Andrew Jackson Rides The Iron Horse; SEC Precursor Emerges: Today In History

June 6, 2017, is the 157th day of the year, with 208 days remaining. The moon is in a waxing gibbous phase, with illumination at 92 percent.

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Andrew Jackson rides the iron horse

In 1833, President Andrew Jackson boarded a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad train for a trip to Baltimore. Jackson, who had never before been on a train, became the first president to do so on June 6.

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad opened for operation five years earlier in 1828 with horse-drawn cars. But after the successful run of the Tom Thumb, a steam train that almost outraced a horse amid a public demonstration in 1830, steam power was added.

By 1860, the American railroad system had become a national network of around 30,000 miles. By 1869, transcontinental railroad service became possible for the first time in history.

Securities Exchange Act emerges as precursor to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

President Franklin Roosevelt signed in 1934 what would become the precursor for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Called the Securities Exchange Act, the new law governed the secondary trading of securities: stocks, bonds and debentures. It formed the basis of regulation of the financial markets and their participants in the United States.

The SEC was created by Section 4 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, maintaining a three-part mission: to protect investors; maintain fair, orderly and efficient markets and facilitate capital formation. To achieve this mandate, the SEC enforces the statutory requirement that public companies submit quarterly and annual reports in addition to other periodic reports. Company executives must also provide a narrative account, called “management discussion and analysis (MD&A),” which outlines the previous year of operations and explains how the given company fared during that time period.

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Photo credit: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)