Turn of the 20th Century Turn of the 21st Century
1860's- The railroad industry was considered the nation’s first “Big Business”. It allowed easier distribution in products, communication and spurred an economic growth. Railways become popular in mining companies to ship raw materials across the countries quickly and manufactures distributed their products by rails quickly: an effective way of transportation.
Late 1800's- With businesses booming, the banks saw an increase in investments in stocks and bonds of companies. With the large capital that was coming in, banking companies needed to change. New banks were springing up throughout the countries and helping finances these large businesses by making loans.
February 25, 1901- U.S Steel became the first billion dollar company, with a capital of $1.4 billion. Manufactured two-thirds of America’s steel in its first year. U.S. Steel was the largest steel producer and largest corporation in the world.
October 29, 1929- The Stock Market crashes, sending America into a decade long depression. The Great Depression was the most difficult and long-lasting financial disaster in American history and destroyed businesses and millions of people's way of life. This was a time where no one could help one another if they wanted to.
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1863- Rockefeller established his first oil factory outside of Cleveland This was the start of the giant, powerful oil company, "Standard Oil Company" founded in 1870.
July 2, 1890- The Sherman Antitrust Act was passed. Its' main purpose was to ensure that businesses would not have complete control of their industry, and to allow competition.
1903- Ford Motor Company is established by Henry Ford, to produce and distribute cars with only ten workers.
October 1, 1908- Ford presents its' first automobile to the public: the Model T selling fifteen million and becoming the most popular car in America. Half the cars on the roads by 1918 were made by Ford.
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1974- The world's first home computer was invented by Richard Adams for IBM. In just a few years, Apple would come out with two home computer systems ready to compete with IBM. This was the beginning of having the world in every home in America.
November 12, 1990- Tim Berners-Lee created the internet, “World Wide Web” as it was first known as. The creation of the internet opened up new doors for business, allowing them to sell and advertise their products in a whole new way.
1997- Google is invented while Larry Page and Sergey Brin as a research project. Two years later Google established into Google Inc. Company. Google was created as a search engine to organize the infinitive amount of information for easier searching of the web. This has helped businesses be easier to find via the internet.
December 2007- Stock market drops, starting the economic recession of 2008. Weak businesses fail, because people were not spending and all the money they invested in banks was gone.
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1975- Black Friday started to get people into the Christmas shopping mood, by businesses marking down items for that day only. Black Friday did not start to get big until the late 20th century. Since 2005, it has become the busiest shopping day for retailers.
1994- Amazon was founded, changing the way consumers view buying when it went public on 1997. It began as an online bookstore, but later expanded its’ horizons and started selling other products.
2006- Twitter is invented opening up new doors of advertising. Plus, businesses using twitter are able to contact potential consumers who have interests that may help boost their business.
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