Known for the Liberty Bell, Cheesesteaks, and Rocky, Philadelphia also happens to be the birthplace of “Black Friday.” According to historians, this term was made popular in the 1960s by Philadelphia police officers to describe their post-Thanksgiving misery.
On this day, they had to endure long work hours, terrible traffic, and crowd-related issues as tourists flooded the city to do their holiday shopping. In some years, the hordes of visitors would be even greater due to the Annual Army-Navy football game on Saturday. Eventually, the term caught on with the tourists and began to spread nationwide as they returned to their respective localities.
Unfortunately, the origin story of Cyber Monday isn’t nearly as interesting. This term was coined by the National Retail Federation in 2005 to encourage customers to start shopping online. Businesses marketed it as the online equivalent of Black Friday. But like a Hollywood blockbuster, the sequel usually isn’t as good as the original.