Black Friday

Black Friday, term referring to 2 particular financial disasters that occurred on Fridays. The most famous was Sept. 24, 1869, when speculators Jay Gould and James Fisk tried to corner the gold market with the connivance of government officials. The market collapsed, and many were ruined. The second Black Friday was Sept. 19, 1873, when a collapse of the New York Stock Exchange led to a panic.

See also: Cornering the market; Stock exchange.