The 1987 crash day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% was called Black Monday.
Black Monday was October 19, 1987. The Dow dropped 508 points, and the percentage loss exceeded the one-day decline recorded on any other date in the index’s history. Stock markets in Hong Kong, Europe, Australia, and elsewhere also fell sharply during the same episode.
The crash followed a period of rising share prices and growing concerns about economic and financial conditions. Computerized trading programs, including portfolio-insurance strategies, accelerated selling once prices began to move downward. The precise balance between human fear and automated orders remains a major subject in studies of market crashes.
The name can cause confusion because several other market crises have used “Black” labels. Black Tuesday refers most famously to October 29, 1929, while Black Thursday is associated with the first major panic day of the 1929 crash.