1930s
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| Millennia: | 2nd millennium |
| Centuries: | 19th century - 20th century - 21st century |
| Decades: | 1900s 1910s 1920s - 1930s - 1940s 1950s 1960s |
| Years: | 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 |
| Categories: | Births - Deaths - Architecture Establishments - Disestablishments |
The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression. In East Asia, the rise of militarism occurred.
In Western Europe, Australia and the United States, more progressive reforms occurred as opposed to the extreme measures sought elsewhere. Roosevelt's New Deal attempted to use government spending to combat large-scale unemployment and severely negative growth. Ultimately, it would be the beginning of World War II in 1939 that would end the depression, although the worst years were the early 30s and by the later part of the decade much was already on the road to recovery.
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[edit] Technology
Many technological advances occurred in the 1930s, including:
- The world's tallest building (for the next 43 years) was constructed, opening as the Empire State Building on May 3, 1931 in New York City;
- On March 8, 1930, the first frozen foods of Clarence Birdseye were sold in Ringfield, Massachusetts, USA.
- Ub Iwerks produced the first Color Sound Cartoon in 1930, a Flip the Frog cartoon entitled: "Fiddlesticks";
- In 1930, Warner Brothers released the first All-Talking All-Color wide-screen movie, Song of the Flame; in 1930 alone, Warner Brothers released ten All-Color All-Talking feature movies in Technicolor and scores of shorts and features with color sequences;
- Air mail service across the Atlantic Ocean began;
- Radar was invented, known as RDF (Radio Direction Finding), such as in British Patent GB593017 by Robert Watt in 1938;
- The first BBC television broadcast occurred;
- In 1933, the 3M company marketed Scotch Tape; and
- In 1931, RCA Victor introduced the first long-playing phonograph record.
- In 1935, the British London and North Eastern Railway introduced the A4 Pacific, designed by Sir Nigel Gresley. Just three years later, one of these, No. 4468 Mallard, would become the fastest steam locomotive in the world.
- Nuclear fission discovered by Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassman in 1939.
- The Volkswagen Beetle, arguably the most popular automobile in the world, had its roots in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s. The car would prove to be successful, and would be produced relatively unchanged well up into the 1990s.
[edit] War, peace and politics
- Communists forecast "the death of Capitalism"
- Rise to power of Adolf Hitler and Nazism in Germany.[1]
- In the Soviet Union, agricultural collectivization and rapid industrialization take place, and the Great Purge occurs, in which much of the Soviet political and military establishment is eliminated.[2]
- Adolf Hitler is the first to employ Blitzkrieg as a method of warfare.
- Almost all of Continental Europe moves to Authoritarianism or Totalitarianism
- Éamon de Valera introduces a new constitution for the Irish Free State, effectively ending its status as a British Dominion.
- Starts or continue the Estado Novo in Brazil and Portugal.
- Advent of the modern welfare state in New Zealand and Sweden.
- The Empire of Japan invades the Republic of China in the Second Sino-Japanese War.
- Italian Invasion of Ethiopia
- The Spanish Civil War
- Nazi Germany invades Poland in September 1939, marking the beginning of World War II.
- Mahatma Gandhi leads the non-violent Satyagraha movement in the Declaration of the Independence of India and the Salt March.
[edit] Economics
- The Great Depression occurred during the 1930s.
[edit] Literature and Art
- Notable poetry include W. H. Auden's Poems.
- Notable literature includes Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath (1939) and Of Mice and Men (1937), Ernest Hemingway's To Have and Have Not (1937), John Dos Passos's U.S.A trilogy, William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying (1930) and Absalom, Absalom! (1936), John O'Hara's Appointment in Samarra (1934) and Butterfield 8 (1935).
- Notable "hardboiled" crime fiction includes Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934).
- Notable plays include Thorton Wilder's Our Town (1938).
- In the art of film making, the Golden Age of Hollywood entered a whole decade, after the advent of talking pictures ("talkies") in 1927 and full-color films in 1930: more than 50 classic films were made in the 1930s:
- most notable were Gone With The Wind and The Wizard of Oz
- the soundtrack and photographic technology prompted many films to be made or re-made, such as the 1934 version of Cleopatra, using lush art deco sets which won an Academy Award (see films 1930-1939 in: Academy Award for Best Cinematography);
- the horror films (or monster movies) included many cult classics, such as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, Jekyll/Hyde, King Kong, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and other films about wax museums, vampires and zombies, leading to the 1941 film The Wolf Man (wolfman);
- recurring themes included: Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, Tarzan, Charlie Chan, Alfred Hitchcock films, Our Gang, and the filming of "superheroes" such as The Phantom and Superman;
- two notable films were made in the 1930s (see: "1934 in film" or "1939 in film").
[edit] Popular culture
- Radio becomes dominant mass media in industrial nations
- "Golden Age" of radio begins in U.S.
- First intercontinental commercial airline flights
- Height of the Art Deco movement in North America and western Europe.
- The film The Wizard of Oz immortalized tornadoes, songs (Somewhere Over the Rainbow), the characters, and "Toto" too.
- "Swing" music starts becoming popular (from 1935 onward). It gradually replaces the sweet form of Jazz that had been popular for the first half of the decade.
- The Golden Age of American animation: Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies and Mickey Mouse series, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film); Ub Iwerks' Flip the Frog and Willie Whopper; Walter Lantz's Oswald the Lucky Rabbit; Fleischer Studios' Talkartoons, Betty Boop and Popeye the Sailor; Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies; Charles B. Mintz's Scrappy.
