It's the last day of the month, and the third quarter, so let's toast some famous endings:

1630: John Billington, one of the signers of the Pilgrims' compact, became the first criminal executed in America.  He was hanged for fatally shooting colonist John Newcomin.

1791: Mozart's opera, The Magic Flute, premiered at the Theater-auf-der-Wieden in Vienna. It was a great financial and critical success, but it came too late to save Mozart's poverty-stricken life.  In the last three months of his life, Mozart wrote two operas: The Magic Flute (K. 620), La Clemenza di Tito (K. 621), the famous Clarinet Concerto (K. 622), a Masonic cantata (K. 623), two small works and a Requiem (K. 626).  He died December 5, 1791, while writing his Requiem.
     
1800: America's undeclared but very real and bloody war with France ended with the signing of the Treaty of Morfontaine.  The cold war with France, mostly fought at sea, and mostly around the West Indies, was America's first major conflict of the 1790s, but this Treaty paved the way for the peaceful purchase of the Louisiana territory in 1803… and war with Britain in 1812.

1935: Gershwin's "Porgy & Bess" premiered, off-Broadway, in Boston, after two years of research, writing and rehearsal.  It failed on Broadway, after 70 performances.  After Gershwin's death in 1937, it was revived in 1942 to become the most successful revival in Broadway history.

1937: The last Duesenberg was made.  It was the most luxurious car in the world, hand-crafted and custom made, the epitome of flamboyance and elegance.  For a decade, Duesenbergs were seen as the ultimate in quality and value, inspiring the expression "it's a duesy."  However, this symbol of opulence suffered during the hard times of the Great Depression, and the Doozy died.

News in the Air

1929: The first manned rocket plane flight was made by German auto maker Fritz von Opel.

1939: On the air: The first TV college football game: Fordham vs Waynesburg, in New York.

1949: The Berlin Airlift ended, after 277,000 cargo flights (over 600 a day) in 15 months.

1968: The first Boeing 747 rolled out of its Seattle manufacturing plant.

Read My (Lying) Lips

On September 30, 1990, President George Bush proposed a tax hike, to the tune of $134 billion over five years.  Bush's 1988 campaign pledge not to raise taxes came back to haunt him in 1992.

Business Birthdays

September 30, 1732: Jacques Necker, one of the first great Swiss bankers, was born in Geneva.  He helped finance the American Revolution and served as Minister of Finance under Louis XVI of France during the French Revolution. To help America, he used deceptive means, claiming a surplus when a deficit existed.  During the French Revolution of 1789, he stayed loyal to the king.

September 30, 1861: William Wrigley, Jr., the chewing gum tycoon, was born.  His Empire of Gum built: The Wrigley Mansion in Pasadena, California; the Avalon casino on Catalina Island (California); the Wrigley Building in Chicago; and the Wrigley Field in Chicago (for the Cubs). 

1985: Microsoft released Microsoft Excel, the fastest spreadsheet available for the IBM PC. 

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