Crash and Hoover
This October 1929 day saw nearly 16 million shares traded and is conventionally marked as the crash's worst session.
What is Black Tuesday (October 29)?
FDR closed every bank in the country for four days in March 1933, reopening only those certified sound — in this measure.
What is the bank holiday (Emergency Banking Act)?
This Louisiana senator's "Share Our Wealth" program promised every family $5,000 by confiscating large fortunes.
Who is Huey Long?
Charles Lindbergh became the most famous spokesman for this organization opposing U.S. entry into the European war.
What is the America First Committee?
George Kennan's "Long Telegram" and his 1947 "X" article laid out this strategic doctrine.
What is containment?
This 1930 tariff raised rates to record highs and triggered retaliation that strangled international trade.
What is the Smoot-Hawley Tariff?
This 1933 law separated commercial from investment banking and created federal deposit insurance
What is the Glass-Steagall Act?
The "radio priest" of Detroit turned from supporting FDR to attacking him with increasingly antisemitic broadcasts.
Who is Father Charles Coughlin?
Roosevelt and Churchill issued this August 1941 statement of war aims — self-determination and free trade — months before the U.S. entered.
What is the Atlantic Charter?
Truman's 1947 request for aid to Greece and Turkey pledged support for "free peoples" resisting subjugation, under this name
What is the Truman Doctrine?
Hoover's 1932 agency lent federal money to banks, railroads, and insurance companies, reflecting his belief that relief should "trickle down."
What is the Reconstruction Finance Corporation?
The Supreme Court killed this centerpiece agency in Schechter Poultry (1935), ruling its industry codes an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power.
What is the National Recovery Administration?
This 1935 program created old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, and aid to dependent children — but initially excluded farm and domestic workers.
What is Social Security?
This June 1942 naval battle destroyed four Japanese carriers and turned the Pacific war.
What is Midway?
The Soviet blockade of West Berlin in 1948–49 was defeated by this eleven-month operation.
What is the Berlin Airlift?
Douglas MacArthur's troops burned the Anacostia camp of these World War I veterans in 1932, destroying Hoover's remaining popularity.
What is the Bonus Army (Bonus Expeditionary Force)?
Often called the Wagner Act, this 1935 law guaranteed collective bargaining and created a board to supervise union elections.
What is the National Labor Relations Act?
John Steinbeck's 1939 novel followed the Joad family from Oklahoma to California's migrant camps.
What is The Grapes of Wrath?
The Manhattan Project's scientific director at Los Alamos quoted the Bhagavad Gita after the Trinity test.
Who is J. Robert Oppenheimer?
This 1950 National Security Council document called for a massive peacetime military buildup and tripled defense spending.
What is NSC-68?
Drought plus decades of deep plowing produced this ecological disaster, driving "Okies" westward along Route 66
What is the Dust Bowl?
FDR's 1937 proposal to add a justice for every sitting member over seventy was branded this by critics and split his own party.
What is the court-packing plan?
Black voters shifted decisively from the party of Lincoln to the Democrats in the 1930s, joining this durable electoral alliance of labor, urban ethnics, and the South
What is the New Deal coalition?
This 1944 law funded college tuition, job training, and low-interest home loans for returning veterans, helping build the postwar middle class.
What is the GI Bill (Servicemen's Readjustment Act)?
Eisenhower's defense policy relied on nuclear deterrence rather than conventional forces, promising this response to Soviet aggression.
What is massive retaliation?