Chronology of the 1930's

1930

January
6 - The first diesel-engine automobile trip is completed from Indianapolis, Indiana, to New York City.
13 - The Mickey Mouse comic strip makes its first appearance.
26 - The Indian National Congress declares 26 January as Independence Day

February
18 - Clyde Tombaugh discovers the planet Pluto.

March
5 - Danish painter Einar Wegener goes through a sexual reassignment surgery and takes the name Lili Elbe
28 - Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara.
29 - Heinrich Brüning is appointed German Reichskanzler.


April
4 - The Communist Party of Panama is founded.
18 - Chittagong Rebellion begins in India.
21 - The Turkestan-Siberia Railway is completed (see image above).
22 - The United Kingdom, Japan and the United States sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting shipbuilding.

May
5 - Mahatma Gandhi is arrested again.
15 - Aboard a Boeing tri-motor, Ellen Church becomes the first airline stewardess.
16 - Rafael Leónidas Trujillo is elected president of the Dominican Republic.
24 - Amy Johnson (see image above) to lands in Darwin, Australia becoming the first woman to fly solo from EnglandAustralia

June
21 - One-year conscription comes into force in France.

July
7 - Building of the Boulder Dam (later renamed to Hoover Dam) begins.
13 - The first Football World Cup starts.
31 - The radio drama 'The Shadow' airs for the first time.

August
9 - Betty Boop premiers in the animated film Dizzy Dishes.
12 - Turkish troops move into Persia to fight Kurdish insurgents.
27 - Military junta takes over in Peru.

September
6 - José Félix Uriburu carries out a successful military coup, overthrowing Hipólito Yrigoyen, President of Argentina.
14 - National socialists win 107 seats in German parliament - 18.3% of all the votes makes them second largest party.



October
5 - British Airship R101 crashed in France en-route to India on its maiden voyage. (Eye witness account)

November

December

1931

January
February
29 - Oswald Mosley forms the New Party in Great Britain.

March
April
May
June
July
August

September
16 - The execution of Omar Muhktar by Italian forces under the command of General Rodolfo Graziani

October
November
December

1932

Formation of the British Union of Fascists (see flag above) by Oswald Mosley. MI6 monitors the BUF extensively.

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

1933

January

February
15 - Anton Cermak, mayor of Chicago is shot during an assassination attempt against Franklin D Roosevelt. Cermak dies of his wounds on March 6.

March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

1934

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

1935

January
1 - Italy merges the colonies of Tripoli and Cyrenaica to form Libya.
2 - The trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann.
7 - Italy and France sign a non aggression treaty with regards to each others colonial territories.
11 - Amelia Earhart (see image above) becomes the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.
16 - The FBI kills Barker gang, including Ma Barker, in a shootout.

February

March
2 - King Prajadhipok of Siam abdicates the throne. He is succeeded by his 9-year-old-nephew Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII).
16 - Adolf Hitler announces German rearmament in violation of the Versailles Treaty.
21 - Persia is renamed Iran.

April
14 - The Dust Bowl.

May
19 - T. E. Lawrence is killed in a motorcycle accident.

June
9 - The He-Umezu agreement. China's Kuomintang government concedes Japanese military control of north-eastern China.
18 - The Anglo-German naval agreement. Britain agrees to a German navy equal to 35% of her own naval tonnage.

July
5 - Oliveira Salazar becomes de facto dictator of fascist Portugal.
6 - Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dali Lama is born.
30 - First Penguin paperback books are published.

August


September
13 - Howard Hughes (see image above), flying the Hughes H-1 Racer, sets the airspeed record of 352 mph (566 km/h).
15 - The Nuremberg Laws go into effect in Germany.

October
2-3 - Italian army invades Ethiopia under General de Bono.


November
14 - Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin returned to office.
22 - The China Clipper (see image above) takes off from Alameda, California to deliver the first airmail cargo across the Pacific Ocean.

December
18 - Samuel Hoare resigns as British foreign secretary; replaced by Anthony Eden.
27 - Mao Zedong issues the Wayaopao Manifesto.

1936

January

15 - The world's first full coated glass building is constructed.
18 - The death of Rudyard Kipling.
20 - King George V of Great Britain dies.

February
6 - The fourth Winter Olympic Games opens in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
26 - The Imperial Way attempt a coup against the Japanese Government, but fail.

March
1 - Construction of the Hoover Dam is finished.
7 - Nazi Germany violates the Treaty of Versaille and reoccupies the Rhineland
9 - Radical militarist Kōki Hirota becomes Prime Minister of Japan


April
19 - Arab revolt against British rule in Palestine (see image above. Note the Arabs are armed with MG-34's, a weapon which had only been in production for a few years).

