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Mein Kampf is Published
Mein Kampf promoted the key components of Nazism: rabid antisemitism, a racist world view, and an aggressive foreign policy geared to gaining Lebensraum (living space) in eastern Europe. -
Stock Market Crash Begins Great Depression
Simply put, the stock market crash of 1929 caused the Great Depression because everyone lost money. Investors and businesses both put significant amounts of money into the market, and when it crashed, tremendous amounts of money were lost. -
The Dust Bowl Begins
The resulting agricultural depression contributed to the Great Depression's bank closures, business losses, increased unemployment, and other physical and emotional hardships -
Franklin Roosevelt is Elected President
In the summer of 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Governor of New York, was nominated as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. -
CCC is Created
Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933. The CCC or C's as it was sometimes known, allowed single men between the ages of 18 and 25 to enlist in work programs to improve America's public lands, forests, and parks. -
Adolf Hitler Becomes Chancellor of Germany
Hitler’s rise to power traces to 1919, when he joined the German Workers’ Party that became the Nazi Party. With his oratorical skills and use of propaganda, he soon became its leader. -
J. Edgar Hoover Becomes Head of the FBI
Hoover expanded the FBI into a larger crime-fighting agency and instituted a number of modernizations to policing technology, such as a centralized fingerprint file and forensic laboratories. -
WPA is Created
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was introduced in 1935 by then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to provide jobs and income to the growing population of unemployed in the United States. -
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 Olympics were a political coup for Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, who ordered the removal of anti-Semitic slogans from Jewish shops, moved "undesirables" out of Berlin, toned down the racist Nazi newspaper "Der Stürmer" and organised groundbreaking TV and radio broadcasting of the Games. -
Kristallnacht (1938)
Kristallnacht, the night of November 9–10, 1938, when German Nazis attacked Jewish persons and property. -
Grapes of Wrath is Published
John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is not merely a great American novel. It is also a significant event in our national history. Capturing the plight of millions of Americans whose lives had been crushed by the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, Steinbeck awakened the nation's comprehension and compassion. -
Germany Invades Poland
German troops invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, triggering World War II. In response to German aggression, Great Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany. -
Wizard of Oz Premieres in Movie Theaters
In 1939 the country was in the depths of the Great Depression, and some viewers suggest that MGM's Oz might be a commentary on President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration. -
The Four Freedoms Speech
As America entered the war these “four freedoms” – the freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear – symbolized America's war aims and gave hope in the following years to a war-wearied people because they knew they were fighting for freedom.