1933 - Definition and Overview

Events

January

• January 3 - Japanese troops occupy Shanghai
• January 5 - Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
• January 15 - Political violence has caused almost 100 deaths in Spain
• January 17 - US Congress votes favorable for Philippines independence, against the view of president Hoover
• January 30 - Edouard Daladier forms a government in France
• January 30 - Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany by Reich President Paul von Hindenburg.
• January 30 - The first of 2,956 episodes of The Lone Ranger airs on the radio for the first time.

February

• February 4 - Munity starts on the Dutch pantserschip Zeven Provincien.
• February 6 - The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution goes into effect.
• February 10 - The New York City-based Postal Telegraph Company introduces the first singing telegram.
• February 15 - In Miami, Florida Giuseppe Zangara attempts to assassinate President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but instead kills Chicago, Illinois Mayor Anton J. Cermak.
• February 17 - The magazine Newsweek is published for the first time.
• February 17 - The Blaine Act ends Prohibition in the United States.
• February 25 - The USS Ranger is launched, becoming the first custom-built aircraft carrier.
• February 27 - Germany's parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, is set on fire (see: Reichstag fire).

March

• March 1 - Kyriakos Varvaressos becomes Deputy Governor to the Bank of Greece
• March 3 - Mount Rushmore is dedicated.
• March 4 - American President Herbert Clark Hoover is succeeded by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who in reference to the Great Depression, gives his "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself" inauguration speech.
• March 4 Frances Perkins becomes United States Secretary of Labor, first female member of the United States Cabinet.
• March 5 - Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a "bank holiday", closing all United States banks and freezing all financial transactions (the 'holiday' ended on March 13).
• March 5 - in German elections, National Socialists gain 43.9% of the votes
• March 9 - Great Depression: The U.S. Congress begins its first 100 days of enacting New Deal legislation.
• March 10 - Earthquake in Long Beach, California kills 117 people.
• March 12 - Great Depression: Franklin Delano Roosevelt addresses the nation for the first time as President of the United States. This was also the first of his "Fireside Chats".
• March 20 - Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp, is completed - opened March 22
• March 23 - The Reichstag passes the Enabling Act, making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany.
• March 27 - Japan leaves the League of Nations
• March 31 - The Civilian Conservation Corps is established with the mission to relieve rampant unemployment.

April

• April 1 - The recently elected Nazis under Julius Streicher organize a one-day boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses in Germany, ushering in the series of anti-Semitic acts that will be known as the Holocaust.
• April 3 - Anti-monarchist rebellion in Siam
• April 4 - US airship Akron crashes near New York - 74 dead
• April 5 - International court in the Hague decides that Greenland belongs to Denmark and condemns Norwegian landings on eastern Greenland. Norway submits to the decision
• April 11 - Aviator William Lancaster takes off in England in an attempt to make a speed record to Cape. He vanishes (body is found 1962 in Sahara)
• April 23 - Japanese crown prince Akihito born
• April 26 - Gestapo established.
• April 27 - Stahlhelm organizations joins the Nazi party
• May - Karl Jansky announces the detection of radio waves from the centre of the galaxy.

May

• May 2 - First modern sighting of the Loch Ness Monster.
• May 8 - Mohandas Gandhi begins a 3-week hunger strike because of the mistreatment of the lower castes
• May 10 - Censorship: In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings.
• May 10 - Paraguay declares war on Bolivia
• May 17 - Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort form Nasjonal Samling - the national-socialist party of Norway.
• May 18 - New Deal: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.
• May 27 - New Deal: The Federal Securities Act is signed into law requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission.
• May 27 - The Century of Progress world's fair opens in Chicago, Illinois.

June

• June 5 - The U.S. Congress abrogates the United States' use of the gold standard by enacting a joint resolution (48 Stat. 112) nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold.
• June 21 - All non-Nazi parties forbidden in Germany

July

• July 4 - Mohandas Gandhi sentenced to prison
• July 14 - Forming new political parties forbidden in Germany.
• July 20 - 500.000 people demonstrate against anti-Semitism in Hyde Park, London
• July 22 - Wiley Post becomes first person to fly solo around the world, traveling 15,596 miles in 7 days, 18 hours, and 45 minutes.

