History of the NASDAQ and American Stock Exchanges (Business Reference Services, Library of Congress) September 2006; Updated October 2012 The American Stock Exchange (AMEX) got its start in the 1800's and was known as the "Curb Exchange" until 1921 because it met as a market at the curbstone on Broad Street near Exchange Place. Its founding date is generally considered as 1921 because this is the year when it moved into new quarters on Trinity. However, it wasn't until 1953 that it officially became the American Stock Exchange. In November 1998, the National Association of Security Dealers announced that the American Stock Exchange would merge with the National Association of Securities Dealers creating "The Nasdaq-Amex Market Group." However, the American Stock Exchange remained as an active exchange. Above: by NYSE Euronext. NYSE Euronext integrated amex.com content and data into the nyse.com website, phasing out amex.com, effective January 16, 2009. The new name is NYSE Amex .

Founded by the National Association of Securities Dealers, the NASDAQ began trading on February 8, 1971, as the world's first electronic stock market, trading for over 2,500 securities. In 2000, NASDAQ membership voted to restructure and spin off NASDAQ into a shareholder-owned, for-profit company. In 2007, the NASD merged with the New York Stock Exchange's regulation committee to form the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ( FINRA). In May 2007, NASDAQ announced a transaction to create global exchange and technology company with Swedish exchange operator, OMX. Later that year, on November 7, 2007, NASDAQ OMX announced that it had signed an agreement to acquire the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in America, founded in 1790. Today NASDAQ is the largest electronic stock market with over 3,000 companies listed.

Internet Resources History of Wall Street The History of the Stock Market In March, 1792, twenty-four of New York City's leading merchants met secretly at Corre's Hotel to discuss ways to bring order to the securities business and to wrest it from their competitors, the auctioneers. Two months later, on May 17, 1792, these merchants signed a document named the Buttonwood Agreement, named after their traditional meeting place, a buttonwood tree. The agreement called for the signers to trade securities only among themselves, to set trading fees, and not to participate in other auctions of securities. These twenty-four men had founded what was to become the New York Stock Exchange. The Exchange would later be located at 11 Wall Street. A century before, Dutch settlers had built a wall to protect themselves from Indians, priates, and other dangers. The path had become a bustling commercial thoroughfare because it joined the banks of the East River with those of the Hudson River on the west. The path was named Wall Street. Early merchants built their warehouses and shops on this path, along with a city hall and a church. New York was the U.S.

national capitol from 1785 until 1790 and Federal Hall was built on Wall Street. George Washington was inaugurated on the steps of this building. The first stock exchange in America was actually founded in Philadelphia in 1790. The New York merchant group, realizing that their stock exchange was now in decline after the early tumult of revolutionary war bonds and stock in the Bank of the United States, sent an observer to Philadelphia in early 1817. Upon his return, bearing news of the thriving Philadelphia exchange, the New York Stock and Exchange Board was formally organized on March 8, 1817. The exchange rented a room at 40 Wall street and every morning the president, Anthony Stockholm, read the stocks to be traded. The exchange was an exclusive organization, new members were required to be voted in, and a candidate could be black-balled by three negative votes. In 1817 a seat on the exchange cost $25, in 1827 it increased to $100, and in 1848 the price was $400. Members wore top hats and swallowtail coats.

The early 1900s saw the rise of huge fortunes made on Wall Street. In 1901 J.P. Morgan astounded Wall Street by creating a billion dollar merger resulting in the U.S. Steel Corporation. In 1907 a wave of panic hit Wall Street. Eight hundred million dollars in securities were unloaded within a few months. Stock prices plummeted and runs on banks became a daily occurence. When the Knickerbocker Trust Company was forced to close its doors a panic swept banks throughout the country. Morgan pressured the leading New York bankers to forestall a total financial collapse of the country. They set up a single banking trust, with most large banks across the U.S. contributing to its financing. Morgan's own group, as you might imagine, had controlling interest. The first of the two largest Wall Street panics occurred in 1929. The Wall Street con game, already working full tilt, had convinced millions of Americans that the country was riding on an upward spiraling wave of financial glory. Both rich and poor put their money into stocks and bonds.

The Wall Street myth, broadcast by the Insiders' newspapers and magazines, spotlighted stories of shopkeepers and workers making fortunes in the stock market overnight. Stock prices were pushed up beyond any relationship with the actual worth of the companies. In 1929 stock prices were 400% higher than they had been in 1924. The Insiders had made their fortunes and could no longer sustain the con, so on October 23, 1929, the market fell 31 points. Stock prices fell an additional 49 points on October 28 and on the 29th the entire market fell apart. Some brokers and investors jumped out of their office windows. The 1929 crash hit the U.S. even harder than the one that was to come in 1987. The fallout from the '29 crash devastated the country, leading to a long-time economic collapse and depression that was to continue until the start of the Second World War in 1941. The Wall Street crash of 1987 - "Black Monday" - occurred on October 19th.

