each day benzinga takes a look back at a notable marketrelated moment that occurred on this date what happened on june 1 2009 general motors company gm filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy where the market was the dow closed at 872144 the sp 500 traded at around 94287 what else was going on in the world in 2009 the world health organization declared the h1n1 influenza strain commonly referred to as “swine flu” a global pandemic michael jackson died at the age of 50 a us postage stamp cost 42 cents gm throws in the towel after years of struggling to stay afloat the 2008 recession was the final nail in gm’s coffin outofcontrol costs and pension liabilities had plagued the company for years and it became clear that nothing short of a blank slate would fix the ailing auto giant gm reported an astonishing 387 billion loss in 2008 and revenue had declined 45 after officially declaring bankruptcy on june 1 2009 gm stock finished the day at 75 cents per share within roughly a week gm was removed from the dow jones industrial average for the first time since 1925 at the time of its bankruptcy gm’s 172 billion in liabilities made it the secondlargest us industrial bankruptcy in history a restructured gm triumphantly returned to the market with a massive ipo in november of 2010 selling ipo shares for 33 today gm stock is trading above 38 with a market cap of around 56 billion