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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. -
Mein Kampf is Published
Mein Kampf is a 1925 autobiographical manifesto by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. The work describes the process by which Hitler became antisemitic and outlines his political ideology and future plans for Germany. -
Franklin Roosevelt is Elected President (1st Time)
In the 1932 presidential election, Roosevelt defeated Republican president Herbert Hoover in a landslide. -
Stock Market Crash Begins Great Depression
In October of 1929, the stock market crashed, wiping out billions of dollars of wealth and heralding the Great Depression. Known as Black Thursday, the crash was preceded by a period of phenomenal growth and speculative expansion. -
Adolf Hitler Become Chancellor of Germany
On 30 January 1933, the new cabinet was sworn in during a brief ceremony in Hindenburg's office. The NSDAP gained three posts: Hitler was named chancellor, Wilhelm Frick Minister of the Interior, and Hermann Göring, Minister Without Portfolio -
WPA is Created
President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the WPA with an executive order on May 6, 1935. It was part of his New Deal plan to lift the country out of the Great Depression by reforming the financial system and restoring the economy to pre-Depression levels. -
CCC is Created
The Emergency Conservation Work Act of 1933 mandated that the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) recruit unemployed young men from urban areas to perform conservation work throughout the nation's forests, parks, and fields. -
The Dust Bowl Begins
During the summers of 1934, 1936 and 1939-40, little rain fell, creating drought conditions in Iowa and across the Midwest. -
Olympic Games in Berlin
The Berlin Games were only a partial success for the Nazis. Germany finished top of the medal table ahead of their main rivals, the United States, but the Americans dominated the Athletics events with African American Jesse Owens winning four gold medals ahead of his blond, Aryan rivals. -
Wizard of Oz Premiers in Movie Theaters
On August 25, 1939, The Wizard of Oz, one of the best-loved movies in history, opened in theaters around the United States. Based on the 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. -
Germany Invades Poland
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, War of Poland of 1939, and Polish Defensive War of 1939, was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak Republic, and the Soviet Union; which marked the beginning of World War II -
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom, was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's Sturmabteilung paramilitary and Schutzstaffel paramilitary forces -
The Four Freedoms Speech
The Four Freedoms were goals articulated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Monday, January 6, 1941. -
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 1962. -
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) 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