The Dow Jones fell an astounding 508 points, largest one-day loss in the stock market's history. The Insiders running the con game landed on their feet and quickly misdirected the public's attention, laying the blame on computerized (program) trading. Though the cascade of sell orders from large institutions had clogged the system, leaving many individual investors stranded while prices fell, the '87 crash was created by the same Insider specialist group who control every facet of the stock market for their own profit. As with so many elements of our American way of life, such as the federal and state governments, the stock market is an essential, positive ingredient in its essence, and has become deleterious only because certain rapacious people have taken control of it and twisted it to their purpose. The latest chapter in the Wall Street scam is the attempt by these same wealth-crazed people to try to convince American workers that they should put their retirement savings in the stock market. The pressure for this insanity is coming from the White House, Congress, the "Federal" Reserve, and anyone else for sale by these monetary rulers. Philadelphia History: Philadelphia firsts. First brick house erected in this country (Penn's house).

1683 The first parks or public enclosures laid out in North America for the pleasure and convenience of the people were shown on the plan for Philadelphia (designed by Thomas Holme), in the Northeastern, Southeastern, Northwestern, Southwestern and Centre Squares of the city. 1685 First almanac printed, "America's Messenger," William Bradford. 1690 The first paper mill established in North America was built upon the Wissahickon, near Germantown, by William Bradford.

1698 February 12 The first public school in the America Colonies was established at Philadelphia, and a corporation created, entitled "The Overseers of the Publick Schoole founded in Philadelphia." In this school it was ordered by the governor and Council: "All children and servants, male and female, whose parents, guardians and masters be willing to subject ym to the rules and orders of the said schoole, shall from time to time, with the approbaon of the overseers thereof for the time being, be received or admitted, taught or instructed; the rich at reasonable rates, and the poor to be maintained and schooled for nothing." The first school house was built on the east side of Fourth Street below Chestnut Street. Inoch Flower was the first Schoolmaster. 1706 The first Presbytery in the United States was organized at Philadelphia by seven Presbyterian ministers. 1712 The Common Council's resolution, passed this year to the effect that "A work-house Be Immediately Hired to Employ poor P'sons & Sufficient P'sons appointed to keep them at Work," led, in time, to the erection of the Blockley Hospital, the largest of its kind.

1719 First fire engine bought by any municipality for public purposes. December 22 The American Weekly Mercury, the first newspaper established in the Middle Colonies, was issued at Philadelphia by William Bradford. 1728 John Bartram commenced on the bank of the Schuylkill the first of America's botanical gardens. 1729 The first botanic garden, for the cultivation of plants having medicinal properties, was established at Bachelor's Hall, Kensington, in the neighborhood of the present Allen and Shackamaxon Streets. The first treatise against slavery published in any part of the world appeared at Philadelphia, and was written by Ralph Sandiford. 1730 The Mariner's Quadrant was invented by Thomas Godfrey of Germantown, and being taken to England, was introduced into use by one Hadley, who unjustly claimed to be the inventor. 1731 July 31 The Library Company of Philadelphia , the first public institution of that kind in America, was founded in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Hopkinson, Thomas Cadwalader and others. 1732 The Philadelphia Hospital, the oldest in America, was established in connection with the Philadelphia Almshouse.

1735 American type founding made its debut as an art in the shop of Christopher Sauer, in Germantown, and it was first carried on as a regular business in this city immediately after the War of the Revolution by John Baine. 1736 December 7th. The Union Fire Company, the first voluntary association for the extinguishment of fires in the United States, and probably in the world, was founded in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin and others. 1743 The American Philosophical Society , the first institution devoted to science in North America, was founded at Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin, John Bartram , Dr. Thomas Bond, Thomas Godfrey and others. The first Bible in a European language printed in North America was published in German by Christopher Sauer of Germantown. 1746 The first religious magazine established in North America was published in the German language by Christopher Sauer. 1749 The first company of American stage players was organized here early in 1749. First scientific institution in America, founded by Benjamin Franklin.

1751 February 7 The Pennsylvania Hospital , the first establishment in North America devoted to the relief of the sick and suffering, was chartered by the Assembly of Pennsylvania, at the solicitation of Benjamin Franklin , Dr. Thomas Bond, Rev. Richard Peters and others. 1752 The Philadelphia Contributionship for insurance against losses by fire was established in Philadelphia, being the first fire insurance company established in the American Colonies. June 15 The theory that lightning and electricity were the same, which was first suggested by Benjamin Franklin in 1749, was demonstrated by him by drawing lightning from the clouds by means of a kite. The experiment is said to have taken place upon a lot on the east side of Ridge Road, near the present intersection of Buttonwood Street. Franklin was assisted on the occasion by his son, William Franklin, who was then twenty-one years old. September The first lightning-rod used in the world for the protection of a building from danger by lightning was set up by Benjamin Franklin, at his dwelling house, southeast corner of Second and Race Streets. 1753 Pass & Stowe made for the State House the first bell ever cast in this country.

March 4 The first expedition fitted out in North America for Arctic exploration and the discovery of a northwest passage, sailed from Philadelphia in the schooner Argo, Captain Charles Swaine. The expedition was fitted out by subscriptions in Philadelphia. The vessel proceeded as far as Cape Farewell and Hudson Straite, but being baffled by the ice, was compelled to return to Philadelphia, which port was reached in November of the same year. The same vessel went upon a second voyage in the spring of 1754, but having lost three men, killed by Native Americans on the Labrador coast, returned in October of the same year without success. 1762 November 26 The first school of anatomy in North America was opened in Philadelphia by Dr. William Shippen. 1765 Dr. John Morgan's "Discourse Upon the Institution of Medical Schools in America," delivered in the College of Philadelphia, May 30, 1765, constituted the formal opening of the first medical school, and the speaker filled the first medical professorship created in this country.

