the document. This helped to assuage the Anti-Federalists’ concerns.

As promised, the newly elected Congress drafted the Bill of Rights on December 25, 1789. Drafted by James Madison and loosely based on Virginia’s Declaration of Rights, the first 10 amendments give the following rights to all United States citizens:

1. Freedom of religion, speech and assembly
2. Right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of a well-regulated militia
3. No forcible quartering of soldiers during peacetime
4. Freedom from unreasonable search and seizure
5. Right to a grand jury for capital crimes and due process. Protection from double jeopardy, self-incrimination and public confiscation of private property without "just compensation"
6. Right to "speedy and public" trial by jury and a competent defense
7. Right to trial by jury for monetary cases above $20
8. Protection against "excessive" bail or fines and "cruel and unusual" punishments
9. Rights not enumerated are "retained by the people"
10. Rights not given to the federal government or prohibited the state governments by the Constitution, "are reserved to the States... or to the people"

November 20, 1820

American vessel sunk by sperm whale

British Anglia comes to America

In 1911, the Ford Motor Company, which had been importing Ford Model Ts for several years, opened its first overseas plant at Trafford Park in Manchester, England. In 1920, after a decade of brisk sales in Britain and all over Europe, Ford was faced with a crisis--a new British law established higher tax penalties for larger-engine cars, and Ford's market share was suffering. Ford of England responded by developing several prototypes for a Ford automobile small enough to avoid British tax penalties. Designers also predicted that the citizens of dense European cities would prefer a car smaller than the standard American Ford. The resulting Model Y Ford "8" went into production in 1932, and after a strong first year Ford's British market share began to rapidly expand. In 1938, the Ford E93A Prefect was introduced, the first marque in the United States--the first British Ford to be marketed to Americans on a large scale. Internally, the compact 105E Anglia had a brand new overhead-valve engine and a four-speed gearbox, and externally, it was like nothing else on the road with it distinctive rear-sloping back window, frog-like headlights, and stylish colors: light green and primrose yellow. Despite appreciation for the well-designed car by a few automobile enthusiasts in America, the Anglia, which was a best-seller on the world's markets, failed to make a noticeable impact in the general U.S. market.

November 20, 1962

Kennedy announces fair housing legislation

On this day in 1962, President John F. Kennedy issues Executive Order 11063, which mandates an end to discrimination in housing. The order, which came during the burgeoning Civil Rights movement, prohibited federally funded housing agencies from denying housing or funding for housing to anyone based on their race, color, creed or national origin.

Since the 1950s, American minorities, particularly African Americans, had been largely relegated to living in overcrowded inner-city ghettos or impoverished rural areas. The "American Dream" of owning a house in the suburbs, or even a small apartment in a safe city neighborhood was unobtainable for many minority families because federally funded lending agencies often refused to give minorities home loans. When Kennedy took office in 1960, he vowed to do more for civil rights than his predecessors. When he issued the order in 1962, Kennedy called discrimination in federal housing agencies unfair, unjust and inconsistent with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and bemoaned the disgraceful, substandard, unsafe and unsanitary housing in which most African Americans and other minorities were forced to live.

Although Kennedy’s order was a symbolic landmark for ending de facto segregation in housing, the policy was never enforced. The order left it up to the individual housing and funding agencies to police themselves, leaving much room for non-compliance from state to state. After his assassination in 1963, civil rights activists continued to lobby for integrated neighborhoods. It took Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, until 1968, however, to get a majority of Congress to support a fair housing law.

November 20, 1967

Students Demonstrate Against Dow Chemical Company

Product Safety Commission established

This day brought a victory for shoppers and consumer advocates alike, as President Lyndon Johnson announced the formation of the National Commission on Product Safety. The newly formed agency was charged with safeguarding the public against "hazardous products," as well as exploring the efficacy of Federal consumer protection legislation.

