On October 24, 1929, known as Black Thursday, panicked selling hit the New York Stock Exchange and thousands of anxious investors and onlookers packed the steps of the old Sub-Treasury building on Wall Street, beneath the statue of George Washington at Federal Hall. Powerful financial interests stepped in with huge buying orders and briefly steadied the market, but the Wall Street Crash of 1929 deepened over the following week and helped usher in the Great Depression. The photograph, credited to the Associated Press, is from Wikimedia Commons, public domain.