Wagner-Steagall Housing Act is adopted in Washington, D.C.

Signed by President Franklin Roosevelt, it creates the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (originally U.S. Housing Authority). The law authorizes construction of federally-supported public housing, but also promotes slum clearance by requiring the removal of as many existing units of housing as there are new units built. Despite its good intentions, the program is underfunded, which Sam Bass Warner Jr. later writes, “brought poor design, poor design fed segregation, segregation fostered the social and economic failure of projects, and failure justified underfunding. Round and round the cycle went, constantly eroding what was potentially one of the most useful tools of American urban policy”