Great Depression/Timelines
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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
- UK: Post-war recession [3].
1921-23
- USA: post-war recession [4].
1923
- Germany: Hyperinflation [5].
1925
- UK: Britain rejoins the gold standard.
1926
- UK: General strike.
1921 - 1929
- USA: Strong economic growth: GDP increases by 42% (growth rates: 10.5% pa 1921-23; 3.4% pa 1923-29)
- USA: Stock market boom: the DJIA index at the 1929 peak is six times its minimum level in 1921 [6].
1927
- US Federal Reserve Bank cuts its discount rate cut from 4% to 3.5%
1928
- US Federal Reserve Bank raises its discount rate to 5%
1929 February
- UK: Bank of England raises the bank rate fron 4.5% to 5.5%
June
- USA: Start of a downturn in economic activity
August
- US Federal Reserve Bank raises discount rate to 6%
October
- USA: The stock market crash of 1929.
- 24 Black Thursday DJIA falls by 13%
- 28 Black Monday DJIA falls by 12.8%
- 29 Black Tuesday DJIA falls by 11.7%
1930-33
- USA: The "Great Contraction"
- USA: Three waves of panic create a progressive collapse of the United States banking system, with the failure of nearly half of the banks and heavy. losses by the others.
1930
- Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act [7][8]
- USA 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
- US banking crisis, with the failure of over 1800 banks.
- Britain, Sweden and Japan leave the gold standard [9]
1932
- Reconstruction Finance Corporation [10] created
- Federal Home Loan Act [11]
- 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[12].
- The National Recovery Administration and the Public Works Administration created by the National Recovery Act 1933 [13]
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation [14] 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 [15]: industrial production down 40 percent; unemployment rises by 4 million; stock market drps by 48 percent.
1938
1939