No commerce 7 Black Fridays in history - the most famous one is also wrong

Don't fancy commerce either? Here - just for you - are 7 Black Fridays from the history books that have nothing to do with consumerism.

Not one iota of commerce! Black Friday can still be Black Friday here. It's about everything except shopping. There are seven albums with this name alone: The artists range from Bushido to Tom Odell.

Or let's just take the "Black Friday" films: There are seven of those too. The oldest film, a silent movie, dates back to 1916. The most recent film is a horror comedy by Casey Tebo from 2021.

But instead of entertainment, this article focuses on the historical Black Fridays: here is a selection of 7 corresponding events from history.

On May 1, 1873, Emperor Franz Joseph I opens the World Exhibition in Vienna with the words that "Austria-Hungary is experiencing a pleasing upswing in all directions". Not so: Eight days later, May 9 goes down in the history books of the dual monarchy as Black Friday.

The so-called Gründerkrach is a stock market crash, which today is better understood as the bursting of a banking bubble. No fewer than 120 banks have to file for insolvency before the police close the stock exchange at midday. It takes until the fall for the crisis to reach the New York Stock Exchange, which is closed for the first time between September 19 and 29.

The fact that a storm sweeps across Scotland is not newsworthy. But when the strong winds cost the lives of 189 fishermen, as on that Black Friday in 1881, the event burns itself into the collective memory.

If suffragettes make you think "I sometimes even get up at night and get some", you're wrong: the suffragette has absolutely nothing to do with the good Ulricke Jokiel in the German commercial from 1987.

Suffragettes are, of course, the brave women who once fought for their right to vote. In one country it was a little earlier, in another a little later. 300 of them marched to Parliament in London on November 18, 1910.

The problem: men. They gather to first gawp at the female protesters - and then attack them. They grab the women's breasts and pinch them. There were also sexual assaults during the six-hour demonstration. The police arrested 115 women - and four men, who were released the next day.

Suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst writes in her memoirs: "We saw women go out and return exhausted, with blue eyes, bleeding noses, bruises, sprains and dislocations. The call went around: 'Be careful; they're dragging women into the side streets! We knew that meant even worse abuse."

The owners of Brisbane Tramways banned their employees from wearing union badges - and eventually dismissed most of them. As a result, several unions call Australia's first general strike.

Around 15,000 people gather on the day, which first makes history as "Baton Friday" and then as Black Friday. The police cracked down and brutally bludgeoned the demonstrators, many of whom were suffragettes, and were rewarded at the ballot box in 1915 when the Australian Labor Party won the elections.

If the first thing you think of when you think of Black Friday is the New York stock market crash of 1929, you're right, but you're also wrong. Because October 24 was actually a Thursday - it just takes until Friday after Wall Street closes for the crisis to reach Europe.

We are in pre-revolutionary Iran. There is great tension in the country, which will erupt in a political earthquake in 1979.

On September 8, shots are fired on Jaleh Square in the capital Tehran as people demonstrate against the government of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. 64 people were killed.

Since then, this day has been known as Black Friday in Iran.

137 dead, 415 injured - 100 of them seriously: the terrorist attacks in Paris are still fresh in many people's minds.

Paris attacks of 2015Former Germany coach Löw remembers: "Fear was breathing down our necks"

The killing began at 9.16 pm on Friday the 13th in front of the Stade de France, where three suicide bombers blew themselves up, and ended at 0.58 am the following day when the French police stormed the Bataclan theater.

The fact that the bereaved were only ready for public mourning ceremonies on the tenth anniversary of the attack gives an idea of how deep the trauma of this Black Friday runs.