Economy & Finance in the 20th century

369 sourced entries, 1901 CE to 1999 CE, oldest first. Also see Economy & Finance across every century or everything else in the 20th century.

• 1901February 25 – U.S. Steel is incorporated by industrialist J. P. Morgan, as the first billion-dollar corporation.source
• 1901May 17 – Panic of 1901: The New York Stock Exchange crashes.source
• 1901Splošno slovensko žensko društvo, the first women's organisation in Slovenia, is founded.source
• 1901AB Lux, as the predecessor of Electrolux, founded in Sweden.source
• 1901The Bulgarian Women's Union is founded.source
• 1902February 18 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt prosecutes the Northern Securities Company for violation of the antitrust Sherman Act.source
• 1902June 13 – Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, predecessor of global consumer goods brand 3M, begins trading as a mining venture at Two Harbors in the United States.source
• 1902December–February 1903 – Venezuelan crisis: Britain, Germany and Italy sustain a naval blockade on Venezuela, in order to enforce collection of outstanding financial claims. This prompts the development of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.source
• 1902The capital of French Indochina is moved from Saigon (in Cochinchina) to Hanoi (Tonkin).source
• 1902De'Longhi home appliance brand is founded in Treviso, Italy.source
• 1902Daniels Linseed, predecessor of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), a global livestock, commodities trading, food processing brand, is founded in Minnesota, United States.source
• 1904Global cosmetics companies are founded in Paris (France): Coty, by François Coty, and Garnier, by Alfred Amour Garnier.source
• 1905January 30 – The U.S. Supreme Court renders its unanimous decision in the landmark case of Swift & Co. v. United States, allowing the federal government to regulate monopolies.source
• 1905May 22 – Abdul Hamid II, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire establishes the Ullah millet for the Aromanians of the empire. For this reason, the Aromanian National Day is sometimes celebrated on this day. The decision is publicly announced the next day, which is more commonly celebrated.source
• 1905November 28 – Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founds Sinn Féin in Dublin, as a political party whose goal is independence for all of Ireland.source
• 1906April 18 – Xerox, the global digital office machine brand, is founded in Rochester, New York as the Haloid Photographic Company.source
• 1906October 28 – The Union Minière du Haut Katanga, a mining trust, is created in the Belgian Congo.source
• 1906The Simplo Filler Pen Company is founded, later to become the Montblanc Company in Germany.source
• 1907June 6 – Persil laundry detergent is first marketed by Henkel of Düsseldorf, Germany, the first to combine bleach with detergent commercially.source
• 1907October 24 – A major United States financial crisis is averted when J. P. Morgan, E. H. Harriman, James Stillman, Henry Clay Frick and other Wall Street financiers create a $25,000,000 pool to invest in the shares on the plunging New York Stock Exchange, ending the bank panic of 1907.source
• 1909April 9 – The Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act is passed in the United States Congress.source
• 1909April 19 – The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (modern-day BP) is incorporated.source
• 1911January 26 – The United States and Canada announce the successful negotiation of their first reciprocal trade agreement.source
• 1911June 23 – Frank C. Mars starts the Mars Candy Factory in Tacoma, Washington, origin of Mars, Incorporated, the global confectionery and pet food brand.source
• 1912April 30 – Carl Laemmle founds Universal Studios as the Universal Film and Manufacturing Company in the United States.source
• 1912July 12 – The United States release of Sarah Bernhardt's film Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth is influential in the development of the movie feature. Adolph Zukor, who incorporates Paramount Pictures on May 8, 1914, launches his company as the distributor.source
• 1913January – Joseph Stalin travels to Vienna to research his Marxism and the National Question. This means that, during this month, Stalin, Hitler, Trotsky and Tito are all living in the city, as also are Freud and Jung.source
• 1913March 4 – The U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Department of Labor are established, by splitting the duties of the 10-year-old Department of Commerce and Labor. The Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Fisheries and U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey form part of the Department of Commerce.source
• 1914August 1 – The New York Stock Exchange is closed because of the outbreak of the war in Europe, where nearly all stock exchanges are already closed.source
• 1914September 26 – The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is established, by the Federal Trade Commission Act.source
• 1914November 24 – Benito Mussolini is expelled from the Italian Socialist Party.source
• 1914November 28 – World War I: Following a war-induced closure in July, the New York Stock Exchange re-opens for bond trading.source
• 1914December 12 – The New York Stock Exchange re-opens fully, having been closed since August 1, except for bond trading.source
• 1914Fashion and perfumes company Puig is founded in Barcelona.source
• 1915February 1 – William Fox creates the Fox Film Corporation.source
• 1916September 29 – John D. Rockefeller becomes the first person to reach a nominal personal fortune of US$1 billionsource
• 1916Ishikawajima Automobile Manufacturing, predecessor of Isuzu, a truck brand in Japan, is founded.source
• 1917July 25 – Sir William Thomas White introduces Canada's first income tax as a "temporary" measure (lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%).source
• 1917October 19 – Carl Swartz leaves office as Prime Minister of Sweden, after dismal election results for the right-wing in the Riksdag elections in September. He is replaced by liberal leader and history professor Nils Edén.source
• 1918May 2 – General Motors acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.source
• 1919January 18 – Bentley Motors Limited is founded in England.source
• 1919February 25 – Oregon places a one cent per US gallon (0.26¢/liter) tax on gasoline, becoming the first U.S. state to levy a gasoline tax.source
• 1919October 29–November 29 – First Annual Meeting of the International Labour Conference.source
• 1919December 26 – American baseball player Babe Ruth is traded by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at this time, a deal made public at the beginning of January 1920.source
• 1919Severe inflation in Germany sees the Papiermark rise to 47 marks against the United States dollar by December, compared to 12 marks in April.source
• 1920January 1 – Kauniainen in Finland, completely surrounded by the city of Espoo, secedes from Espoo as its own market town.source
