Semi-originally used to describe a great
stock market crash in 1869. Basically,
a small group of investors, including railroad tycoon
Jay Gould, and prominent
financier
James Fisk tried to corner the gold market. Gould and Fisk with the help
of Abel Corbin convinced Abel's brother-in-law,
President Grant to prevent the government
from selling gold, by dumping the
federal reserves onto the market. Meanwhile, Gould
and his investors purchased gold at a
staggering rate, driving up the price of gold twenty-five
dollars in less than a week.
Catching wind of the ploy, Grant ordered 4 million dollars worth of federal gold to be sold.
Effectively saturating the market, and dropping gold prices to much lower than what they were
before Gould and Fisk began their plan. So on the morning Friday, September 24th, 1869, thousands
of investors awoke to find that they were ruined. Many of them millionaires, now found themselves
penniless. Thus it is forever know as Black Friday. Many other days of financial ruin have occasionally
appended this name since.