Misfortunate Monday + Triumphant Tuesday: The California Gold Rush and The Great Depression

     Hello everybody and welcome back to another installment of Nations Made Fun! I'll be your host, Mr. Nations, your tour guide to the wacky history of the world. Today we'll be doing a combination post to make up for my missed post yesterday. The two subjects we'll be doing are going to be the California Gold Rush and the Great Depression. Let's dive straight into it, shall we?

     Misfortunate Monday:

     The Great Depression is well known as one of the worst declines of the modern industrialized economy. It began in 1929, ending in 1939 because of World War II. World War II essentially ended the Great Depression because it employed hundreds of thousands of unemployed and hungry American's into the defense industries. But I digress. By 1933, when many believe that the Great Depression reached its lowest point, some 15,000,000 American's were laid off and nearly half of the country's banks had failed.

     Shortly before the Great Depression, everybody from millionaires to janitors began pouring their life savings into stocks and shares of companies. As the stock prices continued to climb, so did the panic of the investors. People were getting worried because the stock prices continued to rise, even during a mild recession. Nervous investors began selling their stocks, therefore, the stock price dropped like a stone. This then led to one of the worst depressions in American history.

     Stock prices of 1933

     
   

     Triumphant Tuesday:

     The discovery of gold nuggets was arguably one of the most important events to shape California as a whole. Thousands of prospectors and immigrants from all over the world traveled to America with the hopes of finding gold and getting rich. Unfortunately, only a select few people got rich from panning or mining, the rest were entrepreneurs, they were the ones that sold the prospectors their food, mining tools, and clothing.

     Gold was first discovered at John Sutter's mill on January 24th, 1848. As James Marshall recalled that fateful day, he said: "It made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold."

     The gold rush was a crucial part of the development of California's history. More than 750,000 pounds of gold was mined out of the Californian rivers and mountains. I'm sorry guys. I really can't write anymore. Until tomorrow, Mr. Nations out!

     Sources: https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/great-depression-history
     https://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/gold-rush-of-1849