The 1907 U.S. financial panic triggered by a failed copper-cornering scheme was the Panic of 1907.
The immediate spark was the attempt by F. Augustus Heinze and associates to corner the stock of United Copper Company. When the plan failed, depositors and investors lost confidence in institutions connected with Heinze and his banking network. Withdrawals spread, and the crisis reached the Knickerbocker Trust Company in New York.
J. P. Morgan organized private-sector support to stabilize banks and trust companies. His intervention helped prevent a wider collapse, but the episode demonstrated that the United States lacked a central bank capable of acting as a lender of last resort.
The panic helped build political support for monetary reform. The Federal Reserve System was created in 1913, four years after the crisis. The event is therefore both a stock-market panic and an important milestone in U.S. financial history.