Top Financial Meltdowns in the history

Banks failed, stock prices collapsed, and panic descended on Wall Street. Americans were holding their collective breath as a rescue plan was hastily drafted. The 2008 financial crisis? Nope - it was the Panic of 1907, and again in 1929, 1987, and so on.

10 American Financial Meltdowns in the Past Century

1. The Panic of 1907

Floor of the New York Stock Exchange in 1907. Photo: Helen D. Van Eaton

2. Wall Street Crash of 1929

The trading floor of the NYSE right after the crash.

3. The Great Depression

"Migrant Mother," a photo by Dorothea Lange depicting Florence Owens Thompson,
a destitute pea picker in California, mother of seven children, age 32.