Stock prices spiraled out of control and the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929. Black Tuesday immobilized people with fear. The stock market had fallen 25%, the worst two-day decline in the market’s history. Thirty-billion dollars of wealth was wiped out in those two days. It was the start of what would soon become The Great Depression. By 1933 almost half of the banks in the U.S. failed and unemployment rose to 25%.