1930s - Definition and Overview

Events and trends

Technology

• Jet engine invented
• Link Trainer invented

Science

• Nuclear fission discovered by Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann
• Pluto, the ninth planet from the Sun, is discovered by Clyde Tombaugh
• British biologist Arthur Tansley coins term "ecosystem"

War, peace and politics

• Socialists proclaim The death of Capitalism
• Rise to power of Adolf Hitler in Germany
• Under Joseph Stalin, millions die in famines. The Great Purges eliminate all Old Bolsheviks from the Soviet government, except for Molotov and Stalin himself.
• Almost all of Continental Europe moves to Authoritarianism or Totalitarianism
• Japan invaded China as a precursor to Japanese invasions in Southeast Asia
• The Spanish Civil War
• Start of World War II in Asia and Europe

Economics

• Worldwide Great Depression

Culture, religion

• Radio becomes dominant mass media in industrial nations.
• First intercontinental commercial airline flights.
• Height of the Art Deco movement in Europe and the US
• The Wizard of Oz
• "Big band" or "swing" music becomes popular (from 1935 onward)

Others

People

World leaders

• Prime Minister Richard Bedford Bennett (Canada)
• Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King (Canada)
• President Chiang Kai-shek (Republic of China)
• President Lin Sen (Republic of China)
• President Paul von Hindenburg (Germany)
• Adolf Hitler (Germany)
• King Victor Emmanuel III (Italy)
• Prime Minister Benito Mussolini (Italy)
• President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (Turkey)
• Emperor Hirohito (Japan)
• Pope Pius XI
• Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union)
• King George V (United Kingdom)
• King Edward VIII (United Kingdom)
• King George VI (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (United Kingdom)
• President Herbert Hoover (United States)
• President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (United States)
• President W.T. Cosgrave (Irish Free State)
• President Eamon de Valera (Irish Free State)
• Taoiseach Eamon de Valera (Éire)

Entertainers

• Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy
• Louis Armstrong
• Fred Astaire
• Bing Crosby
• Duke Ellington
• Judy Garland
• Katharine Hepburn
• Boris Karloff
• Bela Lugosi
• The Marx Brothers
• Edward G. Robinson
• Ginger Rogers
• Fats Waller
• Alice Brady

Sports figures

• Donald Bradman (Australian cricketer)
• Jack Dyer (Australian Australian Rules Football player)
• Jesse Owens (U.S. track and field athlete)
• Fred Perry (English tennis player)