President Franklin D. Roosevelt called December 7, 1941, “a date that will live in infamy.” On this date, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. However, a date that will be infamy can be any tragic or dramatic date in United States history. October 29, 1929 was Black Tuesday because on that day the stock market collapsed. It was on this date that the famous Great Depression was born. Stock prices continued to fall. The crash was the accelerator of the fall of the world economy. In 1932, stocks were worth only about 20 percent of their 1929 value. By 1933, nearly half of America's banks were bankrupt. Unemployment reached nearly 15 million people, or 30 percent of the national working population. Millions of people have lost their homes. They couldn't pay their mortgage. There was no work and therefore no money. They had to travel across the country hoping to find work in order to earn money to support their families. Their basic necessities like food, clothing, shelter and employment were unattainable dreams. Realistic nightmares like illnesses caused by malnutrition were part of daily life. The country was in an apocalyptic state. The effects of this Great Depression affected everyone in the United States. “He produced new laws that gave the government far more power than at any time in our nation's history. It changed American society's outlook on life. In the midst of this hell on Earth, a subcultural phenomenon has been created. Unfortunately, it was true and it developed into a sort of enigmatic heroic epic represented in the character of the Hobo. The term Hobo is defined as a noun, a migrant worker: so used by these workers themselves; a wanderer; tramp. As in the fascinating stories of the legendary cowboy and his horse, middle of paper ...... He hoped for better times and he took the train. He held on to it and the train kept shaking. Works Cited Henretta, James A. and David Brody. America: A Concise History, Volume II: Since 1877. 4th ed., Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2010. Ch. 25, p. 737. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/stock-market-crasheshttp://library.thinkquest.org/3483/Rhist/gd.htmlWebster's New World Dictionary, third academic edition, Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1988, page 641.http://www.northbankfred.com/colin1.htmlhttp://www.northbankfred.com/colin1.htmlhttp://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/water_07.htmlhttp https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/91129%7C0/Wild-Boys-of-the-Road.htmlhttp://www.filmsite.org/sull.htmlhttp://www.npr. org /programs/morning/features/patc/grapesofwrath/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/rails/