29 October 1929: the Wall Street Crash, and the world that fortnight
On Black Thursday, 24 October 1929, a wave of selling swept the New York Stock Exchange; on Black Monday and Black Tuesday, 28 and 29 October, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost about 23 percent in two days.
Wall Street in 1929 in pictures
· Library of CongressA crowd fills the street outside the New York Stock Exchange after the crash. The Library of Congress dates the print only to 1929; it was taken by the agency Pacific & Atlantic Photos.
· Library of CongressThe corner of Wall Street and Broad Street in 1929. The low stone building at centre right is J.P. Morgan & Co.; on Black Thursday the Evening Star reported the leading bankers gathering at Morgan's offices to try to steady the market. · Library of CongressYoung men wait to be interviewed for jobs in the New York Stock Exchange's personnel office. The photograph was registered for copyright on 8 October 1929, about two weeks before Black Thursday.
The crowd outside the Stock Exchange, the corner where the bankers met, and the Exchange's own staff office a fortnight before. Each picture links to the library that holds it.
How sure we are: events with no label are high confidence. A grey label such as Exact day uncertain says why one detail is less certain; a yellow label such as Sources differ on the date marks a low-confidence event where the sources disagree or are thin. The notes say where. Dates are in the Gregorian calendar; where a country still used another calendar, the notes give the original. How events are checked
The crash
Black Thursday, 24 October, to Black Tuesday, 29 October, on the New York Stock Exchange.
Economy & tradeWidely known
The Wall Street crash begins on the New York Stock Exchange
· New York City, United States · North America
5 days before 29 October
Some details uncertain.
In late October 1929 share prices on the New York Stock Exchange fell steeply, above all on Black Thursday, 24 October, when trading volume hit a record, and on Black Tuesday, 29 October.
Why it is interesting. Prices kept sliding until July 1932, when stocks stood about 90 percent below their level before the crash.
Notes and dating details
Lead says the crash began in October 1929 and is most associated with 24 and 29 October; the date range is those two days. Wikidata gives year 1929, start 24 October and end 29 October. Decline continued to 8 July 1932.
How 3 American newspapers put it on the front page, 24 and 25 October 1929; under each, smaller stories from the same page that show everyday life carrying on.
The Indianapolis Times
Indianapolis, Indiana · Thursday 24 October 1929 · home edition
Find Wreckage of Railroad Ferry in Lake Michigan; Fear Crew of 52 Men LostThe railroad car ferry Milwaukee went down in Lake Michigan off Milwaukee on 22 October 1929 with all 52 people aboard; its wreck was not found until April 1972. SS Milwaukee (1902) - Wikipedia
Huge Sales Continue on Frightened Stock MarketThe day before, Black Thursday, a record of about 12.9 million shares had changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange. Timeline: The Crash of 1929 - PBS American Experience
How 4 American newspapers put it on the front page, 29 and 30 October 1929; under each, smaller stories from the same page that show everyday life carrying on.
Eight Die as Lake Liner Goes DownThe steamer Wisconsin sank in a storm on Lake Michigan off Kenosha on 29 October 1929; counts of the dead and the rescued differ widely between accounts. SS Wisconsin (1881) - Wikipedia
From Montevideo to Kabul, in date order; the last is known only to the month.
Lives
José Batlle y Ordóñez dies in Montevideo
· Montevideo, Uruguay · South America
9 days before 29 October
José Batlle y Ordóñez, known as Don Pepe, died in Montevideo, where he was born, on 20 October 1929. A Colorado Party politician, he was president of Uruguay from 1903 to 1907 and again from 1911 to 1915.
Why it is interesting. His system, Batllism, modernised Uruguay with extensive welfare reforms and helped bring universal suffrage and the eight-hour working day.
Notes and dating details
The lead gives his birth as 23 May 1856 and the infobox as 21 May 1856; this does not affect the death date.
