The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 11.7% on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929.
Black Tuesday was one of the most famous sessions of the Wall Street Crash. Approximately 16 million shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, a volume that overwhelmed normal trading arrangements and reflected widespread attempts to sell.
The fall followed Black Monday, when the Dow had dropped about 13%. Together, the two sessions destroyed confidence in the idea that share prices would keep rising. The market continued falling after October 29, so Black Tuesday was not the end of the crash.
The 1929 collapse unfolded after a long speculative boom and was followed by severe economic contraction. However, historians do not treat the stock-market decline as the sole cause of the Great Depression. Credit conditions, banking failures, industrial production, international trade, and government responses all influenced the depth and duration of the downturn.