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Quote of the Day
In the Web’s first generation, Tim Berners-Lee launched the Uniform Resource Locator (URL), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and HTML standards with prototype Unix-based servers and browsers. A few people noticed that the Web might be better than Gopher. In the second generation, Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina developed NCSA Mosaic at the University of Illinois. Several million then suddenly noticed that the Web might be better than sex.
-Bob Metcalfe, InfoWorld, August 21, 1995. On this day in 1993, Marc Andreessen would release the first version of the Mosaic web browser.
January 23rd – This Day in Stock Market History
January 23rd, 1993 – 21 year old Marc Andreessen releases the first version of the Mosaic web browser. It was the first web browser that the casual computer could use, and marks the beginning of the world wide web disrupting the landscape.
Mosaic web browser, image from Wikipedia
Mosaic was developed by the National Center for Super-computing Applications. By 1995, many of the team members on the Mosaic project were employed by Netscape and helping to create the Netscape Navigator web browser.
Our ‘Read of the Day’ below has more on Marc Andreessen, and what he is doing today.
Source: Panic, Prosperity, and Progress: Five Centuries of History and the Markets
January 23rd, 1995 – The Japanese Nikkei index falls more than 1,000 points from 19,241 to 17,785 as traders panic from the devastation of the Hanshin (or Kobe) Earthquake. In total, the Nikkei has fallen 7.6% since the earthquake on January 17th. The resulting decline was the leading factor in the 232 year old Barrings bank, which failed after rogue trader Nick Leeson’s losses on Japanese derivative bets.
New York Times coverage of the Nikkei falling 1000 points after the Kobe/Hanshin earthquake.
By January 23rd, Leeson had make big bets that the Nikkei would remain between 19,000 and 21,000. As the market sunk lower Leeson added to his positions, eventually accumulating over 60,000 futures contracts. Within a month Leeson quit the bank and was on the run (eventually he would be arrested and would serve 3 years in jail).
Barrings bank would fail from the losses and be sold to ING for 1 pound on March 6th.
Source: Eyewitness to Wall Street: 400 Years of Dreamers, Schemers, Busts and Booms
Best January 23rd in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
2008 – Up 2.50%, 298.98 points.
Worst January 23rd in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
1939 – Down 3.71%, 5.44 points.
Read of the Day
Today, Marc Andreesen is owner of a venture capital fund, Andreesen Horowitz. The fund has a great blog and and podcast, here: https://a16z.com/
He also recently had a thread on Twitter where he recommended a few books he has enjoyed recently:
Thread: Books I’ve recently read and recommend –>
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) July 5, 2018
Among those that made the list:
- Annie Duke’s Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts
- Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow
- Chuck Klosterman’s But What If We’re Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past
<– Go To Previous Day: January 22nd, 1984 – Apple unveils first computer in Super Bowl ad
Go To Next Day: January 24th – Sun Microsystems makes offer to purchase Apple –>
