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It's May 3, 1893 on Wall Street.

Inside his company's headquarters, reporter and co-founder of the Wall Street Journal, Charles Dow,

opens the door to his office and takes a seat behind his desk.

Charles sighs as he takes a look at the enormous pile of financial reports littering his desk.

He sifted through the papers, trying to identify the financial activities that his readers want to know about.

But as Charles begins analyzing the reports, his office telephone starts to ring.

Unwilling to distract himself from the work at hand, Charles ignores the call until the ringing stops. But then Charles hears the telephone

in the newsroom outside his office begin to ring. Then another and another. Soon it sounds like

every phone in the building is ringing off its hook. Charles rises from his desk and walks to his door.

As he opens it, he's struck by the chaos of the newsroom.

All around him, reporters are on the phone, feverishly filling their notepads.

Charles hears his office phone ring again, and this time he rushes to pick it up.

Charles has met with a voice of one of

his Wall Street contacts, giving him a staggering update. The stock market is crashing. For months,

there had been growing fear among Americans that an economic recession was on the horizon. On May 3rd,

1893, the panic finally struck Wall Street when a massive

sell-off sent share prices tumbling. The next day, the National Courage Company, a leading manufacturer

and Wall Street favorite, declares bankruptcy. Already rattled by the recent demise of one of the

...