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Stock Market Crashed - Black Tuesday
The Stock Market in New York fell in value as people tried to sell their stocks and caused the prices to fall more. Over the next 3 years the values of stock fell 80% and caused massive unemployment due to so much money being lost in the stock market in Canada and Europe. This is often seen as the start of the Great Depression. -
PM King loses the election
With the start of the Great depression, PM William Lyon Mackenzie King lost the election to Richard Bedford Bennett who became Canada's new Prime Minister. One of the reasons he lost was that he did not offer to do anything to help people in the Depression find jobs. -
Relief Camps announced
The governments of BC and Canada decided to open camps for unemployed young men to give them a place to live, food, and work. They started with building the TransCanada Highway. Eventually more and more camps opened in Canada. The camps lasted until 1936 when the government closed them. -
Unemployment reaches 30%
Unemployment had been rising since the Stock Market Crash. By 1933 it had hit its lowest point when 30% of all workers had not job. This was even worse on the prairies where unemployment was over 40% because the drought had destroyed the crops that farmers hoped to sell. -
Christie Pits Riot
A swastika banner was hung at a baseball game in Toronto between Jewish and Italian immigrants against white Christian players. This got the Jewish players riled up and a fight broke out at the game with bats. -
Prohibtion Ends in the USA
The buying and selling of alcohol became legal in the USA. As a result, many Canadians who were employed selling and transporting illegal alcohol to the US lost their work. -
Dionne Quintuplets were born
The Dionne Quintuplets were born in Callandar, Ontario. This was the first time 5 babies were born together and survived. Many credit the skills of Dr. Dafoe in making sure that all 5 lived. -
On to Ottawa trek Began
Unhappy men who worked at in relief camps wanted to take their problems to the government in Ottawa. This led them to jump onto trains leaving Vancouver to go to Ottawa. -
Regina Riot
The Regina Riot ended the On-to-Ottawa Trek when the protesting Trekkers were arrested by the RCMP. The arrests led to violence with the police firing guns into the crowds and 2 people died with hundreds injured. -
R.B. Bennett loses the election
R.B Bennett lost the election to William Lyon Mackenzie King because people thought he had not done enough to solve the Depression and for how he handled the On to Ottawa Trek and Regina Riot. The new PM King stole many ideas from Bennett to solve the Depression when he became PM. -
Drought ended
Canada had been in a drought since 1929. Farmers lost lots of money because the food they planted dried up before it grew enough to be harvested or it was eaten by grasshoppers. -
Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion goes to Spain
Canadians volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War to support democracy and to stop the military of Spain from taking over the country. All of these soldiers were volunteers and included Dr. Norman Bethune who invented a way to give blood transfusions o the battlefield. He later became a hero of China in the Civil War there. -
Bluenose wins its last International Fisherman's Cup
Starting in 1921, the Bluenose won the most famous and prestigious sailing race - the International Fisherman's Cup. It won this race EVERY yea until 1938 and became a symbol of pride for the people of Canada's east coast - especially people in Nova Scotia. -
National War Memorial unveiled
King George VI visited Ottawa to unveil a new statue. This statue remembered and commemorated Canadian soldiers who served in World War One. This was the first tie a memorial for the all of the soldiers from across Canada were recognized in a single memorial. -
St. Louis Returned to Europe
Th St. Luis was a ship of Jewish refugees leaving Nazi persecution in Europe. They went to Cuba where they had vias to enter. Cuba rejected their visas. They tried the United States and were not allowed to stay. Their last hope was Canada but the government of Canada said no. Canada said that no Jewish immigrants was "too many". The Jewish refugees had to return to Europe. Some went to Britain, Holland, France, and Belgium The rest went to Germany. Over 25% died in the Holocaust.