This contains only the modern economic history starting from the great depression.
1929 Black Tuesday, October 29. The stock market crash of the New York Stock Exchange at Wall Street shows the risks of buying stocks on margin. Not only did the Fed squash the money supply, over the next few years, the Fed would allow the money supply to contract by a third, but when after the stock market crash the demand for food collapsed, in June
1930 American farmers succeeded in convincing President Herbert Hover to pass the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, that was followed by European retaliation. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff had a minor impact because trade formed only 6 percent of the U.S. economy, and reducing trade gave Americans only that much more money to spend domestically. Within four years world trade fell by two-third, the unemployment rose in all countries. (see also Steve Kanga's link)
1933  Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the presidency with his new deal.
1944 Bretton Woods Conference held, establishing the basis of the postwar international monetary system and creating the International Monetary Fund. The post war baby boom started.
1971 flexible exchange rates ended the Bretton Woods system.
1973 The effects of the Vietnam war, and the oil price shock following the OPEC conference influenced by the Yom Kippur War in October, eventually lead to stagflation.
1979 Paul A. Volcker stopped the inflation and created a recession.
1981 Reagonomics lead to the collapse of communism in
1989.
1992 Bill Clinton won the presidency with: "It's the economy stupid".

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