The Roosevelt New Deal Program The Great Depression was a big event in U.S. history. It lasted through the 1930s and everyone's life changed during that time. One of the causes for the Great Depression was the stock market crash. From the end of World War I in 1919 the stock market prices kept rising. On October 24, 1929 the stock market crashed. Stock prices plummeted. On that one day, the value of stocks fell fourteen billion dollars. Business started to lay off people. Small stores closed there doors. The lower the money got the more people got laid off. Herbert Hoover said the cause was international and that the remedy for it