Black Thursday began on October 24, 1929, when heavy selling overwhelmed the New York Stock Exchange.
The session opened amid intense fear after weeks of falling share prices. About 12.9 million shares changed hands, then a record, as investors rushed to sell. A group of major bankers later bought large quantities of leading stocks in an effort to restore confidence, and prices partially recovered before the close.
The apparent rescue did not end the crash. Selling returned on the following Monday and became even more severe on Tuesday, October 29. Those sessions are commonly called Black Monday and Black Tuesday.
Black Thursday is therefore an important opening moment of the 1929 Wall Street Crash, not its final day. The crash was followed by a much broader banking and economic crisis during the Great Depression.