Which US president signed the Emergency Banking Act during the banking crisis accompanying the 1933 market crash?

Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Emergency Banking Act during the banking crisis accompanying the 1933 market crash.

Roosevelt became president on March 4, 1933, while thousands of American banks were closed or unable to meet withdrawals. He called Congress into a special session, and lawmakers passed the Emergency Banking Act on March 9. The law gave the federal government greater authority to inspect banks and reopen institutions judged financially sound.

A nationwide bank holiday had begun on March 6, temporarily suspending ordinary banking operations. Roosevelt explained the emergency and the reopening plan in his first radio “fireside chat” on March 12. Depositors returned money to banks after reopening, helping stabilize the system.

The legislation addressed the banking collapse rather than directly fixing stock prices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen sharply from its 1929 peak, and the market reached its 1932 low before the 1933 banking measures. The Banking Act of 1933, which created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, followed later that year.