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The stock market crashes, marking the end of six years of unparalleled prosperity for most sectors of the American economy. The "crash" begins on October 24 (Black Thursday). By October 29, stock prices will plummet and banks will be calling in loans. An estimated $30 billion in stock values will "disappear" by mid-November.
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President Hoover remains optimistic, however, stating that "all the evidences indicate that the worst effects of the crash upon unemployment will have passed during the next 60 days
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New York's Bank of the United States collapses. At the time of the collapse, the bank had over $200 million in deposits, making it the largest single bank failure in the nation's history.
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Congress establishes the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. The R.F.C. is allowed to lend $2 billion to banks, insurance companies, building and loan associations, agricultural credit organizations and railroads. Critics of the R.F.C. call it "the millionaires' dole."
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Roosevelt receives 22.8 million popular votes to Hoover's 15.75 million.
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A federally run hydroelectric power program, the TVA Act is considered a huge experiment in social planning. The TVA also builds dams, produces and sells fertilizer, reforests the Tennessee Valley area, and develops recreational lands. Opponents of the TVA call it "communistic to its core."
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The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) is established. Designed as a relief and employment program for young men between the ages of 17 and 27, the CCC is made up of groups of young men who work in national forests, parks, and federal land for nine-month stints. FDR envisions the program as a kind of volunteer "army." The first 250,000 young men are housed in 1,468 camps around the country. At its peak in 1935, the CCC will include 500,000 young men.
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The Federal Emergency Relief Administration is created by Congress. President Franklin Roosevelt appoints Harry L. Hopkins as its chief administrator. By the end of his first day on the job, Hopkins has issued grants totaling more than $5 million.
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Under Title I of the act, the National Recovery Administration is designated to maintain some form of price and wage controls. Section 7(a) of the act guarantees labor the right to organize and bargain collectively. As part of the act, The National Labor Board is set up to negotiate disputes between labor and management.
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A federally run hydroelectric power program, the TVA Act is considered a huge experiment in social planning. The TVA also builds dams, produces and sells fertilizer, reforests the Tennessee Valley area, and develops recreational lands. Opponents of the TVA call it "communistic to its core."
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Separates commercial from investment banking and sets up the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to guarantee bank deposits.
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A three-day dust storm blows an estimated 350 million tons of soil off of the terrain of the West and Southwest and deposits it as far east as New York and Boston. Some east coast cities are forced to ignite street lamps during the day to see through the blowing dust.
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FDR signs legislation creating the Works Progress Administration. (Its name would be changed in 1939 to the Work Projects Administration.) The program employs more than 8.5 million individuals in 3,000 counties across the nation. These individuals, drawing a salary of only $41.57 a month, will improve or create highways, roads, bridges, and airports. In addition, the WPA will put thousands of artists, writers, painters, theater directors, and sculptors to work on various projects.
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The National Youth Administration is set up to address the needs of young men and women (who are not allowed in the CCC). The NYA works on two levels: a student-work program and an out-of-school program. The student-work program provides students with odd jobs that pay them enough to stay in school. The out-of-school program sets young people up with various jobs ranging from house painting to cleaning local parks, and eventually comes to include vocational training.
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Among most controversial stipulations of the act is that Social Security will be financed through a payroll tax. Historian Kenneth S. Davis calls the signing of the act "one of the major turning points of American history. No longer could `rugged individualism' convincingly insist that government, though obliged to provide a climate favorable for the growth of business profits, had no responsibility whatever for the welfare of the human beings who did the work from which the profit was reaped."
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The goal of the act is to validate union authority and supervise union elections.
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Defeating Kansas Governor Alfred M. Landon, FDR is elected to his second term as president, winning every state in the Union except Maine and Vermont.