The World in 1932 the year shantytowns got a name

Close to one American worker in four had no job. Line up 30 children in a classroom and about seven of them had a parent out of work, with no unemployment insurance to fall back on.

Life back then

Shacks of scrap wood and tar paper spread across empty lots at the edge of big cities, and people named them Hoovervilles after the president. Men sold apples on street corners for five cents because there was nothing else to sell. Cheap fun was the rule, so couples entered dance marathons that ran for days and vacant lots filled up with miniature golf courses. Britain had close to three million people out of work, and the weekly dole came with a means test that counted the furniture in the house.

The year in 8 events

• ⚔️Jan 28 Japanese forces attack Shanghai. Chinese troops hold them off for weeks before a truce ends the fighting.
• 🌉Mar 19 The Sydney Harbour Bridge opens in Australia. A man on horseback slashes the ribbon before the premier can cut it.
• ✈️May 21 Amelia Earhart lands in Northern Ireland, the first woman to fly the Atlantic alone.
• 🏕️Jul 28 US troops clear out the veterans camped in Washington asking for early bonus payments.
• 🏛️Jul 31 Germans vote and the Nazi party wins more seats than any other. Hitler is not chancellor yet.
• 👑Sep 23 Ibn Saud gives his kingdom a new name, Saudi Arabia, after 30 years of taking one region after another.
• 🗳️Nov 8 Franklin Roosevelt beats Herbert Hoover for president by a wide margin.
• 📻Dec 25 King George V reads the first royal Christmas message on the radio. Listeners hear it right across the British Empire.

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