What date marked the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers during the 2008 global financial crisis?

Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, during the 2008 global financial crisis.

The filing was the largest bankruptcy in United States history at that time, involving hundreds of billions of dollars in assets. Lehman had built a large business around mortgages and mortgage-related securities, and its finances deteriorated as the U.S. housing market collapsed.

The failure intensified fear throughout global financial markets. Credit markets froze, stock indexes plunged, and governments and central banks took emergency measures to prevent further institutional failures. The crisis had already been developing before Lehman’s collapse, but the bankruptcy became one of its defining moments.

Lehman’s failure is sometimes dated alongside the later U.S. government rescue of AIG, which occurred on September 16. Those were separate events, although both reflected the same rapidly worsening financial emergency.