On September 3, 1929, the Dow Jones index peaked at 381.17.  It would not reach that level again for 26 years, until 1955.  The index lost 48% in 10 weeks, and 89% in less than three years.  

That same week, on September 5, 1929, Roger Babson – a market statistician with a reputation as a permanent bear – said, "Sooner or later, a crash is coming and it may be terrific … factories will shut down … men will be thrown out of work … the vicious circle will get in full swing and the result will be a serious business depression."  But he had been publishing the same essential doomsday prediction every year since 1921. All the while, the Dow was multiplying by 500%.

Babson was in the minority.  In The Great Bull Market, economic historian Robert Sobel wrote, "In 1929, the leading economists of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Ohio State, Michigan – one can hardly think of a major institution missing from the list – were enrolled believers in the bull market" For instance, Yale's economist Irving Fisher, said in late 1929: "Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau," and the Harvard Economic Society's weekly letter kept insisting, well into 1930, that there was "no depression in sight," using phrases like "the outlook continues favorable" and predictions like, "the coming Spring recovery."

Alternative Independence Day: Notable Benchmarks from 1774 to 1783

September 3, 5 or 17 could have been America's Independence Day, in addition to July 4:

On September 5, 1774, the first session of the Continental Congress convened at Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia. Delegates organized the Continental Association, and elected Virginian Peyton Randolph as president of the Continental Congress, the first official act of colonial rebellion.

On September 3, 1777, the American flag was flown in battle for the first time.  It was during a Revolutionary War skirmish at Cooch's Bridge, in Maryland. The colonials were defeated and forced to retreat to General George Washington's main force at Brandywine Creek, Pennsylvania.

On September 5, 1781, the War of Independence was finally won, as the colonists under General Washington cornered the British under General Cornwallis, at Yorktown, on the Virginia capes. 

On September 3, 1783, America was officially independent from Britain when the Treaty of Paris was signed by representatives from the U.S. and Britain. The agreed boundaries of the new nation were Florida north to the Great Lakes, and the Atlantic coast west to the Mississippi River.

September 17 also has a claim as America's Independence Day, as we will see later….

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