The Great Depression timeline runs from the end of the U.S. economic expansion in August 1929 to the wartime return to full output and employment in 1941. The October 1929 stock-market crash was a defining early event, but it did not by itself explain the decade-long crisis: banking panics, international financial turmoil, and a renewed recession in 1937 all shaped what followed.
Great Depression timeline: 1929 to 1941
| Date | What happened | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| August 1929 | The economic expansion of the 1920s ended. | Federal Reserve History dates the beginning of the Great Depression to the end of that expansion. Federal Reserve History |
| October 1929 | The stock market crashed. | The crash was a major early shock, but its direct impact faded within months; by fall 1930, recovery appeared imminent. Federal Reserve History |
| November 1930 | A series of commercial-bank crises began. | These banking panics changed what had looked like a more typical recession into the beginning of the Great Depression. Federal Reserve History |
| 1930–31 | Bank panics spread through regional networks, including a further crisis in Chicago in June 1931. | Bank failures and panic deepened the downturn after the initial market shock. Federal Reserve History |
| 1931–33 | National and international financial crises followed. Britain left the gold standard in 1931; the United States left in 1933. | Gold-standard constraints and limited international coordination helped transmit and prolong the crisis across countries. U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian |
| March 1933 | The commercial banking system collapsed, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared a national bank holiday. Banking transactions were suspended for an entire week. | This was the nadir of the U.S. banking crisis and a moment of emergency stabilization. Federal Reserve History; period overview |
| 1933 onward | Financial reforms accompanied recovery, including the Emergency Banking Act of 1933, Banking Act of 1933 (commonly called Glass-Steagall), Gold Reserve Act of 1934, and Banking Act of 1935. | The measures addressed banking and monetary-system problems; they did not make the recovery uninterrupted. Federal Reserve History |
| 1937–38 | A renewed downturn, often described as a double-dip recession, interrupted recovery. | The improvement after 1933 was not smooth or continuous. Federal Reserve History |
| 1941 | During World War II, the United States returned to full output and employment. | Wartime production completed the return from the decade-long crisis. Federal Reserve History; U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian |
What happened during the Great Depression from 1929 to 1941?
The commonly used U.S. period is 1929–1941, but the timeline is best understood as a sequence of related shocks rather than one event. The market crash came first; banking panics turned the downturn into a deeper crisis; international financial links helped spread it; and the recovery suffered another setback before wartime production brought full output and employment back.
The crash was not the whole Depression
The October 1929 crash is the event most associated with the Depression, but Federal Reserve History reports that the crash’s impact faded within months and that recovery appeared possible by fall 1930. The banking crises that began in November 1930 changed the course of the downturn. This distinction matters: a market shock and a collapse in confidence in commercial banks are different stages of a crisis, and the timeline cannot be explained by the crash alone.
The crisis crossed national borders
The gold standard tied countries’ monetary systems together and constrained their ability to respond to economic shocks. The State Department’s Office of the Historian also points to a lack of international coordination as a factor in the Depression’s global spread. Britain left the gold standard in 1931, followed by the United States in 1933. These developments were part of a wider succession of national and international financial crises, not a single synchronized event.
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Banking stabilization did not mean a finished recovery
The March 1933 bank holiday came as the commercial banking system collapsed. The holiday suspended transactions for a week, while subsequent banking and monetary reforms accompanied recovery. Yet the 1937–38 recession interrupted that recovery. The period’s endpoint is therefore not a smooth climb beginning in 1933: Federal Reserve History places the return to full output and employment during World War II.
How severe was the financial contraction?
Federal Reserve History reports that the U.S. money supply fell by nearly 30 percent from fall 1930 through winter 1933. This figure describes the money supply, not GDP or unemployment. The same account explains that deflation raised the burden of debts and contributed to lower consumption, unemployment, and bankruptcies. It does not provide a single harmonized unemployment or GDP series for the full 1929–1941 period, so those measures should not be inferred from the money-supply figure.
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Why historians do not reduce the Depression to one cause
Federal Reserve History describes continuing debate among historians and economists about Federal Reserve decisions. Policymakers faced limited information and disagreement over the appropriate response. The timeline shows several interacting developments—market losses, banking panics, international monetary constraints, and policy choices—rather than establishing one cause as a complete explanation.
In a November 8, 2002 speech at a conference honoring Milton Friedman on his 90th birthday, then-Federal Reserve Governor Ben Bernanke said: “Regarding the Great Depression … we did it. We’re very sorry. … We won’t do it again.” The remark is often cited in discussions of lessons drawn from the Federal Reserve’s role in the Depression. Federal Reserve History
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For a deeper account, Federal Reserve History’s bibliography includes Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz’s The Great Contraction, 1929–1933 and Lester V. Chandler’s America’s Greatest Depression, 1929–1941. View the bibliography at Federal Reserve History.
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