In consequence whereof a "Commencement" was held three years later (in 1768), at which medical honors were conferred, the first in point of time in America. 1766 The first permanent theatre house in America was built here in Southwark. 1768 The first medical society in North America was in existence at Philadelphia. 1769 The first life insurance society, organized for the relief of widows and orphans of the clergymen of the Church of England, was started here. 1773 The American Medical Society was founded in this city by students who came from different parts of the Unions to attend the medical lectures here. 1774 Philadelphia philanthropists formed the first Anti-Slavery Society. The physicians of Philadelphia formed the "Society for Inoculating the Poor," the first benevolent association designed to mitigate the horrors of small-pox founded in the Colonies. 1775 The first pianoforte manufactured in the United States was made by John Behrent, in Third Street below Brown.

In the war against British importations, started in 1775, William Calverly, of this city, set about making American carpets, a local industry destined in time to fulfill the aim of its founder to such an extent that at the present day Philadelphia manufactures more carpets than the whole of Great Britain. 1777 The United States flag on record, was made here on Arch Street, by Elizabeth Ross. 1780 First American work on medicine by Dr. Benjamin Rush. The Assembly, in session here, passed the first Abolition Act in America. The Pennsylvania Bank, the first public bank in the United States, was organized here by Robert Morris. 1781 May 26 The Bank of North America was established by resolution of Congress, and opened for business in 1783, being the first corporate banking institution established in the United States. 1782 Robert Aitken, of Philadelphia, brought out the first English Bible in this country. 1784 The Pennsylvania Packet or General Advertiser was established as a daily newspaper by John Dunlap and David C. Claypoole, being the first daily paper published in the United States.

1785 The first agriculture society on this continent was "The Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, " formed by Dr. Rush, Robert Morris, Richard Peters and others in 1785. 1786 The Philadelphia Dispensary for the medical relief of the poor, the first institution of the kind in the United States, was established by Dr. Benjamin Rush. July 20th. The first vessel ever moved by steam was navigated on the Delaware River, at Philadelphia, by John Fitch, being a skiff fitted up for the purpose. 1787 August 22 A steamboat, forty-five feet long, navigated at Philadelphia, in presence of the delegates to form a Constitution of the United States, by John Fitch, assisted by Henry Voight. 1788 July Another steamboat, sixty feet long, navigated from Philadelphia to Burlington, New Jersey, By John Fitch. 1789 The first Congress of the United States met here in Congress Hall. December A new steamboat navigated at Philadelphia by John Fitch.

1790 The Law School of the University of Pennsylvania, the oldest law school in America, was founded in 1790, with James Wilson of the United States Supreme Court, as professor of law. Opening of the first Stock Exchange started in America. June-September The first steamboat navigated in the world for a passenger and freight-boat ran on the Delaware, between Philadelphia, Burlington, Bristol, Chester, Wilmington, etc., advertising her trips regularly in the newspapers and passing over three thousand miles in that summer. This was seventeen years before the Clermont, Robert Fultons' first steamboat, navigated the Hudson River. 1791 The Schuylkill and Susquehanna Canal Company, the first public canal company in this country, was chartered here. First carpet factory started. 1792 June 21 The Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Co. chartered, which made and established the first turnpike-road laid in Pennsylvania. The Mint of the United States established at Philadelphia, by virtue of act of Congress, being the first Federal mint in the United States.

1794 The Columbianum, the first society for the promotion of the fine arts, in the United States, was established at Philadelphia by Charles Willson Peale and Joseph Cerrachi, painters, William Rush, sculptor, and others. 1795 September 22, November 10 The first voyage ever accomplished by a vessel between Lake Erie and Philadelphia was made by the schooner Whitefish, under command of John Thompson and David Lummis. The vessel was eighteen feet keel, twenty-three feet from stem to stern and six feet beam, without a deck.

The route was from Presque Isle, now Erie City, by way of Buffalo harbor; thence by the Niagara River to the mouth of the Chippewa; thence by wagon, on which the schooner was placed, by land to Queenstown, where the boat was launched; thence down the Niagara and along Lake Ontario to Great Sodus and Oswego River to the Falls; around the Falls by land carriage one mile; thence by water to the confluence of the Onondaga and Oneida Rivers we go; up the latter through Oneida Lake and Wood's Creek to a portage of one mile between the latter and the Mohawk River, over the same by land carriage; thence down the Mohawk to Little Falls to the same; thence by portage one mile, and down the Mohawk again to Schenectady; then by land carriage to Albany, where the schooner was for the last time launched, thence by the Hudson River, the Narrows along the Jersey coast to Cape May, and up the river Delaware to Philadelphia. The Whitefish after this voyage was taken to Peale's Museum, and for many years remained in the State House yard, until it fell to pieces.

