Today in History: The Bonus March

On this day (May 29) in 1932, U.S. veterans of World War I began assembling in Washington DC as part of the Bonus March. These veterans had been promised a "bonus" for their service in WWI to be paid in 1945, but in the Great Depression they and their families were destitute and in urgent need of relief. They were asking for their bonus to be paid early. Congress and President Hoover would reject their pleas and Hoover would go on to have them violently removed from Washington.