Oct. 24, 1929: Anyone who follows the stock market regularly can tell you that it crashed on Oct. 29, 1929, a day known as Black Tuesday. Far fewer people recall that it was preceded by Black Thursday on Oct. 24, 1929.
In a front page story, W.W. Forster, financial editor of the Pittsburgh Press, called Black Thursday “the wildest day in stock market history” and reported that stock tickers ran more than three hours late.
“A stock panic surely was in progress and consternation gripped Wall Street,” Mr. Forster wrote. “Traders in the street had become so panicky that they threw stocks overboard in a wholesale manner and without consideration of price. Orders swept in from all sections of the United States and again tickers were utterly unable to keep pace with transactions. Traders at times were unable to execute orders and wide variations in prices were known to exist. No one seemed to know what was going on.”
Market wizards convened at the offices of the J. P. Morgan Co. and the Federal Reserve met but took no action. Although The Pittsurgh Press sent a telegram to Washington, D.C. to reach Pittsburgh native Andrew W. Mellon, the secretary of the U.S. Treasury remained characteristically silent and would not comment.
