ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Timeline of the Great Depression

The Great Depression was a very hard time for a lot of people in the United States. It started in 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s.

A long time ago, people didn't have as much money to buy things like cars, clothes, and food. They didn't have jobs, and the banks where they saved their money were closing, and people started losing their homes, farms, and businesses.

In 1929, a big crash happened on the stock market, which is like a big shop where people can buy and sell shares of companies. When the stock market crash happened, people lost a lot of their money, and companies lost a lot of their value.

People began losing their jobs because there weren't many jobs available, and they didn't have enough money to pay for their homes and food. Families started to be hungry and homeless.

The government tried to help in many ways. They created jobs to help get people working again and gave out food and money to those who needed it. However, it took a long time before things got better, and it was only when the United States began to prepare for World War II and started producing more goods and hiring more people that the economy got better.

The Great Depression was a sad time in history, but people learned from it and made laws and changes to help prevent it from happening again.