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Black Tuesday
Black Tuesday was the day the American stock market crashed. Loses estimated to be around 45 billion and is known as the start of The Great Depression. -
The Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl was the name given to the drought-stricken Southern Plains region of the United States, which suffered severe dust storms during a dry period from 1930 to 1940. As high winds and choking dust swept the region from Texas to Nebraska, people and livestock were killed and crops failed across the entire region -
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act
Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which raised taxes on 900 imports. It originally was supposed to help farmers but ended up imposing tariffs on hundreds of other products. Other countries retaliated, setting off a trade war. As a result, international trade began to collapse. -
Revenue Act of 1932
Hoover signed the Revenue Act of 1932. It increased the top income tax rate to 63%. He wanted to reduce the federal deficit. Hoover believed it would also restore confidence. Instead, higher taxes worsened the Depression. -
Franklin D Roosevelt Took Office
After being elected in November of 1932, Roosevelt served as president until his death in 1945. He was President during both the Great Depression and WW2 -
New Deal and Emergency Banking Act
Franklin Delano Roosevelt launched the New Deal with the Emergency Banking Act. It closed all U.S. banks to stop devastating failures. The Emergency Banking Relief Act was quickly enacted by Congress to allow for the reopening of individual banks “as soon as examiners found them to be financially secure.” -
Civil Works Administration
The Civil Works Administration (CWA) was a short-lived job creation program established by the New Deal during the Great Depression in the United States to rapidly create mostly manual-labor jobs for millions of unemployed workers. It created four million construction jobs. -
21st Amendment Ratified
The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which had mandated nationwide Prohibition on alcohol. It is unique among the 27 amendments of the U.S. Constitution for being the only one to repeal a prior amendment, as well as being the only amendment to have been ratified by state ratifying conventions. -
The Social Security Act
The Social Security Act provided income to the elderly, the blind, the disabled, and children in low-income families. It was paid for with payroll taxes and the Social Security Trust Fund. -
Hoover Dam was Completed
Hoover Dam was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hoover Dam is as tall as a 60-story building. It was the highest dam in the world when it was completed in 1935. Its base is as thick as two football fields are long. Many people got jobs working to construct the Dam. -
The Harvest Gypsies
The San Francisco News publishes a series of articles written by John Steinbeck called "The Harvest Gypsies." The series explored the hardships faced by those living and working in migrant labor camps. Steinbeck wrote, "...One has only to go into the squatters' camps where the families live on the ground and have no homes...to look at the strong purposeful faces, often filled with pain...to know that this new race is here to stay and that heed must be taken of it." -
WW2
Hitler invaded Poland from the west; two days later, France and Britain declared war on Germany, beginning World War II. On September 17, Soviet troops invaded Poland from the east. American factories were retooled to produce goods to support the war effort and almost overnight the unemployment rate dropped to around 10%.
