The 1929 U.S. market crash day on October 24, when panic selling first overwhelmed Wall Street, was called Black Thursday.
On October 24, 1929, the New York Stock Exchange experienced exceptionally heavy selling. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell sharply during the session, and trading volume reached a record for the time. A group of leading bankers, including Richard Whitney, attempted to stabilize prices by buying selected blue-chip shares.
That intervention temporarily calmed the market, but confidence did not return for long. Selling intensified again on Black Monday, October 28, and Black Tuesday, October 29. The Dow’s October losses became the best-known opening phase of the Wall Street Crash.
Black Thursday is sometimes confused with Black Tuesday, which was the later and more dramatic panic session. Neither day alone explains the Great Depression: the wider downturn also involved bank failures, monetary contraction, falling demand, and international economic pressures.