Black Thursday marked the first day of the traditional five-day account of the 1929 Wall Street Crash.
Black Thursday occurred on October 24, 1929, when heavy selling hit the New York Stock Exchange. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell sharply during the session, although a group of major bankers attempted to stabilize prices by buying leading stocks. That intervention briefly calmed the market.
The respite did not last. Selling returned on the following Monday and reached an even more dramatic climax on Black Tuesday, October 29. The crash unfolded after years of speculative buying, widespread use of borrowed money, and concerns about economic conditions and corporate profits.
The crash itself was not the sole cause of the Great Depression, but it badly damaged confidence and helped deepen the economic contraction. Black Thursday is sometimes mistakenly called the beginning of the entire depression; it was specifically the first major day of the stock-market collapse.