On October 29, 1929, life in the United States took a turn for the worst. The stock market plunged to a record low. But this event was only the beginning of many bad years to come. By the early 1930s, one out of three people was not working. People lost their jobs, their houses, or both and ended up in shantytowns. The Great Depression remains one of the hardest and most widespread tragedies in American history.