Monday, August 8 — On this date in 1930, an offbeat sort of history was made when a stock trade order was placed from a zeppelin — an airship — off the Atlantic coast. This didn’t start a trend because the stock market had crashed and burned less than 10 months earlier, and a famous zeppelin crashed and burned just seven years later. While 810 million shares were traded in 1930, that was down significantly from 1929’s volume of 1.1 billion. The stock market took nearly 30 years, or until 1959, to return to the trading level of 1930. Zeppelins haven’t recovered anywhere near as much. About 14 percent of U.S. families own individual stocks, with a median value of $27,000, but an average of over $294,000.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau.
Follow Us