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Quote of the Day
“The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste, they have absolutely no taste. I don’t mean that in a small way. I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don’t think of original ideas and they don’t bring much culture into their product.”
-Steve Jobs, 1996 in the PBS documentary “The Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires”
November 21st – This Day in Stock Market History
November 21st, 1973 – An 18 and a half minute gap in a key Watergate tape is revealed.
The tape was a recording of Richard Nixon discussing the break in of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate complex for the first time with his chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman.
To this day it is unclear who was responsible for the erased tape.
The discovery of the missing information would lead to another fall in the public’s confidence in President Nixon.
The stock market was also affected by the uncertainty of the Watergate investigation. Stocks had already declined 20% from their late 1973 highs, but would fall a total of 40% over the course of the Watergate investigation.
November 21st, 1985 – Windows 1.0 is released by Microsoft.
The first version of Windows was delayed over 2 years due to development problems.
Bill Gates first unveiled Windows on November 10, 1983 in what was called “the most extravagant product demonstration ever”. Today, Apple is very well known for its popular product releases, but it was Apple’s enemy Microsoft who actually originated the idea.
Despite Gates’ optimism, Windows 1.0 would be a bust. It would not be until Windows 3.0 came out in 1990 that Windows, and Microsoft, would begin to gain traction and dominate the industry.
Source: Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire
November 21st, 1995 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 5000 for the first time.
Chart from Macrotrends
Although the market had already had 5 years of solid returns, 1995 would kick off the meteoric rise in the stock markets, propelled mostly by technology companies.
The next 5 years would be some of the best returns in stock market history as investors propelled technology stocks higher and higher. The Dow Jones would triple from the beginning of 1995 to its tech bubble peak of 11,722.98 on January 14th, 2000.
Best November 21st in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
2008 – Up 6.54%, 494.13 points.
Worst November 21st in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
2011 – Down 2.11%, 248.85 points.
Watch of the Day
Just as the tech bubble was inflating, Microsoft and Apple were booming, and became big rivals. It is no secret that Jobs and Gates were not fond of each other early on in their careers.
In 1996, PBS created a great 3 part documentary on the rise of these new technology companies, focusing on Microsoft and Apple. Little did anyone know at the time, the day after Microsoft released its first version of Windows, it had also made a secret pact with Jobs and Apple the next day.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
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