29 October 1929 is known as Black Tuesday, when U.S. stocks suffered a historic collapse.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 12.8% that day, after dropping 11.7% on Black Monday. Trading volume reached a record at the time as investors rushed to sell shares. The crash followed years of rising stock prices, widespread speculation, and purchases made with borrowed money.
Black Tuesday did not single-handedly cause the Great Depression. It intensified a broader economic downturn that also involved falling industrial production, bank failures, debt problems, and shrinking consumer demand. The crash nevertheless became the best-known symbol of the era’s financial distress.
A common mix-up is calling 29 October Black Monday. In the standard naming convention, 28 October is Black Monday and 29 October is Black Tuesday. The Dow had not yet reached its modern, continuously calculated form, but the 1929 index remains central to accounts of the crash.