November 20, 1990

Guinness buys Spanish brewer

The owners of Guinness Beer hoisted a toast on this day to celebrate their $1 billion purchase of Spain's biggest brewer, La Cruz del Campo (Cruzcampo). The deal not only stood as the largest foreign outlay in a Spanish property, but was also a key strategic move for Guinness, which planned to use Cruzcampo as a building block for globalizing its brewing operations

November 20, 1993

Cranston censured for Keating dealings

On this day, the Senate Ethics Committee handed down a stern censure of Alan Cranston, taking the California senator to task for his "dealings" with the scandal-ridden Savings and Loan executive Charles Keating. In the strongly worded statement, which capped off a two-year probe into the actions of the "Keating Five," the committee chided Cranston for "violating unwritten but commonly understood standards of Senate behavior." Specifically, Cranston had pursued $800,000 in "charitable contributions" from Keating during the same period in which he had acted with Federal regulators to defend Lincoln Savings and Loan, Keating's troubled operation. However, an enraged Cranston took to the Senate floor to rebut the claims brought against him. "Nothing I did violated a law or Senate rule," the senator declared, though he did tender an apology for engaging in behavior which gave the appearance of being improper.

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December 2, 1902

V-8 engine is patented

Enron files for bankruptcy

On this day in 2001, the Enron Corporation files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a New York court, sparking one of the largest corporate scandals in U.S. history.

An energy-trading company based in Houston, Texas, Enron was formed in 1985 as the merger of two gas companies, Houston Natural Gas and Internorth. Under chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay, Enron rose as high as number seven on Fortune magazine's list of the top 500 U.S. companies. In 2000, the company employed 21,000 people and posted revenue of $111 billion. Over the next year, however, Enron's stock price began a dramatic slide, dropping from $90.75 in August 2000 to $0.26 by closing on November 30, 2001.

As prices fell, Lay sold large amounts of his Enron stock, while simultaneously encouraging Enron employees to buy more shares and assuring them that the company was on the rebound. Employees saw their retirement savings accounts wiped out as Enron's stock price continued to plummet. After another energy company, Dynegy, canceled a planned $8.4 billion buy-out in late November, Enron filed for bankruptcy. By the end of the year, Enron's collapse had cost investors billions of dollars, wiped out some 5,600 jobs and liquidated almost $2.1 billion in pension plans. 

Over the next several years, the name "Enron" became synonymous with large-scale corporate fraud and corruption, as an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Justice Department revealed that Enron had inflated its earnings by hiding debts and losses in subsidiary partnerships. The government subsequently accused Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling, who served as Enron's CEO from February to August 2001, of conspiring to cover up their company's financial weaknesses from investors. The investigation also brought down accounting giant Arthur Anderson, whose auditors were found guilty of deliberately destroying documents incriminating to Enron.

In July 2004, a Houston court indicted Skilling on 35 counts including fraud, conspiracy and insider trading. Lay was charged with 11 similar crimes. The trial began on January 30, 2006, in Houston. A number of former Enron employees appeared on the stand, including Andrew Fastow, Enron's ex-CFO, who early on pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy and agreed to testify against his former bosses. Over the course of the trial, the defiant Skilling--who unloaded almost $60 million worth of Enron stock shortly after his resignation but refused to admit he knew of the company's impending collapse--emerged as the figure many identified most personally with the scandal. In May 2006, Skilling was convicted of 19 of 35 counts, while Lay was found guilty on 10 counts of fraud and conspiracy. When Lay died from heart disease just two months later, a Houston judge vacated the counts against him. That October, the 52-year-old Skilling was sentenced to more than 24 years in prison.

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December 3, 1901

TR speaks about trusts

President Theodore Roosevelt took the House floor on December 3, 1901 to deliver a 20,000-word consideration of business conglomerations. Roosevelt called on Congress to curb the nation's trusts, though he urged the need for legislation that stayed "within reasonable limits." Despite this caveat, Roosevelt is often remembered as an ardent trust buster who crusaded against the rise of big business. In fact, Roosevelt was hardly a constant foe of the business community: He came from a wealthy family and neither disdained money nor the growth of business combinations. Rather, he plied a more conservative approach and sought policy which balanced free market principles with the "best interests" of the American public, allowing trusts to exist, albeit within carefully measured limits.

