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Stocks Soaring
Stocks soared in value. Many people bought stocks hoping to get rich quick. This caused stock prices to become higher. -
Crash
The New York Stock Market crashed. Set off a chain reaction that toppled the American economy and quickly spread throughout the world. -
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The Great Depression (1929-1940)
Deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world. -
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American Businesses
About 100,000 American businesses had failed. -
Black Thursday
Stocks began moving sharply downward. People could not sell their shares fast enough. No one was willing to step in to buy stocks and support the fall. -
That Friday
Top bankers met and bought stocks above current market prices to try to stop the rapid decline in prices. -
Black Tuesday
Stock prices kept falling faster and faster. Prices were soon at all time lows. The market had crashed. -
Restricted Internationl Trade
President Hoover signed the highest tariff in U.S. History. -
Dust Bowl
Began in the early 1930s. Farmers experience a series of droughts. Dried up crops and topsoil, turning the soil into dust. Heavy winds carried topsoil across hundred of miles, burying homes and destroying harvests. Over a million farmers were driven from their lands by the Dust Bowl. -
Anthem
E.Y. Harburg wrote the song that became the anthem of the Great Depression. This song was called "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" -
Hoover
Herbert Hoover shifted into being one of the most respected men in the nation to one of the most despised. -
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
Hoover established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to give emergency loans to banks and businesses, believing that cheap loans would spur business. -
Unemployment
At the end of Hoover's term, unemployment had reached 13 million people-nearly 25% of the nation's work force. -
Presidential Election
Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Governor if New York, was nominated as the Democratic candidate in the Presidential election. -
Norris-LaGuardia Act
Prohibited the use of injunctions against peaceful strikes. -
Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt rallied omen with her book, It's Up to the Women. She called on them to pull their families through the crisis. -
Frances Perkins
Frances Perkins became the first female member of the U.S. Cabinet when she was appointed Secretary of Labor. -
Federal Emergency Act
Funded state and local governments to provide emergency relief, and enabled millions of people to be hired on "make-work" projects. -
Civilian Conservation Corps
Gave jobs to young men, such as planting trees and cleaning up forests. Members of the CCC lived in camps and received free food. Most of their pay was sent to their parents. -
Public Works Administration
Created federal jobs by building public projects, such as schools, roads, courts, post offices, and bridges. -
National Recovery Administration
Asked businesses to voluntarily follow codes which set standard prices, production limits, and minimum wages. -
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Insured bank deposits so that people would not lose their savings in the event of a bank failure. -
Tennessee Valley Authrority
Built 21 government-owned dams along the Tennessee River, controlling floods and producing electricity. -
Securities and Exchange Commission
Was created to watch over the stock market, prevent fraud and guard against another stock market collapse. -
NRA Unconstitutional
The Supreme Court found the NRA unconstitutional because the federal government had no power to interfere with business activities conducted within a state. -
National Labor Relations Act
Often called the Wagner Act, gave workers the right to form unions, to bargain collectively, and to submit grievances to a National Labor Relations Board. -
Social Security Act
Provided workers with unemployment insurance, old age pensions, and insurance if they died early. -
Broadcast
Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins delivered a radio broadcast to explain Social Security to the American people. -
NIRA Unconsitutional
National Industrial Act was declared unconstitutional but was replaced by the Wagner Act. -
Wagner Act
Greatly stimulated the unionization of American workers by protecting the right of unions to bargain collectively with their employers. -
Works Progress Administration (WPA)
Created jobs by hiring artists, writers, and musicians to paint murals, produce plays, and create other artworks. -
John Steinbeck
Steinbeck published The Harvest Gypsies, a series of articles based on his own research on migrant workers living in California during the Great Depression. -
Agricultural Adjustment Acts
The Supreme Court declared the AAA unconstitutional. -
Schechter Poultry v. U.S.
The Supreme Court ruled that even during a national crisis, Congress could not give the President more powers than those granted in the Constitution. -
AAA 2.0
Second AAA succeeded in raising farm prices,