BLACK TUESDAY

By: Maggie McGauran

Wall Street Crash of 1929On October 29th 1929, the Wall street crash occurred. Also known as the Stock

Market Crash, this was one of the most devastating things that happened in the 1920s. In the days leading up to Black Tuesday the market was severely unstable.

The Booming EconomyIn the weeks before the crash the value of stocks had

climbed to dizzying heights. Many people bought stocks on margin. This means that they paid only a fraction of the stock price and borrowed the rest from their brokers. The brokers borrowed their money from the banks. All of this was okay as long as the stock market stayed up.

The Crash- October 29th

Fearing that the boom would end, investors began selling their stocks. This made the prices fall dramatically. Then on Tuesday October 29th more than 16 million shares had been sold. That day became known as Black Tuesday. Stocks lost 13% of their value on Black Tuesday. October 29th is considered the beginning of the Great Depression

The New York Stock Exchange also known as NYSE

closed for a few days to prevent more selling. People

were panicking and it was said that the wires to other

cities were jammed with frantic calls to sell. This

huge crash was one of the causes of the depression.

NYSE

NYSE

Because of the huge crash, many people became very

poor and lost a ton of money. At the time the president was Herbert Hoover and he wasn’t doing anything about this severe crisis. People were living in “Hoovervilles” as they called them.

This is a picture of the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange just after the crash of 1929

Reflection

I choose Black Tuesday as my topic because I

think it is an interesting topic and it was a

very historical moment in time. I liked

learning about it because it also led into the

Great Depression and what people went

through for years. This time period was very

significant and the Stock Market Crash was a

huge thing in that time.