This Day in History: Stock Market Crashes (Sunday, October 29)

This Day in History: , Stock Market Crashes.

October 29, 1929.

Black Tuesday — as the day came to be known — was the final collapse of a market that had experienced massive losses over the course of a few weeks.

Billions of dollars were lost as volatile trading led to the exchange of more than 16 million shares on this day alone.

The United States was on the threshold of the Great Depression, an era of severe economic hardship that would take nearly to two decades to reverse.

The collapse was several years in the making.

It was fueled by unchecked economic expansion and speculation, as well as low wages and poorly regulated lending practices.

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By 1933, almost half of all banks in America had failed.

U.S. unemployment would reach a staggering 30%