The Presidential Timeline of the Twentieth Century

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Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover lived his life as a humanitarian. His strong belief in service to his fellow man permeated his life and presidency and inspired the nation. An ardent progressive, his early social, economic and environmental reforms were largely overshadowed by the Great Depression.

Early Life and Career

August 10, 1874 - March 4, 1929

Herbert Hoover was born in West Branch, Iowa, on August 10, 1874, to Jesse Hoover, a blacksmith, and Hulda Minthorn Hoover, a seamstress and recorded minister in the Society of Friends (Quakers). Hoover lived in Iowa for a decade and, after being orphaned at the age of nine, moved to the home of an uncle in Oregon. In Oregon, Hoover received an elementary and secondary education and decided to pursue a science degree at the newly opened Stanford University in 1891. At Stanford, he participated in extracurricular activities, was student body treasurer and met his future wife Lou Henry. After graduating from Stanford in 1895, Hoover built a successful career in international mining. The wealth he amassed as an engineer allowed Hoover to focus his life on humanitarian efforts. In Europe during World War I, he aided Americans stranded in Europe and established the Commission for Relief in Belgium to feed the civilian population. His humanitarian efforts catapulted him into the national spotlight and into a career in public service. Hoover served as U.S. Food Administrator (1917-1919), Director General of the American Relief Administration (1919-1923) and U.S. Secretary of Commerce (1921-1928) before winning the 1928 Republican presidential nomination. He went on to defeat Alfred E. Smith, the Democratic governor of New York, in a landslide.

August 10, 1874: Herbert Clark Hoover is born in West Branch, Iowa, to Jesse and Hulda Minthorn Hoover.
December 13, 1880: Hoover's father Jesse a blacksmith and farm implement store owner, dies of typhoid fever.
February 24, 1884: Hoover’s mother Hulda Minthorn Hoover dies of pneumonia.
November 10, 1885: Hoover leaves Iowa to live with his uncle John Minthorn in Newberg, Oregon, where he attends Friends Pacific Academy.
September 1888: Hoover works as office boy in his uncle’s real estate office in Salem while attending night school and learning bookkeeping, typing and math. He does not attend high school.
October 1, 1891: Hoover enters Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, as a member of the “Pioneer” class.
May 26, 1895: Hoover graduates with a degree in geology. After working for the U.S. Geological Survey during the summer, he works in a California gold mine pushing ore carts ten hours a day for 20 cents an hour.
1896: Hoover takes a job as a typist in the California engineering office of Louis Janin and soon is promoted to an assistant mining engineer.
February 1897: On his former employer Louis Janin’s recommendation, Hoover is hired by the British mining firm of Bewick, Moreing and Co. and is sent to gold fields in western Australia.
February 10, 1899: Hoover marries Lou Henry, his college sweetheart and fellow geology student, in the parlor of her parents’ home in Monterey, California.
February 11, 1899: Newly wed, Herbert and Lou Henry leave for China, where Hoover has been assigned to act as a mining consultant to the Chinese government.
June 10, 1900: Hoover is besieged in Tientsen, China, during the Boxer Rebellion.
December 18, 1901: Hoover becomes a partner in Bewick, Moering and Co. and travels all over the world supervising the firm’s operations.
August 4, 1903: Son Herbert Hoover, Jr., is born in London.
July 17, 1907: Son Allan Hoover is born in London.
July 22, 1908: Hoover retires from Bewick, Moreing and begins his own engineering firm with offices in the U.S. and Europe. He becomes known as the “Doctor of Sick Mines.”
1913: Herbert and Lou Hoover complete the English translation of De Re Metallica, a sixteenth century Latin text on mining, for which they receive a gold medal from the Mining & Metallurgical Society of America in 1914.
August 3, 1914: At the beginning of World War I, Hoover organizes and directs the American Citizens’ Relief Committee that helps tens of thousands of Americans stranded in Europe to return home.
November 5, 1914: Hoover organizes and directs the Commission for Relief in Belgium, which provides food to nine million civilians in Belgium and northern France.
May 5, 1917: After the U. S. enters World War I, President Wilson appoints Hoover to head the United States Food Administration, which coordinates production and conservation of food supplies.
November 16, 1918: Hoover sails to Europe to organize food relief and also to serve as an informal advisor to President Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference.
July 12, 1919: Hoover founds the non-profit American Relief Administration, which feeds 350 million people in 21 countries in the aftermath of the war.
October 2, 1919: Hoover delivers an address supporting the League of Nations at his alma mater, Stanford University.
March 5, 1921: Hoover is appointed Secretary of Commerce by President Harding and serves in the cabinets of both Harding and Coolidge.
September 26, 1921: First meeting of the Unemployment Conference in Washington, D.C. President Harding had appointed Hoover the conference chair. Approximately 3.5 million are unemployed throughout the nation.
December 17, 1921: President Harding appoints Hoover chairman of the Colorado River Commission. The commission will resolve a number of issues and make it possible to build the Hoover Dam.
1922: Hoover publishes American Individualism, which articulates his analysis of the spiritual, economic and political characteristics that make American society unique and successful.
October 24, 1922: Hoover agrees to serve as president of the American Child Health Association, which advocates and educates regarding child health problems.
March 14, 1924: President Coolidge appoints Hoover chairman of the St. Lawrence Commission of the United States, which serves as a consultant to the government regarding the development of a St. Lawrence Waterway.
December 15, 1924: Hoover convenes the first National Conference on Street and Highway Safety. One result of the conference is the development of a uniform motor vehicle code.
June 25, 1925: Son Herbert Hoover, Jr., marries Margaret Eva Watson at the Stanford University Chapel in Palo Alto, California.
April 27, 1927: A live image of Secretary Hoover is transmitted by AT&T from Washington, D.C., to New York in the first successful long distance demonstration of television.
April 27, 1927: The Mississippi River floods over 20,000 square miles of land, killing more than 300 people and putting another 600,000 out of their homes. Hoover coordinates the relief efforts of eight government agencies, the Red Cross and 91 local communities.
February 12, 1928: Hoover formally announces his candidacy for President of the United States.
June 14, 1928: Hoover is nominated for president on the first ballot at the Republican Party National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri.
November 6, 1928: Hoover is elected President of the United States.
November 19, 1928: Hoover begins a seven week good will tour of Latin America promising to establish policies that would make the U.S. a “good neighbor.”

