Timeline: Decade timeline: 1930s

Period: 1929 to 1939

Great Depression

The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world. It began after the stock market crashed in 1929 and wiped out millions of investors.

1930

First Car radio

1930

Discovered Blood Types

Karl landsteiner

1930

American Gothic by Grant Wood

Sep 12, 1930

Frozen Food Invented

Clarence Birdseye is credited with inventing in 1924 the quick freezing method, which produces the type of frozen foods that we know today

1931

Australia becomes independent from England

1932

Franklin Roosevelt elected president

1932

Amelia Earhart becomes the first female aviator to successfully fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean

1933

Nazi regime opens first concentration camps

The Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler's leadership began imprisoning its political opponents, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others classified as “dangerous.” Extensive propaganda was used to spread the Nazi Party’s racist goals and ideals. During the first six years of Hitler’s dictatorship, German Jews felt the effects of more than 400 decrees and regulations that restricted all aspects of their public and private lives.

Jan 30, 1933

Adolf Hitler appointed German Chancellor

Dec 5, 1933

21st amendment ends prohibition

1934

Dust Bowl

1934

Disney introduces the character of "Donald Duck" in the animated short "The Little Wise Hen."

Jun 2, 1935

Babe Ruth Retires

Sep 13, 1935

Social security act passed

Nov 3, 1936

Franklin D. Roosevelt reelected

Mar 26, 1937

William Henry Hastie is appointed to the federal bench, becoming the first African-American to become a federal judge.

May 27, 1937

Golden Gate Bridge opens

Jun 25, 1937

Jet Engine

The first operational jet engine was designed in Germany by Hans Pabst von Ohain and powered the first jet-aircraft flight on August 27, 1939.

1938

Chocolate Chip Cookie invented

Ruth Wakefield, owner of the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, added broken chocolate bar pieces into her cookie batter thinking that they would melt. Instead, the classic dessert was born.

Jun 25, 1938

Federal minimum wage signed into law

The federal minimum wage was signed into law by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, at the height of the Great Depression. Its stated purpose was to keep America's workers out of poverty and increase consumer purchasing power in order to stimulate the economy.