Which European country’s 1992 currency crisis led to the event called Black Wednesday?

The United Kingdom’s 1992 currency crisis led to the event called Black Wednesday.

On September 16, 1992, the British government withdrew the pound sterling from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism after failing to keep it within the required exchange-rate band. The day became known as Black Wednesday. Although it was primarily a currency crisis, the forced policy reversal caused major financial-market disruption and affected confidence in the government.

The pound had entered the mechanism in 1990, but pressure increased as traders doubted that Britain could maintain its exchange rate while domestic interest rates and economic conditions diverged from those of other European countries. The government raised interest rates and announced further measures, but the pressure continued.

Black Wednesday is sometimes confused with a stock-market crash because it involved intense market selling. Its defining event, however, was the pound’s withdrawal from the exchange-rate mechanism, not a single-day collapse in a stock index.