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J.Edgar Hoover Becomes Head of the FBI
Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone appointed the 29-year-old Hoover as acting director of the Bureau, and by the end of the year, Mr. Hoover was named Director. As Director, Mr. Hoover put into effect a number of institutional changes to correct criticisms made of his predecessor's administration. -
Mein Kampf is Published
On 18 July 1925, Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf (‘My Struggle’) was published. He wrote it in prison, where he was serving a sentence for a failed coup he attempted in 1923. -
Stock Market Crash Begins Great Depression
The Roaring Twenties saw an abrupt end in 1929 when the stock market crashed, fueling the Great Depression and sparking a nearly 90% loss in the Dow. -
The Dust Bowl Begins
The Dust Bowl, also known as “the Dirty Thirties,” started in 1930 and lasted for about a decade, but its long-term economic impacts on the region lingered much longer. Severe drought hit the Midwest and southern Great Plains in 1930. Massive dust storms began in 1931. -
Adolf Hitler Become Chancellor of Germany
Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in 1933 following a series of electoral victories by the Nazi Party. -
Franklin Roosevelt is Elected President (1st Time)
In the 1932 presidential election, Roosevelt defeated Republican incumbent president Herbert Hoover in a landslide. During his first 100 days as president, Roosevelt spearheaded unprecedented federal legislation and issued a profusion of executive orders that instituted the New Deal. -
CCC is Created
The Emergency Conservation Work Act of 1933 mandated that the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) recruit unemployed young men from urban areas to perform conservation work throughout the nation's forests, parks, and fields. One of several prongs in the New Deal's attack on economic stagnation, President Franklin D. -
WPA is Created
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order creating the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA was just one of many Great Depression relief programs created under the auspices of the Emergency Relief Appropriations Act, which Roosevelt had signed the month before. -
J.J. Braddock Wins Heavyweight Boxing Title
Instead, 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 Berlin Games were only a partial success for the Nazis. Germany finished top of the medal table ahead of their main rivals, the United States, but the Americans dominated the Athletics events with African American Jesse Owens winning four gold medals ahead of his blond, Aryan rivals. -
Kristallnacht
Chronicles Jewish daily life in Nazi Germany in the years leading up to Kristallnacht and the Holocaust. -
Grapes of Wrath is Published
Since the day it was published on April 14, 1939, The Grapes of Wrath has captured the American imagination, pulling back the curtain on a way of life that most of us could scarcely imagine, and showing us the powerful ways that literature can touch society. -
Wizard of Oz Premiers in Movie Theaters
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. -
Germany Invades Poland
German forces under the control of Adolf Hitler bombard Poland on land and from the air. World War II had begun. -
The Four Freedoms Speech
His "four essential human freedoms" included some phrases already familiar to Americans from the Bill of Rights, as well as some new phrases: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.