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Period: to
World War II
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Wall Street Crash
The American stock market collapses, signaling the onset of the Great Depression. The Dow Jones Industrial Average peaks in September 1929 at 381.17—a level that it will not reach again until 1954. The Dow will bottom out at a Depression-era low of just 41.22 in 1932. -
Major Bank Collapse
New York's Bank of the United States collapses in the largest bank failure to date in American history.[M31] $200 million in deposits disappear, and the bank's customers are left holding the bag. -
Hitler Became Chancellor
Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. -
Mussolini Invades Ethiopia
Italy, under the leadership of Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, invades Ethiopia. -
Neutrality Act
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the 1937 Neutrality Act, which bans travel on belligerent ships, forbids the arming of American merchant ships trading with belligerents, and issues an arms embargo with warring nations. -
Japan Defeats China
The Japanese defeat Chinese forces in a clash near Peking, taking control of North China. -
Roosevelt Limits Ships to Asia
President Franklin D. Roosevelt forbids U.S. ships from carrying arms to China or Japan. -
Roosevelt Quarantines War
In response to Japanese action in China, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers a speech in which he calls for peace-loving nations to act together to "quarantine" aggressors to protect the world from the "disease" of war. -
Attack on the Panay
Japanese warplanes dive-bomb the American gunboat Panay in the Yangtze River in China. Japan apologizes and pays reparations for the lives lost. -
Roosevelt Aids Britain
President Franklin D. Roosevelt makes a deal to give Great Britain 50 destroyers in exchange for naval bases in Newfoundland, Bermuda, and sites in the Caribbean and the South Atlantic. -
U.S. Cracks Japanese Code
United States Naval Intelligence cryptographers crack Japan's secret communications code and learn that Japan intends to conquer China.