April 1981 - April 22, 1981 (Wednesday)

April 22, 1981 (Wednesday)

• The first zero-coupon bonds were issued, as the J.C. Penney Company offered $200,000,000 worth of bonds that paid no periodic interest, dividends or other money until maturity. For $332.47 an investor would receive a "zero" that would pay $1,000 at its maturity date of May 1, 1989 for a 14.25% annual interest rate.
• Four gunmen, wearing Halloween masks, robbed the First National Bank of Arizona in Tucson. Taking $3.3 million, they accomplished the largest American bank robbery up to that time.
• In one of the first of many corporate mergers in the 1980s, food producers Nabisco, Inc. acquired Standard Brands, Inc. in a stock transaction valued at 1.9 billion dollars to create Nabisco Brands, Inc.
• Born: Ken Dorsey, American NFL and CFL quarterback, in Orinda, California