• 1920November 16 – Queensland and Northern Territory Aviation Services (Qantas) is founded by Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinness.source
• 1920December 13 – Confectionery company Haribo is founded in Bonn, Germany.source
• 1921March 21 – The New Economic Policy starts in Soviet Russia.source
• 1921April 15 – "Black Friday" in Britain: transport union members of the 'Triple Alliance' refuse to support national strike action by coal miners.source
• 1921May 5 – London Schedule of Payments sets out the World War I reparations payable by the German Weimar Republic and other countries considered successors to the Central Powers – 132 billion gold marks ($33 billion), in annual installments of 2.5 billion.source
• 1921November – Hyperinflation is rampant in Germany, where 263 marks are now needed to buy a single American dollar, more than 20 times greater than the 12 marks needed in April 1919.source
• 1922April 10 – Genoa Conference: The representatives of 34 countries convene to speak in Genoa, Italy about monetary economics, in the wake of World War I.source
• 1922July – Hyperinflation in Germany means that 563 marks are now needed to buy a single American dollar – more than double the 263 needed eight months before, dwarfing the mere 12 needed in April 1919, and even the 47 needed in December of that year.source
• 1922Hyperinflation in Germany sees the value of the Papiermark against the dollar rise to 1,000.source
• 1922October – 3,000 German marks are now needed to buy a single American dollar – triple the figure three months ago due to hyperinflation.source
• 1922December – The year ends with hyperinflation showing no sign of slowing down in Germany, with 7,000 marks now needed to buy a single American dollar.source
• 1922Wracked by rapid inflation and political assassinations, and motivated by hostility and arrogance as well, the Weimar Republic announces its inability to pay more, and proposes a moratorium on reparations for 3 years.source
• 1923May 23 – Belgium's Sabena Airlines is created.source
• 1923July – Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic (Germany) sees the number of marks needed to purchase a single American dollar reach 353,000 – more than 200 times the amount needed at the start of the year.source
• 1923August 13 – Gustav Stresemann is named Chancellor of Germany, and founds a coalition government for the Weimar Republic, where hyperinflation means that more than 4,600,000 marks are now needed to buy a single American dollar.source
• 1923October 16 – Roy and Walt Disney found The Walt Disney Company, at this time known as the Disney Brothers Studio.source
• 1923November 15 – Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic: Hyperinflation in Germany reaches its height. One United States dollar is worth 4,200,000,000,000 Papiermark (4.2 trillion on the short scale). Gustav Stresemann abolishes the old currency and replaces it with the Rentenmark, at an exchange rate of one Rentenmark to 1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion on the short scale) Papiermark (effective November 20).source
• 1923November 23 – Gustav Stresemann's coalition government collapses in Germany.source
• 1924February 14 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR), based in the U.S. state of New York, is renamed International Business Machines (IBM).source
• 1924May 11 – Mercedes-Benz is formed by the merging of companies owned by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz.source
• 1925January 25 – Hjalmar Branting resigns as Prime Minister of Sweden because of ill health, and is replaced by the minister of trade, Rickard Sandler.source
• 1925December 25 – IG Farben is formed by the merger of six chemical companies in Germany.source
• 1926July 26 – The United States National Bar Association is incorporated.source
• 1927April 21 – A banking crisis hits Japan.source
• 1928October 1 – Joseph Stalin launches the first five-year plan (1928–1932); the average nonfarm wage falls by 50% in the Soviet Union.source
• 1929July 24 – Union Airways Pty. Ltd. is founded, to be nationalised as South African Airways, on 1 February 1934.source
• 1929September 3 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average peaks at 381.17, a height it would not reach again until November 1954.source
• 1929October 24–29 – Wall Street Crash of 1929: Three multi-digit percentage drops wipe out more than $30 billion from the New York Stock Exchange (10 times greater than the annual budget of the federal government).source
• 1930June 17 – President Herbert Hoover signs the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act into law, implementing protectionist trade policies in the United States. It has the incidental effect of defining an antique as older than 1830.source
• 1931May 11 – The Creditanstalt, Austria's largest bank, goes bankrupt, beginning the banking collapse in Central Europe that causes a worldwide financial meltdown.source
• 1931June 5 – German Chancellor Heinrich Brüning visits London, where he warns British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald that the collapse of the Austrian banking system, caused by the bankruptcy of the Creditanstalt, has left the entire German banking system on the verge of collapse.source
• 1931June 19 – In an attempt to stop the banking crisis in Central Europe from causing a worldwide financial meltdown, U.S. President Herbert Hoover issues the Hoover Moratorium.source
• 1931September 19 – The United Kingdom abandons the gold standard.source
• 1931December 8 – Carl Friedrich Goerdeler is appointed Reich Price Commissioner, in Germany to enforce the deflationary policies of the Brüning government.source
• 1932February 2 – The Reconstruction Finance Corporation begins operations in Washington, D.C.source
• 1932May 20 – Federación Obrera de la Industria de la Carne initiates a major strike in the Argentinian meat-packing industry.source
• 1932June 16– Lausanne conference opens to discuss reparations, which Germany had not paid since the Hoover Moratorium of June 1931.source
• 1932July 8 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average in the United States reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, bottoming out at 41.22.source
• 1932July 9 – Lausanne conference ends, agreeing to cancel World War I reparations against Germany.source
• 1932August 6 – Carl Gustaf Ekman resigns as Prime Minister of Sweden and is replaced by his Minister of Finance Felix Hamrin.source
• 1932August 20 – The Ottawa conference ends with the adoption of Imperial Preference tariff, turning the British Empire into one economic zone with a series of tariffs meant to exclude non-empire states from competing within the markets of Britain; the Dominions; and the rest of the empire.source
• 1932September 20 – Mahatma Gandhi begins a hunger strike in Poona prison, India.source
• 1932November 6 – November 1932 German federal election: The Nazis remain the largest party in the Reichstag but their share of the seats drops from 37% to 32%. The Communists (KPD) are the second largest party. This will be the last free election for the whole of Germany until 1990.source
