On this day in 1969, the first Automated Teller Machine (ATM),
called the Docuteller, was installed in a wall of the Chemical
Bank in Rockville Centre, New York. For the first time reusable,
magnetically coded cards were used to withdraw cash. Today
there are ATMs everywhere, including one at the McMurdo
research station on Antarctica.

Today, we celebrate National Dollar Day. It was 226 years ago today (1786)
that the Continental Congress established the monetary system.

   

            John Jacob Astor (July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848)

Astor was a German-American business magnate, merchant and investor
who was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-
millionaire in the United States. He was the creator of the first trust in
America.

Astor arrived in New York following the American Revolutionary War
and built a fur-trading empire that extended to the Great Lakes region
and Canada, and later expanded into the American West and Pacific
coast. He diversified into real estate and later became a famous patron 
of the arts.

 
First National Bank today; also known as Oregon Pioneer Savings Landmark Building is located at 401 SW Fifth Avenue.