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Market History/Outlook |
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August 20 in Market History
On August 20, 1974, Nelson Rockefeller was nominated as Vice President, by the new (11 days in office) President Gerald Ford. The market did not take kindly to Rocky. In the week of August 19-23, 1974, the Dow continued its free-fall, down another 44.74 points (-6.1%) to 686.80.
The Discovery of Alaska
On August 20, 1741, Alaska was "discovered" (by Europeans), when a Russian sailor named Vitus Bering crossed the Straits now bearing his name. Since Russian winters start about mid-August, he never made it home. His boat and crew were stranded on an island off Kamchatka, where Bering died in December. Some crew members made it back to Russia by mid-1742.
1940: Big Day for Trotsky, the RAF, RADAR & Churchill
On August 20, 1940, the Royal Air Force defeated Hitler's Luftwaffe in the Battle over Britain, and Churchill uttered his famous tribute: "Never was so much done, for so many, by so few." Ironically, on this same day, RADAR was invented, to help spot the Luftwaffe. On the same day, exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was killed by an assassin at his hideout in Mexico.
Xerox 914 Copier: Officially Obsolete
On August 20, 1985, the original Xerox 914 copier took its place among other artifacts in the nation's attic, at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. The paper copier was formally introduced in March of 1960. In the next 25 years, the machine, invented by Chester Carlson, a patent lawyer, had become obsolete enough to make it into the Smithsonian.
Innovations in the Air
1913: In the first parachute jump from a plane, a Frenchman leaped 700 feet and lived.
1920: American's first commercial radio station, 8MK in Detroit, began broadcasting.
1923: The first American dirigible, the "Shenandoah," was launched, at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
1929: The first airship flight around the Earth (flying eastward) was completed
Other Major Events of August 20 in History
1896: The dial telephone was patented.
1956: The Republicans convened at the Cow Palace, to re-nominate Eisenhower & Nixon.
1968: Soviet tanks rolled into Prague, to put down the democratic reforms there.