Black Friday (shopping) the holiday season, beginning on the day after Thanksgiving. When this was recorded in the financial records, once-common accounting practices would use red ink to show negative amounts and black ink to show positive amounts. Black Friday, under this theory, is the beginning of the period when retailers would no longer be "in the red", instead taking in the year's profits. The earliest known published reference to this explanation occurs in "The Philadelphia Inquirer" for November 28, 1981. In 2013, an internet rumor alleged that the phrase originated in the American south before the Civil War, from the practice of
Black Friday (1945) Black Friday (1945) On 9 February 1945, a force of Allied Bristol Beaufighter aircraft suffered many losses, during an attack on the German destroyer "Z33" and its escorting vessels; the operation was called "'Black Friday'" by the Allied survivors. The German ships were sheltering in a strong defensive position in Førde Fjord, Norway, forcing the Allied aircraft to attack through massed anti-aircraft fire. The Beaufighters and their escort of Mustang Mk III fighters from 65 Squadron RAF, were intercepted by twelve Focke-Wulf Fw 190s of "Jagdgeschwader 5" (Fighter Wing 5) of the "Luftwaffe". The Allies damaged at least two of