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J.Edgar Hoover Becomes Head of the FBI
On May 10, 1924, Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone appointed the 29-year-old Hoover 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
Mein Kampf, political manifesto written by Adolf Hitler. It was his only complete book, and the work became the bible of National Socialism (Nazism) in Germany’s Third Reich. It was published in two volumes in 1925 and 1927, and an abridged edition appeared in 1930. By 1939 it had sold 5,200,000 copies and had been translated into 11 languages. -
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. Businesses closed and people lost their savings. -
The Dust Bowl Begins
Crops began to fail with the onset of drought in 1931, exposing the bare, over-plowed farmland. Without deep-rooted prairie grasses to hold the soil in place, it began to blow away. Eroding soil led to massive dust storms and economic devastation—especially in the Southern Plains. -
Adolf Hitler Become Chancellor of Germany
By 1932, the Nazis were the largest political party in the Reichstag. In January of the following year, with no other leader able to command sufficient support to govern, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor of Germany. -
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. -
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
Braddock (born June 7, 1905, New York, New York, U.S.—died November 29, 1974, North Bergen, New Jersey) was an American world heavyweight boxing champion from June 13, 1935, when he outpointed Max Baer in 15 rounds at the Long Island City Bowl in New York City, until June 22, 1937, when he was knocked out by Joe Louis -
Olympic Games in Berlin
The Berlin Games were the 10th occurrence of the modern Olympic Games. The event was held in a tense, politically charged atmosphere, occurring just two years after Adolf Hitler became Führer. His regime took advantage of the worldwide publicity to transform the 1936 Games into a spectacle of Nazi propaganda. -
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, the night of November 9–10, 1938, when German Nazis attacked Jewish persons and property. The name Kristallnacht refers ironically to the litter of broken glass left in the streets after these pogroms. The violence continued during the day of November 10, and in some places acts of violence continued for several more days. -
Grapes of Wrath is Published
The Grapes of Wrath is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962. -
Wizard of Oz Premiers in Movie Theaters
“The Wizard of Oz officially premiered in Hollywood on August 15, 1939, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre,” Jay said. “The film opened in wide release on August 25; however, as is often the case with major motion pictures, there are test, promotional, press and other types of screenings prior to the wide release.” -
Germany Invades Poland
Invasion and Partition of Poland. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. To justify the action, Nazi propagandists accused Poland of persecuting ethnic Germans living in Poland. They also falsely claimed that Poland was planning, with its allies Great Britain and France, to encircle and dismember Germany. -
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. -
Franklin Roosevelt is Elected President (1st Time)
Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves. He brought hope as he promised prompt, vigorous action, and asserted in his Inaugural Address, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”