October was the month of the 1929 Wall Street Crash’s famous three-day panic on the New York Stock Exchange.
The critical sequence began with Black Thursday on October 24, 1929, continued through Black Monday on October 28, and culminated in Black Tuesday on October 29. The Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered enormous losses across those sessions as investors rushed to sell.
The crash followed a long period of rising share prices, widespread speculation, and purchases made with borrowed money. When prices began to fall, margin calls forced additional selling, turning declining prices into a self-reinforcing panic.
The market did not reach its ultimate low until July 1932, nearly three years later. This distinction matters: October 1929 was the dramatic crash, while the prolonged decline formed part of the broader economic crisis later called the Great Depression.