September 24, 1869: The Panic of 1869 occurs. It does not immediately lead to an economic depression, although it was a factor which, along with the later Panic of 1873, contributed to a depression in the years to come.
Jay Gould
New York stock market investors Jay Gould and James Fisk had approached Abel Corbin, brother-in-law of President Ulysses S. Grant, in order to get inside information on the American economy. It worked, and Gould and Fisk began buying gold, raising its price. So, on this day, Grant, learning he had been betrayed and that the American economy could be ruined, orders the release of $4 million worth of gold -- about $86 million in 2022 money.
The result is a stock market crash that becomes known as Black Friday. But while the short-term effects were bad, the long-term effect was the stabilization of the American economy. There would be no depression – in Grant's 1st term. In his 2nd term, that would be another story.
But his reputation was already damaged: The biggest hero of the Civil War was now viewed as a man who had been fooled into an emergency measure. It was the 1st scandal of his Administration, but it would not be the last.
Fisk was murdered in 1872. Gould was able to rebuild his fortune through railroad speculation, and, in 1882, a cartoonist drew him with a bowling ball, depicting Wall Street as "Jay Gould's Private Bowling Alley." He died in 1892, at age 56, from tuberculosis. He was said to be worth $72 million -- about $2.3 billion in today's money. So, by today's standards, filthy rich, but not the richest of the rich.
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September 24, 1869 was, as stated, a Friday. This was the dawn of professional sports. It was a day off for the Cincinnati Red Stockings, baseball's 1st openly professional team. So there were no scores on this historic day.
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