February 3: Tulip mania collapsed (1637)

Tulip price index during tulip mania

Tulip mania is generally considered the first recorded economic (speculative) bubble. The economic bubble was starting to collapse after hitting the peak point on February 3, 1637. At the peak of tulip mania, a specific tulip bulb, such as the Viceroy or Semper Augustus, was sold for more than 10 times a skilled craftsman's annual income or 12 acres of land. Tulip mania is a period in the Dutch Golden Age and involved highly speculative trading expecting high return. In this period, some bulbs were reportedly changing hands ten times in a day. Charles Mackay's book Extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds, published in 1841, popularized this event, however, his description of the event was biased and exaggerated based on anti-speculative sources.