In the week ending August 26, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance was 236,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 235,000, the Labor Department reported. The four-week moving average was 236,750, a decrease of 1,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 238,000.

Thursday, the Dow closed 55.67 points (0.25%) higher at 21,948.10, the NASDAQ gained 60.35 points (0.95%) to finish at 6,428.66, and the S&P 500 was up 14.02 points (0.57%) at 2,471.61. The Russell 2000 increased 13.95 points (1.00%) to 1,405.27, and the Wilshire 5000 climbed 161.15 points (0.63%) to 25,657.96.

ON THIS DATE: In 1799, the Bank of Manhattan Company opened in New York City. It was the forerunner of Chase Manhattan. In 1807, former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr was found innocent of treason. In 1859, the Pullman sleeping car was placed into service. In 1878, Emma M. Nutt became the first female telephone operator in the U.S. The company was the Telephone Dispatch Company of Boston. In 1939, World War II began when Germany invaded Poland. In 1942, a federal judge in Sacramento, California, upheld the wartime detention of Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals. In 1945, the U.S. received official word of Japan’s formal surrender that ended World War II. In Japan, it was actually September 2. In 1970, the last episode of “I Dream of Jeannie” aired on NBC-TV. In 1972, America’s Bobby Fischer beat Russia’s Boris Spassky to become world chess champion. In 1979, the U.S. Pioneer 11 became the first spacecraft to visit Saturn. In 1985, the Titanic was found by Dr. Robert Ballard and Jean Louis Michel in a joint U.S. and French expedition. The wreck site is located 963 miles northeast of New York and 453 miles southeast of the Newfoundland coast.