The 1869 U.S. market panic triggered by an attempt to corner the gold market was Black Friday.
Financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk sought to drive up the price of gold while limiting the amount available for trading. Their plan depended partly on influence over government decisions and on attracting other speculators into the rising market. President Ulysses S. Grant eventually ordered the U.S. Treasury to sell gold.
The Treasury’s intervention on 24 September 1869 sharply increased the supply of gold. Prices fell rapidly, ruining many speculators and disrupting financial markets. The event became known as Black Friday, also called the Gold Panic of 1869.
This episode is distinct from the 1929 Black Friday label sometimes used for a Wall Street crash day, and from Black Monday in 1987. It was primarily a gold-market corner and financial panic, rather than a broad modern stock-market collapse.