November 6 in Market History

On Wednesday, November 6, 1929, the Dow fell 25.55 points (-10%), 257.68 to 232.13, after being closed the previous day in fear of another Black Tuesday.  That only made matters worse.

Election Day Rallies

On November 6, 1984, for the first time in its 193-year existence, the New York Stock Exchange remained open during a Presidential election day.  The market had always been closed on election Tuesday, to encourage voting.  On the stock market's first voting day, traders "voted" for Ronald Reagan, as the Dow index shot up over 15 points (over 1%) on sales of 101.2 million shares.

On November 6, 1996, President Clinton beat Republican challenger Bob Dole and the maverick Ross Perot to win a second term, while the Republicans maintained their lead in Congress.  The results ("gridlock" and "status quo") clearly pleased Wall Street, as traders sent the Dow surging to a 100-point gain, pushing the index past the record 6,100 mark.  The market set an all time record high that day, and then set eight straight new record highs following the 1996 election.

More Presidents Elected November 6

1860: Abraham Lincoln (Illinois Republican) scored 40% of the vote, against three other candidates, and was elected 16th President, immediately causing the secession of Southern states.

1861: Jefferson Davis was also elected on this date, to a 6-year term as Confederate President.

1888: Benjamin Harrison of Indiana won the presidential election, beating incumbent Grover Cleveland on electoral votes, 233 to 168, although Republican Cleveland led in the popular vote.

1900: William McKinley (Republican) was re-elected, beating William Jennings Bryan again.

1928: Herbert Hoover (Republican) beat Alfred E. Smith (Democrat).  To beam out the news, the first electric flashing sign was installed on all four sides of The New York Times building in New York City. The 360-foot-long signs flashed election, using more than 14,000 lamps and more than one million feet of wire.  The resulting display featured more than 21 million lamp flashes per hour. (On the same date, Jacob Schick obtained a patent for the first electric razor.)

1956: Dwight Eisenhower (Republican) defeated Adlai E. Stevenson (D) once again.

1968: Richard M. Nixon (Republican) was elected 37th President, defeating Hubert Humphrey.

1984: President Ronald Reagan (Republican) won in a landslide (49 states), over Mondale (D).

Happy Birthday, Mr. Dow

November 6, 1851 is the birthday of Charles Henry Dow, the journalist and economist who first brought the news media to the stock market.  Dow moved to New York City in 1880 to work as a stringer for a financial news wire. In 1882, he joined forces with Edward Jones to produce news reports for Wall Street brokerage firms. The newly formed Dow Jones & Company churned out daily bulletins known as "flimsies," or "slips," sending them to Wall Street via messenger.  Their daily newsletter was called "The Customer's Afternoon Letter," the first modern stock market newsletter. By 1889, the letter evolved into the Wall Street Journal.  Dow was the first editor of the Journal, using the paper to promote his economic beliefs and financial theories, including the Dow theory.  In 1896, Dow developed a statistical method for calculating the Dow Jones average.

Business Birthday: Packard Automobiles

James Ward Packard, an electrical-wire manufacturer from Warren, Ohio, was a frustrated driver who designed a better car. In 1898, he bought a car made by a fellow Ohio car manufacturer, Alexander Winston.  After a year of repairs on the Winston, Packard decided to launch Packard Motor Company. 

On November 6, 1899, only three months after starting to build his first car, the first Packard was completed and test-driven through the streets of Warren, Ohio. The "Model A" featured a one-cylinder engine capable of producing 12 horsepower, housed inside a single-seat buggy with wire wheels, a steering tiller, an automatic spark advance, and a chain drive.  Within two months, Packard sold its fifth Model A to Warren resident, George Kirkham, for $1,250.  By the 1920s, Packard was a major producer of luxury automobiles.

Controversial Politics

On November 6, 1917, Lenin and Trotsky masterminded a stunning coup d'etat of Alexander Kerensky's liberal regime in Russia.  Lenin would lead the Soviet Union until his death in 1924.

On November 6, 1923, German inflation became out of control, as one loaf of bread in Berlin was reported to cost about 140 Billion German Marks.  Hitler used this unrest to foment revolution.

Football's Birth

November 6, 1869. The first intercollegiate football game was played (in New Brunswick, New Jersey) as Rutgers beat Princeton 6-4, with each team fielding 25 men, though not all at once.

More History >>