Portugal ends the Niassa Company's concession in northern Mozambique
· Cabo Delgado and Niassa, Mozambique · Africa
2 days before 29 October
Some details uncertain.
The Niassa Company held a concession in what is now Mozambique, covering today's Cabo Delgado and Niassa provinces, from 1891 to 1929. On 27 October 1929 the Portuguese government declined a further extension, and the company was abolished.
Notes and dating details
Day taken from one body sentence in the company's own article; the infobox and lead give only 1929. The decision was Portuguese; the territory lay in Mozambique, so the place and region follow the territory.
Habibullah Kalakani was executed on 1 November 1929, along with his closest followers, on the orders of Mohammad Nadir Shah. Their bodies were shown publicly in Kabul. He had ruled as Afghan emir at the head of the Saqqawists from mid-January to mid-October 1929.
Why it is interesting. No country recognised him as ruler of Afghanistan, though he defeated King Amanullah Khan and held Kabul.
Notes and dating details
Wikidata also lists 17 October and 2 November 1929; the lead, infobox and body give 1 November 1929, and French Wikipedia agrees. English Wikipedia gives his birth as 19 January 1891 and French Wikipedia as 1890, so no birth date is given.
· Africa (from Spanish Sahara to Tanganyika and the Seychelles) · Africa
3 days after 29 October
On 1 November 1929 an annular solar eclipse of magnitude 0.9649 was visible from Spanish Sahara, French West Africa, the British Gold Coast, the Belgian Congo and elsewhere across Africa. A partial eclipse could be seen across most of the continent, plus Europe and the Middle East.
Notes and dating details
All eclipse times in the article are UTC; greatest eclipse was at 12:05 UTC on 1 November 1929.
Comodoro Rivadavia's airport is inaugurated by an Aeroposta Argentina flight
· Comodoro Rivadavia, Chubut, Argentina · South America
3 days after 29 October
The airport was built in 1929 and officially inaugurated on 1 November 1929. The inaugural flight, by Aeroposta Argentina, ran from Bahía Blanca via San Antonio Oeste and Trelew to Comodoro Rivadavia.
· Casablanca, French Morocco (now Morocco) · Africa
9 days after 29 October
Some details uncertain.
The exchange was founded on 7 November 1929. Reforms in 1993 modernised its rules and brought in electronic trading, and in August 2025 it had 17 brokerage firms and 78 listed companies.
Notes and dating details
Day from the infobox only; the lead and body give 1929.
Igbo women protest against warrant chiefs in the Women's War
· Oloko, British Nigeria (now Nigeria) · Africa
During November 1929
In November 1929 thousands of Igbo women travelled to Oloko to protest against warrant chiefs, local men chosen by British colonial authorities. Women from six ethnic groups joined sit-ins, and in many places chiefs were pushed to resign.
Why it is interesting. It was West Africa's first major revolt led by women, and the colonial government scrapped the warrant chief system in 1930.
Notes and dating details
Infobox dates the unrest November 1929 to January 1930; body says order was restored by the end of December 1929 and the revolt regarded as suppressed by 10 January 1930. Also called the Aba Women's Riots of 1929 in British records.
A film premiere, a scandal, an election, two deaths and a new radio service.
Stage, music & film
Fritz Lang's silent science fiction film Woman in the Moon premieres in Berlin
· Berlin, Germany · Europe
14 days before 29 October
The film opened on 15 October 1929 at the UFA-Palast cinema by the zoo in Berlin. Lang's wife Thea von Harbou wrote it from her own 1928 novel, and American audiences knew it as By Rocket to the Moon.
The Prussian parliament sets up an inquiry into the Sklarek scandal in Berlin
· Berlin, Germany · Europe
12 days before 29 October
Some details uncertain.
On 17 October 1929 the Prussian parliament voted to set up an inquiry into Berlin's city administration. The Sklarek brothers Leo, Max and Willy had defrauded the municipality with false invoices for goods never delivered, causing damage put at over 10 million marks.
