-
J.Edgar Hoover Becomes Head of the FBI
Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone appointed the 29-year-old Hoover as acting director of the Bureau on May 10, 1924, and by the end of the year, Mr. Hoover was named Director. -
Mein Kampf is Published
Adolf Hitler's autobiographical agenda, Mein Kampf was published in 1925. The work outlines Hitler's political view and future plans for Germany, as well as the process by which he became hostile. -
Stock Market Crash Begins Great Depression
The 1929 stock market crash, also known as the Great Crash, was a sharp decline in US stock market values in 1929 that contributed to the 1930s Great Depression. The Great Depression lasted about ten years and affected both industrialized and nonindustrialized countries across the globe. -
The Dust Bowl Begins
The Dust Bowl began in 1930 and lasted a decade, but its long-term economic effects on the region lasted much longer. In 1930, the Midwest and southern Great Plains experienced severe drought. Massive dust storms first appeared in 1931. -
Franklin Roosevelt is Elected President (1st Time)
Roosevelt defeated Republican candidate Herbert Hoover in the 1932 presidential election and took office in the midst of the Great Depression. He oversaw unexpected federal legislative productivity during the first 100 days of the 73rd United States Congress. -
Adolf Hitler Become Chancellor of Germany
Following several backroom negotiations involving industrialists, Hindenburg's son, former chancellor Franz von Papen, and Hitler, Hindenburg acquiesced and formally appointed Adolf Hitler as Germany's new chancellor on 30 January 1933. -
CCC is Created
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a voluntary government work relief program that ran in the United States from 1933 to 1942 for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18-25, later expanding to ages 17-28. -
WPA is Created
On May 6, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order establishing the WPA. It was part of his New Deal strategy to pull the country out of the Great Depression by reforming the financial system and restoring the economy to pre-Depression levels. In 1935, the unemployment rate was a staggering 20%. -
J.J. Braddock Wins Heavyweight Boxing Title
Braddock won the Heavyweight Championship of the World as a 10-to-1 underdog at Madison Square Garden Bowl on June 13, 1935, in what was dubbed "the greatest fistic upset since the defeat of John L. Sullivan by Jim Corbett." -
Olympic Games in Berlin
The Nazi Olympics were held in Berlin in 1936. The 1936 Berlin Olympic Games were more than a global sporting event; they were a display of Nazi propaganda that sparked significant conflict. Despite the 1936 Games' exclusionary principles, countries from all over the world agreed to participate. -
Kristallnacht
Antisemitic exhortations from Nazi officials fueled violent mobs that destroyed hundreds of synagogues, burning or desecrating Jewish religious artifacts along the way. Police officers and firefighters did nothing to stop the destruction, acting on orders from Gestapo headquarters. In total, 7,500 Jewish-owned businesses, homes, and schools were looted, and 91 Jews were murdered. Another 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and deported to concentration camps. -
Grapes of Wrath is Published
The Grapes of Wrath is a 1939 American realist novel written by John Steinbeck. The novel won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was prominently mentioned when Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize in 1962. -
Germany invades Poland
The invasion of Poland was a joint attack by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union on the Republic of Poland that marked the start of World War II. -
Wizard of Oz Premiers in Movie Theaters
Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto are swept away from their Kansas farm by a tornado to the magical Land of Oz, where they embark on a quest with three new friends to see the Wizard, who can return her to her home and grant the others' wishes. -
The Four Freedoms Speech
Franklin Roosevelt was concerned with human rights in the broadest sense. He collected ideas for a speech about various rights and freedoms during World War II. In his 1941 State of the Union Address to Congress, FDR presented his reasons for U.S.-World War II involvement.