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The Great Depression
The Great Depression that happened in the 1930s was the gravest and prolonged economic downturn in the history of the developed Western world. The slump began immediately after the stock market crash of October 1929 that sent Wall Street into a panic and caused heavy losses to investors. https://ivypanda.com/essays/great-depression-history-causes-and-regulations -
Discovery of the Planet Pluto
February 18, 1930 - American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovers the planet Pluto at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Tombaugh was also known as one of the few serious astronomers to have claimed to sight UFO's. https://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1930.html -
The Star Spangled Banner - US National Anthem
March 3, 1931 - The Star-Spangled Banner, by Francis Scott Key, is approved by President Hoover and Congress as the national anthem. The lyrics of the anthem were inspired during the bombing of Fort McHenry by British ships at the head of Baltimore harbor in September of 1814. https://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1930.html -
Unemployment peaks to 25% in U.S.
In 1930 the unemployment rate was 8.9 percent, or equal to today. By 1931 it was nearly 16 percent. Then, after peaking at nearly 25 percent in 1933, the unemployment rate slowly abated…yet it was still nearly 15 percent in 1940 https://www.bing.com/search?q=us+unemployment+in+1930&form=ANNTH1&refig=ba715e11a11c47ca9882ef37684fbada&sp=2&qs=SC&pq=us+unemployment+in+1930s&sk=PRES1SC1&sc=4-24&cvid=ba715e11a11c47ca9882ef37684fbadagreatdepressiononline.com/great-depression-unemployment-rate.htm -
Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany
On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed as the chancellor of Germany by President Paul Von Hindenburg. This appointment was made in an effort to keep Hitler and the Nazi Party “in check”; however, it would have disastrous results for Germany and the entire European continent. www.thoughtco.com/adolf-hitler-appointed-chancellor-of-germany-1779275 -
The New Deal
March 9 - June 16, 1933 - The New Deal social and economic programs are passed by the United States Congress in a special one hundred day session to address depression era economics. The gold standard was dropped on April 19 and ratified during the time of this session on June 5. Canada also drops using the gold standard. https://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1930.html -
Germany, Japan & Italy withdraw from League of Nations
In October 1933, some nine months after Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany, the German government announced its withdrawal from the League of Nations. https://www.wdl.org/en/item/11598 -
Olympics held in Germany
August 1, 1936 - The Summer Olympics Games open in Berlin, Germany under the watchful eye of German leader Adolph Hitler, whose policies of Arian supremacy had already begun to take shape. The star of the games was Jesse Owens, a black American, who won four gold at the Berlin 1936 Games. https://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1930.html -
Germany invades Poland - WWII begins
At 4:45 a.m. on September 1, 1939, the pre-dawn skies lit up over the Baltic Sea as the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on a Polish fortress on the Westerplatte Peninsula as assault troops hidden aboard the vessel stormed the shoreline. https://www.history.com/news/world-war-ii-begins-75-years-ago -
Germany open Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz, also known as Auschwitz-Birkenau, opened in 1940 and was the largest of the Nazi concentration and death camps. Located in southern Poland, Auschwitz initially served as a detention center for political prisoners https://www.bing.com/search?q=when+did+germany+open+auschwitz+concentration+camps&cvid=8655f2d006e94d898d22328a797aae6d&FORM=ANNTA1&PC=HCTS -
Battle of Britain - Nazi bombs London
The Battle of Britain was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force.
Date: 10 July – 31 October 1940, (3 months and 3 weeks) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Britain -
Franklin D Roosevelt elected for third term as US President
On November 5, 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won a third term in office—an unprecedented act that would be barred by a constitutional amendment a decade later. Roosevelt’s decision to break the precedent set by George Washington was made in July 1940, as the United States neared its entry into World War II. https://www.bing.com/search?q=fdr+third+term+date&cvid=08f93d8b1b47466e989ad952162f6411&FORM=ANNTA1&PC=HCTS -
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor - US enters WWII
Pearl Harbor attack, (December 7, 1941), surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii, by the Japanese that precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II. The strike climaxed a decade of worsening relations between the United States and Japan. https://www.bing.com/search?q=pearl+harbor+attack+1941&form=ANNTH1&refig=7a3c1e75469b430ca61de33dc1157a9e&sp=2&qs=LS&pq=pearl+harbor+attack&sk=LS1&sc=8-19&cvid=7a3c1e75469b430ca61de33dc1157a9e -
Interment of Japanese American families
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the US Army to remove all persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast and imprison them without due process of law. Over 120,000 Japanese Americans were held in incarceration camps—two-thirds of whom were US-born citizens. https://www.nps.gov/articles/japanese-american-internment-archeology.htm -
The Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was the code name for the American-led effort to develop a functional atomic weapon during World War II.
