Black Tuesday, the day the 1929 Wall Street crash reached its symbolic peak, was October 29, 1929.
On that day, about 16 million shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, a record at the time. Share prices fell sharply as investors rushed to sell, intensifying a collapse that had begun several days earlier. The selling followed years of speculative buying, widespread use of borrowed money, and growing concern that stock prices had risen beyond what company earnings justified.
Black Tuesday was not the first bad session of the crash. Black Thursday, October 24, brought an earlier panic, while Black Monday and Black Tuesday, October 28 and 29, produced another dramatic wave of selling. The crash did not by itself cause every aspect of the Great Depression, but it became its most famous financial symbol.
A common mix-up is treating October 29 as the exact beginning of the crash. In reality, the market had already suffered major losses before that date.