The history of the Dow Jones industrial average

The history of the Dow Jones industrial average: The Dow Jones industrial average passed its intraday record high March 5. From the Great Depression to the Great Recession, here’s a look back at the storied history of the index.

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The Dow Jones industrial average is one of several market indexes created by Dow Jones Co. co-founder Charles Dow (pictured). It is named after Dow and statistician Edward Jones and includes the stocks of 30 large U.S. companies.

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The Dow was originally set up to gauge the well-being of the industrial sector, but these days few of the 30 component stocks have to do with heavy industry. When the Dow was created in 1896, it contained only 12 stocks, including American Cotton, American Sugar and American Tobacco. The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Co. was also part of the original 12 but was later bought by U.S. Steel, of which the Edgar Thomson Steel Works is pictured.

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Crowds stand across Wall Street from the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 24, 1929, when collapse of the market was reported due to heavy trading. During the great stock market crash of that year, the worst ever in U.S. history, the Dow Jones industrials lost 13 percent in one day.

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The Dow closed above 5,000 for the first time Nov. 21, 1995. On May 3, 1999, it hit another milestone: its first close above the 11,000 mark. The the 1990s, the Dow gained an astounding 315 percent.

Kathy Willens / AP

A firefighter moves through piles of debris at the site of the World Trade Center in New York after the towers fell in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. All trading on financial markets was suspended for several days after the attacks. The third largest single-day point drop for the Dow occurred on Sept. 17, 2001, the first day of trading.

Graham Morrison / AP

A floor trader monitors a computer screen while working at the New York Stock Exchange. On October 11, 2007, the Dow Jones industrial average hit its intraday trading record of 14,198.10 points. Stocks surged that day after the Fed minutes hinted that the central bank was going to continue to cut interest rates, the Associated Press reported.

Jin Lee / Bloomberg News

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Sept. 15, 2008. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 293 points at 11:53 a.m., up from a more than 300 point decline soon after the morning bell. Earlier that day Lehman Brothers, the nation's fourth-largest investment firm, announced that it would file for bankruptcy. The Dow ended up falling 504.48 points that day. This was just the beginning of a tumultuous ride for the Dow that year.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Trader Michael Kilkenny, right, sits at a post after the close of trading on Sept. 29, 2008. Wall Street's worst fears came to pass that day, when the government's financial bailout plan failed in Congress and stocks plunged precipitously, hurtling the Dow Jones industrials down 777.68, or 6.98 percent to 10,365.45, in their largest one-day point drop ever.

Richard Drew / AP

Specialists Michael Scavone, left, and Michael Sollitto react on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 14, 2009, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average crosses 10,000 for the first time in a year.

Richard Drew / AP

On Feb. 1, 2013, a screen on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange shows the Dow Jones industrial average above 14,000 for the first time since October 2007. Evidence that the U.S. economic recovery is firmly on track drove markets higher that day, adding to the cheer from good economic indicators out of Europe.

Richard Drew / AP

The current composition of the Dow Jones industrial average includes oil companies such as Chevron, banking giants such as Bank of America, retailer Walmart and technology powerhouses Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and Intel.

Getty, AP and Reuters

Employees at the General Electric health-care unit's production facility in Beijing assemble medical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices. General Electric is the only stock from the original 12 that still exists on the Dow.

Nelson Ching / Bloomberg

A board displays the Dow Jones Industrial average after the close at the New York Stock Exchange, March 4, 2013. In intraday trading, the Dow passed its all-time high Tuesday morning, despite fears that automatic spending cuts contained in the sequester could hamper economic growth.

Brendan McDermid / Reuters

FEATURED PHOTO GALLERIES

epa03708924 Franziska (C) wears a helmet and carries a shield during the recreation of The Battle of the Teutoburg Museum in Bramsche, Germany, 20 May 2013. The everyday life of Romans and the Germanic people is depicted at Museum Park Kalkriese during the Romans and Germanic people days. EPA/Friso Gentsch

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A Burrowing owl tries to perch on a protective rope in a public park in Cooper City, Fla. Monday, May 20, 2013 as rain falls. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

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ANNAPOLIS, MD - MAY 20: The Herndon Monument Climb is the traditional culmination of plebe year at the United States Naval Academy. The plebes climb to the top of the lard-covered 21 foot high monument and remove the 'dixie cup' hat at the top replacing it with an upperclassman's hat. After completing this, the freshmen are called 'fourth class midshipmen.' This class completed the task in 1 hour 32 minutes and 43 seconds. The hat was placed by Patrick Lien from Orlando. (Photo by Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

The Herndon Climb

The Herndon Monument climb is the traditional culmination of plebe year at the U.S. Naval Academy.

This combination of Associated Press photos shows left, a neighborhood in Moore, Okla., in ruins on Tuesday, May 4, 1999, after a tornado flattened many houses and buildings in central Oklahoma, and right, flattened houses in Moore on Monday, May 20, 2013. Monday's powerful tornado in suburban Oklahoma City loosely followed the path of a killer twister that slammed the region in May 1999. (AP Photo)

Okla. tornado loosely followed path of 1999 twister

Monday’s powerful tornado in suburban Oklahoma City loosely followed the path of a killer twister that slammed the area in May 1999.

Lea Bessinger salvages a picture of Jesus as she and her son Josh Bessinger sort through the rubble of the elder Bessinger's tornado-ravaged home Tuesday, May 21, 2013, in Moore, Okla. A huge tornado roared through the Oklahoma City suburb Monday, flattening an entire neighborhoods and destroying an elementary school with a direct blow as children and teachers huddled against winds. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Tornado near Oklahoma City causes more damage

Rescue workers are searching for survivors after a twister carved a long path of destruction in a suburb of Oklahoma City. It was part of the...

FILE - In this undated publicity file photo, members of the Doors, from left, John Densmore, Robbie Krieger, Ray Manzarek and Jim Morrison, pose for a portrait. Manzarek, the keyboardist who was a founding member of The Doors, has died at 74. Publicist Heidi Robinson-Fitzgerald says in a news release that Manzarek died Monday, May 20, 2013, at the RoMed Clinic in Rosenheim, Germany, surrounded by his family. (AP Photo, File)

Ray Manzarek, founding member of the Doors, dies at 74

Manzarek co-founded the Doors after meeting then-poet Jim Morrison in California. The band went on to become one of the most successful rock-and-roll...

US actress Rosario Dawson smiles on May 20, 2013 as she arrives for the screening of the film 'Wara No Tate' (Shield of Straw) presented in Competition at the 66th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes. Cannes, one of the world's top film festivals, opened on May 15 and will climax on May 26 with awards selected by a jury headed this year by Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg. AFP PHOTO / ALBERTO PIZZOLIALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images

Eye on entertainment

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A man walks on sulphur and mineral salt formations near Dallol in the Danakil Depression, northern Ethiopia April 22, 2013. The Danakil Depression in Ethiopia is one of the hottest and harshest environments on earth, with an average annual temperature of 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34.4 Celsius). For centuries, merchants have travelled there with caravans of camels to collect salt from the surface of the vast desert basin. The mineral is extracted and shaped into slabs, then loaded onto the animals before being transported back across the desert so that it can be sold around the country. Picture taken April 22, 2013. REUTERS/Siegfried Modola (ETHIOPIA - Tags: BUSINESS SOCIETY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

ATTENTION EDITORS: PICTURE 2 OF 30 FOR PACKAGE 'ETHIOPIA'S ANCIENT SALT TRAIL'
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Ethiopia’s salt trail

For centuries, merchants have traveled to Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression with caravans of camels to collect salt from the surface of the vast desert basin. The mineral is extracted...

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