1796 First American type foundry, Binney & Ronaldson. 1799 May 2 The Philadelphia Water Works, the first of the kind in the country, were commenced, and the water first sent through the pipes January 21, 1801. 1804 The Eruktor Amphibolis, a machine for cleaning docks, invented by Oliver Evans, mounted on a wagon, was propelled by steam along Market Street from Centre Square to the Schuylkill River, being the first land carriage ever propelled by steam in the world. At the Schuylkill River the vessel was launched, a stern wheel attached, and the machine was navigated by steam down the Schuylkill and up the Delaware River to the city of Philadelphia. First printing ink works, Charles Eneu Johnson. 1805 The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the pioneer of all art institutions in this country, was founded in 1805, and chartered March 28 of the following year. 1807 Joseph Hawkins, of Philadelphia, manufactured the first carbonated water made in America.

1808 The steamboat Phoenix, the first steam vessel which ever navigated the Atlantic Ocean, arrived from Hoboken, New Jersey, where the vessel had been built by John Stevens. 1809 September The first experimental railroad track laid down in the United States was constructed by Somerville, a Scotch millwright, for Thomas Leiper of Philadelphia, and laid down in a yard adjoining the Bull's Head Tavern, in the Northern Liberties. It was sixty yards in length, and graded an inch and a half to the yard. The gauge was four feet, the sleepers eight feet apart. The experiment with a loaded car was so successful that Leiper had the first practical railroad built in the United States constructed for the transportation of stone from his quarries on Crum Creek to his landing on Ridley Creek, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, a distance of about one mile. It continued in use for nineteen years, and was superseded in 1828 by a canal, which was again superseded in 1852 by a railroad. A line of telegraphs (semaphore) was set up and operated by Jonathan Grant, between the head of Delaware Bay to Reedy Island and Philadelphia, under patronage of the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.

The first insurance corporation was organized in this city. 1810 First Savings Fund Society in America. 1812 Steam works for supplying the city with water were begun in Fairmount Park; and in 1819 Councils erected water power works for the same purpose, which was and for a long time remained the only works of their kind in the States. 1818 Joseph Lancaster started the "Model School" of Philadelphia, the first Normal School in the United States. 1819 The first lithograph executed in America appeared in the June issue of the (Philadelphia) Analectic Magazine. 1821 The Philadelphia College of Pharmacy dates its birth from 1812. 1824 First American Manufacturer's exhibit was held in Carpenter's Hall. 1827 The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society was the first of all such societies in America, having been founded in November, 1827, by a number of Philadelphians under the leadership of Dr. James Meade. 1829 G. A. Shyrock, of this city, earned the distinction of being the first to make paper and boards by machinery from straw and grass.

1830 First penny newspaper, The Cent, published by C. C. Conwell. First successful women's magazine, Godey's Lady's Book, Louis A. Godey, Sixth Street, above Chestnut. 1831 Organizing the first building and loan association, January 31, 1831, The Oxford Provident of Frankford. Matthias W. Baldwin built an experimental locomotive engine according to his own plans, and differing in many respects from the English engines, which was tested on April 25th on a railroad track laid down in the Philadelphia Museum Arcade, Chestnut Street, and was exhibited there afterward. Subsequently the same engine ran for several months upon a railroad track laid down at Smith's Labyrinth Garden, on the north side of Arch Street, between Schuylkill Seventh and Eighth (Fifteenth and Sixteenth). In this year Matthias W. Baldwin founded here what has become the largest locomotive building works in the world. 1834 First systematic study of meteorology in aid of agriculture, by Franklin Institute. 1835 First gas pipes in this country were laid here in compliance with an ordinance passed by the two City Chambers.

1848 First issue of the John-Donkey, the first comic paper to be regularly published. 1851 The Spring Garden Institute, for the teaching of useful arts to wage-earning youths, the first of its kind in America, was organized. 1852 For the first time in our history the degree of medicine was conferred upon women at the Female Medical College (now Woman's Medical College) of Philadelphia. 1853 "The Northern Home," founded in this city in 1853, was the first institution in this broad land when the Civil War broke out to open its doors to the children of those who desired to enlist and too build a special home for the orphans of our dead soldiers and sailors. 1854 The Consolidation Act of the City and Country of Philadelphia was the first instance of the modern method of making "greater cities." 1857 The Numismatic and Antiquarian Society, whose ranks have since been joined by the most illustrious men of the two hemispheres, and whose scale of measurement for coins and medals is now in general us throughout Europe, was organized by a few Philadelphians on December 27th. 1847 Zoological Garden.

First in America. A collection of living animal acknowledged to be by far the best in this country. 1876 Joseph Wharton, of Philadelphia, was the first man in the world to produce pure malleable nickel. The first World's Fair in this country was held here to celebrate the Centennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. 1890 The Company was organized which built the present Philadelphia Bourse, the largest in any country and the only one in this. 1892 Introduction of the pneumatic mailing tube, the first in this country. Founding of the Wistar Institute of Anatomy, the first of its kind in America. 1897 The first Commercial Museum in America was organized in this city. 1899 Firsts in American Women's History Firsts in American Women's History At least 12,000 years ago According to a theory accepted by most anthropologists, the first women arrive in North America via the Bering land bridge from Asia. At least 2,000 years ago Women play important roles in the hundreds of different American Indian cultures that thrived before European arrival in the 1500s. Women's roles were as varied as their societies.

