Which U.S. stock-market crash began on 24 October 1929?

The U.S. stock-market crash that began on 24 October 1929 was the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

That date became known as Black Thursday, the first of several dramatic sessions on the New York Stock Exchange. After a temporary effort by major bankers to support prices, selling intensified on Black Monday and Black Tuesday later that month.

The crash followed a speculative boom in U.S. shares, widespread margin buying, and growing concern that prices had risen beyond realistic business prospects. It damaged banks, companies, and households, while the broader economic collapse that followed became the Great Depression.

The stock-market crash and the Great Depression are closely connected but are not identical terms. The crash describes the sharp market collapse beginning in October 1929; the depression was a much longer worldwide economic downturn with multiple causes.