Yesterday was \"historic\". Here is a list of the biggest one-day drops in (CL) Crude Oil prices and the events that helped to trigger them: May 5, 2011: Oil fell in a series of sharp dives on Thursday, dropping by a modest few dollars a barrel at first, and later gaining downward momentum to crash $12 a barrel at one point in Brent's case. Crude fell for a fourth straight day. Weak economic data from Europe and the United States fed concerns that have hit commodities prices all week. German industrial orders fell unexpectedly in March while U.S. weekly jobless claims hit eight-month highs. But traders and analysts were at a loss to attribute all of the selling to worsening macroeconomic trends. They said U.S. crude broke below $100 for the first time since March as technical triggers set off a cascade of sell orders. Sept 29, 2008: U.S. crude futures drop $10.52 a barrel after the U.S. House of Representatives voted down a $700 billion plan to come to the rescue of worsening financial markets by purchasing failing mortgage securities, and in the wake of a bankruptcy filing from U.S. investment bank Lehman Bros. two weeks earlier. On Sept. 24, 2008: U.S. crude had posted a huge $16 a barrel one-day gain, on optimism over the prospective bailout package that was seen as potentially spurring oil demand. A massive bailout would eventually be approved. Jan. 17, 1991: U.S. crude falls $10.56 a barrel in response to a U.S. decision to release stockpiles of crude from its massive Strategic Petroleum Reserve to compensate for supply shortfalls amid the escalating Gulf War. Statistics: Posted by Bon \u2014 Fri May 06, 2011 4:47 am <\/p>\n