New York (CNN Business) The stock market's dreadful performance this quarter has brought uncomfortable parallels with some of the darkest periods in Wall Street history.

Thankfully, the current slump is nowhere near as serious as the 35% meltdown from a decade ago. That was during the worst financial crisis in nearly a century. Lehman Brothers had just imploded , AIG ( AIG ) required a massive rescue and unemployment was skyrocketing.

The bad news is that the S&P 500 has only started the fourth quarter this horribly five other times in history, according to Bespoke. And those years are all infamous. Besides 2008, these years include the Great Depression (1929, 1932 and 1937) as well as 1987 during the Black Monday crash.

And the 7th worst start to the fourth quarter occurred during the oil embargo and bear market of 1973.