# Canonical recap data for Wall Street Crash & Great Depression (1929)
# Source: https://recap.at/1929/wall-street-crash
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: wall-street-crash
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1929/wall-street-crash"
title: Wall Street Crash & Great Depression
aliases:
- Black Tuesday
- The Great Crash
- 1929 stock market crash
- Wall Street Crash
subtitle: Wall Street Crash & Great Depression
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1929-10-24
endDate: 1929-10-29
datePrecision: day
year: 1929
decade: 1920
country:
name: United States
slug: united-states
summaryShort: The Wall Street crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major stock market crash in the United States which began in October 1929 with a sharp decline in prices on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). It triggered a rapid erosion of confidence in the U.S. banking system and marked what would later cascade in
summaryLong: The Wall Street crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major stock market crash in the United States which began in October 1929 with a sharp decline in prices on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). It triggered a rapid erosion of confidence in the U.S. banking system and marked what would later cascade into the worldwide Great Depression that lasted until the United States entered into World War II on December 8, 1941, making it the most devastating crash in the country's history. It is most associated with October 24, 1929, known as "Black Thursday", when a record 12.9 million shares were traded on the exchange, and October 29, 1929, or "Black Tuesday", when some 16.4 million shares were traded.
lede: On October 29, 1929, stock prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapsed in a single day of panic selling that wiped out fortunes and shattered confidence in American finance. What began as a market correction spiraled into the Great Depression-a decade-long economic catastrophe that triggered bank failures, mass unemployment, and global financial contagion.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Crowd_outside_nyse.jpg/1280px-Crowd_outside_nyse.jpg"
heroImageCredit: Wikipedia · "Wall Street crash of 1929"
importance: 50
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts:
- label: Dow Jones decline (Oct 1929)
  value: 89% from peak to trough over three years
- label: Peak market value lost
  value: $30 billion in the crash
- label: Date of steepest single-day drop
  value: October 29, 1929 (Black Tuesday)
- label: Percentage drop on Black Tuesday
  value: 12% in one day
- label: Bank failures by 1933
  value: Over 9,000 U.S. banks closed
- label: U.S. unemployment rate (1933)
  value: 25%
- label: Years until market recovery
  value: 25 years (1954 to regain 1929 levels)
timeline:
- date: 1927-01-01
  title: Speculative bubble inflates
  description: Stock prices surge on widespread buying on margin; investors borrow heavily to purchase shares, amplifying risk throughout the market.
- date: 1929-09-03
  title: Dow Jones peak
  description: The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches 381.17, the high point before the decline begins.
- date: 1929-10-23
  title: Selling pressure mounts
  description: Stock prices fall sharply as doubt spreads; Black Wednesday sees heavy losses and the first panic among major investors.
- date: 1929-10-29
  title: Black Tuesday
  description: Panic selling overwhelms the NYSE. Over 16 million shares trade (a record); prices plummet 12% in a single session. Fortunes evaporate.
- date: 1929-11-01
  title: Market stabilization attempts fail
  description: Leading financiers including J.P. Morgan Jr. announce support for the market, but confidence remains shattered.
- date: 1930-06-01
  title: Smoot-Hawley Tariff enacted
  description: Congress passes high protective tariffs, choking international trade and deepening the global economic crisis.
- date: 1931-09-01
  title: Bank runs accelerate
  description: Depositors withdraw savings en masse; thousands of banks fail across the United States as panic spreads.
- date: 1933-03-06
  title: Bank Holiday declared
  description: President Franklin D. Roosevelt closes all U.S. banks for four days to halt the crisis and stabilize the system.
- date: 1933-06-16
  title: Glass-Steagall Act signed
  description: FDR enacts legislation separating commercial and investment banking, a cornerstone of financial regulation for decades.
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_crash_of_1929"
  title: Wall Street crash of 1929
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
impactStatement: The crash exposed the fragility of an economy built on unchecked speculation and insufficient regulation. It destroyed personal savings, toppled banks, and forced governments worldwide to rethink their approach to financial oversight and economic policy-lessons that would reshape markets for generations.
categories:
- disaster
taxonomy:
domain: economic
eventTypes:
- market_crash
- financial_crisis
- banking_collapse
- depression
canonicalClasses:
- collapse
- exchange
impactRadius: global
velocity: cascading
predictability: black_swan
intentionality: accidental
domainCoupling: systemic
lifecycleClass: decline
metaDescription: Wall Street's catastrophic collapse on October 29, 1929, and the Great Depression that followed.
wikidataQid: Q201684
consequences: []
comparisonThenNow: []
culturalContext:
topMusic: []
topFilms: []
topTVShows: []
zeitgeistNote: ""
relationships: []
gallery:
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Crowd_outside_nyse.jpg/1280px-Crowd_outside_nyse.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/Crowd_outside_nyse.jpg/800px-Crowd_outside_nyse.jpg"
  caption: Wall Street crash of 1929
  credit: Wikipedia · "Wall Street crash of 1929"
  width: 330
  height: 471
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/19291030_Crash_of_%2729_-_New_York_Times.jpg/1280px-19291030_Crash_of_%2729_-_New_York_Times.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/19291030_Crash_of_%2729_-_New_York_Times.jpg/800px-19291030_Crash_of_%2729_-_New_York_Times.jpg"
  caption: 19291030 Crash of '29 - New York Times
  credit: Work for hire of The New York Times
  width: 3393
  height: 2796
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/1929_Events_Collage_V_1.0.jpg/1280px-1929_Events_Collage_V_1.0.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/1929_Events_Collage_V_1.0.jpg/800px-1929_Events_Collage_V_1.0.jpg"
  caption: 1929 Events Collage V 1.0
  credit: From a variety of images credited above.
  width: 4096
  height: 3708
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Harga_Saham_Wall_Street_1929_-_1932_menjunam.png/1280px-Harga_Saham_Wall_Street_1929_-_1932_menjunam.png"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Harga_Saham_Wall_Street_1929_-_1932_menjunam.png/800px-Harga_Saham_Wall_Street_1929_-_1932_menjunam.png"
  caption: Harga Saham Wall Street 1929 - 1932 menjunam
  credit: Encik Tekateki
  width: 1273
  height: 798
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260603154438/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_crash_of_1929"
  capturedAt: 2026-06-03
  label: Wall Street crash of 1929
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_crash_of_1929"
