Black Tuesday was the famous 1929 crash day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 12% as panic selling intensified.
Black Tuesday occurred on October 29, 1929, when about 16 million shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange. The Dow dropped 30.57 points, or 11.7%, at a time when trading systems and information flows were much less capable of handling such volume.
It followed Black Thursday on October 24 and the large decline on Black Monday, October 28. Although the crash did not single-handedly cause the Great Depression, it damaged confidence, reduced wealth, and contributed to a broader contraction in spending, investment, and employment.
A common mix-up is treating Black Tuesday as the entire crash. The Wall Street Crash stretched across several volatile sessions, and the Dow eventually reached its low in July 1932, after losing almost 89% from its September 1929 peak.