A ticker in New York announces the bankruptcy filing of Lehman BrothersMary Altaffer
The collapse of Lehman Bros. a year ago launched a global meltdown that saw millions of jobs lost, financial institutions tumble, markets tank, and confidence in the world's economy reach the lowest level in decades.
While other disasters predated the Sept. 15 bankruptcy filing - a few days earlier the U.S. government was forced to bail out mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - the Lehman failure marked the first major financial institution collapse since the start of the credit crisis.
In the days that followed, mortgage lender Washington Mutual was shut down, European insurer Fortis was partly nationalized, and the Icelandic banking system began to teeter.
Several European banks were rescued by their governments, and the U.S. Congress set aside $700-billion to prop up its financial players.
Central banks around the world, including Canada, slashed interest rates in an attempt to loosen credit conditions, but stock markets continued to plunge.
A wholesale restructuring of the U.S. financial sector was well under way before year-end, with Bank of America taking over Merrill Lynch, Wachovia picking up Wells Fargo, and Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs converting to bank holding companies.
In the new year, global governments began pumping trillions of stimulus dollars into the world economy as part of a concerted effort to stave off a global collapse.
Unemployment was growing sharply just as the next big shoe dropped - Chrysler Corp.'s bankruptcy filing in May, followed by General Motors in June.
For a look at how others see the Lehman collapse a year later look through the stories in the Other Perspectives section below.