1930s

Events and trends

The 1930s were spent struggling for a solution to the global depression. In Central and Eastern Europe, Fascism, Nazism, Stalinism, and Totalitarianism dominated as the solution. In East Asia, the rise of Militarism occurred. In Western Europe and America, more progressive reforms occurred as opposed to a radical change as many sought. Roosevelt's New Deal attempted to use government spending to combat unemployment. Ultimately, it would be the beginning of WWII in 1939 that would end the depression.

Technology

• Jet engine invented
• First atom was split with a particle accelerator
• Disney adopts a three-color Technicolor process for cartoons
• The photocopier is invented
• Air mail service across the Atlantic

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
• Advent of the modern welfare state in New Zealand and Sweden.
• Japan invades 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
• "Golden Age" of radio begins in U.S.
• 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)
• Superman debuts in 1938.

Others

• U.S. presidential candidate Huey Long assassinated

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 D. Roosevelt (United States)
• President W.T. Cosgrave (Irish Free State)
• President Eamon de Valera (Irish Free State)
• Taoiseach Eamon de Valera (Éire)
• Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage (New Zealand)

Entertainers

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

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)

External Links

• The Dirty Thirties — Images of the Great Depression in Canada