The United States financial crisis that began in October 1907 is commonly called the Panic of 1907.
The panic followed a failed attempt to corner the stock of United Copper Company. When the scheme collapsed, depositors rushed to withdraw money from banks and trust companies connected to the speculators. The failure of the Knickerbocker Trust Company in New York intensified the run.
J. P. Morgan helped stabilize the banking system by organizing emergency loans and persuading other financiers to provide support. The crisis exposed weaknesses in the U.S. financial system, which lacked a central bank capable of acting as a lender of last resort.
The panic is sometimes confused with the broader recession that followed it. The crisis directly encouraged the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913, but the Federal Reserve did not exist during the panic itself. The event also helped establish the importance of coordinated private and public responses to financial emergencies.