Hoover Timeline

December 13, 1880

December 13, 1880 Herbert's father, Jesse Hoover, a blacksmith and farm implement store owner, died.

February 24, 1884

February, 24, 1884 Hoover's mother, Hulda Minthorn Hoover, died.

November 10, 1885

November 10, 1885 Hoover left Iowa to live with his uncle John Minthorn in Newberg, Oregon, where he attended Friends Pacific Academy.

September 1888

John Minthorn helped start the Oregon Land Company in Salem, Oregon where Hoover worked as an office boy while attending the Capital Business College.

October 1, 1891

Hoover entered Stanford University as a member of its pioneer class.

May 26, 1895

Hoover graduated from Stanford with a degree in geology.

1896

Hoover took a job as an office boy for California mining engineer Louis Janin and was promoted to an engineering position.

February 1897

On Janin's recommendation, Hoover was hired by British mining firm of Bewick, Moering & Co., and sent to gold fields of Australia.

February 1899

February 10, 1899 Hoover married Lou Henry, his college sweetheart and fellow geology student, in the parlor of her parents' home in Monterey, California.

February 11, 1899 the Hoovers left for China, where Hoover had been assigned to serve as a mining consultant to the Chinese government.

June 10-23, 1900

The Hoovers were besieged in Tientsen, China during the Boxer Rebellion.

December 18, 1901

Hoover became a partner in Bewick, Moering supervising the firm's worldwide operations. He became known as a "Doctor of Sick Mines."

August 4, 1903

Herbert Hoover, Jr. was born in London.

July 17, 1907

Allan Hoover was born in London.

June 30, 1908

Hoover retired from Bewick, Moering and began his own engineering firm.

1913

Herbert and Lo Hoover's English translation of De Re Metallica, a sixteenth century Latin text on mining, was published.

1914

August 3, 1914 The Hoover's helped Americans stranded in Europe at the beginning of World War I to return home.
November 5, 1914 Hoover organized the Commission for Relief in Belgium, which provided food to four million civilians in Belgium and northern France.

May 5, 1917

After the U.S. entered World War I, Hoover was appointed by President Wilson to be United States Food Administrator to coordinate production and conservation of food supplies.

July 12, 1919

Hoover founded American Relief Administration which fed 17 million people in 21 countries in the aftermath of the war.

March 5, 1921

Hoover was appointed Secretary of Commerce by President Harding; he served in the Cabinets of both Harding and Coolidge.

1922

American Individualism is published, a book in which Hoover outlines the characteristics that made American society unique and successful.

June 25, 1925

Son Herbert Hoover, Jr., married Margaret Eva Watson.

April 27, 1927

The Mississippi River flooded 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.

1928

June 14, 1928 Hoover was nominated for president on the first ballot at the Republican Party National Convention in Kansas City.
November 6, 1928 Hoover was elected President of the United States.
November 19, 1928 Hoover began a seven week tour of Latin America and promised to establish policies that would make the U.S. a good neighbor.

1929

March 4, 1929 Herbert Hoover was inaugurated as 31st President of the United States.
June 15, 1929 After Hoover called a special session of Congress, the Agricultural Marketing Act was passed, which established a Federal Farm Board that worked to stabilize agricultural prices.
October The Wall Street stock market crashed, which signaled the beginning of the Great Depression.
November 19, 1929 Hoover began a series of meetings with business, labor and government leaders called the conference for Continued Industrial Progress in which he secured pledges to maintain current employment and wage levels.

1930

January 1930 Hoover instituted a vigorous public works program in which he authorized $635 million for construction projects.
February 3, 1930 Hoover appointed Charles Evans Hughes Chief Justice of the Supreme court.
June 17, 1930 Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff into law which set tariffs to historically high levels.
July 21, 1930 Hoover combined all federal services into one agency, the Veterans Administration.
September 17, 1930 The Hoover Dam in Navada was dedicated, marking the start of construction. It was completed in 1936.
October 21, 1930 Hoover created the President's Emergency Committee for Employment, which promoted private sector responses to unemployment.

1931

March 3, 1931 President Hoover signed legislation designating The Star Spangled Banner as the national anthem.
August 19, 1931 Hoover established the President's Organization on Unemployment Relief to stimulate and coordinate employment and relief activities.

1932

January 22, 1932 The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was created to make loans to struggling businesses.
June 16, 1932 Hoover was nominated for president on the first ballot at the Republican Party National Convention in Chicago.
July 28, 1932 Hoover ordered federal troops to clear from Washington, D.C., the Bonus Army that was occupying federal buildings and petitioning for an early cash payment of their bonus certificate due in 1945.
November 8, 1932 Hoover lost his bid for re-election to Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1934

Hoover published The Challenge to Liberty, in which he warned that the fundamental principals of liberty were being undermined by fascism, Nazism, socialism, and the New Deal.

1936

October 19, 1936 Hoover was elected chairman of Boys' Clubs of America, a position he held until his death.

1937

March 17, 1937 Allan Hoover married Margaret Coberly in California.

1944

January 7, 1944 Lou Henry Hoover died..

1946

March 17, 1946 Hoover began a world famine survey at President Truman's request. He traveled 35,000 miles through 38 countries over 57 days compiling projected food needs.

1947

July 17, 1947 President Truman appointed Hoover chairman of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, also known as the First Hoover Commission.

1953

September 29. 1953 President Eisenhower named Hoover to head the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, also known as the Second Hoover Commission.

1962

August 10, 1962 Hoover was joined by his friend Harry Truman and together they dedicated the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa.

1964

October 20, 1964 Herbert Hoover died in New York City at the age of 90.
October 25, 1964 Herbert Hoover was buried in West Branch, Iowa in a spot overlooking his birthplace cottage.