Presidency

March 4, 1929 - March 4, 1933

As president, Hoover hoped to govern in the progressive tradition of Theodore Roosevelt. He devoted the first eight months of his presidency to social, economic and environmental reforms. Following the stock market crash of October 1929, Hoover became increasingly preoccupied with the collapse of the American economy. He established new agencies including the Federal Farm Board, the Federal Drought Relief Committee and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation; all created with the purpose of stimulating the economy and decreasing unemployment. The president would not, however, provide direct federal relief to the unemployed. As an alternative, he promoted indirect relief through public works projects spending more than $3.5 billion on these projects between 1930 and 1933. It was too little avail, however, as the number of the unemployed increased from seven million in 1931 to eleven million in 1933. The president’s political reputation plummeted in the face of rising unemployment. He nonetheless mounted a vigorous campaign for reelection in 1932 and traveled the country by train defending his policies at every stop. It came as no surprise to Hoover that he lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt in the general election.

March 4, 1929: Hoover is inaugurated as thirty-first President of the United States.
March 22, 1929: Despite personal opposition to the national origins clause of the Immigration Act of 1924, Hoover’s proclamation establishes the quota for each country beginning on July 1. The quota is based on the number of people from the nation of origin residing in the United States in 1920.
June 15, 1929: The Agricultural Marketing Act is passed, establishing a Federal Farm Board that works to stabilize prices and to promote cooperatives.
July 24, 1929: Hoover proclaims in effect the Kellogg-Briand pact, which renounces the use of war as an instrument of national policy. The Pact will eventually have a total of 62 nations as signatories.
September 26, 1929: Hoover establishes the Research Committee on Recent Social Trends, which conducts the first national study in which sociology plays a major role.
October 24, 1929: The Wall Street stock market crashes, culminating in “Black Tuesday,” considered by many to be the worst day in stock market history. The crash becomes a contributing factor to the Great Depression.
November 19, 1929: Hoover begins a series of meetings with business, labor and government leaders called the Conference for Continued Industrial Progress in which he secures pledges to maintain current employment and wage levels.
January 1930: Hoover institutes a vigorous public works program in which he authorizes $635 million for construction projects.
February 3, 1930: Hoover appoints Charles Evans Hughes as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
May 26, 1930: Hoover signs the Ransdell Act, establishing the National Institute of Health and affirming public funding of medical research.
June 17, 1930: Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley Tariff into law which sets tariffs to historically high levels.
July 21, 1930: Hoover combines all federal services for veterans into one agency, the Veterans Administration.
September 17, 1930: Dedication of the Hoover Dam in Nevada, marking the start of construction. It is completed in 1936.
October 21, 1930: Hoover creates the President’s Emergency Committee for Employment, which promotes private sector responses to unemployment.
November 19, 1930: Hoover convenes the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection, which evaluates the national state of child care and makes recommendations for child welfare services on all governmental levels.
December 20, 1930: The Drought Relief Bill is passed, authorizing $45 million for relief in Midwestern and Southern states.
January 7, 1931: Arthur Woods, chairman of the President’s Emergency Committee for Employment, testifies before the Senate Appropriations Committee that there are between four and five million unemployed in the nation.
March 3, 1931: Hoover signs legislation designating “The Star-Spangled Banner” the national anthem.
April 29, 1931: Hoover receives King Prajadhipok of Siam, the first absolute monarch to visit the U.S.
June 20, 1931: Hoover proposes a moratorium on war debts in order to help stabilize the world banking system.
August 19, 1931: Hoover establishes the President’s Organization on Unemployment Relief to stimulate and coordinate employment and relief activities.
September 18, 1931: The Japanese march into Manchuria violating the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which renounces the use of war as an instrument of national policy.
January 22, 1932: The Reconstruction Finance Corporation is created to make loans to struggling businesses.
March 23, 1932: Hoover signs the Norris-La Guardia Bill, which affirms the right to collective bargaining and outlaws the use of injunctions to prevent strikes, picketing and boycotts.
April 4, 1932: Hoover sends a message to Congress on the necessity of balancing the budget with legislation. He will do so again in May.
June 10, 1932: Hoover delivers a commencement address at Howard University in Washington, D.C., on the preparation of African-Americans to become leaders of their race.
June 16, 1932: Hoover is nominated for president on the first ballot at the Republican Party National Convention in Chicago.
June 21, 1932: Hoover signs the Federal Home Loan Bank Act, establishing home loan banks throughout the nation to make loans to familes to stimulate construction and employment.
July 28, 1932: Hoover orders federal troops to clear from Washington, D.C., the “Bonus Army” that is occupying federal buildings and petitioning for an early cash payment of their bonus certificate due in 1945.
November 8, 1932: Hoover loses his bid for re-election to Franklin D. Roosevelt.
November 11, 1932: The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetary is dedicated.
January 23, 1933: The Twentieth Amendment to the Consitution, requiring Congress to convene each year on January 3 and the President to take office on January 20, is ratified when Missouri becomes the thirty-sixth state to ratify the amendment.

