1930 – A decade-long drought begins in the Dust Bowl. The drought turned fertile farm regions into virtual deserts in the area stretching from Texas into the Dakotas. Hundreds of thousands of families migrated to California, where employment possibilities were disappointing. Many worked as agricultural migrants, picking fruit and other crops for extremely small wages.

Sinclair Lewis becomes the first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature.

Hart Crane publishes The Bridge.

1931 – Scottsboro defendants arrested. Nine black teenagers were taken off a freight train bound for Scottsboro and arrested for vagrancy and disorderly conduct. Later, two white women, who may have feared arrest themselves for prostitution, accused the boys of rape. Within weeks, all nine defendants had been convicted and sentenced to death, despite evidence that no rape had occurred. The Supreme Court overturned the convictions in 1932, and new trials were ordered that attracted national attention. No Southern jury ever acquitted the youths, but eventually all gained freedom. Charges against four of the defendants were dropped; four were released from prison because of early paroles (the last not until 1950), and one escaped prison. The Scottsboro trials were symptomatic of inflamed racial prejudice throughout the Depression; in the South, lynchings tripled between 1932 and 1933.

Japan takes over Manchuria in direct violation of the Kellogg-Briand Pact (see 1928). The Stimson Doctrine, issued by Secretary of State Henry Stimson, protested the invasion and stated the refusal of the United States to recognize Japan's action as legal. Neither the United States nor any European country did more than protest, as all were reluctant to go to war.

The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) is established to lend money to troubled banks and their chief corporate debtors, like insurance companies and railroads. Within three weeks, bank failures dropped from seventy per week to one every two weeks.

Emergency Relief and Construction Act authorizes the RFC to lend $1.5 billion for public works like toll bridges and slum clearance. Another $300 million went to state loans for the direct relief of the unemployed..

Franklin D. Roosevelt elected president in a landslide victory over Hoover.

1933 – In a flurry of activity, the first 100 days of Roosevelt's administration saw a burst of "New Deal" legislation. The legislation stressed recovery through planning and cooperation with business, while also trying to reform the economic system and bring some immediate relief to the unemployed. Perhaps more than anything else, the New Deal reinstalled hope in the American people.

The repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment ends prohibition.

The U.S. recognizes the Soviet Union and opens formal diplomatic relations.

Roosevelt initiates the Good Neighbor Policy toward Latin America. In December, Secretary of State Cordell Hull signed a formal declaration: "No state has the right to intervene in the internal or external affairs of another." The declaration relieved tensions considerably between the United States and its neighbors. In addition, to improve relations with Cuba, the U.S. renounced the Platt Amendment of 1902s.

Dr. Francis E. Townsend, an elderly Californian physician, devises a plan for federal pensions for the elderly. According to his plan, Americans over the age of 60 would receive a monthly government pension provided they retire (freeing a job for a younger worker) and spend the money in full each month (pumping money into the economy). While the plan made little progress in Congress, Townsend built public support for the Social Security System, which was approved in 1935.

Father Charles E. Coughlin, a Catholic priest in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak, develops a large audience for his weekly radio sermons. Father Coughlin proposed a series of monetary reforms – remonetization of silver, issuing of greenbacks, and nationalization of the banking system – that had little credibility among economists because none encouraged investment, the key to recovery. Nevertheless, Coughlin became an influential figure on the American scene and started his own political organization in 1935, the National Union for Social Justice.

1934 – The Securities and Exchange Commission was established to oversee the stock market.

The Southern Tenant Farmers Union organized by poor black and white farmers. Whereas the Depression generally exasperated race relations, it actually brought blacks and whites together in the Arkansas delta. Although the union was largely ineffective, it did managed to hold together and publish its own newspaper, the Sharecropper's Voice.

The American Liberty League was founded as an anti-Roosevelt and anti-New Deal association. However, despite spending $1 million in advertising, the association gained little support.

Huey Long establishes Share-Our-Wealth Society. Long was a flamboyant personality with dictator-like power in Louisiana, where he built a solid record of conventional progressive accomplishment: constructing roads, schools, and hospitals, revising tax codes and lowering utility rates. His Share-Our-Wealth-Society called for the redistribution of wealth through the tax code. The surplus riches of the wealthy would guarantee every family $5,000 and an annual wage of $2,500. Long was assassinated in 1935 by a constituent in Louisiana whose family had been wronged by the Long political machine.

1935 – In its decision regarding Schecter Poultry Corporation v. United States, the Supreme Court rules that the National Recovery Administration exceeded its power. The NRA was intended to work with industry to control competition and help to effect the recovery of the economy. Even before the ruling, the NRA was largely ineffective and Roosevelt was relieved when the Court's decision forced it to be dissolved.

