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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 book outlines many of Hitler's political beliefs, his political ideology and future plans for Germany and the world. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926 -
Stock Market Crash Begins Great Depression
The stock market crash of October 1929 led directly to the Great Depression in Europe. When stocks plummeted on the New York Stock Exchange, the world noticed immediately. -
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 in April 1945. -
Franklin Roosevelt is Elected President (1st Time)
Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President of the United States four times: 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944. Prior to the third-term election of 1940, it was a presidential tradition set by George Washington that presidents only held the office for two terms. As a result of FDR's unprecedented four terms, the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified in 1951, limiting all future presidents to two elected terms. -
CCC is Created
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. -
The Dust Bowl Begins
The Dust Bowl, also known as “the Dirty Thirties,” started in 1930 and lasted for about a decade, but its long-term economic impacts on the region lingered much longer. Severe drought hit the Midwest and southern Great Plains in 1930. Massive dust storms began in 1931. -
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. The unemployment rate in 1935 was at a staggering 20 percent. -
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
Berlin 1936 Olympic Games, athletic festival held in Berlin that took place August 1–16, 1936. 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. -
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 and Schutzstaffel paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilians throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938. -
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
The invasion lasted from September 1 to October 5, 1939. As dawn broke on September 1, 1939, German forces launched a surprise attack on Poland. The attack was sounded with the predawn shelling, by the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein, of Polish fortifications at the Baltic port of Danzig (modern Dansk). -
The Four Freedoms Speech
The Four Freedoms were goals articulated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Monday, January 6, 1941.