- Popular newspaper comic strips include The Phantom, Terry and the Pirates, and Thimble Theater (featuring Popeye the Sailor).
- Collections of reprinted comic strips evolve into modern comic books, and costumed pulp heroes lead to the creation of the superhero genre. The Golden Age of Comic Books begins with Superman's debut in Action Comics #1.
- Russ Columbo, one of the most popular singers of the decade, dies in an accidental shooting in 1934.
- Triumph of the Will - Leni Riefenstahl's ground-breaking Nazist propaganda film.
- Belgian cartoonist Hergé's The Adventures of Tintin. (Started in 1929)
- In 1935, the game Monopoly was the best-selling game in America. This was its first year on the market with a major toy company.
[edit] Others
- In 1932 the Cipher Bureau broke the German Enigma cipher and overcame the ever-growing structural and operating complexities of the evolving Enigma machine with plugboard, the main German cipher device during World War II.
- U.S. presidential candidate Huey Long assassinated (1935).
- Board of Temperance Strategy established in U.S. to fight repeal of prohibition
- Southern Great Plains devastated by decades-long Dust Bowl
- German dirigible Hindenburg is destroyed by fire, killing 36 (1937).
- The New London School in New London, Texas is destroyed by an explosion, killing in excess of 300 students and teachers (1937).
- Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean (1932)
[edit] People
[edit] World leaders
- Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (India)
- President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (Turkey)
- Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (India)
- Jawaharlal Nehru (India)
- Governor-General Lord Edward Irwin (British India)
- Governor-General The Marquess of Linlithgow (British India)
- King Faisal I (Iraq)
- King Ghazi (Iraq)
- King Faisal II (Iraq)
- President of the Executive Council W. T. Cosgrave (Irish Free State)
- President of the Executive Council Eamon de Valera (Irish Free State)
- Taoiseach Eamon de Valera (Éire)
- King Victor Emmanuel III (Italy)
- Prime Minister Benito Mussolini (Italy)
- Emperor Hirohito (Japan)
- Emir Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (Kuwait)
- Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar (Portugal)
- President Lázaro Cárdenas (Mexico)
- Sultan Mohammed V (Morocco)
- Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage (New Zealand)
- President Paul von Hindenburg (Germany)
- Chancellor Adolf Hitler (Germany)
- Prime Minister James Barry Munnik Hertzog (South Africa)
- General Secretary Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union)
- President Alcalá Zamora (Spain)
- Prime Minister Manuel Azaña (Spain)
- Prime Minister Alejandro Lerroux (Spain)
- President (Syria)
- President Bahij al-Khatib (Syria)
- Bey (Crown Prince) Ahmad II (Tunisia)
- 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 D. Roosevelt (United States)
- Holy Father Pope Pius XI (Vatican)
- Minister of foreign Józef Beck (Poland)
[edit] Sports figures
[edit] British Commonwealth
- Cliff Bastin (English footballer)
- Donald Bradman (Australian cricketer)
- Haydn Bunton, Sr (Australian Rules Footballer)
- Jack Crawford (tennis)
- Jack Dyer (Australian rules football player)
- Walter Hammond (English cricketer)
- Eddie Hapgood (English footballer)
- George Headley (West Indies cricketer)
- Alex James (Scottish footballer)
- Douglas Jardine (English cricketer)
- Harold Larwood (English cricketer)
- Jack Lovelock (New Zealand runner)
- Fred Perry (English tennis player)
- Leonard Hutton, English cricketer.
- Percy Williams (sprinter)
- Dhyan Chand, Indian hockey player
- Lala Amarnath, Indian cricketer
[edit] United States
- Joe Louis (boxing)
- Lou Ambers (boxing)
- Henry Armstrong (boxing)
- Max Baer (boxing)
- Cliff Battles (halfback)
- Jay Berwanger (halfback)
- James J. Braddock (boxing)
- Ellison M. Brown (marathon)
- Don Budge (tennis)
- Tony Canzoneri (boxing)
- Mickey Cochrane (baseball)
- Glenn Cunningham (running)
- Dizzy Dean (baseball)
- Joe DiMaggio (baseball)
- Babe Didrikson (track)
- Leo Durocher (baseball)
- Turk Edwards (tackle)
- Dixie Howell (halfback)
- Don Hutson (end)
- Cecil Isbell (quarterback)
- John A. Kelley (marathon)
- Nile Kinnick (halfback)
- Tommy Loughran (boxing)
- Alice Marble (tennis)
- Ralph Metcalfe (sprinter)
- Bronko Nagurski (fullback)
- Mel Ott (baseball)
- Jesse Owens (sprinter)
- Bobby Riggs (tennis)
- Helen Stephens (track)
- Eddie Tolan (sprinter)
- Ellsworth Vines (tennis)
- Stella Walsh (sprinter)
- Frank Wykoff (sprinter)
- Lou Gehrig (baseball)
[edit] References
- ^ Rainer Zitelmann (December 1989). "Hitler: Selbstverstandnis eines Revolutionars". The Journal of Modern History 61: 854 - 856.
- ^ A. L. Unger (January 1969). "Stalin's Renewal of the Leading Stratum: A Note on the Great Purge". Soviet Studies 20: 321 - 330.
[edit] External link
- The Dirty Thirties — Images of the Great Depression in Canada
- The 1930s Timeline — from American Studies Programs at The University of Virginia
