Great Depression Timeline for the U.S.: 1929-1933

• 1929: U.S. Unemployment is 3%.  
  • August 1929: 'Official' start of the recession in the U.S.. Industrial production falls. But stock prices continue to rise.     
  • October 1929: The stock market crash. Industrial production resumes its decline. 
• 1930: U.S. Unemployment is 9%.    
  • June: Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley tarrif into law.  
  • October-December: The first banking panic.   
• 1931: U.S. Unemployment is 16%.       
  • March-June: The second banking panic.    
  • September: Britain leaves the gold standard (devalues). Fearing an attack on the dollar, the Federal Reserve raises interest rates. The U.S. suffers it's worst banking panic yet.         
• 1932: Decline continues.    
• 1933  
  • January-March: The worst and final banking panic.  
  • March: FDR takes office and almost immediately declares a banking holiday and takes the U.S. off the gold standard. This marks the official end of the recession. After March 1933, the U.S. economy is in very bad shape, but it is growing.  
  • March: Industrial production is 37% below its Aug. 1929 value and unemployment reaches 25 percent.