Franklin Roosevelt

1882 – 1945

On October 29, the New York Stock Exchange collapses in the largest single-day loss in history. The crash triggers the Great Depression—a decade of mass unem…

• 1929 CE

  Black Tuesday: the stock market crashes

  On October 29, the New York Stock Exchange collapses in the largest single-day loss in history. The crash triggers the Great Depression—a decade of mass unemployment, deflation, and despair that transforms the relationship between government and economy and helps bring Hitler to power.

• 1945 CE

  Post-war order: UN, Bretton Woods, Cold War

  Three overlapping architectures emerge from WWII's ashes. The United Nations attempts collective security. The Bretton Woods system builds a dollar-anchored global economy. And the U.S.-Soviet rivalry divides the world into spheres of influence—creating the Cold War framework that dominates the next 45 years.