Black Monday is the name given to stock market crashes that occurred on four different Mondays. They are Oct. 28, 1929, Oct. 19, 1987, the market correction of Aug. 24, 2015, and March 9, 2020.
Black Monday 1929
The first Black Monday was Oct. 28, 1929. It was the first Monday after Black Thursday, which kicked off the stock market crash of 1929. On Black Monday, stocks fell 12.82%. That followed the 11% decline experienced a few days earlier on Black Thursday. The next day was Black Tuesday when the stock market lost the remaining gains it had made during the entire year.1
The sell-off was not enough to start the Great Depression of 1929. But it set the stage by shattering confidence in business investing. As people realized that banks had used their savings to invest in Wall Street, they rushed to take out their deposits. Banks closed over the weekend, and then only gave out 10 cents on the dollar.
