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The Great Depression
The worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from 1929 to 1939. After the stock market crash of October 1929, Wall Street went into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. Consumer spending and investment dropped, causing steep declines in industrial output and employment as failing companies laid off workers. By 1933 the Great Depression reached its lowest point, with 15 million Americans unemployed and nearly half the country’s banks failed. -
The Great Depression
As men and families migrated throughout the United States to find work and food, resources dwindled and communities rejected newcomers for lack of provisions and opportunities. -
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Dustbowl
Starting with four major droughts in the Midwest, dwindling farming production, crops were damaged by deficient rainfall, high temperatures, and high winds, as well as insect infestations, soil erosion enabled huge dust storms to ravage south central U.S. The resulting agricultural depression led to the Great Depression’s bank closures, business losses, increased unemployment, and other physical and emotional hardships. Improved rainfall & WWII marked the end of the decade of drought. -
Empire State Building
A steel-framed skyscraper rising 102 stories completed in New York City in 1931, it was the tallest building in the world until 1971. One of the most distinctive and famous buildings in the U.S. and a great example of Modernist Art Deco design. Constructed in a record-breaking 1 year and 45 days, there was fierce competition to win the title of tallest building in the world. The Chrysler Building claimed the title in 1929, and the Empire State Building seized it in 1931. -
Dustbowl
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BBC World Service Begins Broadcasting
The BBC World Service began as the BBC Empire Service, broadcasting on shortwave and aimed at English-speakers across the British Empire. In his first Christmas Message (1932), King George V said the service as intended for "men and women, so cut off by the snow, the desert, or the sea, that only voices out of the air can reach them". -
Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt Elected as President of the U.S.
As the country grappled with the Great Depression, Roosevelt was elected for his promise to act swiftly to intervene in the economy and provide jobs, something his predecessor Herbert Hoover refused to do. His New Deal programs and reforms redefined how responsible the federal government should be for its citizens. FDR led the United States from isolationism to victory over Nazi Germany and its allies in World War II. -
End of Prohibition
By the 1930s, it was clear that Prohibition had become a public policy failure. The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution had done little to curb the sale, production and consumption of intoxicating liquors. While organized crime flourished, tax revenues withered. As the Great Depression continued, money trumped morals, and the government desperately needed the tax money from liquor sales, which put an estimated half-million Americans back to work. -
Bonnie & Clyde Murdered
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Champion Barrow were an American couple who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression, known for their bank and gas station robberies. They captured the attention of the American press and its readership during what is referred to as the "public enemy era" between 1931 and 1934. They are believed to have murdered at least nine police officers and four civilians. They were killed in May 1934 during an ambush by police. -
Adolf Hitler Becomes Dictator of Germany
On the heels of the effects of the Great Depression and deep economic struggles, Adolf Hitler became commander in chief of Germany, dismantling it's democratic government and setting forth implementing his Third Reich, a race of Aryan people to take supremacy over the world. Considered one of the world's biggest villains, Hitler ordered the death of over 6 million Jews, 250,000 Romani, countless dissidents and thru the war he began in Europe, resulting in 20 million deaths in the USSR alone. -
Social Security Act
The Social Security Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt on August 14, 1935. In addition to several provisions for general welfare, the new Act created a social insurance program designed to pay retired workers age 65 or older a continuing income after retirement. It sought to address the problem of economic security for the aged through a contributory system in which the workers themselves contributed to their own future retirement benefit by making regular payments into a joint fund. -
Italy Invades Ethiopia
In 1935, the League of Nations was faced with another crucial test. Benito Mussolini, the Fascist leader of Italy, had adopted Adolf Hitler's plans to expand German territories by acquiring all territories it considered German. Mussolini followed this policy when he invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) the African country situated on the horn of Africa. Mussolini claimed that his policies of expansion were not different from that of other colonial powers in Africa. -
The Beginning of Television
