As there are few major events occurring in the world right now, and facing the possibility of having similar issues later, I have decided to post about what occurred on a particular day in history instead and take a small break from the usually scheduled programming. I think it is not only important to know about the events of today, but also the events of yesterday.
On this day in history, October 29th, 1929, A tremendous drop in the stock market occurred. This drop would be one of the leading factors contributing to, and the beginning of, the Great Depression. This day in history is known as Black Tuesday. In one day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell a total of 12%, one of the largest in history.
In the years before this, the economy was booming, women gained suffrage, and there was a euphoric mood in post-Great War America. The economy was in fact, growing too fast. This, coupled with bad investment practices such as buying stocks on credit and using other people’s stocks as collateral, led to a massive bubble in the stock market. This bubble was finally popped after the United States government passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. This Act put a massive tariff on agricultural goods and was initially passed to stable food markets after a large and successful harvest in much of Europe. Despite efforts from many wealthy investors to stabilize the market, the ensuing panic completely crashed the economy and thrust the United States, and the rest of the world, into the largest economic recession ever recorded.
The Great Depression was caused by not only this stock market crash but also the mass closing of banks. This coupled with the Dust Bowl that ravaged agriculture in the west put America on its knees. Unemployment reached a quarter of the US population and many were left without a living. This led to Franklin Delano Roosevelt being elected. After his election, he passed many large acts in an attempt to revitalize the economy. This series of acts is known as The New Deal. The Great Depression would finally end with the beginning of World War Two and the mass mobilization of the US economy.
The Great Depression and New Deal affect Americans today. Social Security and Medicare are both programs that were created in the New Deal.
With many concerns over climate change, congressmen and women have proposed something known as the “Green” New Deal. This is an obvious reference to the New Deal and displays the importance of the Great Depression and Black Tuesday even to this day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_Crash_of_1929
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Black Tuesday is one of the most fascinating events that has happened in US history, in my opinion. The fact that the entire stock market plummeted in one day is insane to think of, and to see how the Great Depression resulted from this is wild.
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I liked the connection to show how the term “New Deal” still resonates with Americans and our culture. Almost as if by using the phrase it can piggy back on the success of the original new deal.
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I like the captions underneath the pictures… it really helped tie the photos into your blog. I also like how you aren’t very biased in your blog. You recount history, and tell it as it was, not as you picture it. This is hard to come by in most historical accounts, so I appreciate your effort to remain unbiased.