The 3 Beacon Blog

This day in financial history:

 1736: The mechanical father of the Industrial Revolution is born in Greenock, Scotland, as Agnes Muirhead Watt, wife of merchant James Watt, gives birth to a son, also named James. He later improves the steam engine, which was invented in 1712 by Thomas Newcomen, until it is practical enough to power Great Britain's textile mills and railroads, making large-scale factories possible for the first time in history.

1813: Henry Bessemer, who later invents the Bessemer smelting process that converts iron to steel, is born in Charlton, England, son of a mechanical engineer who had improved the coin-casting dies of the Paris Mint just before the French Revolution.

1898: Edward Crosby Johnson II, future founder of Fidelity Management & Research Co., is born in Milton, Mass., to Samuel W. Johnson, partner in a Boston department store, and Josephine Forbush Johnson. Source: Diana B. Henriques, Fidelity's World: The Secret Life and Public Power of the Mutual Fund Giant.

1944: Peter Lynch, future manager of the Fidelity Magellan Fund, is born. Source: Peter Lynch with John Rothchild, One Up on Wall Street (Penguin, New York, 1989).

1999: Pres. Bill Clinton proposes, in his State of the Union address, "investing a small portion [of the Social Security trust fund] in the private sector just as any private or state government pension would do. This will earn a higher return and keep Social Security sound for 55 years." Democrats shrug, but when Pres. George W. Bush revives the proposal four years later, they claim it is irresponsible.

Source: Jason Zweig