• 1932SPAR, the global retail brand, is founded in Zegwaart, Netherlands.source
• 1932Unemployment in the United States – ca. 33% – 14 million. A similar level of unemployment affects Germany. Many people in depressed countries do not receive unemployment benefit due to governments not being able to afford benefit payments.source
• 1933March 5 – The Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a "Bank holiday", closing all United States banks and freezing all financial transactions (the 'holiday' ends on March 13).source
• 1933March 15 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average rises from 53.84 to 62.10. The day's gain of 15.34%, achieved during the depths of the Great Depression, remains the largest 1-day percentage gain for the index.source
• 1933March 27 – Japan announces it will leave the League of Nations (due to a cancellation period of exactly two years, the egression becomes effective March 27, 1935).source
• 1933May 2 – Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler prohibits trade unions.source
• 1933May 3 – Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first woman to be named director of the United States Mint.source
• 1933May 8 – Mohandas Gandhi begins a 3-week hunger strike because of the mistreatment of the lower castes in India.source
• 1933May 27 – New Deal in the United States: The Federal Securities Act is signed into law, requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission.source
• 1933June 5 – The U.S. Congress abrogates the United States use of the gold standard, by enacting a joint resolution nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold.source
• 1933December 26 – The Nissan Motor Company is organized in Tokyo, Japan.source
• 1935January 24 – The first canned beer is sold in Richmond, Virginia, United States, by Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company.source
• 1935May 27 – Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (the "Sick Chicken Case"): The Supreme Court of the United States declares that the National Industrial Recovery Act, a major component of the New Deal, is unconstitutional.source
• 1935May 31 – Twentieth Century Pictures and Fox Film Corporation merge to form Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation.source
• 1937August 2 – The Marijuana Tax Act in the United States is a significant bill on the path that will lead to the criminalization of cannabis. It was introduced to the U.S. Congress by Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics Harry Anslinger.source
• 1937August 28 – Toyota was incorporated and founded on this day.source
• 1937December 11 – Italy withdraws from the League of Nations.source
• 1937The Vibora Luviminda sugar plantation trade unions strike on Maui island, Hawaii.source
• 1938February 6 – Black Sunday at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia: 300 swimmers are dragged out to sea in 3 freak waves; 80 lifesavers save all but 5.source
• 1938November 12 – French Finance Minister Paul Reynaud brings into effect a series of laws aiming at improving French productivity (thus aiming to undo the economic weaknesses which led to Munich), and undoes most of the economic and social laws of the Popular Front.source
• 1939January 30 – Hitler gives a speech before the Reichstag calling for an "export battle" to increase German foreign exchange holdings. The same speech also sees "Hitler's prophecy", where he warns that if "Jewish financiers" start a war against Germany, "the result will be the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe".source
• 1940June 3 – The Weather Bureau is transferred to the United States Department of Commerce.source
• 1940September 26 – The U.S. government places an embargo on the exportation of scrap iron and steel to any country outside the Western Hemisphere excluding Britain, effective October 16.source
• 1941January 22 – In Sweden, Victor Hasselblad registers the Hasselblad Camera Company.source
• 1941May 1 – The breakfast cereal Cheerios is introduced as CheeriOats by General Mills in the United States.source
• 1941May 27 – The Swiss Socialist Federation is banned.source
• 1941June 14 – All German and Italian assets in the United States are frozen.source
• 1941July 17 – Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak ends.source
• 1941Factory Canteen, predecessor of multinational foodservice company Compass Group, is founded in England by Jack Bateman.source
• 1941Chosun Tire and Rubber Manufacture, predecessor of South Korean tire brand Hankook, is founded in Seoul (at this time part of the Empire of Japan).source
• 1942September 3 – WWII: Erwin Rommel orders a general retreat and carries the German forces of Panzer Army Africa back to the line running from Tel el Eisa – Deir el Shein - west of Deir el Munassib down to the Qattara Depression. Allied forces of the 2nd New Zealand Division and the British 7th Armoured Division ("Desert Rats") begin an assault, but they are repelled in a fierce rearguard action by the German 90th Light Division. During the attack, Rommel loses some 2,900 men, 50 tanks, a similar number of guns, and 400 vehicles.source
• 1943March 10 – Banco Bradesco is founded in Marília, São Paulo, Brazil.source
• 1943Aberdeen, Scotland, experiences its worst bombing, with 125 people killed.source
• 1943December 4 – With unemployment figures falling fast due to WWII-related employment, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt closes the Works Progress Administration.source
• 1943History of the cooperative movement: Father José María Arizmendiarrieta sets up a polytechnic school at Mondragón in the Spanish Basque Country (predecessor of the University of Mondragón), which inspires creation of the Mondragon Corporation.source
• 1944July 22 – The Bretton Woods Conference ends with agreements signed to set up the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and International Monetary Fund.source
• 1944November 22 – Conscription Crisis: Prime Minister of Canada William Mackenzie King agrees a one-time conscription levy in Canada for overseas service.source
• 1944The BC Žalgiris professional basketball club is founded in Kaunas, Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.source
• 1945March 2 – Former U.S. vice-president Henry A. Wallace starts his term of office as United States Secretary of Commerce, serving under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.source
• 1945November 26 – U.S. ambassador to China Patrick J. Hurley resigns after he is unable to broker a deal between Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse-tung.source
• 1945December 2 – French banks (Bank of France, BNCI, CNEP, Crédit Lyonnais and Société Générale) are nationalized.source
• 1946May 7 – Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded, with about 20 employees.source
• 1946August 1 – The Scandinavian Airlines System is founded as a consortium of the flag carriers of Sweden, Denmark and Norway.source
