what event started the great depression

The Great Depression is widely considered to have been set in motion by the Wall Street stock market crash of October 1929 , especially the sequence of crashes known as Black Thursday, Black Monday, and Black Tuesday.

Quick Scoop: The Spark

Most historians point to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 as the event that started the Great Depression.

In late October 1929, panic selling on the New York Stock Exchange caused share prices to collapse, shattering confidence in the U.S. economy and triggering a deepening downturn.

Key Days in October 1929

• 24 October 1929 – Black Thursday : Panic selling began and share prices fell sharply.

• 28 October 1929 – Black Monday : Prices dropped even further.

• 29 October 1929 – Black Tuesday : Around 16 million shares were traded, prices collapsed, and the crash became a full-blown financial disaster.

These days are often grouped together as the Wall Street Crash, the symbolic starting gun of the Great Depression.

Why That Crash “Started” the Great Depression

• It destroyed investor confidence , so families and businesses cut spending and investment.

• Falling stock prices wiped out wealth, making banks and borrowers more fragile.

• The panic fed into bank failures and credit contraction in the early 1930s, turning what might have been a normal recession into a global depression.

Historians still debate the deeper causes, but as a single event, the 1929 stock market crash is the one most often named when people ask what event started the Great Depression.

Mini Multiview: Was It Only the Crash?

Some economists argue the crash was more a trigger than a sole cause. They highlight:

• Weaknesses in the banking system and later bank panics
• Policy mistakes like protectionist tariffs and tight money
• Global economic imbalances tied to the gold standard

Still, when you need a one-line answer to “what event started the Great Depression,” the Wall Street Crash of 1929 is the historically standard reply.

TL;DR: The Great Depression is generally seen as beginning with the Wall Street stock market crash in late October 1929 , especially Black Tuesday on 29 October 1929.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.