Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, was the Wall Street Crash’s most famous selling day and one of its heaviest-volume sessions.
Investors sold about 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange, a record that stood for decades. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 12%, after declining sharply on Black Monday, October 28. The panic followed weeks of weakening confidence after years of speculative buying and extensive use of borrowed money.
Black Tuesday did not cause the entire Great Depression by itself. The crash damaged wealth and confidence, while bank failures, falling production, reduced trade, and policy decisions deepened the economic collapse that followed. The Dow continued falling after October 29 and did not reach its lowest point until July 1932.
A common mix-up is to treat Black Tuesday as the only crash date. Black Thursday, October 24, began the dramatic sequence, while Black Monday and Black Tuesday brought the most severe late-October selling.