1812年2月15日
February 15 marks the birthday of Charles Lewis Tiffany, the man who gave the world some of its most preeminent symbols of wealth and status. Born in Killingly, Connecticut, in 1812, Tiffany headed to New York in 1837, where he and partner John B. Young opened a stationery and fancy goods shop. However, political upheaval in Europe in 1848 caused the prices of precious stones to plummet, giving Tiffany a perfect, and profitable, opening into the jewelry business. He snapped up a passel of suddenly cheap diamonds, including a few of the French Crown Jewels, which he later sold for a tidy sum, prompting the press to dub Tiffany "The King of Diamonds." Around the same time, Tiffany set about manufacturing gold jewelry. He moved rapidly to expand his business, acquiring John C. Moore輘 leading silver operations in 1851. Two years later, Tiffany assumed complete control of the company and re-christened it "Tiffany & Co." During the ensuing years, he opened Tiffany branches around the world and produced special items for luminaries like First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. By the time Tiffany died in 1902, his company and its products were firmly entrenched as enduring vestiges of high culture.
1836年2月15日
On this day in 1836, Nicholas Biddle obtained a Pennsylvania charter for the ever-controversial second Bank of the United States. The move was a sad admission of defeat for Biddle, the embattled chief of the bank who had waged war against President Andrew Jackson throughout the early 1830s to preserve the institution's Federal status. Indeed, Biddle had legitimized the bank, transforming what, in the years immediately following its initial charter in 1816, was a seeming failure, into a viable, and even prosperous institution. But, Biddle could not fend off President Andrew Jackson, who bitterly opposed the concept of a Federal banking system. The president marshaled fierce attacks against Biddle's bank, cutting off the government's flow of deposits, as well as transferring Federal funds to various state banks. Biddle's supporters in the House, including members of the Whig party and other anti-Jacksonian forces, howled in protest and successfully pushed for the passage of a censure of the president (the resolution was later stripped from the Senate records). However, Jackson was simply too powerful an opponent and, when the bank's national charter expired in 1836, he successfully blocked Biddle's renewal efforts. The bank struggled on in Pennsylvania for a few years, before bad investments and mismanagement forced it to shut down in 1841.
2000年2月15日 新基金交易印花税仍缓征
2月15日财政部、国家税务总局决定：新基金交易印花税仍缓征。
2006年2月15日 中国石化集中整合A股子公司的序幕拉开
2月15日 中国石化集中整合A股子公司的序幕拉开。中国石化董事会批准以10.18元、13.95元、12.12元和10.30元的价格，以现金要约方式，分别对齐鲁石化、扬子石化、中原油气、石油大明的流通股和非流通股实施要约收购。如果这4家目标公司的流通股股东全部接受要约，流通股部分的现金对价总计约143亿元。
