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Stock Market Crash
Black Tuesday hit Wall Street as investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors. -
Period: to
The Great Depression
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Smoot-Hawley Tariff
This tariff steeply raised import duties in an attempt to protect American manufactures from foreign competition. The increase it had little impact on the American economy, but plunges Europe farther into crisis. -
Major Bank Collapse
New York's Bank of the United States collapses in the largest bank failure to date in American history. $200 million in deposits disappear, and the bank's customers are left holding the bag. -
Roosevelt promises a "new deal."
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The Emergency Banking Act
Congress passes the Emergency Banking Act. By the end of the month, almost all of the banks that had closed when the Depression started are open again. -
Alcatraz Opens
Alactraz served as a sufficient holding place for the most notorious criminals during the Great Depression. All of the gangsters and anarchists learned to called this home, -
Social Security
The Social Security Act is signed. The Act provides money every month for senior citizens. -
Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act
The new act allowed the AAA to pay subsidies to farmers who planted soil-enriching rather than staple crops. This redressed the grievances of tenant farmers and sharecroppers, who had been hurt under the previous system. -
Raised Wages
The U.S. is getting out of the Depression and can afford to raise payed wages to $5. People are now believing and have faith that good things will hapen. -
Recession
Roosevelt sent a new large-scale spending program to Congress, and received $3.75 billion which was split among various relief agencies. Other appropriations raised the total to $5 billion in the spring of 1938, after which the economy recovered. -
Emerging From The Depression
The U.S borrows and spends $1 billion to build its armed forces resulting in the manufacturing business rising 50 percent. -
Roselvelt's Thrid Election
The election was fought in the shadow of World War II in Europe, as the United States was emerging from the Great Depression.