Although there were earlier television broadcasts, most notably of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, the BBC broadcasts that commenced on November 2, 1936, from Alexandra Palace in London were heralded as the world's first, public, regular, high-definition television broadcasts. -
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
a 1937 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on the 1812 German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, it is the first full-length traditionally animated feature film and the first Disney animated feature film. Adjusted for inflation, it is one of the top-ten performers at the North American box office and the highest-grossing animated film. -
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Second Sino-Japanese War
Second Sino-Japanese War, (1937–45), conflict that broke out when China began a full-scale resistance to the expansion of Japanese influence in its territory (which had begun in 1931). The war, which remained undeclared until December 9, 1941, may be divided into three phases: a period of rapid Japanese advance until the end of 1938, a period of virtual stalemate until 1944, and the final period when Allied counterattacks brought about Japan’s surrender. -
Hindenburg Explosion
The airship Hindenburg, the largest dirigible ever built and the pride of Nazi Germany, bursts into flames upon touching its mooring mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 passengers and crewmembers, on May 6, 1937. Lighter-than-air passenger travel rapidly fell out of favor after the Hindenberg disaster, and no rigid airships survived World War II. -
The Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938
The Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, represented a major shift in labor policy. For the first time, the federal government set a minimum wage, establishing that people covered by the law are entitled to at least a certain amount of pay for their work.
The federal minimum applies to U.S. workers who are employed by companies with revenues of at least $500,000, plus workers in hospitals, nursing homes, schools, government agencies, and those who are involved in interstate commerce in their jobs. -
Superman First Appeared in Comics
Superman is a fictional superhero, who first appeared in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and first appeared in the comic book Action Comics #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and published April 18, 1938) -
Invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland, also known as September campaign, 1939 defensive war, and Poland campaign was an attack on the Second Polish Republic by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. -
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The Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom (which initiated the original Tube Alloys project) and Canada. Manhattan Project, U.S. government research project (1942–45) that produced the first atomic bombs. -
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World War II
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. -
Winston Churchill Becomes British Prime Minister
In May 1940, he became Prime Minister, replacing Neville Chamberlain. Churchill oversaw British involvement in the Allied war effort against the Axis powers, resulting in victory in 1945. After the Conservatives' defeat in the 1945 general election, he became Leader of the Opposition. -
Leon Trotsky Assasinated
Lev Davidovich Bronstein, better known as Leon Trotsky was a Russian Marxist revolutionary, political theorist and politician. Ideologically a communist, he developed a variant of Marxism known as Trotskyism. After surviving multiple attempts on his life, Trotsky was assassinated in August 1940 in Mexico City by a Soviet agent. -
Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor
When Japanese bombers appeared in the skies over Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941, the U.S. military was completely unprepared for the devastating surprise attack, which dramatically altered the course of World War II, especially in the Pacific theater. Before the Pearl Harbor attack, tensions between Japan and the United States had been mounting for the better part of a decade. -
The Final Solution
The Final Solution is the shortened version of what the Nazis called the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. It was the term for the Nazi plan for the extermination and Genocide of the Jewish people during World War II. The code name was for the murder of all Jews in reach but was not restricted to Europe. The program evolved during the first 2 years of the war leading to the Holocaust where the aim was to murder “every last Jew in the German grasp”. -
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. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the only use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict. -
Mussolini Executed
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the Fascist coup d'état in 1922 until his deposition in 1943, and Duce ("Leader") of Italian Fascism from 1919 until his execution in 1945 during the Italian Civil War. As dictator of Italy and founder of the fascist movement, Mussolini inspired other totalitarian rulers such as Adolf Hitler and Francisco Franco -
Jackie Robinson Integrates Baseball
In 1947, a major breakthrough of the color line in sports occurred when Jackie Robinson, a 28-year-old African-American ballplayer and war veteran, was brought up from the minor leagues to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. The nation was divided at first. -