August

• August 14 - Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn. It is extinguished on September 5, after destroying 240,000 acres (971 km²).
• August 30 - Assassination of Theodore Lessing in Marienbad, Czechoslovakia
• August 30 - Air France begins operations with 250 planes.

September

• September 3 - Alejandro Leroux forms a new government in Spain.
• September 12 - Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, conceives the idea of the nuclear chain reaction.
• September 26 - Tornado destroys the town of Tampico in Mexico.

October

• October 1 - Failed assassination attempt against Englebert Dolfuss only injures him seriously.
• October 12 - The United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz is acquired by the United States Department of Justice, which plans to incorporate the island into its Bureau of Prisons as a federal penitentiary.
• October 16 - Germany announces intention to leave the League of Nations - officially October 19

November

• November 4 - In Paris, a burglar tries to rob an antique store wearing an armor suit but is captured.
• November 8 - Great Depression: New Deal - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than 4 million of the unemployed.
• November 11 - Dust Bowl: In South Dakota, a very strong dust storm strips topsoil from desiccated farmlands (this is just one of a series of disastrous dust storms that year).
• November 16 - The United States and the Soviet Union establish formal diplomatic relations.
• November 16 - President of Brazil Getulio Vargas names himself dictator

December

• December 24 - Train crash in Lagny, France - over 200 dead
• December 26 - The Nissan Motor Company was organized in Tokyo, Japan.
• December 26 - FM radio is patented.
• December 29 - Members of the Iron Guard assassinate Ion Gheorghe Duca, president of Romania

Undated

• British Interplanetary Society founded
• The chocolate chip cookie is invented by Ruth Wakefield.
• The United States Federal Government ends Prohibition and outlaws marijuana.
• Failed coup against Franklin Delano Roosevelt in United States (see Smedley Butler)

Year in topic

• 1933 in film
  • Cavalcade
  • 42nd Street
  • March 2 - King Kong premieres in New York City.
  • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) once again expresses interest in the Wizard of Oz books for a series of animated cartoons, but they once again failed to make a deal with creator Frank Baum
• 1933 in literature
  • Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis
  • Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell
  • The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
  • James Joyce's Ulysses allowed into U.S.
• 1933 in music
• 1933 in sports
  • February 10 - In round 13 of a boxing match at New York City's Madison Square Garden, Primo Carnera knocks out Ernie Schaaf, killing him.
• 1933 in television
  • January 23 - W9XAL in Kansas City, Missouri begins broadcasting.
  • January 24 - John Cameron Swayze begins his daily Journal-Post News Flashes on W9XAL, which is simulcast on KMBC radio.
  • February 2 - CBS suspends its television broadcasts

Births

January

• January 6 - Emil Steinberger, cabaretist
• January 6 - Oleg Makarov, cosmonaut (d. 2003)
• January 8 - Charles Osgood, journalist, commentator
• January 14 - Stan Brakhage, filmmaker (d. 2003)
• January 16 - Susan Sontag, author (d. 2004)
• January 17 - Dalida, French singer
• January 18 - John Boorman, director
• January 23 - Chita Rivera, actress, dancer
• January 25 - Corazon Aquino, President of the Philippines

February

• February 8 - Elly Ameling, soprano
• February 12 - Costa-Gavras, director, writer
• February 13 - Kim Novak, actress
• February 18 - Yoko Ono, singer, artist, wife of John Lennon
• February 21 - Nina Simone, singer
• February 22- Katharine, Duchess of Kent.
• February 26 - Godfrey Cambridge, actor (d. 1976)
• February 27 - Raymond Berry, American football player

March

• March 6 - Ted Abernathy, Major League Baseball player (d. 2004)
• March 14 - Michael Caine, actor
• March 14 - Quincy Jones, music producer, composer
• March 15 - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court
• March 15 - Roy Clark, country musician
• March 16 - Sandy Weill
• March 19 - Philip Roth, author
• March 22 - May Britt, Swedish actress

