On Black Thursday, October 24 saw a frantic flurry of selling of more than 12 million shares. Trading slowed and then spiralled when a sudden slouch in share prices on October 29 (now known as Black Tuesday) caused the world's foremost market to crash.

$14 billion was wiped off the value of the New York stock exchange in the first day alone. Within four years over a third of America's banks were bust, leaving 11 famous suicide jumps in its wake. Millions more lost their homes and unemployment soared and it took the market 25 years to recover.