1928
Herbert Clark Hoover is elected president of the United States.

1929
The stock market crashes in October, sending millions of investors into bankruptcy.

1930
The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act is passed, raising import tariffs as high as 50 percent; nations raise their own tariffs for American goods and worsen the effects of the Great Depression for all involved.

1931
Hostilities begin between Japan and China; Hoover creates the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to help keep U.S. banks, railroads, and insurance companies from failing.

1932
Veterans of the First World War who call themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force travel to Washington to collect money promised to them by Congress; Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected president of the United States.

1933
Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany; Roosevelt declares a four-day bank holiday to ease panic and determine which banks are solvent enough to reopen; FDR uses the radio to broadcast the first Fireside Chat to the...