Great Depression

Great Depression officially began on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the day the stock
market crashed. This abrupt shift to more radical and conservative life happened during the
presidency of Herbert Hoover.
The decade started off well, with the stock market rising early in 1930, though later on the same
year the economy went down again. People began to feel the effects of the Depression in 1931
and the situation progressed quickly for the worse. Banks were closing, so people rushed to
withdrew their money. On March 5, 1933, newly elected President F. D. Roosevelt declared a
bank holiday. All the banks were closed until March 13. During that time, the federal auditors
thoroughly examined records of banks. When they estimated each of them, only financially sound
banks reopened.
Business and industry were also under the effect as they started cutting back wages and working
hours were minimized. Salaries were cut by an average of 40 to 60%. By the end of the 1931,
more than 60 000 businesses had failed. Consumerism was no longer present which caused even
more cut-backs. Millions of people were out of work across the United States.
With the Depression, in America, came political changes. In the 1932 presidential election,
Hoover lost to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whos New Deal, a group of short term recovery
programs that included both laws passed by Congress as well as presidential orders during
his first term. On March 31, 1933, a public relief program for unemployed, unmarried men
aged 18-25; Civilian Conservation Crops provided jobs for nearly three million men. Works
Progress Administration had a similar role.
The economy reached the low point in 1933, when the unemployment rate was at 25% and
industrial output less than half of what it was before the crucial 1929. Many unemployed traveled
from place to place in hopes of finding a job. When a place opened, thousands of people applied.
Homeless people were common and widely known for shantytowns or Hoovervilles makeshift
shacks on the outskirts of town named after Herbert Hoover.
Soup kitchens and bread lines were established in large cities. Al Capone, famous gangster of
the time, opened Chicagos first soup kitchen. For many, the soup kitchen meal was the only meal
in a day. In 1933, towns were low on funds, therefore more than 5 000 schools were closed and
school terms were shortened in approximately 30% of cities.
For four years after the economy reached bottom in the winter of 1932-33, there was a rapid
growth. However, when the Recession of 1937 came, levels of unemployment were the same as
they were in the 1934.
Though Roosevelts New Deal did in fact make some improvements in nations finances, what
ultimately brought the end of Great Depression was the World War II.




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Dust Bowl
During the Great Depression, the area of Great Plains
1
was devastated with both drought and
terrible dust storms. An eight-year drought started in 1931 with unusually high temperatures. In
1932, the sky went black mid-day when a 200-mile-wide dirt cloud ascended from the ground.
In 1934 alone, there were 110 such black blizzards.
Years of storms destroyed crops and caused the grass to disappear. Once fertile area, was now
the Dust Bowl, the term Robert Geiger came up with in 1935, following the disastrous Black
Sunday storm. Small farmers were hit the hardest. They had debts to pay off but had no incomes
since the crops were devastated. Millions were forced to leave and headed west to California
where only seasonal agricultural jobs were available. These farmers were often called Okies
and Arkies as they came from Oklahoma and Arkansas.
In 1935, Roosevelt established Drought Relief Service, offering food handouts and the buying of
livestock. When one of the black blizzards reached Washington D.C. in May 1934, the 74
th

Congress passed the Soil Conservation Act. By 1938, re-plowing the land and crop rotation
resulted in 65% reduction of soil blowing away. In 1939, it finally rained and it was possible to
use the land to grow crops again.

1930
On February 18, an assistant at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, Clyde W. Tombaugh,
discovered Pluto.
On St. Patricks Day, March 17, work on the Empire State Building in New York City
began. The project used 3 400 workers and cost $24.7 million.
Clarence Birdseye, on August 12, invented frozen food with his quick-freezing process.
President Herbert Hoover, on December 2, asked the U.S. Congress to pass $150 million public
works projects in an attempt to better economic activity.

1931
The Star-Spangled Banner, by Francis Scott Key, is officially made the national anthem
when U.S. President Herbert Hoover signed an act On March 3, 1931.
On May 1, construction on the Empire State Building completed and
opened its door to the public. It was the tallest building in the world 1 250 feet
tall and is a symbol of mans attempt to achieve the impossible which was present in the
twentieth century.
Wiley Post and Harold Gatty began first single-plane, round-the-world flight on June 23. The
flight took 8 days, 15 hours and 51 minutes.

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Southwestern Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas panhandle, northeastern New Mexico and southeastern Colorado
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1932
The Reconstruction Finance Corporation is established and began its operations on February 2. Its
purpose was to stimulate business and banking.
The 1932 Winter Olympics started February 4 in Lake Placid, New York. Then Governor of New
York, F.D. Roosevelt opened the games.
George G. Blaisdell founded Zippo Manufacturing Company. In the early 1933, the first
Zippo lighter was produced. His inspiration was in an Austrian cigarette lighter and the name
came fron the ford zipper.
The 1932 Summer Olympics started July 30 in Los Angeles. Due to worldwide Great Depression
and recessions, many athletes were not able to participate. This was the first time that an Olympic
village was built and the victory podium used.