Senator Gerald Nye of North Dakota chairs committee hearings on World War I industry profits. With war on the horizon in Europe, Nye fueled the cause of isolationists when he and his committee concluded that American corporations made exorbitant profits during World War I. He implied that business interests had actually duped America into the war to protect their investments. (Historians today have very little faith in Nye's findings.)

The first Neutrality Act required an impartial embargo of arms to both sides in a military conflict.

Roosevelt initiates second "New Deal" legislation. Moreso than earlier New Deal legislation, these bills were more openly hostile to big business and the wealthy. A new tax bill, perhaps inspired by a desire to undercut Long's appeal, was labeled by conservatives as a "soak-the-rich" scheme; the Holding Act was designed to break up the great utility holding companies; and the National Labor Relations Act or the Wagner Act forced employers to recognize and negotiate with legitimate unions.

John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers breaks from the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and forms the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) the next year.

Becky Sharp, the first film in color, is produced.

1936 – The second Neutrality Act bans loans or credit to belligerents.

President Roosevelt reelected in a landslide victory over Governor Alfred Landon of Kansas. Roosevelt won the largest electoral vote ever – 523 to 8 – and over 60 percent of the popular vote.

United Auto Workers (UAW) union begins sit-down strikes. To prevent companies from using strikebreakers, employees in several General Motors' plants in Detroit simply sat down and refused to leave or work. General Motors relented and recognized the union when Michigan's governor refused to call in the National Guard to clear the strikers and when the federal government refused to intervene on their behalf.

Eugene O'Neill wins the Nobel Prize for literature.

Margaret Mitchell publishes Gone with the Wind.

1937 – Roosevelt's "court-packing" plan. In response to the Supreme Court who had struck down several New Deal enactments, Roosevelt devised a plan to allow himself to appoint several federal judges, including six to the Supreme Court – such judges, of course, he would expect to be sympathetic to his policies. Conservative opponents were outraged, and many traditional Roosevelt supporters broke with the President here at what they considered his tampering with the almost sacred institution of the court. As the controversy raged, the Supreme Court upheld contested New Deal legislation, like the National Labor Relations Act and the Social Security Act, and made the legislation for new judges seem politically unnecessary. On the one hand, the controversy softened the Court, but on the other, it did lasting political damage to the administration, as it broke party unity. Southern Democrats, in particular, began to vote against Roosevelt more often than they had in the past. By the end of the year, when Justice Willis Van Devanter retired, Roosevelt made his first Supreme Court appointment.

The third Neutrality Act issues a cash-and-carry policy. Countries at war could buy supplies other than munitions, but they would have to pay in advance and carry the supplies on their own ships.

In October, Roosevelt delivers his "quarantine" speech. In response to Japan's intensification of its six-year-old assault on China, Roosevelt stated that such aggressive states should be "quarantined" by the international community to prevent the contagion of war from spending.

In December, the Panay incident occurs. Japanese aviators bombed the United States gunboat Panay as it sailed the Yangtze River in China. Although the action was almost certainly deliberate, Roosevelt was reluctant to antagonize the isolationists and accepted Japan's apologies for what Japan said had been an accidental bombing.

Severe recession strikes. With the road to recovery looking promising, Roosevelt cut federal spending. He slashed the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in half, causing 1.5 million relief workers to lose their jobs. These cuts in federal spending and several other causes resulted in a severe recession, plunging economic conditions almost back to the bleakest days of the Depression in 1932.

1938 – The Fair Labor Standards Act sets minimum wages and maximum hours.

Congress establishes Temporary National Economic Committee. In response to Roosevelt's concerns about what he called an "unjustifiable concentration of economic power," Congress created the TNEC to examine this concentration of power and to recommend reform in the antitrust laws.

New Deal ends. Although the New Deal lasted only five years and although it never infused enough money into the economy to end the Depression – the economic boom of World War II did that – the New Deal had a powerful influence on America and American politics. Consider the following:

The Munich Pact appeases Hitler. In March, Nazi troops marched into Austria in violation of the Versailles Treaty, and Hitler proclaimed a union between Austria and Germany. A few months later, he threatened to invade Czechoslovakia. At Munich, the leaders of France and Great Britain appeased Hitler by granting him the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia for Hitler's pledge to expand no further in Europe. Hitler agreed and the English and French leaders left feeling triumphant. Six months later, Hitler took over the remainder of Czechoslovakia.

Orson Welles frightens listeners with his radio broadcast of "Invasion from Mars."

