Great depression - Sheet1

Question 1

Clarence Birdseye

Answer 1

Invented Bird’s Eye Frozen Vegetables in 1930, father of the frozen food industry.

Question 2

Motion Picture Production Code

Answer 2

AKA the Hays Code, it was created in 1930 to tame motion pictures now that they had gotten a bit too risqué. It’s a continued point of controversy, regarding how it has stifled American filmmaking when compared to the films of other countries.

Question 3

Charlie Chaplin

Answer 3

A “silent comedian,” this movie star continued to lengthen the silent film style and offer an alternative to the sound film with his trademark tattered suit, derby hat, and cane, playing the “little tramp” who made audiences laugh with his silent jokes.

Question 4

The Shadow

Answer 4

A popular radio serial during the 1930s.

Question 5

Joseph Force Crater

Answer 5

In 1930, this New York City judge disappeared never to be heard from again. This incident added to public disquiet about corruption in city government and was a factor in the downfall of the Tammany Hall political machine.

Question 6

Betty Boop

Answer 6

A highly sexualized cartoon character, whose creation inspired several lawsuits including some filed under the Hays Act.

Question 7

Scotch Tape

Answer 7

An important American invention, introduced in 1930 by 3M.

Question 8

Scottsboro Boys

Answer 8

Nine black boys falsely convicted of rape by an all-White jury in 1931.

Question 9

Empire State Building

Answer 9

Built in 1931 it took the title of tallest building in the world from the Chrysler Building.

Question 10

George Washington Bridge

Answer 10

Connects Manhattan to New Jersey and built during the architectural boom of the 30s.

Question 11

Lindbergh kidnapping

Answer 11

Charles Lindbergh’s son was kidnapped and murdered in 1932, the story was a sensation that lead to federal anti-kidnapping legislation.

Question 12

Bonus Army

Answer 12

A 1932 assemblage of some 43,000 marchers who wanted fair payment for their service in World War I were driven out by Hoover’s administration with tanks and firehoses.

Question 13

Revenue Act of 1932

Answer 13

Under Hoover, the Estate Tax was doubled and for the first time a tax was placed on gas.

Question 14

United States presidential election, 1932

Answer 14

Roosevelt crushed Hoover by avoiding all divisive cultural issues on the campaign and running with Southern conservative Dem. John N. Garner.

Question 15

Dust Bowl

Answer 15

An increase in cultivation lead to soil erosion, in this natural disaster which crippled the midwest during the 1930s.

Question 16

Golden Gate Bridge

Answer 16

A suspension bridge connecting San Francisco to Marin County, built during the 1930s architectural craze.

Question 17

Lone Ranger

Answer 17

A masked former Texas Ranger who fights evil in the Wild West with his Indian friend Tonto. An American cultural icon with a radio show.

Question 18

Giuseppe Zangara

Answer 18

It’s believed this assassin intended to kill FDR in 1933 when he accidentally shot, like, five other people that were standing next to him.

Question 19

King Kong

Answer 19

An iconic 1933 American film.

Question 20

Fireside chats

Answer 20

A series of thirty evening radio addresses given by FDR during his presidency. His cheery voice and disposition allowed him to become one of the most popular presidents ever and hide the ravaging side effects of his polio.

Question 21

Mount Rushmore National Memorial

Answer 21

A sculpture carved into granite. It remains unfinished because of the Great Depression.

Question 22

Executive Order 6102

Answer 22

FDR’s 1933 executive order which criminalized the possession of gold. He claimed possessing gold was worsening the Depression. Shortly after, America moved off the Gold Standard.

Question 23

The AAA

Answer 23

1933- The Agricultural Adjustment Act was a New Deal law, it reduced agricultural production by paying farmers subsidies not to plant on part of their land and to kill off excess livestock. Its purpose was to reduce crop surplus and therefore effectively raise the value of crops. The money for these subsidies was generated through an exclusive tax on companies which processed farm products. The Act created a new agency, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, to oversee the distribution of the subsidies.

Question 24

The TVA

Answer 24

1933- The Tennessee Valley Authority was a New Deal program whose purpose was to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley.

Question 25

1933 United Airlines Boeing 247 mid-air explosion

Answer 25

The bombing of this small plane is the first known act of air terrorism.

Question 26

The CWA

Answer 26

The Civil Works Administration, this New Deal program created many short lived construction jobs which helped many survive the tough winter of 1933-34.

Question 27

The CCC

Answer 27

1933- The Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal work relief program which gave millions of young men the opportunity to work outside.

Question 28

21st Amendment

Answer 28

1933- Repealed the 18th Amendment, and in turn repealing Prohibition.

Question 29

It Happened One Night

Answer 29

A 1934 romantic-comedy starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, it swept at the Academy Awards and was an insanely popular film.

Question 30

John Dillinger

Answer 30

An extremely violent Depression-era bank robber, a particular foe of J. Edgar Hoover.

Question 31

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow

Answer 31

Two storied Depression-era gangsters.

Question 32

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Answer 32

Established by FDR in 1934 to enforce the federal securities laws and regulate the securities industry, the nation’s stock and options exchanges.

