Black Tuesday
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The phrase Black Tuesday refers to October 29, 1929, five days after the United States stock market crash of Black Thursday, when general panic set in and everyone with investments in the market tried to pull out of the market at once. This week and its aftermath marked the start of the Great Depression in the United States. While Black Tuesday is often cited as the worst day in Stock Market history, in terms of percentage loss the honor goes to Black Monday, 1987.
The phrase Black Tuesday has also been used to refer to September 11, 2001, the date of the terrorist attack that destroyed the World Trade Center. More recently, detractors of President George W. Bush have adopted the term in reference to November 2, 2004, the date of his election to a second term.
Black Tuesday has also come into use as a reference to the day Microsoft releases bundles of patches for its Windows operating systems: the second Tuesday of each month. These patches represent new software vulnerabilities, and the bulk release of patches is often followed closely by new viruses which exploit the holes the patches fix.
Black Tuesday can also refer to November 28, 1939, the date of the climax of a period of extreme smoke cover in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. The pollution was due primarily to the widespread use of bituminous coal, and resulted in near zero visibility and the use of streetlights in midday.
In Australia, February 7, 1967 was referred to as Black Tuesday because it was the day of the 1967 Tasmanian fires. A total of 62 lives were lost and more than 1300 homes destroyed by the fires.
External links
- Eye Witness Interviews PBS Documentary (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/crash/sfeature/sf_excerpts.html)
- About.com: Black Tuesday - 1929 (http://mutualfunds.about.com/cs/1929marketcrash/a/black_tuesday.htm)
- About.com: 1929 Stock Market Crash (http://mutualfunds.about.com/cs/1929marketcrash/index.htm)
- Slashdot.org: "Black Tuesday" Used to Reference Microsoft Patch Release Tuesdays (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/13/1531240&mode=thread&tid=113&tid=126&tid=172&tid=95&threshold=1)de:Schwarzer Dienstag