1939 – Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact shocks the world. The agreement freed Hitler to invade Poland without Soviet opposition, and allowed Stalin to bring eastern Poland, the Baltic states, and parts of Romania and Finland into the Soviet sphere.

World War II begins. France and England declared war on Germany when Hitler invaded Poland.

John Steinbeck publishes The Grapes of Wrath.

African-American contralto Marian Anderson performs a concert on Easter Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial. The Daughters of the American Revolution refused to permit Anderson to sing at Constitution Hall because of her race. Eleanor Roosevelt quit the organization in protest, and she and Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes found another site.

1940 – The Tripartite Pact links Germany, Italy, and Japan as allies. The European Axis, however, never developed a strong relationship with Japan.

Germany launches a blitzkrieg against the Low Countries and France. In the spring, Germany captured Denmark and Norway, and then Belgium and Holland in just twenty-three days. Now with a route into France, German forces marched to Paris and France surrendered by late June.

The America First Committee is formed by isolationists to keep America out of the war.

Roosevelt supports peacetime draft.

President Roosevelt reelected to an unprecedented third term. Roosevelt kept secret his desire for a third term. He did not openly campaign for the Democratic nomination, but he stated that he would accept his party's nomination if he were drafted – which, as he expected, he was. The general election was closer than either of his other presidential races, but he still won a decisive victory over Wendell Willkie, an Indiana businessman.

Roosevelt negotiates a destroyers-for-bases deal with Great Britain. To circumvent the Neutrality Act of 1937, Roosevelt gave England fifty American destroyers in return for the right to build American bases on British territory in the Western Hemisphere. Roosevelt also returned a number of new airplanes to the factories so England could buy them instead.

Richard Wright publishes Native Son.

Ernest Hemingway publishes For Whom the Bell Tolls.

1941 – Roosevelt provides England with his Land-lease plan. With England virtually bankrupt, Roosevelt decided to "lend" arms and supplies to England, whose defense, most agreed, was vital to the United States. Roosevelt likened his plan to lending a garden hose to a neighbor whose house is on fire.

The Atlantic Charter is issued by the United States and England. Winston Churchill and Roosevelt were in daily contact since Great Britain entered the war. They held a secret meeting off the coast of New Foundland, where their friendship was cemented – a key to Allied victory – and where they issued the Atlantic Charter. The Atlantic Charter condemned "Nazi tyranny" and reaffirmed the "Four Freedoms" of speech and expression, of worship, from want, and from fear. The Charter was a kind of unofficial statement of war aims.

With Japanese forces in control of China's major cities and its coast, and as Japan prepares to attack French Indochina (present-day Vietnam), Roosevelt takes action. He arranged an embargo of trade with Japan; he froze Japanese assets in American banks, and he barred shipments of vital scrap and petroleum to Japan. The two countries attempted to negotiate. The United States demanded that Japan leave China and renounce the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, and Japan demanded that its new territories be recognized. No agreement could be reached.

On December 7, Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, America's most important Pacific naval base. After more than an hour of heavy pounding, 2,400 hundred soldiers and sailors had died and another 1,000 were injured. Nineteen American ships were sunk or battered, and almost all of the two hundred aircrafts destroyed or damaged. Only aircraft carriers on maneuvers escaped without damage. America entered World War II.

Within days of Pearl Harbor, Germany and Italy declare war on the United States.

Orson Welles directs and stars in Citizen Kane.

Soviets defend Stalingrad. From August until February 1943, Axis and Soviet forces, each with more than a million troops, fought one of the bloodiest campaigns of the war. Each side lost more men in the Battle of Stalingrad than the United States did in the entire war. When it was over, Germany had lost its momentum and a staggering number of soldiers, and Russia decided to go on the offensive, moving through the Ukraine toward Poland and Romania.

Japanese-Americans interned. In response to pressure from military officials and political leaders on the West Coast, Roosevelt authorized the military to "intern" Japanese Americans. More than 100,000 people were told to dispose of their property, which in many cases meant abandonment, and were forced to enter "relocation centers," facilities little different from prisons. Many Japanese Americans were forced to spend three years in the camps, away from lucrative employment and decent schools for their children. No form of compensation was granted until the late 1980s.

Manhattan Project begins. When news reached Roosevelt that the fission research in Germany could lead the Nazis to develop atomic weapons, Roosevelt committed the United States to the largest research and development effort in history, code-named the Manhattan Project. More than 100,000 scientists, engineers, technicians, and support workers from the United States, Canada, and England worked to build the atomic bomb.

CORE founded. The Congress of Racial Equality challenged segregation and discrimination. More aggressive than previous civil rights organizations, CORE organized sit-ins, rallies, and demonstrations. Their bold spirit of defiance helped to develop the civil rights movement.

