What
a week this is for history in all of these industries. Let’s start off with the
“yummiest” … Crisco.
Prior to 1911, kitchens across America relied on animal lard
for all of their frying and cooking needs. That is until August 15 of that year
when Proctor & Gamble unveiled its all-vegetable solution to lard – Crisco
– changing the way housewives cooked and baked for years to come.
Also this week, we’ve got more financial milestones to
report, but unlike last week, they’re all good news! August 17 marks the first
time the Dow Jones Industrial average closed above 2,700, which happened back
in 1987. That was just five short years after the New York Stock Exchange set a
record of 132,690,000 shares traded on August 18, 1992. By the early 90s, the
Dow had set another record … a high of 3612.13 on August 19, 1993 – over 10,000
points shy of its current all-time high of 14,164.53 that was set 14 years
later in 2007.
Our other fun history facts this week revolve around the
world of computers, starting with the launch of the very first artificial
intelligence software. IBM introduced its product on August 16, 1988, and set
the world on fire. By August 14, 1984, they were releasing their PC DOS version
3.0 and twelve short years later on August 13, 1996, Microsoft gave us Internet
Explorer 3.0. And as you well know, our world, communication and access to
information has never been the same.