CIA Created
The Central Intelligence Agency was created on July 26, 1947 when Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act into law. A major impetus for the creation of the agency was growing tensions with the USSR following the end of World War II. When the CIA was created, its purpose was to create a clearinghouse for foreign policy intelligence and analysis. Today its primary purpose is to collect, analyze, evaluate, and disseminate foreign intelligence, and to perform covert actions. -
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The Korean War
The Korean War was a war between North Korea and South The war began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea following clashes along the border and insurrections in the south. The war ended unofficially on 27 July 1953 in an armistice. -
Dwight Eisenhower Elected President
The 1952 United States presidential election was the 42nd quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 4, 1952. Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower won a landslide victory over Democrat Adlai Stevenson, ending a string of Democratic Party wins that stretched back to 1932. -
First scheduled flight by commercial jet
At the time, the only jet-powered aircraft in production were military types, most of which were fighters. The jet age began with the invention of the jet engine in the 1930s and 1940s In commercial aviation the jet age was introduced to Britain in 1952 with the first scheduled flight of the de Havilland Comet airliner and to America later in the decade with the first American-built jet airliners. -
DNA Double Helix Discovered
The discovery in 1953 of the double helix, the twisted-ladder structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), by James Watson and Francis Crick marked a milestone in the history of science and gave rise to modern molecular biology, which is largely concerned with understanding how genes control the chemical processes within cells. In short order, their discovery yielded ground-breaking insights into the genetic code and protein synthesis. -
The first color television is produced
The first network broadcast to go out over the air in NTSC color was a performance of the opera Carmen on October 31, 1953. all-electronic color was introduced in the U.S. in 1953,[61] high prices and the scarcity of color programming greatly slowed its acceptance in the marketplace. The first national color broadcast occurred on January 1, 1954, but over the next dozen years most network broadcasts, and nearly all local programming, continued to be in black-and-white. -
Death of Stalin
Joseph Stalin, the second leader of the Soviet Union, died on 5 March 1953 at the Kuntsevo Dacha aged 74 after suffering a stroke. He was given a state funeral with four days of national mourning declared. His body was subsequently embalmed and interred in Lenin's & Stalin's Mausoleum until 1961. -
The Army–McCarthy Hearings
A series of hearings held by the US Senate's Subcommittee on Investigations to investigate conflicting accusations between the United States Army and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy. Already infamous for his aggressive interrogations of suspected Communists, Wisconsin Senator McCarthyearned more notoriety via these televised 1954 Congressional hearings.The word McCarthyism has become synonymous with the practice of publicizing accusations of treason and disloyalty with insufficient evidence. -
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks on 1 December 1955, the Montgomery bus boycott was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) coordinated the boycott, and its president, Martin Luther King, Jr., became a prominent civil rights leader as international attention focused on Montgomery. -
Elvis Presley Rises to Fame
Presley's first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel", was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the United States. With a series of successful network television appearances and chart-topping records, he became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll. -
Little Rock Nine
Nine black students who enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. Their attendance was a test of Brown v. Board of Education, a landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional. On the first day of classes, Governor Faubus called the Arkansas National Guard to block the black students’ entry into school. Later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in federal troops to escort the Little Rock Nine into school. -
Xerox Machine Introduced to the Market
Inventor Chester Carlson used static electricity created with a handkerchief, light and dry powder to make the first copy on Oct. 22, 1938. The copier didn't get on to the market until 1959, more than 20 years later. When it did, the Xerox machine prompted a dramatic change in the workplace. -
Castro Takes Power in Cuba
On Jan. 1, 1959, Cuban President Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba as Fidel Castro’s guerrilla forces seized control of the country.
An August 3, 1959, broadcast from Havana, Cuba, covers the celebration following the overthrow of the Batista regime and the installation of its new leader, Fidel Castro. The Batista regime, which maintained close relation with the United States, was corrupt and unpopular with the Cuban population.
