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Warren G. Harding is inaugurated President.
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President Harding has a fatal heart attack. Vice President Calvin Coolidge is inaugurated later that day.
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The Great Depression started after the stock market crash of 1929. It would result in the worst economic depression of the modern industrialized world. Many investors and banks would be doomed to fail. At the worst of the Depression, around fifteen million Americans would be unemployed due to being laid off by failing companies.
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Herbert Hoover is inaugurated President.
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The twentieth amendment is ratified, changing the date of the beginning and end of the presidential and vice-presidential terms from March 4 to January 20. In addition, the beginning and end of congressional terms from March 4 to January 3.
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) is inaugurated President.
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President Roosevelt declares a bank holiday, closing the banks for a week with the hopes of stabilizing America's banking system.
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The gold standard is terminated, nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold.
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The twenty-first amendment is ratified, repealing the Prohibition Act.
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Congress passes the first Neutrality Act, banning the export of "arms, ammunition, and implements of war" from the U.S. to other nations at war.
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The United States Housing Authority (USHA) would grant $500 million to state and local authorities across the nation to build low-cost housing. The USHA was established by the Housing Act of 1937.
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Germany invades Poland, marking the start of World War II.
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Japan attacks an American naval base in Hawaii, Pearl Harbor, destroying or damaging twenty American naval vessels, over three hundred aircraft, and killing more than 2,400 Americans. The attack would be the final straw before the U.S. finally joined World War II.