April

• April 5 - Larry Felser, sports columnist, writer
• April 6 - Roy Goode, legal academic in the United Kingdom
• April 12 - Montserrat Caballé, Catalan soprano
• April 19 - Jayne Mansfield, American actress
• April 25 - Jerry Leiber, composer
• April 29 - Mark Eyskens, Belgian minister and Prime Minister

May

• May 3 - James Brown, musician
• May 7 - Johnny Unitas, American football star (d. 2002)
• May 10 - Barbara Taylor Bradford, writer
• May 11 - Louis Farrakhan, Black Muslim leader
• May 20 - Danny Aiello, American actor
• May 21 - Maurice André, trumpet
• May 23 - Joan Collins, actress
• May 29 - Marc Carbonneau, taxi driver and FLQ terrorist
• May 29 - Helmuth Rilling, German conductor
• May 29 - Edward Whittemore, American writer and CIA agent

June

• June 1 - Charles Wilson, American politician
• June 11 - Gene Wilder, actor
• June 13 - Tom King, British politician
• June 17 - Harry Browne, writer and United States Libertarian Party Presidential candidate.
• June 19 - Viktor Patsayev, cosmonaut
• June 26 - Claudio Abbado, conductor

July

• July 7 - Murray Halberg, New Zealand runner
• July 15 - Julian Bream, English guitarist and lutenist
• July 23 - Bert Convy, game show host, actor, singer (d.1991)

August

• August 1 - Dom DeLuise, actor, comedian
• August 21 - Janet Baker, English mezzo-soprano
• August 25 - Regis Philbin, television personality
• August 29 - Arnold Koller, member of the Swiss Federal Council

September

• September 1 - Ann Richards, governor of Texas
• September 2 - Mathieu Kérékou, President of Benin
• September 10 - Yevgeny Khrunov, cosmonaut
• September 15 - Rafael Frübeck de Burgos, Spanish conductor
• September 25 - Hubie Brown, basketball coach, television analyst

November

• November 3 - Michael Dukakis, US politician
• November 23 - Krzysztof Penderecki, Polish composer

December

• December 2 - Michael Larrabee, American athlete (d. 2003)
• December 6 - Henryk Górecki, composer
• December 20 - Jean Carnahan, US politician
• December 23 - Akihito, Emperor of Japan

Deaths

January

• January 3 - Jack Pickford, actor, Hollywood's first "bad boy"
• January 5 - Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States
• January 7 - Bert Hinkler, Australian pioneer aviator. (b. 1892)
• January 31 - John Galsworthy, writer

February

• February 15 - Pat Sullivan, director and producer of animated films, alleged co-creator of Felix the Cat
• February 18 - James J. Corbett, boxer

March

• March 6 - Anton Cermak, mayor of Chicago, Illinois, wounded weeks earlier by an assassin's bullet intended for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, dies of his injuries
• March 26 - Eddie Lang, jazz musician (b. 1902)

April

• April 3 - Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, in the crash of the USS Akron

May

• May 24 - Percy C. Mather, pioneer missionary to Eastern Turkestan
• May 26 - Jimmie Rodgers, singer

June

• June 2 - Frank Jarvis, American athlete (b. 1878)

July

• July 3 - Hipólito Yrigoyen, President of Argentina (1916-1922, 1928-1930; b. 16 July 1852).
• July 15 - Freddie Keppard, jazz musician (b. 1890)

October

• October 5 - Renée Adorée, French actress

November

• November 30 - Arthur Currie, Canadian military leader

December

• December 8 - Karl Jatho, German airplane pioneer
• December 25 - Francesc Macià, President of Generalitat, Autonomous government of Catalonia
• Blind Blake, influential blues singer

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Erwin Schrödinger, Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac
• Chemistry - not awarded
• Medicine - Thomas Hunt Morgan
• Literature - Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin
• Peace - Sir Norman Angell (Ralph Lane)