• 1946September 7 – First devaluation in Turkey: the lira loses 40% of its value.source
• 1946September 24 – Cathay Pacific Airways is founded in Hong Kong, by American Roy Farrell and Australian Sydney de Kantzow.source
• 1946November 27 – Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appeals to the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would "save humanity from the ultimate disaster."source
• 1947February 23 – The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is founded.source
• 1947April 16 – American financier and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch describes the post–World War II tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States as a "Cold War".source
• 1947August 27 – The French government lowers the daily bread ration to 200 grams, causing riots in Verdun and Le Mans.source
• 1947October 30 – The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the foundation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), is established.source
• 1947November 21 – The United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment begins in Havana, Cuba. This conference ends in 1948, when its members complete the Havana Charter.source
• 1948January 1 – The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated.source
• 1948February 21 – The United States stock car racing organization NASCAR is founded by Bill France Sr. with other drivers.source
• 1948April 16 – The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is founded, as the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC).source
• 1948April – Children's Bargain Town, a predecessor of toy and child-related retailer Toys "R" Us, is founded in Washington, D.C., United States.source
• 1948June 21 – The Deutsche Mark becomes the official currency of the future Federal Republic of Germany.source
• 1948June 28 – Lotte Group, a global conglomerate in Northeast Asia (South Korea and Japan), is founded.source
• 1948December 20 – American economist and former State Department official and spy for the Soviet Union Laurence Duggan falls to his death, from the 16th story window of his Manhattan office.source
• 1949May 16 – The Tokyo Stock Exchange resumes operations, after a four-year shutdown.source
• 1949June 7–25 – Dock workers strike in the United Kingdom.source
• 1949August 3 – The Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League finalize the merger that will create the National Basketball Association.source
• 1949September 19 – The United Kingdom government devalues the pound sterling from $4.03 to $2.80, leading to many other currencies being devalued.source
• 1949October 20 – China People's Insurance Corporation, as predecessor of China Life was founded.source
• 1950February 13 – British Columbia B-36 crash: The U.S. Air Force loses a Convair B-36 bomber that carried a Mark 4 nuclear bomb off the west coast of Canada, and produces the world's first Broken Arrow.source
• 1950May 24 – The United States Maritime Administration is formed (under the Department of Commerce).source
• 1951January 9 – The Government of the United Kingdom announces abandonment of the Tanganyika groundnut scheme for the cultivation of peanuts in the Tanganyika Territory, with the writing off of £36.5M debt.source
• 1951December 22 – The Selangor Labour Party is founded in Selangor, Malaya.source
• 1951December 31 – The Marshall Plan expires, after distributing more than $13.3 billion US in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.source
• 1951IBM (United Kingdom) is formed.source
• 1952April 8 – Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer: The U.S. Supreme Court limits the power of the President to seize private business, after President Harry S. Truman nationalizes all steel mills in the United States, just before the 1952 steel strike begins.source
• 1952July 23 – The European Coal and Steel Community is established.source
• 1952August 13 – Japan joins the International Monetary Fund (IMF).source
• 1953January 24 – Leader of East Germany Walter Ulbricht announces that agriculture will be collectivized in East Germany.source
• 1953July 9 – The U.S. Treasury formally renames the Bureau of Internal Revenue; the new name (which had previously been used informally) is the Internal Revenue Service.source
• 1953Global meat packing industry JBS is founded in Anapolis, Goias, Brazil.source
• 1954May 22 – The common Nordic Labour Market act is signed.source
• 1954July 1 – The Common Nordic Labor Market Act comes into effect.source
• 1954November 23 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average rises 3.27 points, or 0.86 percent, closing at an all-time high of 382.74. More significantly, this is the first time the Dow has surpassed its peak level, reached just before the Wall Street Crash of 1929.source
• 1955December 5 – The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge, to become the AFL–CIO.source
• 1955December 31 – General Motors becomes the first American corporation to make a profit of over 1 billion dollars in 1 year.source
• 1956October 5 – Cecil B. DeMille's epic film The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston as Moses, is released in the United States. It will be in the top ten of the worldwide list of highest-grossing films of all time, adjusted for inflation.source
• 1956December 4 – The Million Dollar Quartet (Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash) get together at Sun Studio, for the first and last time in history.source
• 1957March 1 – Sud Aviation forms, from a merger between SNCASE (Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Sud Est) and SNCASO (Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Sud Ouest).source
• 1957December 1 – In Indonesia, Sukarno announces the nationalization of 246 Dutch businesses.source
• 1957Raja Fashions, a tailoring business, is founded in Hong Kong.source
• 1958October – GoldStar, predecessor of LG Electronics, is founded in South Korea.source
• 1958November 20 – The Jim Henson Company is founded as Muppets, Inc. in the United States.source
• 1959July 24 – At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, United States Vice President Richard Nixon and USSR Premier Nikita Khrushchev engage in the "Kitchen Debate".source
• 1959The Supremes girl group is founded as The Primettes in Detroit.source
• 1960February 3 – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Harold Macmillan makes the Wind of Change speech to the South African Parliament in Cape Town (although he had first made the speech, to little publicity, in Accra, Gold Coast – modern-day Ghana – on January 10).source
• 1960May 14 – The Kenya African National Union (KANU) is founded in Kenya, when 3 political parties join forces.source
• 1960June 23 – Japanese prime minister Nobusuke Kishi announces his resignation.source
• 1961January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union.source
• 1961March 13 – Black and white £5 notes cease to be legal tender in the UK.source
• 1961July 31 – Ireland submits the first application from a non-founding country to join the European Economic Community.source