Question 33

Ma Barker

Answer 33

The mother of several criminals during the “public enemy era,” although she was shot by the FBI and painted as a brutal crime matriarch these claims are probably untrue.

Question 34

Alcoholics Anonymous

Answer 34

An international mutual aid fellowship founded in 1935.

Question 35

1935 Labor Day hurricane

Answer 35

The strongest hurricane to ever hit the United States it killed hundreds of World War I veterans that were housed in work camps.

Question 36

Social Security

Answer 36

FDR’s 1935 social program gives checks to those in old age and is funded through payroll taxes.

Question 37

1936 North American heat wave

Answer 37

The most severe heat wave in the modern history of North America at the time. It took place in the middle of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and caused catastrophic human suffering and an enormous economic toll.

Question 38

Rainey Bethea

Answer 38

A black man hanged for rape in Kentucky in 1936. Mistakes in performing the hanging and the surrounding media circus contributed to the end of public executions in the United States.

Question 39

Flint Sit-Down Strike

Answer 39

1936-1937 A fringe group called the United Automobile Workers went against General Motors by refusing to work and, as a result, the U.S. auto industry became unionized.

Question 40

LOOK

Answer 40

A bi-weekly general interest magazine similar to Life.

Question 41

Life

Answer 41

Began in the 1880s as a general humor magazine, a takeover in the 1930s rebranded it with an increased focus on photojournalism.

Question 42

New London School explosion

Answer 42

A school explosion in Texas in 1937 left 295 dead.

Question 43

Hindenburg disaster

Answer 43

There were 35 fatalities when this stupid blimp thing caught on fire in 1937. The incident shattered public confidence in the giant, passenger-carrying rigid airship and marked the end of the airship era.

Question 44

Spam

Answer 44

Cheap, pre-cooked meat in a can. American cultural icon.

Question 45

Marijuana Tax Act of 1937

Answer 45

This act placed a tax on the sale of cannabis.

Question 46

Mae West

Answer 46

An American sex symbol who was the first person ever banned from radio, because of her proclivity for double entendres.

Question 47

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Answer 47

(1937) The first full length animated film.

Question 48

Of Mice and Men

Answer 48

(1937) A Dust Bowl-set novella by Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck.

Question 49

March of Dimes

Answer 49

A nonprofit organization began by FDR in 1938 to treat polio victims.

Question 50

Superman

Answer 50

A fictional character and an American cultural icon who emerged when superheroes were very popular during the 1930s.

Question 51

Haggar Clothing

Answer 51

The clothing company which introduced slacks in 1938.

Question 52

Douglas Corrigan

Answer 52

Wrong Way Corrigan, “accidentally” flew from the U.S. to Ireland when he meant to fly West in 1938.

Question 53

The War of the Worlds

Answer 53

Orson Welles’s 1938 radio adaptation of this H.G. Wells novel on Halloween lead to widespread panic.

Question 54

Seabiscuit

Answer 54

A small horse which became an unlikely champion and a symbol of hope to Americans during the Great Depression.

Question 55

War Admiral

Answer 55

An American thoroughbred horse which was defeated by the much smaller Seabiscuit in the Pimlico Special race in 1938.

Question 56

The Grapes of Wrath

Answer 56

(1939) A John Steinbeck realist novel set during the Great Depression about a family driven from their Oklahoma home to California by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes and bank foreclosures.

Question 57

Lou Gehrig

Answer 57

The Iron Horse, This Yankee was reknown for his hitting prowess and durability.

Question 58

The Voyage of the Damned

Answer 58

The 1939 voyage on the MS St. Louis of over 900 Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. They were refused entry in Cuba, and then in Florida. They were forced to return and it is estimated that roughly one quarter of these passengers died in the Holocaust.

Question 59

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Answer 59

A Cooperstown, New York baseball museum opened in 1939.

Question 60

Manhattan Project

Answer 60

Code name for the U.S. effort during World War II to produce the atomic bomb. Much of the early research was done in New York City by refugee physicists in the United States. The program was began by Albert Einstein in 1939 after he wrote a letter to FDR saying he thinks he could create an atomic bomb using uranium.

Question 61

The Wizard of Oz

Answer 61

A groundbreaking culturally iconic 1939 film based on L. Frank Baum’s famous novel and starring Judy Garland.

Question 62

Dr. Gerald J. Cox

Answer 62

The first person to publicly propose fluoridating the public water supply in 1939.

Question 63

Nylon

Answer 63

A stretchy material which was invented by the company DuPont. In it’s early years it was used only for stockings. But it rose in popularity as an alternative to cotton during World War II, and was used in parachutes, tents, and even guns and sausage casings.

Question 64

Gone with the Wind (movie)

Answer 64

An epic 1939 film starring Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Olivia de Havilland and Leslie Howard. It held a very romantic view of the Confederate South in the Civil War and at four hours it was the longest film in American history at the time and immensely popular.

Question 65

Gone with the Wind (novel)

Answer 65

An immensely popular 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell depicting the experiences of spoiled daddy’s girl Scarlett O’Hara who finds herself in poverty after Sherman’s “March to the Sea.”

Question 66

Hydra-Matic

Answer 66

General Motors pioneered this, the first fully automatic mass-produced transmission option, in 1939.