Great Depression and Dust Bowl

By quincycallahan

  • Herbert Hoover became president

  • Dow reached a closing record of 381.7

    The stock market would not return to its pre-crash high for the next 25 years.

  • Black Thursday kicked off the stock market crash of 1929

    Stock prices immediately fell 11%.

  • The stock market hit bottom and began trading sideways.

  • Taxes on 900 different imports are raised

    President Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. Its aim was to support farmers, but hundreds of other goods ended up having tariffs imposed. This impacted international trade which began to fall, since other countries reacted to these tariffs. The tariff didn’t have a huge effect on the American economy, but caused many problems in Europe.

  • Roosevelt signs the Taylor Grazing Act

    which allows him to take up to 140 million acres of federally-owned land out of the public domain and establish grazing districts that will be carefully monitored. One of many New Deal efforts to heal the damage done to the land by overuse, the program is able to arrest the deterioration but cannot undo the damage that has already been done.

  • Franklin Roosevelt takes office

    the country is in desperate straits. He will take quick steps to declare a four-day bank holiday, during which time Congress will come up with the Emergency Banking Act of 1933, which stabilizes the banking industry and restores people’s faith in the banking system by putting the federal government behind it.

  • The Emergency Farm Mortgage Act allots $200 million for refinancing mortgages to help farmers facing foreclosure.

    The Farm Credit Act of 1933 establishes a local bank and sets up local credit associations.

  • The Civilian Conservation Corps opens the first soil erosion control camp in Clayton County, Alabama.

  • Over 6 million young pigs are slaughtered to stabilize prices.