Events of the Great Depression

By sylviat

  • Beginning of Great Depression when stock market began to decline in America

  • Black Tuesday, when the stock market crashed

    Stock market crashed.

  • Severe drought and Dust Bowl conditions began to ruin farmers’ land, a condition that lasted until 1935

  • Food riots broke out, workers marched on Detroit, and “foreign workers” were deported

  • Congress established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to lend $2 billion to banks, insurance companies, building and loan associations, and farming organizations

  • Stocks reached their lowest point

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt beat Herbert Hoover in a landslide

  • Roosevelt announced a three-day “bank holiday” to prevent a third run on banks and to shore up the banking system

  • More than 11,000 of the nation’s 25,000 banks had closed

  • Unemployment reached its highest level, at 25%

  • The Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) was established to put young men to work in federal and state parks

  • The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was introduced

  • The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was established to insure bank deposits

  • The Civil Works Administration (CWA) was established to employ up to 4 million people on public works projects

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt took office

  • The Work Projects Administration (WPA) was formed to employ up to 8.5 million people on public works projects across the country

  • The Social Security Act was signed into law, financed through payroll taxes

  • FDR was elected to a second term as president

  • FDR asked Congress for an additional $3.75 billion to stimulate the still floundering economy

  • The beginning of World War 2, Hitler invades Poland

  • FDR was elected to a third term as president

  • Preparations for World War II stimulated the American economy and effectively brought an end to the Great Depression