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J. Edgar Hoover became the acting Director of the Bureau of Investigation on May 10, 1924, and was appointed Director by President Calvin Coolidge later that year. He was appointed to professionalize the bureau, which was then a small organization with only about 650 employees. He was tasked with removing political appointees and implementing merit-based systems. -
Mein Kampf is a 1925 autobiographical and political manifesto by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. The book outlines many of Hitler's political beliefs, his political ideology, and his future plans for Germany and the world.
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The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. It started due to a combination of severe drought and unsustainable farming practices, such as over plowing and overgrazing, which left the soil vulnerable to wind erosion. -
Franklin D. Roosevelt was first elected President of the United States in the 1932 election. He defeated the Herbert Hoover in a landslide victory during the Great Depression. It was a landslide after Hoover attacked veterans living in a Hooverville. -
Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, after being appointed by President Paul von Hindenburg. This appointment occurred following a period of political instability and the Nazi Party's rise in popularity, fueled by widespread discontent over economic conditions and the aftermath of World War I. The position allowed Hitler to rapidly dismantle German democracy and consolidate his power. -
Established on March 31, 1933, as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. It provided jobs for unemployed, single men to work on conservation projects like tree planting, trail construction, and fighting forest fires. It Employed about three million men, made significant contributions to the development of state and national parks, and helped combat soil erosion. -
Created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt through an executive order as part of his New Deal to provide jobs during the Great Depression. It aimed to employ millions of unemployed Americans on public works projects like infrastructure and community improvements. -
Jimmy "Cinderella Man" Braddock won the heavyweight boxing title on June 13, 1935, by defeating the champion Max Baer in a 15-round unanimous decision. Braddock was a massive 10-to-1 underdog. The victory was a stunning upset that made him a symbol of hope during the Great Depression. -
The 1936 Summer Olympics were held in Berlin, Germany, and are remembered for being used as a propaganda tool by Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime to showcase a peaceful and tolerant Germany. Germany, won the most medals. The event was also significant for introducing the Olympic torch relay and for the performance of athlete Jesse Owens who won four gold medals. -
Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom, was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's Sturmabteilung and Schutzstaffel paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilians throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938. It killed more than 91 people. -
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck was published on April 14, 1939. The novel, which chronicles the Joad family's journey from the Dust Bowl to California during the Great Depression, was an instant bestseller and won the Pulitzer Prize. -
The Wizard of Oz opens in theaters around the United States. Based on the 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. -
The invasion of Poland was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak Republic, and the Soviet Union, which marked the beginning of World War II. Germany did this to gain back territory that they lost in WW1. -
The stock market crash that led to the Great Depression occurred in late October 1929, with the most significant events on "Black Thursday," October 24, 1929, and "Black Tuesday," October 29, 1929. The crash itself did not directly cause the Great Depression but acted as a trigger and accelerated the global economic collapse, which officially began in the United States in the summer of 1929 as an ordinary recession. -
The "Four Freedoms" speech was a 1941 address by President Franklin D. Roosevelt that proposed four essential human freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. The speech aimed to justify greater U.S. involvement in World War II by arguing these freedoms were threatened by Axis powers and needed to be defended globally.