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1929. Herbert Hoover inaugurated president. Stock Market Crash begins Great Depression.
After the stock market crash, President Hoover sought to prevent panic from spreading throughout the economy. -
1930: Banks Begin to Fail
Between 1930 and 1933, about 9,000 banks failed—4,000 in 1933 alone. By March 4, 1933, the banks in every state were either temporarily closed or operating under restrictions. ... Roosevelt declared a nationwide banking holiday that temporarily closed all banks in the nation. -
1931 Depression Worsens
The earliest steel skyscrapers, like the Empire State Building, which date from the 1930s are least likely to remain standing in 7,000 years because they are constructed almost exclusively of steel, meaning they have exceptional tensile strength but are quite rigid and inflexible -
1933. Dust Bowl begins.
On November 11, 1933, a very strong dust storm stripped topsoil from desiccated South Dakota farmlands in just one of a series of severe dust storms that year. Beginning on May 9, 1934, a strong, two-day dust storm removed massive amounts of Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst such storms of the Dust Bowl. -
1933: The First New Deal Begins
The New Deal was a response to the worst economic crisis in American history. took office in March 1933, tried
a host of different, often contradictory measures in an aggressive effort to provide relief for the unemployed, to prompt the recovery of the faltering economic system, and to propose the kind of structural reform that could protect people in future crises. -
1934. Federal Housing Administration established.
Federal Housing Administration (FHA), agency within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that was established by the National Housing Act on June 27, 1934 to facilitate home financing, improve housing standards, and increase employment in the home-construction industry in the wake of the Great Depression -
1935: The Second New Deal Begins
Roosevelt. In his address to Congress in January 1935, Roosevelt called for five major goals: improved use of national resources, security against old age, unemployment and illness, and slum clearance, national work relief program (the Works Progress Administration) to replace direct relief efforts. -
1936. Roosevelt re-elected.
After assuming the office, he took quick and decisive action, pursuing the New Deal, a broad array of measures intended to achieve economic recovery, to provide relief to the millions of poor and unemployed, and to reform aspects of the economy that Roosevelt believed had caused the collapse. The measures, passed in his first hundred days in office, had produced a limited degree of recovery by the fall of 1934. -
1937: Unemployment Falls to 16.9 percent
By the spring of 1937, production, profits, and wages had regained their early 1929 levels. Unemployment remained high, but it was substantially lower than the 25% rate seen in 1933. The American economy took a sharp downturn in mid-1937, lasting for 13 months through most of 1938. Industrial production declined almost 30 percent, and production of durable goods fell even faster. -
Flint and sit down 1936 - 1937
The 1936–1937 Flint sit-down strike against General Motors changed the United Automobile Workers from a collection of isolated locals on the fringes of the industry into a major labor union and led to the unionization of the domestic United States automobile industry. -
1938: Unemployment Rises to 19 percent.
Unemployment jumped from 14.3% in 1937 to 19.0% in 1938. The downturn was perhaps due to nothing more than the familiar rhythms of the business cycle. But until 1937 Roosevelt had claimed responsibility for the excellent economic performance. That backfired in the recession and the heated political atmosphere of 1937. -
1939: World War II and the End of the Great Depression.
The end to the Great Depression came about in 1941 with America's entry into World War II. America sided with Britain, France and the Soviet Union against Germany, Italy, and Japan. The loss of lives in this war was staggering. The European part of the war ended with Germany's surrender in May 1945.