• 1961September 30 – The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is formed to replace the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC).source
• 1961November 14 – The Yves Saint Laurent luxury fashion brand is founded in Rue La Boetie, Paris (France), by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé.source
• 1963January 29 – French President Charles de Gaulle vetoes the United Kingdom's entry into the European Common Market.source
• 1964January 6 – A British firm, the Leyland Motor Corp., announces the sale of 450 buses to the Cuban government, challenging the United States blockade of Cuba.source
• 1964March 20–June 6 – The first United Nations Conference on Trade and Development takes place.source
• 1964May 9 – South Korean President Park Chung Hee reshuffles his Cabinet, after a series of student demonstrations against his efforts to restore diplomatic and trade relations with Japan.source
• 1965October 17 – The New York World's Fair at Flushing Meadows, closes. Due to financial losses, some of the projected site park improvements fail to materialize.source
• 1965December 8 – Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith warns that Rhodesia will resist a trade embargo by neighboring countries with force.source
• 1965Hainzl Industriesysteme GmbH company is founded in Austria.source
• 1966February 14 – The Australian dollar is introduced at a rate of 2 dollars per pound, or 10 shillings per dollar.source
• 1966March 1 – The British Government announces plans for the decimalisation of the pound sterling (hitherto denominated in 20 shillings and 240 pence to the £), to come into force on 15 February 1971 (Decimal Day).source
• 1966April 18 – China declares that it will stop economic aid to Indonesia.source
• 1966May 7 – Irish bank workers go on strike.source
• 1966October 4 – Israel applies for membership in the European Economic Community, which is never granted.source
• 1966October 14 – Closure of Intra Bank begins a crisis in the Lebanese banking system.source
• 1966November 17 – The U.N. General Assembly decides to found the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.source
• 1966December 17 – South Africa does not join the trade embargo against Rhodesia.source
• 1967July 10 – New Zealand decimalises its currency from pound to dollar at £1 to $2 ($1 = 10/-).source
• 1967October 27 – French President Charles de Gaulle vetoes British entry into the European Economic Community for the second time in the decade.source
• 1967November 18 – The UK pound is devalued from £1 = US$2.80 to £1 = US$2.40.source
• 1967November 29 – Vietnam War: U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announces his resignation to become president of the World Bank. McNamara's resignation follows U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's outright rejection of McNamara's early November recommendations to freeze troop levels, stop the bombing of North Vietnam, and hand over ground fighting to South Vietnam.source
• 1967December 29 – Korean automobile manufacturer Hyundai Motor is founded.source
• 1967Warner Bros. becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Seven Arts Productions, thus becoming Warner Bros.-Seven Arts.source
• 1968March 1 – Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 further reduces right of entry for citizens from the British Commonwealth to the United Kingdom.source
• 1968March 14 – Late this evening, the U.K. government at the request of the U.S. agrees that the London Gold Pool will be closed from tomorrow. George Brown, the British Foreign Secretary, apparently drunk, is absent from meetings to discuss the crisis and is forced to resign from the government on March 15.source
• 1968March 18 – Gold standard: The United States Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back U.S. currency.source
• 1968May 27 – May 68: Grenelle agreements concluded in France, giving a large increase in minimum wages, but are rejected by trade unions.source
• 1968June 4 – The Standard & Poor's 500 index in the United States closes above 100 for the first time, at 100.38.source
• 1969February 13 – Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) terrorists bomb the Montreal Stock Exchange.source
• 1970February – Multi-business conglomerate Virgin Group is founded as a discount mail-order record retailer by Richard Branson in the UK.source
• 1970June 21 – Penn Central, America's largest railroad, files for chapter 77 bankruptcy; the largest U.S. corporate bankruptcy at this time.source
• 1970December 31 – Paul McCartney sues in Britain to dissolve The Beatles' legal partnership.source
• 1971February 4 – The Nasdaq stock exchange is founded in New York City.source
• 1971February 4 – In Britain, Rolls-Royce goes bankrupt and is nationalised.source
• 1971February 8 – A new stock market index called the Nasdaq Composite debuts in the United States.source
• 1971February 15 – Decimal Day: The United Kingdom and Ireland both switch to decimal currency (see also decimalisation).source
• 1971March 30 – Starbucks coffee shop is founded in the U.S. state of Washington.source
• 1971May 5 – The U.S. dollar floods the European currency markets and especially threatens the Deutsche Mark; the central banks of Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland stop the currency trading.source
• 1971July 13 – The Yugoslavian government begins allowing foreign companies to take their profits from the country.source
• 1971August 15 – President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed value, effectively ending the Bretton Woods system. He also imposes a 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents.source
• 1971December 4 – The Montreux Casino burns down during a Frank Zappa concert (the event is memorialized in the Deep Purple song "Smoke on the Water"). The casino is rebuilt in 1975.source
• 1971December 18 – The U.S. dollar is devalued for the second time in history.source
• 1972June 23 – The United Kingdom Chancellor of the Exchequer, Anthony Barber, announces a decision for the pound sterling to move to a floating exchange rate. Although intended to be temporary, this remains permanent. Foreign exchange controls are applied to most members of the sterling area.source
• 1972June – Iraq nationalizes the Iraq Petroleum Company.source
• 1972September 25 – 1972 Norwegian EC referendum: Norway rejects membership of the European Economic Community.source
• 1972November 14 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 1,000 (1,003.16) for the first time.source
• 1973January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.source
• 1973April 1 – Value Added Tax (VAT) is introduced in the United Kingdom.source
• 1974March 18 – End of five-month oil embargo by most OPEC nations against the United States, Europe, and Japan which had caused the 1973 oil crisis.source
• 1975March 15 – In Brazil, Guanabara State merges into the state of Rio de Janeiro. The state's capital moves from the city of Niterói to the city of Rio de Janeiro.source
