1930s
A time of Depression caused by the stock market crash in 1929. Over 5,000 banks close; wages drop to 60% of pre-crash levels; business losses at $6 billion; unemployment at 16 million. The rate of homelessness increased.
Dow Jones Industrials hits bottom at 41.22.
The crisis was worsened by the severe droughts resulting in dust storms. The Dust Bowl damaged around 50 million acres of land, the first major storm happening on May, 1934 and carrying approximately 350 million tons of dirt to the East Coast. Farm families moved west to California.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president, defeating Herbert Hoover. He gives "New Deal" speech in which he says, "I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people."
When FDR came into office he created many government programs to create a better society and more jobs for suffering Americans. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was formed.
He starts his radio broadcasts, the "fireside chats."
Social Security Act passed.
Amelia Earhart and co-pilot Fred Noonan disappeared over Pacific Ocean during attempted round the world flight.
Jesse Owens wins four gold medals at the Summer Olympics in Berlin.
The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) Franco entered Madrid in March of 1939 and the Republican forces surrendered. General Francisco Franco started a dictatorship which lasted until he died in 1975.
Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Great Britain and France had promised Poland protection if the Nazis invaded and Hitler did not think that they would carry out their promise. However, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany.
US proclaims itself neutral as WWII begins.
Albert Einstein writes to FDR, informing him that nuclear chain reactions can be created and used in bombs.
1933 - The 21st Amendment is added to the Constitution, repealing Prohibition.
New York World's Fair; Golden Gate Exposition.
Braniff Airlines, United Airlines founded; American Airways formed (later American Airlines); TWA formed by merger. Pan Am begins regular transatlantic passenger service.
The infant son of flying hero Charles Lindbergh and wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh is kidnapped and murdered.
New: freon, twinkies, sliced bread, "differential analyzer" (first analog computer), synthetic rubber, fiberglass, Piper Cub aircraft, Clairol hair dye, Bisquick, Alka-Seltzer, FM radio, first drive-in movie theatre, Campbells' chicken noodle soup, Ritz crackers, nylon, Hammond organ, canned beer, Monopoly, nylon, polyethylene, Spam, automatic transmission, ball point pen, teflon, fiberglass, nylon stockings, Sikorsky helicopter, DDT chemical pesticide, flourescent lights, turbojet-propelled airplane.
The Wizard of Oz with Judy Garland, one of the first color films; King Kong with Fay Wray; The Philadelphia Story with Katherina Hepburn; Gone with the Wind with Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington with James Stewart; Goodbye, Mr. Chips with Robert Donat; The Thin Man with William Powell, Myrna Loy; It Happened One Night with Claudette Colbert, Clark Gable; Mutiny on the Bounty with Charles Laughton, Top Hat with Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers; The Little Colonel with Shirley Temple; The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn; Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first animated feature film, is released by Disney.
13 million radio sets in the US. Radio shows include Little Orphan Annie, Breakfast Club, The Lone Ranger, The Walter Winchell Show, Buck Rogers in the Twenty-Fifth Century. Radio Stars: George Burns and Grace Allen (Burns and Allen), Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Bing Crosby; Bob Hope
Radio City Music Hall (NYC) opens.
Comic Strips: Dick Tracy. Terry and the Pirates, L'il Abner, Flash Gordon Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, appears in Action Comics.
Clarinetist Benny Goodman named "King of Swing"; Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw lead popular dance bands. Roy Acuff brings nationwide popularity to Grand Ole Opry radio show. "Mood Indigo" by Duke Ellington; "Beer Barrel Polka," "On the Good Ship Lollipop" by Richard Whiting,
Margaret Mitchell writes Gone With the Wind; The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck; Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell; Mutiny on the Bounty by James Hall and Charles Nordhoff; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie; The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
October 30, 1938. Orson Welles broadcasts an adaption of the H.G. Welles' book War of the Worlds. Hysteria ensues across the country, especially in New York and New Jersey, as many listeners mistake the dramatic play for actual news coverage of an alien invasion of the United States.