In virtue of the World War Adjusted Compensation Act, U.S. World War I veterans were granted certificates, or bonuses, for their service in the Armed Forces during the Great War to be redeemed in 1945. Due to the onset of the Depression, in 1932, a large group of veterans out of jobs and desperate to get some money to support their families, marched to Washington D.C. where they camped in order to request the government to honor the bonuses well ahead of their redemption date. The government refused and had U.S. Army units remove the demonstrators by the force of arms, including six tanks, resulting in two World War I veterans killed and over a thousand injured. Four years later the Congress ordered the payment of the certificates nine years before their redemption date.
