Black Tuesday, the climactic day of the 1929 Wall Street crash, occurred on October 29, 1929.
On that Tuesday, investors traded roughly 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange, an enormous volume for the era. Prices collapsed as confidence in highly valued stocks and heavily leveraged purchases broke down. The selling followed Black Thursday, October 24, and Black Monday, October 28.
The crash did not by itself cause the entire Great Depression, but it badly damaged banks, businesses, and household wealth. Falling share prices reduced investment and encouraged financial institutions to call in loans. Bank failures, reduced consumer spending, and international economic problems deepened the downturn.
A common mix-up is treating October 24 as the sole crash date. Black Thursday began the dramatic sequence, while October 29 became the best-known date because of its exceptional selling and lasting historical symbolism.