Black Tuesday hit Wall Street in 1929 as investors trade 16,410,030 shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions
of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors, and stock
tickers ran hours behind because the machinery could not
handle the huge volume of trading. In the aftermath of Black
Tuesday, America and the rest of the industrialized world spiraled downward into the Great Depression.
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934)
and Clyde Chestnut Barrow (March 24, 1909 – May 23, 1934)
The criminal couple Bonnie and Clyde traveled the Central United
States with their gang during the Great Depression. The couple
were known for their bank robberies, although they preferred to
rob small stores or rural funeral homes.
Their exploits captured the attention of the American press and
its readership during what is occasionally referred to as the
"public enemy era" between 1931 and 1934, when the couple
were ambushed and shot to death in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
They are believed to have murdered at least nine police officers and
four civilians.
The bullet-riddled car on display after the infamous couple’s
death.
On March 4, 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, Franklin
Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 32nd president of the
United States. In his famous inaugural address, delivered outside
the east wing of the U.S. Capitol, Roosevelt outlined his “New
Deal”—an expansion of the federal government as an instrument
of employment opportunity and welfare—and told Americans that
“the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Although it was a
rainy day in Washington, and gusts of rain blew over Roosevelt
as he spoke, he delivered a speech that radiated optimism a
nd competence, and a broad majority of Americans united
behind their new president and his radical economic proposals
to lead the nation out of the Great Depression.
TIM MIGUIRE
