Oct 29, 1929: Black Tuesday. The stock market crashes. A time of high unemployment begins.
Feb 1931: "Food riots" begin across the country. Hundreds of people break into grocery stores and take food. Resentment builds toward Mexican Americans in California over jobs "stolen".
Dec 1931: Bank of the United States in New York fails, forfeiting 200 million in deposits.
Nov. 1932: Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected. After his inauguration, he passes the Emergency Banking Act of 1933 which enables many banks to reopen.
March 1934: A three-day dust storm blows millions of dirt all the way to coastal cities.
March 1936: Dorothea Lange's photo "Migrant Mother" brings attention to the dire situation in the San Joaquin Valley.
April 1938: FDR implements a 3.75 billion spending bill to activate the economy. This begins to help, although unemployment stays high.
Nov 1940: FDR is elected to a third term, signaling public support for his policy of engaging in WWII
Dec 1944: Pearl Harbor bombing. US enters WWII. The war re-energizes the US economy and ends the Great Depression.
Summarized from detailed timeline here.
Green, John. Crash Course: The Great Depression.