Notes and dating details
Wikidata gives 26 September 1929, which the German article gives as the date the Sklarek brothers' arrests began; the date stored is that of the Prussian parliament's decision on the inquiry, 17 October 1929, which the German article also gives. The English lead says the scandal began in 1927. As the English article states, Nazi propagandists exploited the brothers' Jewish background.
· Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic and Slovakia) · Europe
2 days before 29 October
The Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants came first in the vote of 27 October 1929, with 46 Chamber seats and 24 Senate seats, and Chamber turnout was 90.2%. Centre-left groups gained votes while the Communist Party suffered a setback.
Bernhard von Bülow, Prince of Bülow, born on 3 May 1849, died in Rome on 28 October 1929. He governed the German Empire as imperial chancellor, and Prussia as minister-president, from 1900 to 1909.
Radio Moscow makes its first foreign-language broadcast
· Soviet Union · Europe
On 29 October
Radio Moscow launched on 29 October 1929, and German was the language of its first foreign broadcast that day, with English and French services soon following. It was the Soviet Union's official international broadcasting station until 1993.
The Moscow Planetarium was officially opened on 5 November 1929, after being built in the late 1920s. Mikhail Barsh and Mikhail Sinyavsky were its architects, and Georgy Zunblat its engineer.
Notes and dating details
Wikidata also lists 1 January 1929 as a creation date; the body and infobox give 5 November 1929 for the opening. English Wikipedia says the planetarium was built in 1927-1929; Russian Wikipedia gives 1927-1929 as both the building and the design period, so the start of construction is not stated.
Maximilian of Baden, born on 10 July 1867, died at Salem on 6 November 1929. In October 1918 Emperor Wilhelm II appointed him chancellor, the final holder of that office in the German Empire, and he began armistice talks based on Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points.
Why it is interesting. In November 1918 he announced the Kaiser's abdication himself and handed the chancellorship to Friedrich Ebert.
In November 1929 a parade by communist youth angered pro-White Guard locals in Lapua, and the Finnish nationalist, fascist and anti-communist movement took shape there under Vihtori Kosola. It was banned after a failed coup attempt in 1932.
Why it is interesting. In October 1930 its members abducted ex-president Ståhlberg and his wife Ester, who were taken to Joensuu.
Notes and dating details
The month comes from the body text; the infobox gives active years 1929-1932 and the article does not give a day.
Denver Municipal Airport, later Stapleton International, opens
· Denver, Colorado, United States · North America
12 days before 29 October
The airport opened on 17 October 1929 as Denver Municipal Airport and was Denver's primary airport until Denver International Airport replaced it in February 1995.
The Edison Institute, now The Henry Ford, is dedicated in Dearborn, Michigan
· Dearborn, Michigan, United States · North America
8 days before 29 October
Some details uncertain.
President Herbert Hoover dedicated the Edison Institute to Thomas Edison on 21 October 1929, fifty years to the day after Edison's first successful light bulb. Greenfield Village, the outdoor section, was dedicated alongside the Henry Ford Museum.
Notes and dating details
Day from one body sentence; infobox and other body passages confirm 1929 only.
Women pilots found the Ninety-Nines at Curtiss Field, near Valley Stream
· Valley Stream, New York, United States · North America
4 days after 29 October
The Ninety-Nines was formed on 2 November 1929 at Curtiss Field, close to Valley Stream in New York, to support women pilots. A small group of female pilots had met informally in Cleveland in August 1929, after the Women's Air Derby.
Notes and dating details
Same Cleveland air race appears as the Women's Air Derby row.
The Museum of Modern Art opens to the public in New York
· New York City, United States · North America
9 days after 29 October
MoMA opened to the public on 7 November 1929 in rented space at 730 Fifth Avenue, in the Heckscher Building. The idea came from Abby Aldrich Rockefeller together with two partners, Lillie Bliss and Mary Quinn Sullivan, and Alfred H. Barr Jr. became its first director.
Why it is interesting. The museum opened to the public just days after the Wall Street crash.
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