Post-Presidency

March 4, 1933 - October 20, 1964

In the wake of his defeat, Hoover departed Washington on March 4, 1933. He devoted the next 12 years to writing books, speaking to the public and serving as chairman of a number of philanthropic organizations. He remained staunchly opposed to Roosevelt’s New Deal policies. In late May 1945, only six weeks after Roosevelt’s death, Hoover met with President Harry Truman, and the two men planned for the recovery of postwar Europe. At Truman’s request, Hoover traveled the world to personally assess the world’s food needs and eventually lobbied his fellow Republicans to support Truman’s food relief programs. Hoover and Truman also joined forces from 1947 to 1949 to reorganize the executive branch of the federal government. The “Hoover Commission’s” recommendations led to a streamlined, more efficient post-war government. At Dwight Eisenhower’s request, he went on to chair a second Hoover Commission from 1953 to 1955. Herbert Hoover died on October 20, 1964, after having lived as a former president longer than any man before him. After a brief ceremony in New York, his body lay in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. On October 29, the body of Herbert Hoover was interred in a simple grave on an Iowa hill overlooking the cottage where he was born.

1934: Hoover publishes The Challenge to Liberty in which he warns that the fundamental principles of liberty are being undermined by statist philosophies such as fascism, Nazism, socialism and Roosevelt’s New Deal.
October 19, 1936: Hoover is elected chairman of Boys’ Clubs of America, a position he holds until his death. During his tenure the organization expands from 140 to over 640 clubs and sets a goal of 1,000 clubs for one million boys.
March 17, 1937: Son Allan Hoover marries Margaret Coberly in California.
September 25, 1939: Hoover establishes a Commission for Polish Relief, Inc., to provide food and clothing for refugees and the destitute.
December 6, 1939: Hoover establishes the Finnish Relief Fund, Inc.
November 18, 1940: Hoover establishes the National Committee on Food for Small Democracies to coordinate relief activities in Europe.
January 7, 1944: Lou Henry Hoover dies after years of public service, especially to the Girl Scouts of America and the Women’s Division of the National Amateur Athletic Association.
March 17, 1946: Hoover begins a post-war world famine survey at President Truman's request. He travels 35,000 miles through 38 countries over 57 days in the plane The Faithfull Cow.
July 17, 1947: Hoover is appointed chairman of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government by President Truman. The commission is later called the First Hoover Commission.
September 29, 1953: President Eisenhower names Hoover to head the Second Hoover Commission to study the executive branch.
July 4, 1958: In his last official act, Hoover serves as the United States’s representative to the World’s Fair
August 10, 1962: Hoover is joined by his friend Harry Truman to dedicate the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa.
October 20, 1964: Herbert Hoover dies in New York City at the age of 90. After ceremonies in New York and Washington, D.C., he is buried in West Branch, Iowa.