The 1907 U.S. financial panic, triggered partly by a failed copper speculation, is called the Panic of 1907.
The immediate spark was an unsuccessful attempt by F. Augustus Heinze and Charles W. Morse to corner the stock of United Copper Company in October 1907. When the scheme collapsed, depositors withdrew money from banks connected to the speculators. The withdrawals spread to trust companies, which were less tightly regulated than commercial banks.
The crisis intensified when the Knickerbocker Trust Company failed on October 22, 1907. J. Pierpont Morgan then organized private support for banks and trusts, helping prevent a wider collapse. The New York Stock Exchange also suffered a sharp decline, while interest rates rose dramatically.
The Panic of 1907 exposed weaknesses in the U.S. banking system, which had no central bank. Its aftermath helped build support for the Federal Reserve, established in 1913. It is sometimes confused with the later Panic of 1893, another severe U.S. banking and market crisis.