The 1901 U.S. stock-market panic caused partly by a Northern Pacific Railway corner was the Panic of 1901.
The episode began during a struggle for control of Northern Pacific Railway. Investors led by E. H. Harriman and a group associated with J. P. Morgan and James J. Hill competed with Edward Harriman's interests, driving Northern Pacific shares sharply higher.
On May 9, 1901, the stock corner collapsed and the market plunged. Investors who had sold shares short faced extreme difficulty obtaining stock, while other railroad and industrial shares also fell. The panic was brief compared with later financial crises, but it revealed how concentrated ownership and speculation could destabilize markets.
The Panic of 1901 is sometimes mixed up with the Panic of 1907. The 1907 panic occurred six years later and contributed to the creation of the Federal Reserve system.