Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Black Monday...

Up until October 19th, 1987 was a pretty benign year. President Ronald Reagan was winding down his second term in office with just over a year left, the economy was good with a boom expected soon. We were flocking to the movies again to see "Three Men and A Baby", "The Cosby Show" was TV's #1 show, Spuds Mackenzie and Max Headroom became household names and best of all, regular gas was only 95 cents a gallon. Things were good, until October 19th...

The term 'Black Monday' was new to us but to those who were alive in 1929 they well remember when the stock market crashed and 'Black Monday' followed 'Black Thursday' and was in turn followed by 'Black Tuesday'. We didn't have a 'Black Friday' because they closed the market that day to recover from the horrific 'Black Thursday' that not only left people broke but jumping off buildings as well. 'Black Monday' 1987 wasn't anywhere as severe but we lost almost a quarter of our economy (22.6%) that day. Not only did we take a hit but markets all over the world did as well. On 'Black Monday' the Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded its largest one day decline in history...

Music oftentimes reflects current events and so it did on 'Black Monday', October 19, 1987. One of the biggest hits of the day was by Crowded House. It was called "Don't Dream It's Over" and the #1 hit that day ? "Bad" by Michael Jackson...

More October 19 Memories...

1953) Julius LaRosa was fired on the "Arthur Godfrey and His Friends" TV show because "Julius had lost his humility". Godfrey didn't mind losing one of his "friends" however...

1959) Patty Duke at the age of 12, makes her Broadway debut in "The Miracle Worker"...

1960) The U.S. imposes an embargo on all exports (except medical supplies and certain food products) to Cuba...

1969) The Temptations top the charts with "I Can't Get Next To You"...

1969) VP Spiro T. Agnew calls anti-Vietnam War protesters "an effete corps of impudent snobs" (which sent protesters scurrying for dictionaries)...

1973) Ringo Starr releases "Photograph"...

1977) The supersonic Concorde makes its first landing in New York...

1983) The U.S. Senate approves a bill establishing a national holiday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr...

1985) "Take On Me" by a-ha tops the charts (it's the first #1 hit for a group from Norway)...

1986) Cyndi Lauper tops the charts with "True Colors"...

1987) "Black Monday" (feature story)...

1987) It's 'musical chairs' time again in the Bronx: Woody Woodward resigns as Yankee GM with Lou Piniella replacing him. Billy Martin is named Yankee manager for the 5th and final time...

2004) Curt Schilling, bloody sock and all, pitches the Red Sox to a 4-2 win over the Yankees setting up a winner-take-all Game 7 for the AL pennant tomorrow...

Happy Birthday To...

1922) Columnist Jack Anderson...

1931) Spy-novelist John le Carre...

1937) Pop-artist Peter Max...

1945) John Lithgow...

1962) Evander Holyfield...

1967) Amy Carter...

1970) Former SNL comedian Chris Kattan...

Commentary...

What I remember most about 'Black Monday' was listening to the buzz that was going on at CBS International by my fellow workers about selling their shares of CBS stock while it was still at a good price. Not knowing how low the market would go I did and it was a good decision to make. Hundreds of thousands of people did the same thing but somehow the market stabilized despite all the sell orders...

Looking back on a bad day for America, it doesn't seem that it took long at all for the economy to recover and recover it did. In retrospect, 'Black Monday' was just a temporary hit that we took. This of course, in light of events like 911 and hurricane Katrina paled in comparison of things to come...