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* 1923 - 1926: Real estate boom hits Greensboro.

* 1926: North Carolina tobacco sells for 26 cents a pound.

* 1928: Greensboro real estate and construction boom is over, leaving mortgage debt, bankruptcy and unemployment of construction workers. U.S. construction is down $2 billion since 1926

* May 1928 through September 1929: Prices of average stocks rises 40 percent.

* 1929: N.C. cotton sells for more than 30 cents a pound. The state produces $62.4 million worth of cotton.

* Feb through Oct 1929: U.S. auto sales decline by a third.

* August 1929: Recession begins; production declines 20 percent, wholesale prices 7.5 percent and personal income 5 percent.

* Oct. 1929: North Carolina employs about 209,000 industrial workers.

* The stock market crash begins on October 24 (Black Thursday); Losses for the month total $16 billion.

* 1929 to 1930: N.C. public health doctors discover that out of the 140,000 school children in forty-one counties, 23,000 suffer from malnutrition.

* 1929 to 1932: 10,000 U.S. banks fail or 40 percent of the 1929 total; $2 billion deposits lost. Money supply contracts 31 percent. GNP falls 31 percent. 13 million unemployed; farm prices fall 53 percent.

* 1930: Eighty-eight N.C. banks fail.

* Dec 1930: N.C. governor appoints a Council on Unemployment and Relief. The Council organizes relief committees in eighty-two counties.

* 1931: N.C. General Assembly votes to take over the maintenance of all roads.

* Dec 30, 1931: the United Bank & Trust Company, one of Greensboro's two commercial banks fails, reorganizes and reopens in July, 1932, and fails again on February 8, 1933.

* 1932: N.C. cotton sells for 6.5 cents a pound (down 80 percent from 1929). North Carolina's cotton crop is only worth $19.5 million.

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1932 and 1933: are the worst years of the Great Depression. Cotton mill workers in High Point, Rockingham and other towns strike because of lowered wages (12 cents an hour at one mill).

* March 1933: Greensboro's second bank fails.

* 1933: The National Recovery Administration (NRA) is established in June; more than 27,000 men participate in the 61 CCC camps in North Carolina.

* 1933: The value of Greensboro building permits are 4.1 percent of 1926 permits.

* Greensboro Bank debits (checks written on individual accounts) in 1933 are 21.5 percent of what they were in 1926. Two hundred-thirty-three N.C. building and loan associations fail.

* 1933: N.C. furniture manufacturing falls from a high of $53.6 million in 1929 to a low of $26.6 million.

* March 1933: Roosevelt inaugurated; third banking panic occurs. Roosevelt declares a Bank Holiday and closes financial institutions to stop a run on the banks. By fall of 1933, U.S. unemployment is 24.9 percent and many employed work part-time or on shortened weeks. 100 additional mills in N.C. go on strike.

* 1933: Family Service Agency is reorganized as the Greensboro Board of Charities and Public Welfare. Case load went from 846 in 1928 to 3,845 in 1933.

* 1933: Pledges to the Greensboro Community Chest decreased from $89,858.67 in 1927 to $49,565.94, a 45 percent drop in donations.

* 1933-34 school year average salary for Greensboro teachers falls over 50 percent from the 1928-29 salary. 9,000 books are bought for school libraries in 1928-29; none are bought in 1933-34.

* 1935-1938: The Works Progress Administration (WPA) in N.C. is funded at $175 million and employs thousands.

* 1936: North Carolina creates an Unemployment Compensation Commission.

* Sep. 10, 1936: Roosevelt visits Greensboro, says the country enjoys ‘Practical Prosperity'. His train stopped for 2 minutes in High Point.

* 1938: Congress passes a Wages and Hours Act providing a minimum wage and a maximum workweek of forty-four hours for industries that manufactures goods that move through interstate commerce.

* 1938: 120 new N.C. industries are established and 68 existing plants enlarged.

* 1939: U.S. borrows and spends $1 billion to build its armed forces. U.S. unemployment falls to 17.2 percent. Sep 1939, President Roosevelt dedicates the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

* 1940: N.C. tourism grows to $102 million industry.

* 1941: U.S. enters World War II and manufacturing increases by 50 percent. By Dec. national income is 40 percent above its 1939 level.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Commerce, N.C. Museum of History, "A City In Depression - Greensboro, North Carolina" by Albert S. Keister, North Carolina through Four Centuries, by William S. Powell, North Carolina in theGreat Depression, compiled by Anita Price Davis

Compiled by Diane Lamb, News & Record Researcher