The term “Black Friday” has two different historical “firsts,” depending on what you mean. The earliest known “Black Friday” in history was a financial crash on September 24, 1869, while the first “Black Friday” connected to post‑Thanksgiving shopping dates to the 1950s in Philadelphia.

Two key “first” Black Fridays

  • In 1869, the phrase “Black Friday” was used for a Wall Street gold market collapse on Friday, September 24, caused by speculators Jay Gould and James Fisk, which triggered a major financial panic.
  • In the 1950s, Philadelphia police and local media began using “Black Friday” to describe the chaotic traffic and crowds the day after Thanksgiving, when shoppers and visitors flooded the city before the Army–Navy football game.

When it became a shopping day

  • The Friday after Thanksgiving was already a busy shopping day by the 1920s, especially after the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924 helped mark the start of the Christmas shopping season.
  • The specific use of the term “Black Friday” for the shopping day after Thanksgiving spread nationally from the 1960s onward, and by the late 20th century it had become widely recognized as the start of the holiday shopping season in the United States.

Modern retail spin on “Black Friday”

  • A later (and popular) explanation claimed that retailers went from being “in the red” to “in the black” profit‑wise on this day, turning “Black Friday” into a positive marketing story, though historians note this is more myth than original cause.
  • Today, Black Friday is a global shopping event, often stretching into “Black Friday week” or even “Black November,” with both in‑store doorbusters and massive online sales.

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