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This Day in Financial History. . . .
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Learn what happened in business in today’s past


January 27:

1938: After a protracted war with the new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York Stock Exchange finally recommends an internal reorganization that will install a board of governors, a salaried independent president and a specialized administrative staff. Previously, the Exchange had functioned like a private gentleman's club, with conduct enforced mainly by unspoken codes of honor and a pro-bono president chosen from among his fellow brokers.

Joel Seligman, The Transformation of Wall Street: A History of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Modern Wall Street (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1982), pp. 166-167; John Brooks, Once in Golconda: A True Drama of Wall Street, 1920-1938 (Harper & Row, New York, 1969), pp. 251-252.

1850: Samuel Gompers, founding president of the American Federation of Labor, is born in London, England. He comes to the U.S. at the age of 13 and begins working in a cigar factory. In 1886 he organizes the AFL, creating a nationwide union and galvanizing the labor movement with strikes and boycotts. In the age of the "Robber Barons," Gompers helps prevent managers from taking workers for granted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Gompers