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Ruhr Crisis Begins
A joint occupation of Germany's Ruhr land by France and Belgium. A response to the fact that Germany had been late with their war reparation payments. Made an already resentful Germany hate their neighboring countries even more for what they were doing to the country. The occupation actually had little effect on the reparations and only worsened relations with western Europe. -
Stock Market Crash "Black Tuesday"
One of the major factors that influenced the beginnng of the great depression, the stock market set off a chain of events that created great uncertainty in the banks. This created a great worry about money, and resulted in the failure of many banks, after the bank runs later in the year. -
2nd of 3 Geneva conventions
This convention established some of the baselines of what can and cannot be used in war. It also worked towards dearmament of many countries, reducing the amount of military industry that was available to each country. -
Bank Runs
An effect of the Stock market crash earlier that year, these runs resulted in thousands of panicked people calling to be able to withdraw money when these banks did not have enough currency on hand to meet these demands. This resulted in hundreds of bank closures throughout the US, further setting the country on a spiral into the worst economic situation in history. -
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act
One of the first attempts to curbt he economic downturn occuring, this act raised tariffs on imported goods to record high levels not seen for over 100 years. While it did increase domestic production of goods, many countries instituted retaliatory tariffs that made it nesrly impossible for the US to export its goods. This resulte din the opposite ffect than was intended, further increasing unemployment at shipyards, and reducing economic prospects even more. -
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Hoover Dam consturction occurs
The construction of the Hoover dam was a massive public works project that employed hundreds of men and helped them to recover from unemployment that plagued many during the great depression. This 6 year project also worked to provide power to the western US easily, when there had not been much of a source of power for the area. -
Bonus Army March
A peaceful march by WWI veterans in the spring and summer of 1932 that resulted in the kiling of two veterans who were marching. The dispute was over when veterans would be paid for their service, which was set to arrive as late as 1945. -
Lausanne Conference
This conference was a meeting of British, French, and German delegates who agreed to suspend the debts imposed on the losers of WWI. This agreement was reached as the worldwide depression worsened, and it became ever clearer that it would be impossible to expect Germany to be able to repay their debts. It did rely on the US agreeing to not hold France and Belgium responsible for their debts to the US after WWI. However, the US rejected the bill, but Germany still did not pay their reparations. -
FDR's Inaugural Speech
In this speech, Franklin Delano Roosevelt rallied the nation behind him. He acknowledged the major economic problems but stil gave hope to the nation, famously saying "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself". This marked the beginning of FDR working to restore the nation's economy through sweeping reforms and institutions of numerous public works projects. -
FDR's First New Deal actions
Just 2 days after taking office, FDR called for national bank holidays to help reorganize these banks and provide currency to banks that had run out. This closing period allowed for review of the banks' practices and assessment if what should be done to stabilize the banks that had, or were on the vrge of, failed. -
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FDR's Fireside Chats
These chats were one of the first uses of newer media by a US President to intimately address the public as a whole. Roosevelt used these to help explain his reasoning for what he was doing, as well as to provide a connection to all Americans. This was a major contributing factor to what made him one of the most popular presidents of all time. -
Charles Coughlin's Hours of Power
Broadcasts of sermons by Catholic Priest Charles Coughlin that, as the Depression wore on, became increasingly economic in nature. Coughlin supported FDR for a number of years, until his reelection in 1936. After this point, several of coughlin's proposed economic solutions had been denied by FDR and as such, Coughlin was very upset. His broadcasts became increasingly supportive of Italian Facists and opposed to FDRs actions. -
Sweden's fast depression recovery
Sweden implemented many radical new policies which helped its samll economy recover extremely quickly. Some of their policies include early conversion to a fiat currency from the Gold Standard, and Export-led recovery. -
FDIC put into place
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was established in 1934 to prevent people from losing their momey in the event of a bank failure. It was one of the major parts of FDR's New Deal Legislation that helped to bring the US back onto its feet economically. -
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Dust Bowl
A serioes of droughts throughout the depression that destroyed much farmland throughout the central US and Canada. It created clouds of dust hundreds of miles in size that gathered so much static electricity as it moved that it removed massive amounts of the fertile top soil farmers releid on to grow their crops. It further worsened an already bad situation for the farmers of North America at the time. -
TRAP (Treasury Relief Arts Program) Established
A program which worked to provide more creative freedom to arttists during the depression. One of the largest contributions was the requirement that at least one mural per postal region be painted in post offices across the country, employing thousands of artists nationwide. -
Great Migration
A movement of African Americans from Southern towns to Northern Cities to get jobs in the factories andcity when farming became econimically not viable. This occured between 1915 and apporxiamtley 1975. However, there was a great increase int he number of people who moved during the Great Depression, as farmland became impoosible to famr on, and forced these people to move to cities to try to find work. -
Unveiling of FDR's proposed "Court Packing" legislation
This was the date which congress first unveiled the plans for the addition of Supreme Court Justices. Many people were opposed to this, including a large number of Democrats, and was widely regarded as just an attempt to stack the court in FDR's favor. -
War of the World's infamous reading
A reading of Orson Welle's book War of the Worlds was broadcast live over rqdio. The reading was thought to be real by many and incited mass panic in many areas, with a number of people calling emergency services in fear, asking what to do to prepare for the imminent attack. -
Grapes of Wrath published
This novel is an Realist novel providing an insight into the common person's view of the depression. It showed the effect the depression had on the people of the time. The book also demonstrates how people dealt with the fact that for one of the first times in history, there wasn't any person or people to blame, it was nearly entirely the fault of corporations. -
Lend-Lease Act
An act that enabled the US to supply Great Britain, France, USSR, RoC, and many other allied nations with war materials and food. This allowed a huge boom in industrial and agricultural production in the US, and was a major step in full recovery from the Depression.
