What event is commonly called the first major day of the 1929 Wall Street Crash?

Black Thursday is commonly called the first major day of the 1929 Wall Street Crash.

Black Thursday took place on October 24, 1929. Heavy selling caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average to fall sharply at the opening and during much of the session. A group of prominent bankers then bought heavily traded shares, helping stabilize prices and produce a partial recovery by the close.

The apparent rescue did not end the crisis. Selling returned the following week, producing Black Monday on October 28 and Black Tuesday on October 29. Those later sessions made the collapse even more severe and fixed the crash in public memory.

The crash developed after years of speculative buying and the widespread use of borrowed money to purchase shares. The market’s fall was a major financial shock, but historians do not treat it as the sole cause of the Great Depression. Economic weakness and banking problems helped turn the crash into a much broader disaster.