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J.Edgar Hoover Becomes Head of the FBI
Hoover has been credited with building the FBI into a larger crime-fighting agency. He is also credited with establishing and expanding a national blacklist, referred to as the FBI Index list, and renamed in 2001 as the Terrorist Screening Database which the FBI still compiles and manages. -
Mein Kampf is Published
Part autobiography and part political treatise, rabid antisemitism, a racist world view, and an aggressive foreign policy geared to gaining Lebensraum in eastern Europe.The work describes the process by which Hitler became antisemitic and outlines his political ideology and future plans for Germany. -
Stock Market Crash Begins Great Depression
The stock market crash of accelerated the global economic collapse of of the Great Depression. By 1933, nearly half of America's banks had failed, and unemployment was approaching 15 million people, or 30 percent of the workforce. -
The Dust Bowl Begins
The Dust Bowl started in 1930 and lasted for about a decade, but its long-term economic impacts on the region lasted much longer. Severe drought hit the Midwest and Southern Great Plains in 1930 and massive dust storms began in 1931. -
Franklin Roosevelt is Elected President (1st Time)
He had signaled his intention to move with speed to address the problems facing the nation in his address, declaring: "I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require." -
Adolf Hitler Become Chancellor of Germany
Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in 1933 following a series of electoral victories by the Nazi Party. He ruled absolutely until his death by suicide. -
CCC is Created
Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps with an executive order. The CCC was part of his New Deal legislation, combating high unemployment during the Great Depression by putting hundreds of thousands of young men to work on environmental conservation projects. -
WPA is Created
Created by President Franklin Roosevelt to relieve the economic hardship of the Great Depression, this national works program employed more than 8.5 million people on 1.4 million public projects before it was disbanded. WPA provided paid jobs to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States, while building up the nation's public infrastructure, such as parks, schools and roads. -
J.J. Braddock Wins Heavyweight Boxing Title
At Madison Square Garden Bowl, Braddock won the Heavyweight Championship of the World as the 10-to-1 underdog in what was called "the greatest fistic upset since the defeat of John L. Sullivan by Jim Corbett". -
Olympic Games in Berlin
The Summer Olympic Games open in Berlin, and are attended by athletes and spectators from countries around the world. These games became a powerful propaganda tool for Nazi Germany as it tried to make its brutal treatment of Jews. -
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November Pogrom. This was a pogrom against Jews carried out by SA paramilitary forces and civilians throughout Nazi Germany. -
Grapes of Wrath is Published
In a 1939 letter, John Steinbeck wrote that his goal for The Grapes of Wrath was “to rip a reader's nerves to rags.” Through the novel, Steinbeck wanted readers to experience the life of the Dust Bowl migrants with whom he had spent time. -
Wizard of Oz Premiers in Movie Theaters
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer. The Wisconsin screenings were designed to give Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer an impression of how Oz might play to moviegoers in middle-America. However, they were perceived as conservative in their tastes and not apt to support a film that would be a difficult sell in other regions. -
Germany invades Poland
Germany invading Poland initiated World War II in Europe. German forces broke through Polish defenses along the border and quickly advanced on Warsaw, the Polish capital. -
The Four Freedoms Speech
This speech is Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1941 State of the Union Address, commonly known as the “Four Freedoms” speech. In his speech he articulated a powerful vision for a world in which all people had freedom of speech and of religion, and freedom from want and fear.
