each day benzinga takes a look back at a notable marketrelated moment that occurred on this date what happened on this day in 1996 the dow jones industrial average reached 6000 for the first time where the market was the dow finished the day at 6010 the sp 500 finished at 70354 what else was going on in the world in 1996 major league soccer had its first season in the us the united nations adopted the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty the average cost of a new house was 118200 dow hits 6000 it took the dow about 11 months to make the 20 gain from hitting 5000 for the first time to reaching 6000 in october 1996 incredibly it took only another four months for the dow to hit 7000 as the dotcom bubble started to inflate the dow continued to knock down milestone after milestone in the years that followed before finally peaking at its dotcom boom peak of 11750 in january of 2000 the dotcom selloff eventually sent the dow back down to as low as 719749 in late 2002 the dow ultimately made it back up to 1419810 in 2007 before the 2008 financial crisis the index hit its lowest level of the 21st century in march of 2009 bottoming at 646995 in january 2017 the dow hit the landmark 20000 level for the first time and it finally reached 30000 in november 2020 in the 26 years since the dow reached the 6000 mark the index has now generated another 285 in total returns for longterm investors