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The Great Depression Timeline
Dec 19, 2019
Unemployment Low in 1929
Unemployment averages 3.2% for the year.
Oct 1, 1929
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.
Dec 19, 2019
Unemployment in 1930 at 8.9%
Unemployment averages 8.9% for the year.
Jun 17, 1930
Smoot-Hawley Tariff
Congress passes the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, steeply raising import duties in an attempt to protect American manufactures from foreign competition. The tariff increase has little impact on the American economy, but plunges Europe farther into crisis.
Dec 19, 2019
Unemployment in 1931 at 16.3%
Unemployment averages 16.3% for the year.
Dec 1, 1931
Major Bank Collapse
New York's Bank of the United States collapses in the largest bank failure to date in American history. $200 million in deposits disappear, and the bank's customers are left holding the bag.
Dec 19, 2019
Unemployment in 1932 at 24.1%
Unemployment averages 24.1% for the year.
Nov 8, 1932
Roosevelt Elected
Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats incumbent Republican President Herbert Hoover in a landslide to win the presidency.
Dec 19, 2019
Unemployment in 1933 at 24.9%
Unemployment averages 24.9% for the year.
Dec 19, 2019
Radio Priest
"Radio Priest" Charles Coughlin's weekly broadcast draws an average of 30 to 45 million listeners.
Mar 4, 1933
Roosevelt Inauguration
Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated into office as 32nd President of the United States.
Sep 1, 1933
Townsend Proposes Pension Plan
Dr. Francis Townsend sends a letter to the Long Beach Press-Telegram proposing state-funded pensions for the elderly to boost consumption and employment.
Sep 1, 1933
Upton Sinclair Publishes Treatise
Upton Sinclair publishes I, Governor of California and How I Ended Poverty: A True Story of the Future, a fictionalized political treatise that lays out the agenda of a communitarian movement Sinclair calls EPIC—End Poverty in California.
Dec 19, 2019
Unemployment in 1934 at 21.7%
Unemployment averages 21.7% for the year.
Jan 1, 1934
Townsend Plan Incorporated
Dr. Francis Townsend formally incorporates Old Age Revolving Pensions, Ltd., to lead the Townsend Plan movement.
Feb 1, 1934
Share Our Wealth Society Founded
Huey Long founds the Share Our Wealth society, advocating outright seizure of the "excess fortunes" of the rich to redistribute to the poor.
May 1, 1934 - Aug 1, 1934
Longshoremen Strike
A West Coast longshoremen's strike, conducted with significant aid from the Communist Party, paralyzes shipping and trade in California, Oregon, and Washington. The strike ends with a victory for the longshoremen's union. Cooperation between the longshoremen and West Coast communists represent a first successful venture of the so-called "Popular Front" between communists and liberals, which won't officially be authorized by the Comintern in Moscow until 1935.
Aug 1, 1934
Upton Sinclair Wins Primary
A surprising groundswell of support for Upton Sinclair's EPIC movement gives Sinclair a runaway victory in the Democratic gubernatorial primary in California.
Nov 1, 1934
Charles Coughlin Establishes the National Union for Social Justice
Father Charles Coughlin, "The Radio Priest," establishes the National Union for Social Justice.
Nov 1, 1934
Upton Sinclair Defeated
Following a two-month campaign in which EPIC is subjected to ferocious attack by both Republicans and Democrats terrified by its radical communitarian agenda, Upton Sinclair is soundly defeated by conservative Republican Frank Merriam for governor of California. Sinclair writes of the experience in I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked.
Dec 19, 2019
Unemployment in 1935 at 20.1%
Unemployment averages 20.1% for the year.
Jan 1, 1935
Townsend Support Grows
More than 5,000 Townsend Clubs nationwide together represent more than 2 million members. An estimated 25 million Americans have signed petitions asking their representatives to back the Townsend Plan in Washington.
Feb 1, 1935
Huey Long Support Grows
Huey Long's Share Our Wealth society has expanded to 27,000 clubs nationwide, with a mailing list of 7.5 million Americans.
Sep 8, 1935
Huey Long Assassinated
Huey Long is assassinated inside the Louisiana Capitol Building.
Dec 19, 2019
Unemployment in 1936 at 16.9%
Unemployment averages 16.9% for the year.
Nov 3, 1936
Roosevelt Reelected
Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected to a second term as president, winning in a landslide over Republican Alf Landon. Roosevelt wins every state but Maine and Vermont.
Dec 19, 2019
Unemployment in 1937 at 14.3%
Unemployment averages 14.3% for the year.
Dec 19, 2019
Unemployment in 1938 at 19%
Unemployment averages 19.0% for the year.
Dec 19, 2019
Unemployment in 1939 at 17.2%
Unemployment averages 17.2% for the year.
Feb 20, 1939
Nazi Rally in New York City
The German-American Bund stages a huge rally of fascist sympathizers supporting what they call "True Americanism" in Madison Square Garden in New York. Anti-Semitic Hitler admirer and Bund leader Fritz Kuhn calls Franklin Roosevelt "Frank Rosenfeld," the New Deal the "Jew Deal."
Dec 7, 1941
Mobilization Lifts Economy
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor draws United States into World War II. Mobilization for war finally lifts the American economy permanently out of the Great Depression.