2020: Just one of many hard years in American history

The year of 2020 is in its final days, and few are sorry to see it go. Rarely has a year in American history caused so many forms of upheaval.

For historians, the definition of a tough year is subjective. Hard times can take the form of widespread economic downturn and job losses, foul weather, and racial, political or social unrest, to name a handful.

Like few other years, 2020 managed to include a multitude of those problems. But since Americans declared independence in 1776, there have been many hard years in the nation caused by various factors.

Though history remembers 1776 for the Declaration of Independence, it was actually one of the worst for the Continental cause. Gen. George Washington had been driven out of the pivotal stronghold of New York City that autumn and barely escaped the pursing British. By winter, his underfed, poorly supplied army languished in frigid conditions in camp in Pennsylvania as the American cause teetered on the brink of collapse.

Several comparisons have been drawn between the current pandemic and the so-called Spanish influenza outbreak of 1918, which was actually more deadly. The influenza epidemic killed up to 50 million worldwide, including 675,000 in the United States. Many of the American deaths were within a few weeks in the fall of 1918.

The U.S. was also in combat in 1918, as American troops were on European soil during World War I. The next year, 1919, also had a list of troubles as the epidemic continued and economic instability set in. So many deadly race riots dotted the nation at midyear that a gruesome nickname arose - the "Red Summer of 1919."

Economic downturns have also wrecked plenty of other years - the U.S. normally suffers sharp recessions once a generation, such as the panics of 1837, 1857, 1873 and 1893. However, nothing compared to the Great Depression, the worst economic tragedy in American history.

In January 1933, some 1.5 million Illinoisans were out of work, a significant percentage in a total population of 7.6 million. Between 1925, at the height of the Roaring Twenties, and 1932, payrolls dropped 53% in Peoria, 63% in Decatur and 80% in Rock Island. Payrolls in Moline in that span decreased a staggering 93%.

Unemployment in Chicago stood at 40% in 1932, while worker pay was slashed up to 50%. Chicago public schoolteachers were owed 8½ months in back pay by February 1933.

The list of tax delinquencies in Chicago spanned 260 newspaper pages, and foreclosures in the city spiked nearly fivefold from 1929 to 1932.

While Americans struggled with economic misery in the 1930s, they were also hammered by poor weather. Several years of excruciating drought turned the Plains into the "Dust Bowl," which caused many deaths and illness as farmland was literally blown away, leaving the economy in shambles.

Meanwhile, 13 states hit their record high temperatures during the summer of 1936, which remains the hottest in American history. That came after the brutal summer of 1934, part of a string of abnormally hot seasons. During the 1930s, some locations in Illinois hit their all-time daily highs on as many as 50 days during the months of June, July and August.

Winter brought little respite, as those terrible summers followed some of the hardest winters of the 20th century. February 1936 remains the coldest February on record in our nation's history.

Times of war are among the toughest for many to deal with, including the Civil War years of 1861 to 1865, when a total of 617,000 from both sides were lost. The World War II era of 1941 to 1945 cost more than 291,000 American battle deaths. There was Korea, Vietnam and others.

While many fondly remember the 1960s, the year of 1968 brought the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, horrors in the Vietnam War, violent chaos at the Democratic National Convention, and widespread racial and social protest.

As 2020 heads out the door - thankfully - Americans can be sure of one thing. We have overcome wars, weather, recessions and epidemics with the same grit, determination and resilience that built this nation. And we will again.

• Tom Emery is a freelance writer and historical researcher from Carlinville, Illinois. He may be reached at (217) 710-8392 or ilcivilwar@yahoo.com.