December 3, 1929

Hoover declares nation on rebound

Showing extreme optimism, if not foresight, President Herbert Hoover declared to Congress that the nation had shaken off the impact of the recent stock market crash and regained its faith in the economy. Whatever confidence the public may have clung to was no doubt quashed during the ensuing Depression.

December 3, 1979

Last Pacer is produced

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December 5, 1782

Van Buren is born

On this day in 1782, Martin Van Buren, America’s 8th president, is born in Kinderhook, New York, to Dutch parents. He left grammar school with his sights set on studying law and pursuing a career in politics.

Van Buren married one of his Dutch cousins, Hannah Hoes, in 1807. The couple, who spoke Dutch at home, settled in Albany, New York, and had five children before she died from tuberculosis in 1819. Two years later, he won his first political election, earning a seat in the U.S. Senate. In 1828, Van Buren became governor of New York, but left that office four months later to accept President Andrew Jackson’s offer to serve as secretary of state. He resigned the office in 1831 to accept a commission as minister to Great Britain; Congress, however, ultimately rejected his nomination. In 1832, Van Buren was elected vice president under Andrew Jackson.

Van Buren was exceptionally effective at uniting the disparate factions of the Democratic Party and at riding the coattails of the very popular Jackson, and he easily won the presidency in 1836. At this point, his political fortunes took a turn for the worse. A financial crisis in 1837 plunged the country into depression. Van Buren’s ineffective response to the crisis, his refusal to pursue annexation of Texas and his anti-slavery leanings caused the pro-slavery, pro-expansionist Democratic Party to split during the election of 1840. Van Buren lost that campaign to Whig William Henry Harrison. He tried and failed to get the Democratic nomination in 1844 and in 1848 ran as the Free-Soil Party candidate on an anti-slavery, anti-annexation platform, but lost again.

Defeated, Van Buren retired to his hometown of Kinderhook, New York in 1849. He died in 1862.

December 5, 1932

Ford Model C and V-8 introduced

Prohibition ends

The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, repealing the 18th Amendment and bringing an end to the era of national prohibition of alcohol in America. At 5:32 p.m. EST, Utah became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, achieving the requisite three-fourths majority of states' approval. Pennsylvania and Ohio had ratified it earlier in the day.

The movement for the prohibition of alcohol began in the early 19th century, when Americans concerned about the adverse effects of drinking began forming temperance societies. By the late 19th century, these groups had become a powerful political force, campaigning on the state level and calling for national liquor abstinence. Several states outlawed the manufacture or sale of alcohol within their own borders. In December 1917, the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes," was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. On January 29, 1919, the 18th Amendment achieved the necessary three-fourths majority of state ratification. Prohibition essentially began in June of that year, but the amendment did not officially take effect until January 29, 1920.

In the meantime, Congress passed the Volstead Act on October 28, 1919, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. The Volstead Act provided for the enforcement of Prohibition, including the creation of a special Prohibition unit of the Treasury Department. In its first six months, the unit destroyed thousands of illicit stills run by bootleggers. However, federal agents and police did little more than slow the flow of booze, and organized crime flourished in America. Large-scale bootleggers like Al Capone of Chicago built criminal empires out of illegal distribution efforts, and federal and state governments lost billions in tax revenue. In most urban areas, the individual consumption of alcohol was largely tolerated and drinkers gathered at "speakeasies," the Prohibition-era term for saloons.

Prohibition, failing fully to enforce sobriety and costing billions, rapidly lost popular support in the early 1930s. In 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was passed and ratified, ending national Prohibition. After the repeal of the 18th Amendment, some states continued Prohibition by maintaining statewide temperance laws. Mississippi, the last dry state in the Union, ended Prohibition in 1966.

December 5, 1977

Plymouth debuts front-wheel drive

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