Some women gathered food or planted crops; some made tools and built houses; some participated in trade. In some societies, community life and economics were organized around female kinship. In many, older women were important leaders; they might choose the chief, arrange marriages, or run the treasury. 1587 Virginia Dare is the first person born in America to English parents (Roanoke Island, Virginia). 1647 Margaret Brent appears before the Maryland assembly demanding that women be granted the right to vote. She is the first woman in Maryland to own property, and one of the first known suffragists in American history. 1650 Anne Bradstreet's book of poems, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, is published in England, making her the first published American woman writer. 1707 Henrietta Johnston begins to work as a portrait artist in Charles Town (now Charleston), South Carolina, making her the first known professional woman artist in America. 1766 Mary Katherine Goddard and her widowed mother become publishers of the Providence Gazette newspaper and the annual West's Almanack, making her the first woman publisher in America.

In 1789 Goddard opened a Baltimore bookstore, probably the first woman in America to do so. 1767 Anne Catherine Hoof Green takes over her late husband's printing and newspaper business, becoming the first American woman to run a print shop. The following year she is named the official printer for the colony of Maryland. 1790 Mother Bernardina Matthews establishes a Carmelite convent near Port Tobacco, Maryland, the first community of Roman Catholic nuns in the Thirteen Colonies. (The Ursuline convent established in New Orleans in 1727 was still in French territory.) 1791 Actress and schoolteacher Susanna Haswell Rowson's melodramatic novel Charlotte: A Tale of Truth is published. Later known as Charlotte Temple, it becomes a bestseller with more than 150 printings. 1792 Suzanne Vaillande appears in The Bird Catcher, in New York, the first ballet presented in the U.S. She was also probably the first woman to work as a choreographer and set designer in the United States. 1795 Anne Parrish establishes, in Philadelphia, the House of Industry, the first charitable organization for women in America.

1809 Mary Kies becomes the first woman to receive a patent, for a method of weaving straw with silk. Elizabeth Ann Seton establishes the first American community of the Sisters of Charity, in Emmitsburg, Maryland. In 1975 she became the first native-born American to be made a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. 1824 The first public high school for girls opens in Worcester, Massachusetts. 1826 Lydia Maria Child serves as editor of the Juvenile Miscellany, the first children's magazine in the United States. 1830s Mills in industrial towns such as Lowell, Massachusetts, are staffed almost entirely by young women. These “mill girls” have a kind of independence their mothers could not have imagined. They earn their own money and live together in boardinghouses. They also take part in strikes and other actions by organized labor. 1832 American educator Catherine Beecher publishes the first book about physical fitness for women, A Course of Calisthenics for Young Ladies. 1837 Oberlin College, in Ohio, becomes the first college to admit female students. In addition to studying, the women have to do laundry and cook meals for the male students.

1837 The Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, in Massachusetts, is created to provide higher education to women. Most of its early graduates became teachers. 1840s The first commercial Valentine cards, trimmed with imported lace, are made by Esther Howland in Worcester, Massachusetts. 1848 The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts becomes the first such institution in the United States to accept women as students. The first women's rights convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York. 1849 Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman doctor in the United States, graduates first in her class at New York's Geneva College. 1850s In her magazine, the Lily, American feminist Amelia Bloomer promotes the comfort of "bloomers," a simple flaring skirt over Turkish-style trousers. 1851 Harriet Beecher Stowe's first novel about slavery, Uncle Tom's Cabin, is featured as a serial in an abolitionist newspaper. Published as a book the following year, it becomes an international bestseller and has a profound impact on public opinion about slavery. The first sorority is founded by 16 women at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia.

First named the Adelphians, they later became Alpha Delta Pi. 1853 Antoinette Blackwell becomes the first American woman to be ordained a minister in a recognized denomination (Congregational). 1859 Harriet Wilson becomes the first African-American novelist with the publication of Our Nig: or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black. 1860s-1890s A number of colleges for women are opened: Vassar (1865), in New York state; Wellesley (1875), Smith (1875), and Radcliffe (1893), in Massachusetts; Bryn Mawr (1885), in Pennsylvania; and Barnard (1889), in New York City. With Mount Holyoke, which became a college in 1893, they are known as the Seven Sisters. 1861-1865 The Civil War. An estimated 3,200 women served as volunteer nurses for the northern and southern armies. 1866 Lucy Hobbs becomes the first woman to graduate from dental school, the Ohio College of Dental Surgery.

1868 For the first time, the "Ladies Life" class at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts allows women to draw from a nude model, as male artists have done for centuries. 1869 On December 10, 1869, Wyoming becomes the first state to grant women the right to vote. Arabella Mansfield is granted admission to practice law in Iowa, making her the first woman lawyer. 1870 In Wyoming, for the first time in U.S. history, women are allowed to serve on a grand jury. Ada H. Kepley, of Illinois, graduates from the Union College of Law in Chicago. She is the first woman lawyer to graduate from a law school. 1872 Victoria Claflin Woodhull becomes the first woman presidential candidate in the United States when she is nominated by the National Radical Reformers. 1873 Ellen Swallow Richards, the first woman to be admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earns her B.S. degree. She becomes the first female professional chemist in the nation.

