Desperate Times

On a fateful Tuesday, America plunged into its darkest financial abyss. Dubbed Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, etched itself as a nightmare into the collective consciousness. With 16 million shares exchanging hands on Wall Street’s New York Stock Exchange, the nation hemorrhaged billions in a single day.

Black Tuesday was a desperate bid to shore up the faltering market through massive stock purchases, but it ended in unequivocal disaster. This catastrophic event propelled the entire United States into the grip of the infamous Great Depression. As depicted in the photograph above, individuals were forced to part with their once-prized possessions, trading in opulent cars for mere scraps of cash.