On Friday, Oct. 25, 2008, U.S. stocks closed sharply lower for the week, after a big selloff in Asia and Europe with fears of a worldwide recession sending global stocks to the lowest since August 2003.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 312.30 points, or 3.6%, to 8,378.95, ending 5.3% lower for the week. The S&P 500 Index dropped 31.34 points, or 3.5%, to 876.77, lost 6.8% in a week. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 51.88 points, or 3.2%, to 1,552.03, a weekly loss of 9.3%.

While there have been many big selloffs in the stock market over the last month, let’s take a look at some of the big selloffs in history.

Oct. 28, 1929 - The crash of 1929, known as “Black Monday” the market fall 12.8% and fell almost as sharply the day after. The crash contributed to the Great Depression of the 1930s and many also consider it part of a two-decade bear market. 

1973-1974 - During this period of the Nixon-Ford presidency, when inflation was a major concern because of the first oil spike, the Dow went from its Jan. 11, 1973 high of 1051.70 to a low of 577.60 on Dec. 6 1974, a 45.1% decline.

Oct. 19, 1987 - Also called the Black Monday, or “The Crash,” the Dow fell 507.99 points, or 22.61%, as part of a broad global selloff.

Oct. 13, 1989 - The failure of a leveraged buyout of airline holding company UAL triggered what was then known as the “Mini Crash.” The Dow fell 190.58 points, a 6.91% decline. 

1997 - The financial crisis in Asia, primarily in South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand, had its largest impact on the US markets on Oct. 27, 1997 when the Dow dropped 554.26 points, 7.18%, forcing an early closing of the NYSE.

2000 - The tech sector was hit hard as the dot-com bubble burst. The Nasdaq peaked at 5048.62 on Mar. 10, 2000 before beginning a brutal two-month slide. By May 23, 2000, it was down 37.32%.

Sept. 17, 2001 - The Dow dropped 684.81 points or 7.12% on Sept. 17, 2001, the Monday the New York Stock Exchange resumed trading for the first time after the 9/11 attacks.

Sept. 29, 2008 - The Dow Jones industrial average lost 777 points also on Monday, its biggest single-day fall ever, easily beating the 684 points it lost on the first day of trading after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

More than $10 trillion has been erased from the market value of equities so far this month. That accounts for about one-third of the total value wiped off world equities this year and is heading for the worst year on record, plunging 47% in 2008, amid $660 billion in global credit-related losses and the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

“Emergencies have always been necessary to progress. It was darkness which produced the lamp. It was fog that produced the compass. It was hunger that drove us to exploration. And it took a depression to teach us the real value of a job” - Victor Hugo, French dramatist, novelist, & poet (1802 - 1885)

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