BULL MARKET (April 24): The New York Stock Exchange's new building at Broad and Wall streets is dedicated amid a blizzard of ticker tape. In a dedication speech, financier J.P. Morgan says: "The magnificence of our new home is only in keeping with the magnitude of our business."

DERBY DARK HORSE (May 2): The Kentucky Derby is won by an ebony colt named Judge Himes, a decided longshot. But contrary to a claim in many later reference works, this does not establish "dark horse" as a term for a surprise winner. The first dark horse was Franklin Pierce, nominated for president on the 49th ballot at the Democrats' 1852 convention.

TOWARD COMMUNISM (Nov. 17): At a congress in London, Russia's embattled Social Democratic Labor Party splits into two wings -- the moderate Mensheviks ("minority") and the radical Bolsheviks ("majority"). Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, fiery young leader of the Bolsheviks, advocates in his oratory the destruction of capitalism and establishment of an international socialist state.

	Orville Wright

BROTHERS TAKE OFF (Dec. 17): On a blustery day near Kill Devil Hill at Kitty Hawk, N.C., Orville and Wilbur Wright astound onlookers by demonstrating manned flight in a heavier-than-air, mechanically propelled airplane. The Wright brothers, bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio, previously have experimented with their self-made kitelike contraption, powered by a 12-horsepower motorcycle engine, but no one was around to watch. This occasion attracts a curious group that includes several speculative industrialists and some enterprising photographers.

	Wilbur Wright

"Not many," the Wrights recall later, "were willing to face the rigors of a cold December wind in order to see, as they no doubt thought, another flying machine not fly." Onlookers are only mildly impressed when Orville Wright in his initial flight covers 120 feet in 12 airborne seconds. But the brothers take turns in the air.

The fourth flight, manned by Wilbur Wright, is officially recorded as 59 seconds, covering a distance of 852 feet. The only newspaper in America to give the flight serious coverage is the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, which publishes an account the morning after the successful flight. Nevertheless, the Kitty Hawk flights are a birth cry for an enterprise that will change the world.

FIERY DEATH (Dec. 30): It's standing-room-only at Chicago's Iroquois Theater for a vaudeville bill headlined by comedian Eddie Foy and his "seven little Foys." A fire ignites in the outer lobby and almost instantly penetrates the auditorium, trapping almost 1,000 patrons. The reported death toll ranges from 588 to 602.