What name is given to the 29 October 1929 US stock-market crash?

The 29 October 1929 US stock-market crash is called Black Tuesday.

The name refers to the day when panic selling overwhelmed the New York Stock Exchange. About 16 million shares changed hands, a trading volume that was extraordinary for the era, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell roughly 12%. Black Tuesday followed Black Thursday, 24 October, and Black Monday, 28 October, as investors rushed to sell.

The crash did not single-handedly cause the Great Depression, but it became its most famous financial symbol. The United States economy was already affected by overproduction, falling demand, bank weaknesses, and excessive use of borrowed money to buy shares. The downturn then spread internationally through trade and finance.

A common mix-up is treating Black Tuesday as the entire collapse. It was the most famous day in a wider sequence of market failures between October 1929 and the market’s later low in 1932.