NYTimes: October 24, 1929

September 29, 2008 compared.
From the NYTimes article:

"The break had been foreshadowed by the continued tightening of the financial structure as brokers' loans increased, week by week, and by the nervousness and apparent hesitation which had characterized market fluctuations during the past fortnight...

"...there appeared on the tickers fresh evidences of selling. This became more pronounced at midday, and fresh weakness developed in the early afternoon. It was in the final hour of the day, however, between 2 and 3 o'clock, when the storm burst...
Phillip Snowden, Chancellor of the British Exchequer, said that the "orgy of speculation" in the New York market over the last year had been responsible for the advance of the British re=discount rate and the financial difficulties abroad... another factor adding to the confusion was the selling by the bears, who drove forward steadily, direction their liquidation at the most vulnerable spots..."