Black Tuesday hit Wall Street on October 29, 1929 as investors
traded 16,410,030 shares on the New York Stock Exchange in
a single day.

In the aftermath of Black Tuesday, America and the rest of the industrialized world spiraled downward into the Great
Depression.

On October 24, 1901, a 63-year-old schoolteacher named Annie
Edson Taylor (above) became the first person to successfully
take the plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survive.

Her motives were financial but she never made much money
from her adventure.

No matter the method, going over Niagara Falls is illegal, and
survivors face charges and stiff fines on either side of the
border.

Taylor, on her 63rd birthday, was accompanied by her cat.

Annie Edson Taylor (October 24, 1838 – April 29, 1921)

         
NANCY LYONS

On October 1, 1958, the American Express Company issued
its first charge card in the U.S. and Canada to give traveling
customers more flexibility.

The purple paperboard card—which later became the iconic
green or gold plastic card—pre-dates a new era of paying for
purchases with revolving credit cards, with MasterCard and
Visa following years later.

William George Fargo (1818 – 1881)  

        
          
 
 John Butterfield (1801 – 1869)         
       

 
In 1850, American Express was started as a
freight forwarding company in Buffalo, New
York.

owned by Henry Wells (Wells & Company),
William G. Fargo (Livingston, Fargo & Co.)
and John W. Butterfield.

In 1789, the First U.S. Congress established the Department of
the Treasury on September 2nd to manage government finances, creating a permanent institution after the Continental Congress‘s
prior efforts to fund the Revolutionary War through the issuance
of paper money.

This new department was part of Alexander Hamilton’s vision for
the new government, which included establishing national credit,
funding the national debt, and formulating economic policy.

Alexander Hamilton (1757 – 1804)

View of the east entrance of the first Treasury
Building in Washington, 1804.