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J.Edgar Hoover Becomes Head of the FBI
President Calvin Coolidge appointed Hoover as the fifth Director of the Bureau of Investigation, partly in response to allegations that the prior director, William J. Burns, was involved in the Teapot Dome scandal. -
Mein Kampf is Published
Mein Kampf, German for “My Struggle”, political manifesto written by Adolf Hitler. It was his only complete book, and the work became the bible of Nazism in Germany's Third Reich. -
Stock Market Crash Begins Great Depression
The crash began on Oct. 24, 1929, known as "Black Thursday," when the market opened 11% lower than the previous day's close. Institutions and financiers stepped in with bids above the market price to stem the panic, and the losses on that day were modest with stocks bouncing back over the next two days. The stock market crash of 1929 was not the sole cause of the Great Depression, but it did act to accelerate the global economic collapse of which it was also a symptom. -
The Dust Bowl Begins
The Dust Bowl is a term used to describe the series of severe dust storms that ravaged the American Midwest throughout the 1930s. It brought devastation to Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and other states as well. These storms were so powerful, they reached all the way to the East Coast, dumping dust on cities like Washington, D.C. -
Franklin Roosevelt is Elected President (1st Time)
In the 1932 presidential election, Roosevelt defeated Republican President Herbert Hoover in a landslide. Roosevelt took office in the midst of the Great Depression, the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. With the country mired in the depths of the Great Depression, Roosevelt immediately acted to restore public confidence, proclaiming a bank holiday and speaking directly to the public in a series of radio broadcasts or “fireside chats.” -
Adolf Hitler Become Chancellor of Germany
Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany following a series of electoral victories by the Nazi Party. Hitler's emergence as chancellor on January 30, 1933, marked a crucial turning point for Germany and, ultimately, for the world. His plan, embraced by much of the German population, was to do away with politics and make Germany a powerful, unified one-party state. -
CCC is Created
Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC, with an executive order on April 5, 1933. The CCC was part of his New Deal legislation, combating high unemployment during the Great Depression by putting hundreds of thousands of young men to work on environmental conservation projects
Germany Invades Poland. -
WPA is Created
FDR issued executive order 7034, establishing the Works Progress Administration. The WPA superseded the work of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which was dissolved. Created by President Franklin Roosevelt to relieve the economic hardship of the Great Depression, this national works program employed more than 8.5 million people on 1.4 million public projects before it was disbanded in 1943. -
J.J. Braddock Wins Heavyweight Boxing Title
On June 13, 1935, at Madison Square Garden Bowl, Braddock won the Heavyweight Championship of the World as the 10-to-1 underdog in what was called "the greatest fistic upset since the defeat of John L. Sullivan by Jim Corbett". -
Olympic Games in Berlin
The Summer Olympic Games open in Berlin, attended by athletes and spectators from countries around the world. The Olympic Games were a propaganda success for the Nazi government, as German officials made every effort to portray Germany as a respectable member of the international community. -
Kristallnacht
On November 9 to November 10, 1938, in an incident known as “Kristallnacht”, Nazis in Germany torched synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses and killed close to 100 Jews. In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, also called the “Night of Broken Glass,” some 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps. -
Grapes of Wrath is Published
The Grapes of Wrath, the best-known novel by John Steinbeck, published in 1939. It evokes the harshness of the Great Depression and arouses sympathy for the struggles of migrant farmworkers. The book came to be regarded as an American classic. -
Wizard of Oz Premiers in Movie Theaters
On August 25, 1939, The Wizard of Oz, which will become one of the best-loved movies in history, opens in theaters around the United States. Based on the 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. -
The Four Freedoms Speech
Roosevelt's 1941 State of the Union Address, commonly known as the “Four Freedoms” speech. In it he articulated a powerful vision for a world in which all people had freedom of speech and of religion, and freedom from want and fear. It was delivered on January 6, 1941 and it helped change the world.
