July 24 in Market History

To the Moon (and Back)

On July 24, 1969, Apollo 11 returned to Earth, fulfilling the second half of President Kennedy's 1961 promise – to send a man to the moon, and back safely, by the end of the 1960s.

On July 24, 1975, Apollo 18 returned to Earth, six years to the day after Apollo 11 returned.  That was the end of the moon shots, which had become repetitive and politically expendable.

Cold War Benchmarks

On July 24, 1959: Vice President Richard Nixon engaged in a spirited debate in Moscow with Nikita Khrushchev at the U.S. Exposition's kitchen.  It was later called the "kitchen debate."

On July 24, 1961, the first US commercial plane was hijacked to Cuba, the start of a trend.

On July 24, 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Nixon turn over his Watergate tapes to Congressional investigators.  His resignation came 15 days later.  

On July 24, 1979, President Jimmy Carter named Paul Volcker to head the Federal Reserve Board, specifically to attack runaway inflation.  Volcker was rapidly approved and sworn in on August 6th.   He stayed in office eight years, reducing inflation and leaving before the 1987 crash.

"Famous Firsts" in Pennsylvania Publishing

On July 24, 1824, the Harrisburg Pennsylvanian newspaper published the results of the first-ever public opinion poll about a Presidential race. It showed a clear lead for Andrew Jackson.  (P.S.  John Quincy Adams won, but it was a disputed election decided in the House of Representatives.)

On July 24, 1847: Richard March Hoe, of New York City, patented the Rotary printing press, a vast improvement on the flat-plate press.  Within days, Hoe's rotary press was churning out over 8,000 impressions per plate per hour, in service of the Philadelphia Journal Ledger. (On the same day in 1847, Brigham Young told his Mormon entourage that the Salt Lake in Utah was their new home.  The persecuted Mormons found their permanent home in the high desert.

More U.S. Heat Records on July 24

1936: The mercury hit 118øF in Minden, Nebraska and 121øF in Alton, Kansas (state records)

1952: It was slightly cooler in the deep south: 112øF in Louisville, Georgia (also a state record).

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