1943 – Americans capture Guadacanal. In one of the most ferocious battles of World War II, American troops invaded the island of Guadacanal, which Japan had seized earlier in the war. After six months of combat, the United States was victorious and stopped the threat of any further Japanese strikes in the South Pacific. With aid from New Zealand and Australia, the United States began the slow and difficult advance towards the Philippines and Japan itself.

1944 – American and British bombers strike Germany. Around the clock bombings of German industrial installations and other targets crippled production and impeded transportation. Especially hard hit were Leipzig, Berlin, and Dresden, where a great firestorm destroyed about three-fourths of the undamaged part of the city and killed approximately 135,000 mostly civilians.

Battle of the Bulge. In the last major battle on the western front, German forces attacked from desperation along a fifty mile front in the Ardennes Forest. The Germans succeeded only momentarily in pushing back the Allied forces. By the end of the battle, nothing stood between the Allies and Berlin.

Roosevelt reelected to a fourth term. Despite obviously declining health, Roosevelt accepted the Democratic nomination. Conservative democrats, however, lobbied to be certain that Roosevelt's liberal vice president, Henry Wallace, would not be on the ticket. Loyal Democrat Harry S. Truman of Missouri became the party's choice for the vice-presidential nomination. Roosevelt defeated Thomas Dewey in the presidential election by a wide margin of electoral votes, but a closer popular vote than expected: 53.5 percent to 46 percent.

Americans capture Philippines. General Douglas MacArthur led the attack on the Philippines. Backed by over one hundred ships, the general landed on the island of Leyte in October 1944. The Americans suffered large casualties before taking the Philippines, but a dramatic U.S. Naval victory at the Battle of Leyte Gulf effectively ended the power of the Japanese Imperial Navy and gave the United States a decisive edge in the war effort.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (later the World Bank) created. The IMF was designed to promote trade by stabilizing national currencies, while the World Bank was founded to stimulate economic growth by investing in worldwide projects.

1945 – In February, with victory seemingly assured, Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill meet at Yalta. The Big Three agreed to the establishment of the United Nations, but they failed to reach conclusive decisions on the futures of Poland and Germany. Roosevelt argued for a reunited Germany that, under careful Allied supervision, would be permitted to develop a prosperous economy that would help fuel Europe's economy. Stalin wanted to impose heavy reparations and permanent dismemberment of Germany. They decided that the U.S., Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France would each occupy zones within Germany and, at some later date, the country would be reunified. In the weeks following, Roosevelt watched with alarm as the Soviet Union systematically established pro-Communist governments in one Central or Eastern European nation after another.

On April 12, Roosevelt dies. While sitting for a portrait, the president complained of a headache. He then suffered a stroke and died two hours later. Truman became president.

In the costliest battle in the history of the Marine Corps, American troops seize Iwo Jima, only 750 miles from Tokyo.

In May, American bombers drop napalm on Tokyo. In the resulting firestorm, 80,000 people died.

Americans capture Okinawa, an island only 370 miles south of Japan. Over 3,500 kamikaze pilots attacked U.S. and British ships while Japanese ground troops launched desperate midnight attacks on the American lines. The United States lost 50,000 men before finally taking Okinawa, while the Japanese lost 100,000 in the island's defense.

With Allied forces in Germany and the war lost, Hitler kills himself in his bunker in Berlin. The German forces surrendered unconditionally on May 8. V-E Day (Victory in Europe) prompted huge celebrations throughout western Europe and the United States. War with Japan continued however.

Allied troops liberate German concentration camps. Over 6 million Jews and 4 million others were killed in these death camps.

Potsdam Conference. In July, Truman, Churchill, and Stalin met in Potsdam in Russian-occupied Germany. The two major issues were Germany's political fate and how much the defeated nation would pay in war reparations. Truman and Churchill refused to permit Germany to claim reparations from the American, British, and French occupied zones. Stalin would have to be content with reparations from the Soviet's zone only. This stance confirmed that Germany would remain divided, with western zones allied to the United States and eastern ones allied to the Soviet Union. Truman, however, accepted Stalin's adjustment of the Polish-Russian border, and the U.S. recognized the communist government in Poland.

U.S. drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On August 6, an American B-29, the Enola Gay, dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, an industrial center of Japan. Stunned by the attack, the Japanese government could not agree on a response. Two days later, the Soviet Union fulfilled Stalin's pledge at Yalta and declared war on Japan. The following day, the U.S. dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Japan surrendered, and signed the articles of surrender on September 2 aboard the battleship Missouri, thus ending World War II.