On what date did the 1987 Black Monday stock-market crash hit global exchanges?
Answer
19 October 1987
The 1987 Black Monday stock-market crash hit global exchanges on 19 October 1987.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 508 points, or 22.6%, that day, marking the largest one-day percentage decline in its history. Markets in Asia, Europe, and North America also suffered severe losses, making the event genuinely global rather than a single-exchange collapse.
Several forces contributed, including rising interest rates, worries about the U.S. trade deficit, and program trading strategies that automatically sold futures and shares. The crash exposed how linked international markets had become.
Black Monday is often confused with the Wall Street crash days of October 1929. The 1987 decline was sharper in one day, but it did not produce the same prolonged economic depression. Regulators later introduced circuit breakers to pause trading during extreme falls.