The 1930s in Print - Stories that made the News!

1930
  • 8 March: Mahatma GANDHI starts civil disobedience campaign in India.
  • 24 May: Amy JOHNSON, British aviator, completes her solo flight from London to Australia in 191 days.
  • 14 Sept: In German elections, Socialists and Communists win more seats, but National Socialists gain 107 seats.
1931
  • 14 April: In Spain, King Alfonso flees and revolutionary a provisional government is set up.
  • 11 Dec: Building of Rockefeller Center, New York, is begun.
  • Al Capone, gangster, is jailed for income tax evasion.
  • Mrs. Hattie T. Caraway (Dem., Arkansas) is the first woman to be elected to the US Senate.
1932
  • 4 Jan: In India, the Indian National Congress is declared illegal, and GANDHI is arrested.
  • 28 Jan: Japan occupies Shanghai.
  • 1 March: The LINDBERGH baby is kidnapped.
  • 30 July to 14 Aug: X. Olympic Games are held in Los Angeles.
  • 31 July: In elections in Germany, Nazis win 230 seats, but not an overall majority.
  • 8 NOV: F.D. ROOSEVELT wins election in the USA, and becomes 32nd president. He introduces his 'New Deal'.
1933
  • 30 Jan: Adolf HITLER becomes Chancellor of Germany.
  • 27 Feb: Burning of the German Reichstag, or parliament. Hitler calls it a Communist plot, and suspends civil liberties.
  • 6 -9 March: US banks close.
  • 23 March: Adolf Hitler becomes dictator of Germany.
  • 5 Dec: Prohibition is repealed in the USA.
1934
  • 12 -13 Feb: General strike in France.
  • 24 March: US Act declares that the Philippines will be independent from 1945.
  • 16 Aug: The American explorer, William Beebe descends 3,028 feet in his bathysphere into the ocean near Bermuda.
1935
  • 16 March: Hitler renounces the Treaty of Versailles.
  • 29 May: The French liner Normandie leaves Le Havre on her maiden voyage to New York, via Southampton.
  • 15 Nov: Persia officially changes its name to Iran.
  • The publisher Allen Lane launches the paperback series Penguin Books.
1936
  • 6 to 16 Feb: IVth Winter Olympics are held at Garmisch-partenkirchen, Germany.
  • 18 July: In Spain, an army revolt under Emilio Mola and Francisco FRANCO begins Civil War.
  • 1 to 16 Aug: 11th Olympic Games are held in Berlin.
  • 2 Nov: In Britain, the BBC begins a regular television service from Alexandra Palace, London.
  • 3 NOV: F D ROOSEVELT is reelected as President.
1937
  • 1 May: Roosevelt signs the US Neutrality Act.
  • 29 Dec: The Irish Free State becomes Eire.
  • The first jet engine is built by Frank WHITTLE.
  • In the USA, Wallace H. CAROTHERS patents nylon.
  • The Lincoln Tunnel is opened between New York and New Jersey.
  • The Golden Gate Bridge opens in San Francisco.
1938
  • 29 Sept: Munich Conference, attended by Chamberlain, Daladier of France, Hitler and Mussolini. It is agreed to transfer Sudetenland to Germany, but Czech frontier to be guaranteed.
  • 10 Oct: Germany occupies Sudetenland.
  • The ball-point pen is invented by Lazlo BIRO.
  • In the United Stats, 32,000 people die in car accidents.
1939
  • 26 Jan: In Spain, Franco, with aid from Italy, takes Barcelona.
  • 15 March: Hitler's troops occupy Czechoslovakia.
  • 1 April: The US recognizes the Franco government in Spain.
  • 7 April: Italy invades Albania.
  • 30 April: The New York World's Fair opens in the USA.
  • 20 May: Pan American airlines open regular flights between the USA and Europe.
  • 23 Aug: John Cobb, British motorist, drives at 368.85 mph at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah.
  • 1 Sept: German invades Poland and seizes Danzig free -city. Start of World War II.
  • The US Supreme Court rules that sit down strikes are illegal.
  • Malcolm Campbell sets up a waterspeed record of 368.86 mph.
  • Nylon stockings first appear.