The 1973–1974 stock market crash caused a bear market between January 1973 and December 1974. Affecting all the major stock markets in the world, particularly the United Kingdom, it was one of the worst stock market downturns since the Great Depression, the other being the 2008 financial crisis. The crash came after the collapse of the Bretton Woods system over the previous two years, with the associated 'Nixon Shock' and United States dollar devaluation under the Smithsonian Agreement. It was compounded by the outbreak of the 1973 oil crisis. It was a major event of the 1970s recession.
All the main stock indices of the future G7 bottomed out between September and December 1974, having lost at least 34% of their value in nominal terms and 43% in real terms. The recovery was a slow process. West Germany's market was the fastest to recover, returning to the same level by June 1985. The United Kingdom returned to the same market level by May 1987, but this full recovery lasted for only a few months and ended with the Black Monday crash of 1987. The United States returned to the same market level by August 1993, over twenty years after the 1973–74 crash began.
