None struck closer to home than Black Friday — the collapse of the U.S. gold market on September 24, 1869. At the root of the scandal were two well-known scoundrels, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk.

It’s also not a day that followed Thanksgiving. The first Black Friday took place on September 24, 1869. At the start of his presidency, Ulysses S. Grant planned to improve the economy by ...

The term "Black Friday" actually dates back to a financial crash that occurred in 1869. The term took on a meaning in the retail world in the 1950s in Philadelphia. Source: Business Insider ...

But "Black Friday" has not always been associated with holiday spending. Its first recorded use was to describe the gold market crash on Sept. 24, 1869, according to The History Channel.