• 1975April 4 – Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft (at this time known as Micro-Soft) in Albuquerque, New Mexico and release their Altair BASIC interpreter. (Microsoft becomes a registered trademark on November 26, 1976.)source
• 1976March 26 – The Body Shop, the retail chain for skin care products and cosmetics founded by Anita Roddick, opens its first branch in Brighton, England.source
• 1976April 1 – Conrail (Consolidated Rails Corporation) is formed by the U.S. government, to take control of 13 major Northeast Class-1 railroads that have filed for bankruptcy protection. Conrail takes control at midnight, as a government-owned and operated railroad until 1986, when it is sold to the public.source
• 1976April 13 – The United States Treasury Department reintroduces the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson's 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration.source
• 1976Price Club, as predecessor of Costco, a worldwide membership-registration-only retailer, is founded in California.source
• 1976August 8 – As part of the American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger, a dispersal draft is conducted to assign teams for the players on the two ABA franchises which have folded.source
• 1976October 13 – The United States Commission on Civil Rights releases the report, Puerto Ricans in the Continental United States: An Uncertain Future, that documents that Puerto Ricans in the United States have a poverty rate of 33 percent in 1974 (up from 29 percent in 1970), the highest of all major racial-ethnic groups in the country (not including Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory).source
• 1976November 26 – Microsoft is officially registered with the Office of the Secretary of the State of New Mexico.source
• 1978April 1 – New Zealand National Airways Corporation (the domestic airline of New Zealand) is merged with New Zealand's international airline, Air New Zealand.source
• 1978June 19 – Garfield's first comic strip, originally published locally as Jon in 1976, goes into nationwide syndication.source
• 1979January 1 – Following a deal agreed during 1978, French carmaker Peugeot completes a takeover of American manufacturer Chrysler's European operations, which are based in Britain's former Rootes Group factories, as well as the former Simca factories in France.source
• 1979March 22 – The National Hockey League votes to approve its merger with the World Hockey Association, to take effect in three months, following the leagues' respective postseasons.source
• 1979June 1 – The Vizianagaram district is formed in Andhra Pradesh, India.source
• 1979June 3 – 1979 Italian general election: The Italian Communist Party loses a significant number of seats.source
• 1979June 22 – The WHA formally ceases operations, completing the merger with the NHL.source
• 1979July 15 – President Jimmy Carter addresses the nation in a televised speech talking about the "crisis of confidence in America today"; it would go on to be known as his "national malaise" speech.source
• 1979August 9 – Female workers of YH Trading in South Korea held a sit-in protest in response to the company's unilateral shutdown.source
• 1979October 6 – Federal Reserve System changes from an interest rate target policy to a money supply target policy.source
• 1979November 14 – Iran hostage crisis: U.S. President Jimmy Carter issues Executive Order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States and U.S. banks in response to the hostage crisis.source
• 1979December 3 – The United States dollar exchange rate with the Deutsche Mark falls to 1.7079 DM, the all-time low so far; this record is not broken until November 5, 1987.source
• 1979China International Trust Investment Group (CITIC) founded.source
• 1979The One-child policy is introduced in China – it contributes to the country's sex-ratio imbalance. It was loosened in 2013.source
• 1980January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission.source
• 1980January 21 – The London Gold Fixing hits its highest price ever of $843 per troy ounce ($2,249.50 in 2020 when adjusted for inflation).source
• 1980September 3 – Zimbabwe breaks diplomatic and consular relations with South Africa, even though it maintains a commercial mission in Johannesburg.source
• 1981January 1 – Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union.source
• 1981April 4 – UK pop group Bucks Fizz's song "Making Your Mind Up" wins the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, Ireland.source
• 1981May 1 – Pensions in Chile: The new Chilean pension system, based on private pension funds, begins.source
• 1981December 8 – Arthur Scargill becomes President-elect of the National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain).source
• 1982August 12 – Mexico announces it is unable to pay its large foreign debt, triggering a debt crisis that quickly spreads throughout Latin America.source
• 1982September 26 – Thermals take Australian parachutist Rich Collins up to 2800 m ft during a jump; he almost blacks out due to lack of oxygen. He releases his main parachute to fall to a lower altitude and lands by his reserve parachute.source
• 1982November 3 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average surges 43.41 points, or 4.25%, to close at 1,065.49, its first all-time high in more than 9 years.source
• 1982November 24 – Representatives from 88 countries gather in Geneva to discuss world trade and ways to work toward aspects of free trade.source
• 1982A global surplus of crude oil causes gasoline prices to collapse.source
• 1983January 23 – The European Economic Community's Common Fisheries Policy comes into effect.source
• 1983February 18 – The Venezuelan bolívar is devalued and exchange controls are established in an event now referred to as Black Friday by many Venezuelans (the Bolívar had been the most stable and internationally accepted currency).source
• 1983December 9 – The Australian dollar is floated by Federal treasurer Paul Keating. Under the old flexible peg system, the Reserve Bank bought and sold all Australian dollars and cleared the market at the end of the day. This initiative is taken by the government of Bob Hawke.source
• 1984July 14 – New Zealand Prime Minister Rob Muldoon calls a snap election and is defeated by opposition Labour leader David Lange.source
• 1984August 1 – Australian banks are deregulated.source
• 1985March 11 – Mohamed Al-Fayed buys the London-based department store company Harrods.source
• 1985September 20 – The capital gains tax is introduced to Australia.source
• 1986February 3 – Pixar is founded by John Lasseter along with Steve Jobs.source
• 1986March 13 – Microsoft Corporation holds its initial public offering of stock shares.source
• 1986September 4 – Eusko Alkartasuna, the Basque Social Democratic Party, is created in Vitoria-Gasteiz.source
• 1986September 6 – The Big Mac Index is introduced in The Economist newspaper as a semi-humorous international measure of purchasing power parity.source
• 1986Average per capita income in Japan exceeds that in the United States.source
