Today is Pi Day. It is a day to reflect on the many ways we use math, both consciously and … pie!
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Shares of Microsoft Corporation became available 30 years ago today when that company executed its initial public offering. The price was $21 per share, and it was so successful that Bill Gates was suddenly worth approximately $350 million. If you had purchased 100 shares that day and held onto them, 25 years later you would have been the owner of 28,800 shares worth $750,000 after nine stock splits. At top is its logo from the era.

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“At Fillmore East,” the live album by the Allman Brothers Band, was recorded 45 years ago tonight at that New York City venue. “Whipping Post” from that album (below the fold):
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The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster took place five years ago today. A tsunami that formed after the Tōhoku earthquake flooded the six-reactor complex, which caused electrical failures and ultimately, three nuclear meltdowns.

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President Franklin Roosevelt delivered his first “Fireside chat” with the American people over the national radio networks on this date in 1933, one week after he took office. Most of his radio talks were on Sundays, as this first one was; he gave a total of 30 such explanatory speeches between 1933 and 1944. “On the Banking Crisis” was the first. The term “fireside chat” was not employed immediately, but by the second chat, delivered on May 7, the speeches were known by that name. It is estimated that up to 60 million Americans listened. Audio (below the fold):
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