The 1869 U.S. financial crisis caused by an attempt to corner the gold market was called Black Friday.
Financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk tried to control the supply of gold available for public trading. Their plan depended partly on keeping the U.S. Treasury from releasing gold, which could have driven the price higher. President Ulysses S. Grant eventually ordered Treasury gold sales, breaking the attempted corner.
On 24 September 1869, gold prices plunged after the government intervention. The shock disrupted markets, harmed speculators, and affected commodity trading, although it did not cause a nationwide depression on the scale of later panics. The event became one of the most famous financial scandals of the nineteenth century.
Black Friday is easy to confuse with other market disasters using the same color-based labels. This event occurred in 1869 and centered on gold speculation, whereas Black Monday usually refers to the 1987 global stock-market crash.