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Crash of 1929, stock market

An enormous decrease in stock prices on the stock exchanges of Wall Street in late October 1929. This crash began the Great Depression.

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the Great Depression

Read more in this article about some frequently asked questions and fun facts related to our definitions.

Um. . . something called a “Hindenburg Omen” has the stock market concerned. What does it means?

It sounds like a sequel to “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” but a “Hindenburg Omen” isn’t any fun. If you want to call attention to potential bad news, it’s hard to go wrong with the name “Hindenburg.” Paul von Hindenburg was a celebrated World War I general and a less celebrated President of Germany. The more infamous Hindenburg, however, is the dirigible named for the general and its corresponding disaster. …

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.