Great Depression/Timelines
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1850-1918
- 11 US recessions [1] including the panic of 1893
1914-18
- First World War
1918
- Treaty of Versailles: war reparations [2].
1919-21
- UK:
- Post-war recession [3].
1921-23
- USA:
- Post-war recession [4].
1923
- Germany:
1924
- USA:
- Start of 1924-26 upturn [8]
- Germany
- Dawes Plan (for rescheduling of German reparations payments) agreed [9].
1925
- UK:
- Britain rejoins the gold standard.
1926
- UK:
- General strike [10].
1927 USA:
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%
August
- USA:
- Start of a downturn in economic activity [13]
- Federal Reserve Bank raises discount rate to 6%.
- Germany:
- Collapse of Frankfurter Allgemeine Verischerungs AG and runs on savings banks
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%
- The stock market crash of 1929.
1930-33
- USA:
- The "Great Contraction"
- Banking crises
- 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
- USA:
- France:
- Failure of Banque Adam and the Oustric Group.
- Germany
- 2nd reparations conference at The Hague.
- Young Plan (further rescheduling reparations payments but giving priority to the repayment of debts to the United States) agreed [17]. Bank for International Settlements created.
- 2nd reparations conference at The Hague.
1931
- USA:
- Banking crisis, with the failure of over 1800 banks.
- UK:
- Sterling (£) Crisis [18].
- Austria:
- Failure of Creditanstalt
- Germany:
- Banking crisis. Runs on banks. Closure of Darmstädter bank. Bank holiday. Credit crunch.
- President Herbert Hoover announces a one year moratorium on reparations and war debts-and the provision of a $ 150 million credit to the Reichsbank.
- France:
- Failure of Banque Nationale de Crédit and bank runs.
- World:
- Britain, Sweden and Japan leave the gold standard [19]
1932
- USA:
- Chicago Banking Panic [20].
- Revenue Act: income tax rates increased and allowances reduced [21].
- Reconstruction Finance Corporation [22] created
- Federal Home Loan Act [23]
- Recorded unemployment reaches 25 percent.
- Germany:
- Lausanne Conference agrees to the suspension of reparations payments by Germany [24]
1933
- USA:
- Trough of depression and start of recovery [25]
- Franklin D. Roosevelt elected president.
- President declares a banking holiday and temporarily closes all U.S. banks using the Emergency Banking Act 1933[26].
- The National Recovery Administration and the Public Works Administration created by the National Recovery Act 1933 [27]
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation [28] created
- Federal Emergency Relief Administration [29] created
- Money supply is 40 percent lower than 1929.
- Approximately 4,000 commercial banks fail.
- 1,700 "Savings and Loans" fail
- Germany
- Fall of the Weimar government: Hitler gains power.
1934
- USA:
- Social Security Act: unemployment compensation introduced [30].
- GNP rises 7.7 percent, and unemployment falls to 21.7 percent.
- France:
1935
- USA:
- GNP grows another 8.1 percent, and unemployment falls to 20.1 percent.
1936
1937
- USA:
- Recession of 1937 [33]: industrial production down 40 percent; unemployment rises by 4 million; stock market drops by 48 percent.
1938
- USA: Start of upturn