May 9, 1901, the day Northern Pacific reached its peak, became known as “Blue Thursday” because this action in Northern Pacific sucked all the air out of every other stock and caused the rest of the market to plunge; on May 8 and 9, as Northern Pacific was cresting, the broad stock market lost 10.2 percent of its value, with the Dow closing at 67.38. The headline of the May 10 edition of the New York Times described it as “Disaster and Ruin in Falling Market.”