1874 The Philadelphia chapter of the YWCA hosts its first summer camp, a "vacation project" for girls who are tired out by working long hours. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is founded to improve the morality of the nation, in particular by protesting alcoholic beverages. 1879 Belva Ann Lockwood becomes the first woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. Mary Baker Eddy establishes the Church of Christ, Scientist, becoming the first woman to found a major religion, Christian Science. 1881 Spelman College, the first college for black women in the United States, is founded in Atlanta, Georgia. Nurse Clara Barton founds the American Red Cross. She worked for ten years to establish this foundation, which provides peacetime disaster relief as well as wartime assistance. 1885 Sarah E. Goode becomes the first African-American woman to receive a patent, for a bed that folded up into a cabinet. Goode, who owned a furniture store in Chicago, intended the bed to be used in apartments. 1887 Susanna Medora Salter becomes the first woman elected mayor of an American town, in Argonia, Kansas.

1890s Bicycling becomes a health trend for women. It's not just the wheels that enable women to move more quickly and freely-bicycling helps spark the popularity of shorter skirts and looser, more comfortable clothing. 1890 Louise Blanchard Bethune is the first woman to become a full member of the American Institute of Architects. American journalist Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, who used the pen name Nellie Bly, completes a trip around the world in a record 72 days, 6 hours, and 11 minutes. 1893 On March 22, the first women's college basketball game is played at Smith College. 1896 Alice Guy Blaché, the first American woman film director, shoots the first of her more than 300 films, a short feature called La Fee aux Choux (The Cabbage Fairy). 1880s-1900s All-women orchestras, such as the Boston Fadette Lady Orchestra, become popular acts in American cities. 1897 Mrs. H.H.A.

Beach's “Gaelic Symphony” is the first symphony by a woman performed in the United States, and possibly the world. 1899 The Women Lawyers' Association, a national group to promote the interest of women in the law, is formed. 1901 On October 24, 1901, Annie Edson Taylor, a schoolteacher from Michigan, becomes the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. 1902 Schoolteacher Josephine "Jessie" Field Shambaugh, "the Mother of 4-H," starts the Girls Home Club in Page County, Iowa, to help girls learn practical skills. Ten years later, with her other venture, the Boys Corn Club, it evolved into 4-H. The first U.S. postage stamp picturing an American woman is issued. Martha Washington appears on a lilac-colored eight-cent stamp. 1908 Julia Ward Howe, author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," becomes the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. May 10th, the first Mother's Day celebrations in the United States take place in Philadelphia and in Grafton, West Virginia.

1909 International Women's Day, a day to honor the world's working women is proclaimed. 1910s-1920s Theda Bara, “The Vamp,” and Mary Pickford, “America's Sweetheart,” are some of the first stars of the silent screen. Pickford also founded her own studio and was a longtime producer. 1910 The first Camp Fire Girls meetings, organized by Luther and Charlotte Gulick, are held in Vermont. 1912 March 12, the first Girl Scouts troop in America is founded in Savannah, Georgia, by Juliette Gordon Low. 1912 The influential editor Harriet Monroe founds Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, which introduces American readers to such poets as Carl Sandburg and Robert Frost. 1914 Mary Davenport-Engberg is the first woman to conduct a symphony orchestra, in Bellingham, Washington. 1915 The American Medical Women's Association is formed to provide a voice and a network for women in medicine. At that time, women were barred from membership in the American Medical Association. 1916 Jeannette Rankin, of Montana, is the first woman to be elected to the U.S.

House of Representatives. 1917-1918 U.S. involvement in World War I. About 10,000 U.S. women serve as nurses for the military. 1920s In New York, African-American women such as Zora Neale Hurston, Helene Johnson, and Nella Larsen become literary figures in the period of flourishing arts that came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance. 1920 The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago. On August 26, the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, granting women the right to vote in national elections. 1921 Working in a Greenwich Village basement, with the noise of a speakeasy overhead, Lila Acheson Wallace and her husband are the founders of the Reader's Digest. She serves as editor, manager, and art buyer for the magazine. American novelist Edith Wharton becomes the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. She wins the award for her novel The Age of Innocence. 1922 Rebecca Felton of Georgia becomes the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.

She is appointed by the governor of Georgia after the death of her husband. As the first woman senator, she serves for only two days. 1925 Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female state governor Florence Sabin, researcher of the origin of blood cells, becomes the first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences. She is also the first woman to graduate from Johns Hopkins Medical School. 1926 American Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel. 1927 The silence of the screen is broken, as actors begin to speak. Actresses Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich are among the first stars in the new “talkies.” Christine Quintasket, also known as Mourning Dove, publishes what is probably the first novel by an American Indian woman: Cogewea, the Half Blood: A Depiction of the Great Montana Cattle Range. It incorporates her observations of turn-of-the-century life on the Great Plains, including the last roundup of wild bison. 1928 The World Association of Girls Scouts and Girl Guides is formed to bring together girls from more than 100 countries.