May
5 - Italian forces occupy Addis Ababa
7 - Italy annexes Ethiopia
9 - Italian East Africa is formed from the Italian occupied territories of Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Italian Somaliland.
27 - RMS Queen Mary begins her maiden voyage from Southhampton (see image above).

June
14 - The death of Maxim Gorky.
19 - Max Schmeling knocks out Joe Louis (see image above)

July
17 - The beginning of the Spanish Civil War.


August
1 - Adolf Hitler opens the Summer Olympics in Berlin (see above image)
2- The death of Louis Blériot.
3 - US athlete Jesse Owens wins 100 metre dash at Summer Olympics.

September

October


November
2 - BBC launches first television service.
3 - Franklin D Roosevelt is re-elected to President of the United States
23 - First edition of Life magazine is published (see image above).
25 - The Abraham Lincoln Brigade sail to take part in the Spanish Civil War
26 - Germany and Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact
30 - The Crystal Palace is destroyed in a fire.


December
5 - The Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and Armenia, Azerbaija and Georgia become full members of the USSR.
9 - Juan de la Cierva (see image above) inventor of the autogyro, is killed in a plane crash at Croydon airfield.
10 - 11- King Edward VIII abdicates the throne of Great Britain in order to marry Mrs Wallis Simpson. After giving a radio address to the country he leaves for Austria. Prince Albert, Duke of York, becomes King, ruling as King George VI.
12 - The Xi'an incident. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek is kidnapped by Zhang Xueliang.

1937

January
19 - Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.
20 - Franklin D. Roosevelt is sworn in as president for a second term.
23 - In Moscow, 17 leading Communists go on trial accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime and assassinate its leaders.


February
8 - Falangist troops take Málaga
8 to 27 - Battle of Jarama (see image above)
19 - During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in Addis Ababa, two Eritrean nationalists attempt to kill viceroy Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades.
21 - Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Aerobile.
21 - The League of Nations Non-Intervention Committee ban on foreign nationals fighting in the Spanish Civil War.

March
15 - The death of HP Lovecraft.


April
1 - Aden becomes a British crown colony.
9 - The Kamikaze arrives at Croydon Airport in London - it is the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly to Europe.
26 - The bombing of Guernica (image above shows 'Guernica' by Pablo Picasso) by the Luftwaffe's Condor Legion.


May
6 - The destruction of the LZ 129 Hindeburg airship (see image above).

7 - Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion Fighter Group, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrives in Spain to assist Francisco Franco's forces.
12 - Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain.
21 - a Soviet station becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
21 - Italian troops massacre the entire community of Debre Libanos in Ethiopia.
23 - The death of John D Rockefeller.
27 to- 28 - In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens.
28 - Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

June

7 - The death of Jean Harlow.
8 - First total solar eclipse to exceed 7 minutes of totality in over 800 years; visible in the Pacific and Peru.
8 - The premiere of 'Carmina Burana' by Carl Orff.
8 - The launch of the heavy cruiser 'Blücher'.
19 - The death of JM Barrie.
21 - Coalition government of Léon Blum resigns in France.

July
1 - The Gestapo arrests Martin Niemöller.
2 - Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear over New Guinea during Earhart's attempt to become the first woman to fly around the world.
7 - The Sino-Japanese War begins with the Battle of Lugou Bridge when Japanese forces invade China.
11 - the death of George Gerswhin.
20 - The death of Guglielmo Marconi.
21 - Eamon de Valera elected president of Ireland.
28 - The IRA attempts to assassinate King George VI in Belfast.

August
5 - Soviet Union commences one of the largest campaigns of the Great Purge, to "eliminate anti-Soviet element". Within the following year, at least 724,000 people were killed on order of troikas, many of them chosen for shooting by their ethnicity.
6 - Falangist artillery bombards Madrid.
26 - Japanese aircraft attack the car carrying the ambassador of Great Britain during a raid on Shanghai.

September
2 - The Great Hong Kong Typhoon of 1937 killed an estimated 11,000 persons.
5 - The fall of Llanes in the Spanish Civil War.
25 - The Battle of Pingxingguan of the Sino-Japanese War.
26 - Street and Smith Publications launches a half-hour radio program , The Shadow, with Orson Welles in the title role.

October
3 - Japanese troops advance toward Nanking.
5 - Roosevelt (see image above) gives his famous "Quarantine Speech" in Chicago.
13 - Germany guarantees the inviolability and integrity of Belgium so long as the latter abstains from military action against Germany.
The death of Ernest Rutherford.
21 - The whole Spanish northern seaboard in the Falangists' hands.
21 - Roberto Ortiz elected president of Argentina.

