What date is known as Black Tuesday, the climactic trading day of the 1929 Wall Street Crash?

Black Tuesday, the climactic trading day of the 1929 Wall Street Crash, occurred on October 29, 1929.

On that day, investors sold roughly 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange, a trading volume record that stood for decades. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 12%, following a drop of nearly 13% on Black Monday, October 28. The selling reflected collapsing confidence after years of speculation, widespread buying on margin, weakening economic conditions, and fears that share prices had become unsustainably high.

Black Tuesday is often treated as the symbolic endpoint of the crash, but the market decline was not confined to one session. Prices had already fallen sharply from their September peak, and the bear market continued for years. The Dow eventually reached its low in July 1932, about 89% below its 1929 peak.

Black Thursday, October 24, was the earlier panic session, not the date of the crash’s most famous final collapse.