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| 1933 |
March -- Before a crowd of 100,000 at the Capitol Plaza in
Washington, D.C., Franklin Delano Roosevelt is inaugurated president. FDR tells
the crowd, "The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they
have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have
asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the
present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it."
FDR announces a four-day bank holiday to begin on Monday, March 6. During
that time, FDR promised, Congress would work on coming up with a plan to save
the failing banking industry. By March 9, Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act of 1933. By month's end, three-quarters of the nation's closed banks were
back in business.
On March 12, FDR delivers the first of what came to be known as his "fireside
chats." In his initial "chat" he appealed to the nation to join him in
"banishing fear." |
 April -- President Roosevelt, under the Emergency Banking Act, orders the
nation off of the gold standard.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) is established. Designed as a relief and
employment program for young men between the ages of 17 and 27, the CCC was
envisioned by FDR as a kind of volunteer "army" that would work in national
forests, parks, and federal land for nine-month stints. The first 250,000 young
men were housed in 1,468 camps around the country. At its peak in 1935, the CCC
would include 500,000 young men. |
May -- The Federal Emergency Relief Administration is created by Congress.
President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Harry L. Hopkins as its chief
administrator. By the end of his first day on the job, Hopkins had issued
grants totaling more than $5 million.
The National Industrial Recovery Act is introduced into Congress. Under Title I
of the act, the National Recovery Administration was designated to maintain
some form of price and wage controls. Section 7(a) of the act guaranteed labor
the right to organize and bargain collectively. As part of the act, The
National Labor Board was set up to negotiate disputes between labor and
management.
 The Tennessee Valley Authority is created. A federally run hydroelectric power
program, the TVA act was considered a huge experiment in social planning. The
TVA also built dams, produced and sold fertilizer, reforested the Tennessee
Valley area, and developed recreational lands. Opponents of the TVA called it
"communistic to its core." |
| June -- Congress passes the Glass-Steagall act that separated commercial from
investment banking and set up the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to guarantee bank deposits. |
 August -- With an eye toward organizing farmers into soil conservation
districts, the federal government establishes the Soil Erosion Service. The
creation of this service was made necessary by the years of drought and dust
that plagued the Southwestern Panhandle states. |
| September -- In an effort to stabilize prices,
the federal agricultural program orders the slaughter of more than 6 million
pigs. Many citizens protested this action since most of the meat went to
waste. |
| October -- The Civil Works Administration is established. Devised as a
wide scale program that could employ up to 4 million people, the C.W.A was
involved in the building of bridges, schools, hospitals, airports, parks and
playgrounds. Additionally, C.W.A. funds went toward the repair and construction
of highways and roads. Early in 1934, Congress authorized $950 million for the
continued operation of the C.W.A. |
| 1934 |
 May -- A three-day dust storm blows an estimated 350 million tons
of soil off of the terrain of the West and Southwest and deposits it as far
east as New York and Boston. Some East Coast cities were forced to ignite
street lamps during the day to see through the blowing dust.
|
| November -- Father Charles E. Coughlin establishes the Union for Social
Justice. Using the radio airwaves as his pulpit, Father Coughlin railed against
"predatory capitalism." His criticism of the banking industry and disdain of
communism soon dovetailed into a troubling gospel of anti-Semitism. |
| 1935 |
April -- FDR signs legislation creating the Works Progress
Administration. (Its name would be changed in 1939 to the Work Projects
Administration). The program employed more than 8.5 million individuals in
three thousand counties across the nation. These individuals, drawing a salary
of only $41.57 a month, improved or created highways, roads, bridges, and
airports. In addition, the WPA put thousands of artists -- writers, painters,
theater directors, and sculptors -- to work on various projects. The WPA would
remain in existence until 1943.
"Business Week" magazine announces that "Depression is a forgotten word in the
automobile industry, which is forging ahead in production, retail sales, and
expansion of productive capacity in a manner reminiscent of the 'twenties.'"
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| June -- The National Youth Administration is set up to address the needs
of young men and women (who were not allowed in the CCC). The NYA worked on two levels: a student
work program and an out-of-school program. The student work program provided
students with odd jobs that paid them enough to stay in school. The
out-of-school program set young people up with various jobs ranging from house
painting to cleaning local parks, and eventually came to include vocational
training. |
| July -- FDR signs the Wagner National Labor Relations Act. The goal of the
act was to validate union authority and supervise union elections. |
| August -- The Social Security Act of 1935 is signed into law by FDR. Among
the most controversial stipulations of the act was that Social Security would
be financed through a payroll tax. Historian Kenneth S. Davis called the
signing of the act "one of the major turning points of American history. No
longer could `rugged individualism' convincingly insist that government, though
obliged to provide a climate favorable for the growth of business profits, had
no responsibility whatever for the welfare of the human beings who did the work
from which the profit was reaped." |
1929 - 1932 | 1933 - 1935 | 1936 - 1940
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