November
5 - Massacre of Republican supporters in Piedrafita de Babia, near León. Possibly 35,000 executed.
5 - Adolf Hitler holds a secret meeting in the Reich Chancellery, and states his plans for acquiring "living space" for the German people.
6 - Italy joins Anti-Comintern Pact.
9 - Japanese troops take Shanghai.
9 - The death of Ramsay MacDonald.
10 - Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas announces the Estado Novo - New State -, thence becoming dictator of Brazil until 1945.

December
11 - Italy withdraws from the League of Nations.
13 - Battle of Nanjing ends and the Nanjing Massacre begins. Japanese troops slaughter over 300,000 civilians and prisoners over three months.
28 - The death of Maurice Ravel.

1938

January

February

4 - Adolf Hitler creates the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht giving him direct control of the German military.
10 - Carol II of Romania takes dictatorial powers.
12 - Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg of Austria meets Adolf Hitler at Berchtesgaden and, under threat of invasion, is forced to yield to German demands for greater Nazi participation in the Austrian government.
14 - The British naval base at Singapore begins operations.
20 - Anthony Eden resigns as foreign minister of Great Britain, and is succeeded by Lord Halifax.

March
Italian mathematician Ettore Majorana disappears.
3 - Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia.
12 - Anschluss: German troops occupy Austria; annexation declared the following day.
14 - French Premier Leon Blum reassures the Czech government that France will honor its treaty obligations to aid Czechoslovakia in event of German invasion.
15 - The Soviet Union announces officially that Nikholai Bukharin has been executed.
17 - Poland presents an ultimatum to Lithuania demanding to establish normal diplomatic relations that were severed over the Vilnius Region.

April
10 - Edouard Daladier becomes prime minister of France. He appoints as Foreign Minister a leading advocate of the policy of appeasement, Georges Bonnet, effectively negating Blum's reassurances of March 14.
24 – Konstantin Päts becomes president of Estonia.

May
5 - The Vatican recognizes General Franco's government in Spain.
9 - Kaarel Eenpalu becomes prime minister of Estonia.
14 - Chile withdraws from the League of Nations.
20 - Czechoslovakia orders a partial mobilization of its armed forces along the German border.
25 - The Bombing of Alicante, in the Spanish Civil War, with 313 dead.
28 - In a conference at the Reichs Chancellery, Adolf Hitler declares his decision to destroy Czechoslovakia by military force, and orders the immediate mobilization of 96 Wehrmacht divisions.

June
12 - 18 - Roma and Sinti in Germany and Austria are rounded up, beaten up and jailed.
15 - László Bíró patents the ballpoint pen in Britain.
22 - Heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis knocks out Max Schmeling in the first round of their rematch at Yankee Stadium in New York City.
24 - A 450 metric ton meteorite strikes the earth in an empty field near Chicora, Pennsylvania.
25 - Dr. Douglas Hyde is elected the first President of Ireland.

July
Building of the concentration camp Mauthausen.
3 - The Steam locomotive Mallard sets the world speed record for steam by reaching 126 mph.
5 - The Non-Intervention Committee reaches an agreement to a withdrawal of all foreign volunteers from the Spanish Civil War. The agreement is respected by most Republican foreign volunteers, notably by those from England and the United States, but is ignored by the governments of Germany and Italy.
12 - Kurdish Genocide in Dersim, Turkey by the Turkish army.
14 - Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91 hour airplane flight around the world.
18 - Wrong Way Corrigan takes off from New York, ostensibly heading for California. He lands in Ireland instead.
28 - A revolt against the Ioannis Metaxas dictatorship is put down in Chania,

August
In the face of overwhelming Japanese military pressure, Chiang Kai-shek undertakes the withdrawal of his government to Chungking.
4 - Lord Runciman arrives in Prague to act as Neville Chamberlain's special envoy in the continuing Sudetenland disturbances.
18 - Colonel General Ludwig Beck, convinced that Hitler's decision to sieze Czechoslovakia by force will lead to a general European war, resigns his position as Chief of the Wehrmacht General Staff in protest.
18 - 28 - Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin arrives in England in a last minute attempt to peacefully defuse the looming crisis over the Sudetenland. His private mission is dismissed by Neville Chamberlain as unimportant but he finds a sympathetic if powerless audience in Winston Churchill.

September
2 - Soviet Ambassador to Britain Ivan Maisky calls on Winston Churchill to tell him that Soviet Foreign Commissar Maxim Litvinov has expressed to the French charge d'affiars in Moscow that Russia is willing to fight over the territorial integrity of Czechoslovakia.

October
1 - German troops march into the Sudetenland.
5 - Edvard Beneš, president of Czechoslovakia, resigns.

November
15 - The King William Street Affair.

December