The 1929 U.S. stock-market crash reached its most famous selling day, Black Tuesday, on 29 October 1929.
On that day, investors traded millions of shares amid panic selling on the New York Stock Exchange. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 12%, following a drop of roughly 13% on Black Monday, 28 October. The consecutive declines intensified fears that the market’s earlier speculative rise had ended.
The crash did not cause the entire Great Depression by itself. It damaged confidence, reduced household and business wealth, and exposed financial weaknesses, while bank failures, falling demand, debt problems, and policy choices deepened the economic collapse. The Dow continued falling after October and did not reach its eventual low until July 1932.
Black Tuesday is sometimes confused with Black Thursday, 24 October, the first major panic day of the episode. The two dates were part of the same broader Wall Street crash, but 29 October became the best-known symbol of the collapse.