Great Depression/Timelines

1850-1918

11 US recessions [1] including the panic of 1893

1914-18

First World War

General suspension of the gold standard.

1918

Treaty of Versailles: war reparations [2].

1919-21

British post-war recession [3].

1923

German hyperinflation [4].

1925

Britain rejoins the gold standard.

1929

The stock market crash of 1929

1930

Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act [5][6]

US GNP drops 9.4% from the previous year. The unemployment rate climbs from 3.2 to 8.7%. By the end of the year, 1,350 banks have closed.

1931

Britain, Sweden and Japan leave the gold standard [7]

1932

Reconstruction Finance Corporation [8] created

Federal Home Loan Act [9]

Unemployment is 25 percent.

National income is 50 percent below that of 1929.

Stock market is 75 percent below its 1929 high.

10,000 banks have failed since 1929, (40 percent of the 1929 total).

1933

Franklin D. Roosevelt elected president.

President declares a banking holiday and temporarily closes all U.S. banks using the Emergency Banking Act 1933[10].

The National Recovery Administration and the Public Works Administration created by the National Recovery Act 1933 [11]

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation [12] created

Money supply is 40 percent lower than 1929.

Approximately 4,000 commercial banks fail.

1,700 S&Ls fail

1934

US recovery begins: GNP rises 7.7 percent, and unemployment falls to 21.7 percent.

1935

US recovery continues: the GNP grows another 8.1 percent, and unemployment falls to 20.1 percent.

1936

1937

US Recession of 1937 [13]: industrial production down 40 percent; unemployment rises by 4 million; stock market drps by 48 percent.

1938

1939