The Roaring Twenties was a decade of excess and entertainment that most Americans believed would never end. But on Tuesday October 29 1929 everything changed. On Wall Street the financial heart of the United States stock prices came crashing down. The collapse of the stock market caused thousands of investors to lose their fortunes and put many small companies out of business. The crash also signalled the beginning of one of the worst economic crises in U.S. history the Great Depression.