Black Friday

From Britannica's "Why Is It Called Black Friday?":

Historically, Black Friday has yet another connotation, one unrelated to shopping. In 1869 Wall Street financiers Jay Gould and Jim Fisk attempted to corner the nation’s gold market at the New York Gold Exchange by buying as much of the precious metal as they could, with the intent of sending prices skyrocketing. On Friday, September 24, intervention by President Ulysses S. Grant caused their plan to fall apart. The stock market instantly plummeted, sending thousands of Americans into bankruptcy.

Was the title of today's post driven by coincidence?  I looked up the worst recessions of all time and Britannica included the above link as a second article on the page, following "5 of the World’s Most Devastating Financial Crises". They also include a link to their "Black Friday" article, subtitled "securities market panic, United States [1869]".

Reading their Why Is It Called Black Friday, I was struck by how commercially-oriented our culture is. So I went to the Ngram Viewer to see usage of the term "black friday". Yes, we have become highly commercialized, and yes, the Viewer shows it.

Happy Thanksgiving anyway.