1929 The first Academy Awards ceremony takes place in Hollywood, California. Janet Gaynor won Best Actress for her role in Seventh Heaven. 1931 Maxine Dunlap becomes first American woman to earn a glider pilot license. 1932 January 12, 1932 Hattie Caraway of Arkansas becomes the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate after winning a special election to fill the remaining term of her late husband. In November 1932, she wins the election for a full term. May 20, American aviator Amelia Earhart begins the first solo flight by a woman across the Atlantic Ocean. She takes a can of tomato juice and a thermos of soup for her 14-hour, 56-minute flight from Newfoundland to Ireland. 1933 Frances Perkins is appointed secretary of labor by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, making her the first woman member of a presidential cabinet. 1933-1943 Photographer Dorothea Lange and painter Alice Neel are some of the many artists who receive federal support for their art through New Deal programs.

1934 On October 23, 1934, American adventurer Jeanette Piccard sets an altitude record for female balloonists when she ascends 57,579 feet. Lettie Pate Whitehead becomes the first American woman to serve as a director of a major corporation, The Coca-Cola Company. 1935 Becky Sharp is the first Technicolor film, with Miriam Hopkins in the title role. January 11, American aviator Amelia Earhart begins her landmark flight across the Pacific Ocean. She is the first aviator to make that journey solo. 1941-1945 U.S. involvement in World War II. About 100,000 women serve as WACs (members of the Women's Army Corps) and about 86,000 as WAVEs (Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service). On the home front, more than 6 million women fill industrial jobs to help the war effort 1942 The Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) is established in the United States. 1942-1945 Thousands of women fill the new jobs created by World War II.

“Rosie the Riveter” becomes a symbol of the glamorous and patriotic female factory worker. But when wartime ends, the Rosies are sent home-or back to the low-paying agricultural or domestic work they had done before the war. 1946 Edith Houghton becomes the first woman hired as a first major-league baseball scout. The Italian-born Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini is canonized as the first American saint. 1949 The Ladies Professional Golf Association is founded in New York City. 1950s The vivid and realistic short stories of Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty bring female voices to the fertile tradition of Southern literature. 1950 The Society of Women Engineers is founded in New Jersey. It strives to educate women about opportunities in engineering and to help women engineers reach their fullest potential. 1953 Oveta Culp Hobby becomes the first woman to serve as Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. She is also the first director of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), and the first woman to receive the U.S. Army Distinguished Service Medal.

Jacqueline Cochran breaks the sound barrier by flying an F-86 over Roger's Dry Lake, California, at the speed of 652.337 miles per hour. Eleven years later, she flies at a speed of 1,429.2 miles per hour, more than twice the speed of sound. 1955 On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a longtime activist with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, so that a white man could have it. Parks is arrested and the Montgomery black community launch a bus boycott that lasts for more than a year and becomes a turning point in the civil-rights movement. Rosa Parks Day is celebrated on December 1st. 1958 Two years after its founders first met, La Leche League is officially founded to educate women about breastfeeding and its health benefits. During the 1950s and 1960s, breastfeeding went out of fashion in the United States. 1960 Jerrie Cobb is the first woman in the U.S. to undergo astronaut testing.

NASA, however, cancels the women's program in 1963. It is not until 1983 that an American woman—Dr. Sally K. Ride—is sent into space. Liza Redfield is the first woman to conduct an orchestra on Broadway. She leads a 24-piece orchestra in The Music Man. 1963 The Equal Pay Act makes it illegal for companies to pay different rates to women and men who do the same work. The Presidential Commission on the status of women, appointed by President Kennedy and chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, releases a report that details inequalities faced by women. Kennedy follows with a presidential order demanding that the civil service make hiring decisions “solely on the basis of ability” and “without regard to sex.” 1964 Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of race or sex. Never before had it been illegal for a company to refuse to hire or promote a woman just because of her sex. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is created to enforce the new law.

Margaret Chase Smith, of Maine, becomes the first woman nominated for president of the United States by a major political party, at the Republican National Convention in San Francisco. 1965 Patsy Takemoto Mink, of Hawaii, is the first Asian-American woman elected to Congress. She served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 24 years. 1967 Althea Gibson is the first African-American tennis player to win a singles title at Wimbledon. Muriel "Mickey" Siebert becomes the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and the first woman to head one of its member firms. 1969 Shirley Chisholm of New York becomes the first African-American woman to serve in Congress. Her motto is, "Unbought and unbossed." She served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 14 years. 1970 Diane Crump becomes the first female jockey to ride in the Kentucky Derby. 1971 Ms. Magazine is first published as a sample insert in New York magazine; 300,000 copies are sold out in 8 days.

The first regular issue is published in July 1972. The Association for Women in Mathematics is formed in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) is organized in Chicago. They work to promote and support women's involvement in these fields. 1972 Women dominate the 1971 Grammy Awards, taking all four top categories. Carole King won Record, Album and Song of the Year, while Carly Simon takes the Best New Artist award. Sally Jean Priesand is ordained as the first woman rabbi in the United States. Juanita Kreps becomes the first woman director of the New York Stock Exchange. She later becomes the first woman appointed Secretary of Commerce. 1973 The Boston Women's Health Book Collective publishes the first edition of their groundbreaking book, Our Bodies, Ourselves. Singer Patsy Cline becomes the first woman inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame 1974 Two groundbreaking organizations are formed to improve conditions in secretarial work, a mostly female field: 9 to 5, in Boston, and Women Employed, in Chicago. As in traditional labor unions, members worked for better wages and job security.

