Twenty fifth anniversary of Black Monday stock market crash

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by Laura Matovina

Story Created: Oct 19, 2012 at 5:54 AM CDT

Story Updated: Oct 19, 2012

CNN -- Twenty-five years ago today, Wall Street saw one of its worst-ever single-day percentage losses.

On October 19th, 19-87 -- later known as "Black Monday" -- the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 508 points, more than 22 percent of the market's value.

The broader S-and-P 500 index also fell about 22 percent.
Market historians say the crash was the result of a sell-off triggered by panicked investors who anticipated a crash, following an increase in interest rates.

The all-time worst crash was the September 31st, 19-31 sell-off that launched the Great Depression.

You may remember the market lost more than 777 points on September 30th, 2008.

That was the biggest-ever points loss, but it's not even in the top ten percentage losses, at just seven percent.

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