OMAM Station #1: Timeline
The Great Depression Timeline—KEY
October 24, 1929
Black Thursday. The stock market crashes, marking
the end of six years of unparalleled prosperity for most
of the American economy.
November 1929 (Mid-November) An estimated $30 billion in stock
values “disappeared.”
March, 1930
More than 3.2 million people are unemployed, up from
1.5 million before the “crash.” President Hoover
remains optimistic.
February 1931 -Resentment of “foreign” workers increases. In California,
Mexican Americans were accused of stealing jobs from
“real” Americans. During the month, 6,024 were
deported.
-“Food Riot” begin: In Minneapolis, several hundred men
And women smashed the windows of grocery markets
Stealing food. The riot was controlled by 100 policemen.
December 1931 New York’s Bank of the United States collapses, losing
$200 million in deposits—the largest bank failure in the
nation’s history.
April 1932 More than 750,000 New Yorkers are dependent on
city relief, with an additional 160,000 on a waiting list.
Expenditures averaged $8.20 per month for each person
on relief.
June 1932
Bonus Bill. 15,000-25,000 WWI veterans set up
encampments near the White House to urge Congress
to pass the Bonus Bill, their bonus pay for service. The
bill was defeated in the Senate. Two veterans died when
they refused to leave their encampment.
November 1932
Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected President in a landslide
over Hoover.
March 9, 1933 Emergency Banking Act of 1933.
¾ of the nation’s closed banks were re-opened.
April 1933 The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) is
established: A relief program for men ages 17-27. A
volunteer army to work in national forests and parks.
At its peak, the CCC employed 500,000 young men.
October 1933 The Civil Works Administration is established to employ
up to 4 million people building bridges, schools,
hospitals, airports, parks, and playgrounds.
April 1935
FDR signs the Works Progress Administration. It
employed more than 8.5 million individuals at a salary
of $41.57 a month. Employees improved or created
highways, roads, bridges, and airports.
March 1936
Photographer Dorothea Lange visits a pea-pickers’ camp
in California’s San Joaquin Valley and takes photos of the
harvest workers. The images especially in the “Migrant
Mother Series” illustrate the plight of the workers.
October 1936
The San Francisco News publishes a series of articles by
John Steinbeck called “The Harvest Gypsies.”
It explored the hardships of those living and working
in migrant labor camps.
November 1940 FDR is elected for a 3rd term—an unprecedented event.
In a little over a year, Dec. 1941, the US enters WWII.
The war effort jump-starts US industry and ends the
Great Depression.