Which stock exchange crash is widely regarded as the opening event of the Panic of 1873?

The Vienna Stock Exchange crash is widely regarded as the opening event of the Panic of 1873.

On May 9, 1873, a collapse in speculative share prices in Vienna helped trigger a financial panic known in Austria as the Gründerkrach. Many investors had borrowed to buy shares in railways, banks, and property-related ventures, leaving the market vulnerable when confidence reversed.

The disturbance spread through European financial connections and soon affected the United States. In September 1873, the failure of the banking firm Jay Cooke & Company helped set off a major American panic. The resulting downturn became a long depression in parts of Europe and North America, although historians debate its precise duration and boundaries.

The crash is sometimes called the “Panic of 1873” even when discussion focuses on the United States. That label can obscure the international sequence: the Vienna exchange collapse preceded the later American banking crisis and is the specific event asked about here.