Black Thursday

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speculating dangerously with their investments as well. Finally, in October of 1929, the buying craze began to dwindle and gave way to an even wilder selling craze.
The bottom began to fall out on Thursday, October 24, 1929. Prices dropped precipitously as more and more investors tried to sell their holdings. The New York Stock Exchange had lost four billion dollars by the end of the day. It took exchange clerks until five o’ clock AM the next day to clear out all the transactions. On the following Monday, once the realization of what had happened set in, a full-blown panic unsued. Thousands of investors, many of whom were ordinary working people with no prior stock experience, were financially ruined. By the end of the year, stock values had dropped by fifteen billion dollars.
Many of the banks that had speculated heavily with their deposits were wiped out by the falling prices, and these bank failures sparked a "run" on the banking system. Each failed bank, factory, ...

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