• 1987January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency.source
• 1987February 11 – British Airways is privatised and listed on the London Stock Exchange.source
• 1987March 24 – Michael Eisner, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, and French Prime Minister and future President of France, Jacques Chirac, sign an agreement to construct the 4,800 acre km2 Euro Disney Resort (now called Disneyland Paris) and to develop the Val d'Europe area of the new town Marne-la-Vallée in Paris, France.source
• 1987June 3 – The Vanuatu Labour Party is founded.source
• 1987July 17 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 2,500 mark for the first time, at 2,510.04.source
• 1987October 3 – The Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement is reached but still requires ratification. This agreement would be a precursor to NAFTA.source
• 1987October 19 – Black Monday: Stock market levels fall sharply on Wall Street and around the world.source
• 1987December 15 – Production I.G is founded by Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and Takayuki Goto.source
• 1988March 16 – In the United States, the First Republic Bank of Texas fails and enters FDIC receivership, the largest FDIC assisted bank failure in history.source
• 1988March 24 – The first McDonald's restaurant in a country run by a Communist party opens in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. It was later followed by one in Budapest, and in 1990 in Moscow, and Shenzhen, China.source
• 1988November 15 – The first Fairtrade label, Max Havelaar, is launched by Nico Roozen, Frans van der Hoff and ecumenical development agency Solidaridad in the Netherlands.source
• 1989March 1 – The Political Party of Radicals, Pacifist Socialist Party, Communist Party of the Netherlands and the Evangelical People's Party amalgamate to form the Dutch political party GroenLinks (GL, GreenLeft).source
• 1989March 4 – Time Inc. and Warner Communications announce plans for a merger, forming Time Warner. (Now Warner Bros. Discovery)source
• 1989March – Poland begins to liberalise its currency exchange in a move towards capitalism.source
• 1989April 1 – Margaret Thatcher's new local government tax (the poll tax) is introduced in Scotland. It will be introduced in England and Wales the following year.source
• 1989April 14 – The U.S. government seizes the Irvine, California, Lincoln Savings and Loan Association; Charles Keating (for whom the Keating Five are named) eventually goes to jail, as part of the massive 1980s savings and loan crisis which costs U.S. taxpayers nearly $200,000,000 in bailouts, and many people their life savings.source
• 1989April 23 – Zaid al-Rifai resigns as Prime Minister of Jordan in the wake of riots over government-imposed price hikes that began on April 18.source
• 1989April 25 – Noboru Takeshita resigns as Prime Minister of Japan in the wake of a stock-trading scandal.source
• 1989May 29 – Amid food riots and looting set off by inflation, the Government of Argentina declares a nationwide state of siege.source
• 1989August 9 – The Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989, a measure to rescue the United States savings and loan industry, is signed into law by President Bush, launching the largest federal rescue to date.source
• 1989September 23 – Nintendo Company Ltd. celebrates its 100th anniversary.source
• 1989October 13 – Friday the 13th mini-crash: The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunges 190.58 points, or 6.91 percent, to close at 2,569.26, most likely after the junk bond market collapses.source
• 1989December 25 – Bank of Japan governors announce a major interest rate hike, eventually leading to the peak and fall of the economic bubble.source
• 1989December 29 – Nikkei 225 for Tokyo Stock Exchange hits its all-time intra-day high of 38,957.44 and closing high at 38,915.87.source
• 1990January 31 – Globalization – The first McDonald's in Moscow, Russian SFSR opens 8 months after construction began on May 3, 1989. 8 months later the first McDonald's in Mainland China is opened in Shenzhen.source
• 1990February 13 – US investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert files for bankruptcy protection, Chapter 11.source
• 1990March 15 – Fernando Collor de Mello takes office as President of Brazil, Brazil's first democratically elected president since Jânio Quadros in 1961. The next day, he announces a currency freeze and freezes large bank accounts for 18 months.source
• 1990April 1 – The Community Charge (poll tax) takes effect in England and Wales amid widespread protests.source
• 1990April 24 – Cold War: West Germany and East Germany agree to merge currency and economies on July 1.source
• 1990May 28 – 1990 Arab League summit: Saddam Hussein receives the emir of Kuwait for a diplomatic visit, at a time when his country and its decent oil revenues are being pushed into bankruptcy by Kuwait's lowering of the price of oil. A dictator with ambitions, Saddam wants to continue increasing his military strength, and so confronts Kuwait instead. After the public events, Hussein invites Arab leaders to a private meeting. Here, he threatens war on Kuwait unless Kuwait stops lowering the price of oil, recalls then-Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz.source
• 1990May 29 – European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is founded.source
• 1990June 3 – The Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the United Kingdom is dissolved after two years of poor results.source
• 1990July 1 – German reunification: East Germany and West Germany merge their economies, the West German Deutsche Mark becoming the official currency of the East also. The Inner German border (constructed 1945) also ceases to function.source
• 1990July 1 – Argentina announces the sale of its state-owned airline, Aerolineas Argentinas, to Spanish airline Iberia. The sale will be completed in November.source
• 1990August 8 – The government of Peru announces an austerity plan that results in huge increases in the price of food and gasoline. The plan sets off days of rioting and a national strike on August 21.source
• 1990October 29 – In Norway, the government headed by Prime Minister of Norway Jan P. Syse collapses.source
• 1990December 24 – Ramsewak Shankar is ousted as President of Suriname by a military coup.source
• 1991April 2 – Economy of the Soviet Union: Government-imposed price increases double or triple the cost of consumer goods in the Soviet Union.source
• 1991April 12 – The Warsaw Stock Exchange opens in Poland.source
• 1991April 15 – End of Apartheid: The European Economic Community lifts economic sanctions on South Africa.source
• 1991July 15 – Chemical Bank and Manufacturers Hanover Corporation amalgamate, becoming the largest bank merger in history.source
• 1991July 24 – Finance Minister of India Manmohan Singh announces a new industrial policy, marking the start of economic liberalisation in India.source
