1930-1939

  • Period: to

    1930-1939

  • The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act is signed by President Herbert Hoover. Its effective rate hikes would slash world trade.

  • The state of Nevada legalizes gambling.

  • The Reconstruction Finance Corporation is established to stimulate banking and business.

  • President Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated for the first time.

  • The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is passed, ending prohibition.

  • The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is established.

  • The Social Security Act is passed by Congress as part of the New Deal legislation.

  • Hoover Dam is dedicated by President Roosevelt.

  • Gone with the Wind is published by Margaret Mitchell.

  • The Summer Olympics Games open in Berlin, Germany under the watchful eye of German leader Adolph Hitler.

  • William Henry Hastie is appointed to the federal bench, becoming the first African-American to become a federal judge.

  • The Appalachian Trail, extending two thousand miles from Mount Katahdin, Maine to Springer Mountain, Georgia is completed.

  • he National Minimum Wage is signed into law within the federal legislation known as the Fair Labor Standards Act.

  • A nationwide scare develops when Orson Welles broadcasts his War of the Worlds radio drama, which included fake news bulletins stating that a Martian invasion had begun on earth.

  • Albert Einstein alerts Franklin D. Roosevelt to an A-bomb opportunity, which led to the creation of the Manhattan Project.