great depression timeline

  • August 27, 1928

    August 27, 1928
    The Kellogg-Briand Pact is signed in Paris by the major powers of the world. This treaty outlaws aggressive warfare.
  • October 29, 1929

    October 29, 1929
    Black Tuesday, The Crash. Poverty spreads and dust bowl hits the great Plains.
  • June 17 1930

    June 17 1930
    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.
  • December 11, 1930

    December 11, 1930
    The Bank of the United States failed. It was the fourth-largest bank in the nation, and the largest bank failure in history at that time.
  • January 4 1932

    January 4 1932
    Congress created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to lend $2 billion to financial institutions to prevent further failures.
  • june 6 1932

    june 6 1932
    Hoover signed the Revenue Act of 1932. It increased the top income tax rate to 63%.
  • march 9 1933

    march 9 1933
    Franklin Delano Roosevelt launched the New Deal with the Emergency Banking Act. It closed all U.S. banks to stop devastating failures.
  • January 30 1934

    January 30 1934
    The Gold Reserve Act prohibited private ownership of gold and doubled its price. The act changed gold price history.
  • 1935

    1935
    The Supreme Court declared the National Industrial Recovery Act unconstitutional. FDR launched more programs focused on the poor, the unemployed, and farmers
  • August 1935

    August 1935
    The Social Security Act provided income to the elderly, the blind, the disabled, and children in low-income families.
  • July 1935

    July 1935
    The National Labor Relations Act/Wagner Act protected workers' rights and created the National Labor Relations Board.
  • 1939

    1939
    The drought returned. The Federal Security Agency was launched to administer Social Security, federal education funding, and food and drug safety.