1933
On January 5, at the height of the Great Depression, the construction on the Golden Gate
Bridge began. Bridge constructer Joseph Strauss and his workers had to overcome many
difficulties. Some of them being frequent storms and strong tides.
From March 9 till June 16, The New Deal programs, both economic and social, are passed by the
U.S. Congress.
The Agricultural Adjustment Act, a United States federal law enacted on May 12, whose purpose
was to reduce crop surplus and raise the value of the crops.
The United States Department of Justice acquired The United States Disciplinary Barracks on
Alcatraz. The island itself became a Federal Bureau of Prisons.

End of Prohibition in the United States
Prohibition, a period of almost fourteen years, in which the manufacture, sale and transportation of
liquor were made illegal. Prohibition started when the 18
th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
went into effect. But during the Great Depression, people started changing their minds and
opinions. By making alcohol legal again, many new jobs would open up and the government would
get the needed money. As a result, on January 23, the 21
st
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
was ratified, though it went into effect on December 5. With this ratification, the 18
th

Amendment has been repealed.

1934
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In the morning of August 11, at 9.40 pm, Alcatraz, a maximum security prison, opened in San
Francisco Bay. Most of the first 137 prisoners were notorious bank robbers and murderers.
Prisoners were not allowed to talk until 1937.

1935
Black Sunday dust storm on April 14 reached its peak and
devastated eastern New Mexico, Colorado and western Oklahoma.
On July 6, the Wagner law gave workers the freedom to organize into trade unions and take
collective action like strike if necessary.
In 1935, and perhaps the most important New Deal program of all, was the Social Security Act. It
was turned into a law on August 14. With it, permanent system of retirement pensions and
unemployment insurance were established.
Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 was the strongest hurricane to make land fall in the U.S. With 185
mph winds it was the first Category 5 hurricane during the 20
th
century. On Monday, September 2,
Labor Day, the hurricane struck the Upper Keys and continued along the west coast of Florida. Four
hundred and twenty three people were killed during the hurricane.

1936 - King Edward VI I I Abdicated
Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, became King Of United Kingdom on
January 20, succeeding his father, George V, after his death. As a modern monarch, Edward
wanted to change the rules many royal staff employees received cuts on their salaries. He
neglected his duties as a king, often times cancelling event at the last minute.
By proposing marriage to Wallis Simpson, made public on November 16, he caused a
constitutional crisis. Wallis Simpson, an American socialite, already divorced her first husband,
and at the time of the engagements, seeked a divorce from her second husband.
Wallis Simpson did not mean for the king to abdicate until the very end. However, on December
10, at 10 a.m., King Edward VIII, in the presence of his three brothers, signed six copies of the
Instrument of Abdication.
Albert, the next in line for the throne, became King George VI. Edward became the Duke of
Windsor and, when Wallis became his wife, she became the Duchess of Windsor.

1937
Golden Gate Bridge, San Franciscos artistic and technological achievement, after nearly five
years of construction finally opened. May 27, was the so called Pedestrian Day. Around 200
000 walkers crossed the 4 2000-foot-long suspension bridge, a connection between San
Francisco and Marin County.
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In the 1937, first vending machine with soda bottles was introduced.

1938
In February, first nylon-bristle toothbrush, named Dr. Wests Miracle Tuft Toothbrush
was invented by DuPont.
Radio broadcast of War of the Worlds Causes Panic
Orson Welles, dramatist in the Mercury group, decided to adopt War of the World, H.G.
Wells well-known novel, for the Mercury groups Halloween show which was to air on October
30. Howard Koch rewrote and updated the story. The novel was transformed into a radio play, but
its setting was changed from Victorian Britain to present day New England.
At 8 p.m., the play started. Its broadcast was done from the studio, but the script made people
believe that everyone, from announcers, newscasters and orchestras, were on the air from various
locations. People tuned in when there was a musical section of the Chase and Sanborn Hour, then
the most popular radio program.
Even though it was announced at the beginning of the program that it was a story based on the
novel, listeners reacted. Thousands called police, newspapers and radio stations. Many fled
their homes, children were born prematurely, and deaths were reported, too.
Hours later, listeners realized the Martian invasion was not real. Orson Welles became the object of
hatred, as he tried to fool the public. They became accustomed to believe everything they heard, so
it is no wonder that some believed Welles caused the panic on purpose

1939
The New York Worlds Fair opened for its two year run on April 30. Many have said that it
proved the American public that good times and prosperity are ahead after the decade of
poverty.
The first commercial flight over the Atlantic happened on June 28. From New York to Portugal, 22
passengers flew with Pan Am, international air carrier in the United States.
Albert Einstein, a physicist who emigrated from Nazi Germany, alerted the U.S. president F.D.
Roosevelt to an A-bomb opportunity on August 2. This alert is a cause for the creation of the
Manhattan Project.
On September 3, Great Britain, in alliance with France, declared war on Germany.
U.S. Neutrality Act was passed by the U.S. Congress on November 4. It repealed the
prohibition of the arms exportation.