• 1991July 29 – In New York City, a grand jury indicts Bank of Credit and Commerce International of the largest bank fraud in history, accusing the bank of defrauding depositors of US$5 billion.source
• 1991September 15 – In the Swedish general election, the Social Democrats suffer their worst election results in 60 years, leading to the resignation of Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson.source
• 1991October 3 – Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Tom Foley announces the closure of the House Bank by the end of the year after revelations that House members have written numerous bad checks.source
• 1991November 4–5 – End of Apartheid: The African National Congress leads a general strike, demanding representation in the government and an end to the value-added tax.source
• 1991November 26 – Michael Jackson releases Dangerous, selling 5 million copies in the first week.source
• 1992May 1 – Lithuania introduces a new temporary currency, the talonas.source
• 1992June 20 – Estonia adopts the kroon as currency, becoming the first former Soviet Republic to replace the Soviet rouble.source
• 1992June 25 – The Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) is founded.source
• 1992August 12 – Canada, Mexico and the United States announce that a deal has been reached on the North American Free Trade Agreement; this will be formally signed on December 17.source
• 1992September 16 – Black Wednesday: The pound sterling and the Italian lira are forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.source
• 1993January 1 – The European Economic Community eliminates trade barriers and creates a European single market.source
• 1993March 12 – North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea announces that it plans to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refuses to allow inspectors access to nuclear sites, beginning the 1993–94 North Korean Nuclear Crisis.source
• 1993March 24 – South Africa officially abandons its nuclear weapons programme. President de Klerk announces that the country's six warheads had already been dismantled in 1989.source
• 1993June 25 – The litas is introduced as the new currency of Lithuania.source
• 1993June 25 – Jacques Attali resigns as President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.source
• 1993August – The European Exchange Rate Mechanism margin was expanded to 15% to accommodate speculation against the French franc and other currencies.source
• 1993November 17–22 – The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) passes the legislative houses in the United States, Canada and Mexico.source
• 1993December 8 – U.S. President Bill Clinton signs into law the North American Free Trade Agreement.source
• 1993December 15 – The Uruguay Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) talks reach a successful conclusion after seven years.source
• 1994January 1 – The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is established.source
• 1994July 5 – Jeff Bezos founds Amazon.source
• 1994December 19 – A planned exchange rate correction of the Mexican peso to the US dollar, becomes a massive financial meltdown in Mexico, unleashing the 'Tequila' effect on global financial markets. This prompts a US$50 billion "bailout" by the Clinton administration.source
• 1995January 1 – The World Trade Organization (WTO) is established to replace the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).source
• 1995January 31 – Mexican peso crisis: U.S. President Bill Clinton invokes emergency powers to extend a $20 billion loan to help Mexico avert financial collapse.source
• 1995February 26 – The United Kingdom's oldest investment banking firm, Barings Bank, collapses after securities broker Nick Leeson loses $1.4 billion by speculating on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.source
• 1996January 31 – Colombo Central Bank bombing: an explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing at least 86 people and injuring 1,400.source
• 1996February 9 – Disney formally finalizes its $19 billion acquisition of the ABC parent, Capital Cities/ABC Inc.source
• 1996March 15 – Fokker, a major manufacturer of small size aircraft, goes bankrupt in Netherlands.source
• 1996March 26 – The International Monetary Fund approves a $10.2 billion loan to Russia for economic reform.source
• 1997March 4 – U.S. President Bill Clinton bans federal funding for any research on human cloning.source
• 1997July 2 – The Bank of Thailand floats the baht, triggering the Asian financial crisis.source
• 1997July 17 – The F. W. Woolworth Company closes after 117 years in business.source
• 1997December 19 – James Cameron's Titanic is released in theaters in the United States. It will become the fourth highest-grossing film of all time (adjusted for inflation).source
• 1998January 17 – The Drudge Report breaks the story about U.S. President Bill Clinton's alleged affair with Monica Lewinsky, which will lead to the House of Representatives' impeachment of him.source
• 1998February 25 – Alaska v. Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government: The SCOTUS rules against the Neets'aii Gwich'in Indian nation, who had been levying taxes on non-natives in order to fund a local airstrip; the Court ruled that only the federal and state governments may collect taxes.source
• 1998Boris Yeltsin dismisses Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin in "an effort to make economic reforms more energetic and effective."source
• 1998May 18 – The Department of Justice files an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging its Windows operating system unfairly takes market share from Netscape's Navigator.source
• 1998June 1 – The European Central Bank is established, replacing the European Monetary Institute.source
• 1998August 17 – Russia's government devalues the ruble, defaults on domestic debt, and declares a moratorium on repayment of foreign debt. This marks the beginning of 1998 Russian financial crisis.source
• 1998September 25–28 – Major creditors of Long-Term Capital Management, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based hedge fund, after days of tough bargaining and some informal mediation by Federal Reserve officials, agree on terms of a re-capitalization to avoid a wider collapse in financial markets.source
• 1998December 16 – Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. President Bill Clinton orders airstrikes on Iraq. UNSCOM withdraws all weapons inspectors from Iraq.source
• 1998December 31 – In the Eurozone, the currency rates of this day are fixed permanently.source
• 1998The European Small Business Alliance organization is formed.source
• 1999January 1 – The euro currency is established, and the European Central Bank assumes full powers.source
• 1999March 29 – For the first time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10,000 mark, at 10,006.78.source
• 1999June 8 – The government of Colombia announces it will include the estimated value of the country's illegal drug crops, exceeding half a billion US dollars, in its gross national product.source
• 1999September 20 – Start of the 1999 Greek stock market crash.source