On December 28, 1942, President Roosevelt authorized the formation of the Manhattan Project to combine these various research efforts with the goal of weaponizing nuclear energy.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/the-manhattan-project -
D-Day at Normandy France
World War II D-Day: The Invasion of Normandy On June 6, 1944 the Allied Forces of Britain, America, Canada, and France attacked German forces on the coast of Normandy, France. With a huge force of over 150,000 soldiers, the Allies attacked and gained a victory that became the turning point for World War II https://www.ducksters.com/history/world_war_ii/d.. -
Harry S. Truman assumes Presidency of US
The presidency of Harry S. Truman began on April 12, 1945, when Harry S. Truman became President of the United States upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and ended on January 20, 1953. He had been Vice President of the United States for only 82 days when he succeeded to the presidency. https://www.bing.com/search?q=president+truman+elected&cvid=621141aaf1f14fc48873d40c47c997e5&FORM=ANNTA1&PC=HCTS -
US drops atomic bombs in Japan
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively, with the consent of the United Kingdom, as required by the Quebec Agreement. https://www.bing.com/search?q=us+bombs+hiroshima+and+nagasaki&cvid=ef16b4ad488241b0b7aa79a94ed13b7b&FORM=ANNTA1&PC=HCTS -
Nation of Israel created
On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel. U.S. President Harry S. Truman recognized the new nation on the same day. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/creation-israel -
US economic boom
The 1950s was a prosperous time in American history. The unemployment rate was low, and families began to buy houses and cars in record numbers. Although this decade was relatively economically stable, it was also socially turbulent https://www.theclassroom.com/social-economic-changes-of-the-50s-13608123.html -
Post War Baby Boom
Increased births in the post-war United States in May 1951. Annual births first topped four million in 1954 and did not drop below that figure until 1965, by which time four out of ten Americans were under age 20. https://www.bing.com/search?q=post+war+baby+boom+years&qs=AS&pq=post+war+baby+boom&sk=HS1AS1&sc=4-18&cvid=3F4E9F247E134D4C8AC6CCD52A7F82FF&FORM=QBRE&sp=4 -
Winston Churchill named Prime Minister of Great Britain
https://www.thoughtco.com/1950s-timeline-1779952 In October, Winston Churchill took the reins in Great Britain as prime minister for the first time after the close of World War II. -
Treaty of San Francisco
Truman signed the Treaty of San Francisco, a peace treaty with Japan on September 8, officially ending World War II. https://www.thoughtco.com/1950s-timeline-1779952 -
Racial Segregation in Public Schools
May 17, 1954: Brown v. Board of Education, a consolidation of five cases into one, is decided by the Supreme Court, effectively ending racial segregation in public schools. Many schools, however, remained segregated. https://www.history.com/topics/civil-rights-movement/civil-rights-movement-timeline -
Warsaw Pact signed
The Warsaw Pact was a Cold War-era mutual defense treaty signed on May 14, 1955, by the Eastern European nations of the Soviet Union and seven communist Soviet satellite nations of Albania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and the German Democratic Republic. https://www.thoughtco.com/warsaw-pact-4178983 -
Civil Rights Movement Begin
The civil rights movement began with the August 28 murder of Emmett Till, the refusal on December 1 by Rosa Parks to give up her seat on the bus to a white man, and the subsequent Montgomery Bus Boycott. https://www.thoughtco.com/1950s-timeline-1779952 -
Vietnam War Begins
The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, and in Vietnam as the Resistance War Against America or simply the American War, was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War -
Launch of Sputnik
The year 1957 is most remembered for the October 4 launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik, which orbited for three weeks and began the space race and the space age. https://www.thoughtco.com/1950s-timeline-1779952 -
Fidel Castro - Dictator of Cuba
https://www.thoughtco.com/1950s-timeline-1779952 On the first day of 1959, Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban Revolution, became the dictator of Cuba and brought communism to the Caribbean country.