World War I prompted the New York Stock Exchange to close for more than four months in 1914.
The exchange suspended trading on July 31, 1914, as the European war created exceptional uncertainty and threatened disorderly selling. The closure also reflected concerns about gold flows, international payments, and the ability of markets to operate safely during wartime.
The NYSE reopened in November 1914, first in a restricted form and later with broader trading. The shutdown was unusual because organized stock trading had generally continued through earlier U.S. crises, even when prices fell sharply.
The closure is sometimes mistakenly linked to the 1929 crash, but the events were fifteen years apart. In 1914, the immediate concern was the outbreak of a major international war; in 1929, the central shock came from the collapse of an already inflated U.S. market and the economic damage that followed.