-
J. Edgar Hoover became the acting Director of the Bureau of Investigation (later the FBI) on May 10, 1924, and was appointed Director by President Calvin Coolidge later that year. He was appointed to professionalize the bureau, which was then a small organization with only about 650 employees. He was tasked with removing political appointees and implementing merit-based systems -
Mein Kampf is a 1925 autobiographical and political manifesto by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. The book outlines many of Hitler's political beliefs, his political ideology, and his future plans for Germany and the world. -
The stock market crash that is widely considered to have triggered the start of the Great Depression occurred in late October 1929, with the most significant days of panic selling being Black Thursday (October 24) and Black Tuesday (October 29). -
The persistent dry weather caused crops to fail, leaving the plowed fields exposed to wind erosion. The Great Plains' fine soil eroded easily and was carried east by strong continental winds. The first recorded dust storm occurred on September 14, 1930. -
Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. He was appointed to the position by the aging President Paul von Hindenburg through Germany's legal political process, not by winning an election for the chancellorship or by a coup. -
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 -
Franklin D. Roosevelt was first elected president on November 8, 1932, defeating incumbent Herbert Hoover in a landslide victory. He was inaugurated on March 4, 1933, and his first term was defined by his response to the Great Depression through his "New Deal" programs -
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was created on May 6, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt through an executive order as part of his New Deal to provide jobs during the Great Depression. It was funded by the Emergency Relief Appropriations Act of 1935 and employed millions of Americans on public works projects until it was dissolved in 1943 -
James J. Braddock won the heavyweight boxing title on June 13, 1935, by defeating the reigning champion, Max Baer, in a 15-round unanimous decision. The victory was considered a major upset, earning Braddock the nickname "The Cinderella Man" from columnist Damon Runyon -
Berlin hosted the 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad. The event is historically significant for being used as a propaganda tool by the Nazi regime, which temporarily eased anti-Semitic measures to present a false image of tolerance. A major athletic highlight was the performance of African-American athlete Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals and countered the Nazi ideology of Aryan superiority
-
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.
-
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck was first published on April 14, 1939. The novel depicts the struggles of the Joad family during the Dust Bowl, and it quickly became the best-selling novel of 1939, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1940. -
The Wizard of Oz had its world premiere on August 12, 1939, in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, followed by an official world premiere in Hollywood on August 15, 1939, and a nationwide release on August 25, 1939. The premiere in Oconomowoc was a test to see if the film would be well-received before its wider release. -
The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, 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. -
The "Four Freedoms" speech, delivered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 6, 1941, outlined four essential human freedoms: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. The speech aimed to build support for Great Britain and its allies against the Axis powers and to define America's war aims as the defense of these universal principles.