But they also used the media to reveal the disrespect faced by many female office workers. For instance, when women were fired for refusing to make coffee or run personal errands for their bosses, the groups organized pickets to publicize the insulting treatment. Women from such labor unions as the United Auto Workers come together to found the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW). CLUW helped give voice to women and the problems they faced within their various unions. It also helped women to achieve recognition as a significant force within the labor movement as a whole. 1975 Elizabeth Ann Seton is canonized, making her the first American-born saint. Women are permitted to enroll in the U.S. military academies for the first time. 1976 Sarah Caldwell becomes the first woman to conduct at New York's Metropolitan Opera House. 1977 Azie Taylor Morton, the first African-American woman to serve as treasurer of the United States, takes office. 1979 The youth organization Big Brothers of America introduces its girls' program, Big Sisters of America. 1981 Sandra Day O'Connor is appointed by President Reagan to the Supreme Court, making her its first woman justice.

1983 Ellen Taafe Zwilich becomes the first woman awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music, for Three Movements for Orchestra. June 18, Sally Ride, the first American woman astronaut to travel in space, begins a six-day mission aboard the space shuttle Challenger. 1984 Geraldine Ferraro, a Democratic congresswoman from Queens, New York, becomes the first woman nominated by a major political party as candidate for vice president. 1985 Penny Harrington becomes the first female police chief of a major U.S. city (Portland, Oregon). Wilma Mankiller becomes the first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. 1986 Ann Bancroft of Minnesota becomes the first woman to walk to the North Pole. 1987 National Museum for Women in the Arts opens in Washington, DC. Singer Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. First celebration of women's history month, a month-long national celebration in the United States On November 6, 1987, Tania Aebi returns to New York after sailing solo around the world for 27 months.

She is the first American woman and the youngest person ever to do so. 1989 In Boston, the Reverend Barbara C. Harris becomes the first woman consecrated as a bishop in the Episcopal Church. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, of Florida, becomes the first Hispanic woman elected to congress. She serves in the U.S. House of Representatives. 1990 Dr. Antonia Novello is sworn in as U.S. Surgeon General, becoming the first woman (and first Hispanic) to hold that job. 1991 On January 2, Sharon Pratt Dixon is sworn in as mayor of Washington, DC, becoming the first black woman to serve as mayor of a major city. 1992 Carol Moseley-Braun, of Illinois, becomes the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate. 1992-1993 Mona Van Duyn is the first woman to serve as Poet Laureate of the United States. (The national Poet Laureate is appointed by the Library of Congress each year and works to increase the public's appreciation of poetry.) 1993 Toni Morrison becomes the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature.

Janet Reno is confirmed by the Senate as U.S. Attorney General, becoming the first woman to hold that job. Sheila Widnall becomes the first secretary of a branch of the U.S. military when she is appointed to head the Air Force. 1993-1995 Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Rita Dove is named the Poet Laureate of the United States. She is the youngest person and the first African American in the position. 1997 Madeleine Albright is sworn in as U.S. secretary of state. She is the first woman in this position as well as the highest-ranking woman in the United States government. 1998 The Lilith Fair, an all-female music tour, becomes one of the most successful musical events of the year. 1999 Lt. Colonel Eileen Collins is the first woman astronaut to command a space shuttle mission. Collins had also been the first woman to pilot a space shuttle, in 1995. Nancy Ruth Mace is the first female cadet to graduate from the Citadel, the formerly all-male military school in South Carolina. 2001 Condoleezza Rice is the first woman to serve as national security adviser.

2002 Halle Berry becomes the first African American to win a Best Actress Academy Award, for her role in Monster's Ball. 2005 10 facts about Philadelphia - fun and interesting Philadelphia facts Ten fun facts about Philadelphia Fact 1 Philadelphia has two well-known nicknames. It's the "City of Brotherly Love," and the "Cradle of Liberty." Fact 2 Philadelphia is home to Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were both signed and adopted. Fact 3 Philadelphia served as the meeting place for the United States Congress for several years, and was where George Washington served as president from 1790 to 1797. Fact 4 Philadelphia is the birthplace of the Philly Cheesesteak sandwich. Brothers Pat and Harry Olivieri first served the sandwich in the 1930s from a little hot dog stand. The sandwich was so popular, Pat was able to open his own restaurant. Fact 5 Philadelphia is the birthplace of America's first-ever daily newspaper. "The Philadelphia Packet and Daily Advertiser" ran for six years, from 1784 to 1790.

Fact 6 Philadelphia was where the first American Flag was designed, sewn by Betsy Ross out of her humble upholstery shop. Fact 7 Philadelphia is where ENIAC, the first fully electronic computer in the world, was designed and built. It was more than a thousand times faster than any other computing device that had come before. Fact 8 Philadelphia is considered to be one of the most haunted cities in the United States of America, and has one of the highest densities of haunted houses. Fact 9 Philadelphia is the home to the Liberty Bell, an icon of American history. A common myth is that "Pennsylvania" is misspelled on the bell, but in fact, the state's name hadn't a common spelling at the time the bell was forged--"Pensylvania" was considered an acceptable alternative. Fact 10 Philadelphia is the home of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, the oldest such exchange in the United States of America. It was founded in 1790.

Question: The first Stock-Exchange in America was founded in which city?
Answer: Philadelphia