The Wall Street Crash

On Thursday 24 October the ticker ran hours behind the selling and a crowd gathered outside the exchange. Bankers bought heavily that afternoon to steady the market, and it held for the weekend. Then on Monday and Tuesday it fell again, harder, and sixteen million shares changed hands on the Tuesday alone.

The market lost about a third of its value in a fortnight and did not recover for twenty-five years. What followed was not caused by the crash alone, but the Depression that came after it put a quarter of American workers out of a job.