Herbert Hoover was the 31st President of the United States (1929-1933). Born in Iowa, Hoover was an experienced engineer who had made a small fortune in mining. He was the first of two Presidents to redistribute their salaries (JFK was the other; he donated all his paychecks to charity). When the Wall Street Crash of 1929 struck less than eight months after Hoover took office, he tried to combat the ensuing Great Depression with government-enforced efforts, public works projects such as the Hoover Dam, tariffs and tax increases. These initiatives did not produce economic recovery during his term, but served as the groundwork for various policies incorporated by Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1947, President Harry S. Truman brought Hoover back to help make the federal bureaucracy more efficient through the Hoover Commission. Hoover was born on this day in 1874.
Note: This is 8-bit U.S. president #18 of 43.
