1930s

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.

1 Technology
2 International Issues
3 Economics
4 Literature and Art
5 Popular culture
6 Others
7 People
- 7.1 World leaders
- 7.2 Sports figures
  - 7.2.1 British Commonwealth
  - 7.2.2 United States
8 References
9 External links

Technology

Many technological advances occurred in the 1930s, including:

1931: Empire State Building is opened.

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, one of the best selling automobiles ever produced, had its roots in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s. The car would prove to be successful, and would be produced relatively unchanged until 2003.

International Issues

Africa

Ethiopia is invaded by Italy during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War from 1935 to 1936 which results in Ethiopia's capture and becomes an Italian colony.

Americas

Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected President of the United States in November 1932. Roosevelt intiates a widespread social welfare strategy called the "New Deal" to combat the economic and social devastation of the Great Depression. The economic agenda of the "New Deal" was a radical departure from previous laissez-faire economics.
Canada and other countries under the British Empire sign the Statute of Westminster in 1931 establishing effective parliamentary independence of Canada from the parliament of the United Kingdom.
Newfoundland voluntarily returns to British colonial rule in 1934 amid its economic crisis during the Great Depression with the creation of the Commission of Government, a non-elected body

Asia

Japan captures Manchuria in 1931, creating the puppet state of Manchukuo.
Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong forms the small enclave state called the Chinese Soviet Republic in 1931.
Mahatma Gandhi leads the non-violent Satyagraha movement in the Declaration of the Independence of India and the Salt March.
Mao Zedong's Chinese communists begin a large retreat from advancing nationalist forces, called the Long March beginning in October 1934 and ending in October 1936 resulting in the collapse of the Chinese Soviet Republic.
Japan invades China in 1937, starting the Sino-Japanese War.

Europe

Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party (Nazi Party) rise to power in Germany 1933, forming a totalitarian regime committed to redpudiating the Treaty of Versailles, expanding Germany's territory, and dedicated to opposing the spread of communism.
In the Soviet Union, agricultural collectivization and rapid industrialization take place.^[1]
Left-wing Nazis are violently purged from the Nazi Party during the Night of the Long Knifes in 1934.
Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dolfuss is assasinated in 1934 by Austrian Nazis. Germany and Italy nearly clash over the issue of Austrian independence despite close ideological similarities of the Italian Fascist and Nazi regimes.
King Alexander of Yugoslavia is assasinated in 1934 by a radical Macedonian nationalist.
Anglo-German naval agreement is signed in 1935, removing the Treaty Versailles' level of limitation on the size of the German navy, allowing Germany to build a larger navy
The territory of Saar decides in a plebiscite to rejoin Germany in 1935.
Germany and Italy begin to improve relations by forming an alliance against communism in 1936 with the signing of the Anti-Comintern Pact and their dual support of Francisco Franco's nationalist and monarchist forces in the Spanish Civil War. The Soviet Union backs the left-wing republican faction in the Spanish Civil War.
German armed forces enter the demilitarized Rhineland in 1936, violating the Treaty of Versailles.
Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini declares the formation of the Italian Empire in 1936 after Italian forces conquer Ethiopia.
Éamon de Valera introduces a new constitution for the Irish Free State in 1937, effectively ending its status as a British Dominion.
The "Great Purge" of "Old Bolsheviks" from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union takes place from 1937 to 1938, as ordered by Soviet Union leader Josef Stalin, resulting in hundreds of thousands of people being killed.
Germany expands its territory with the annexation of Austria in March 1938 and the annexation of the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia after a peaceful transfer of the German-populated territory was agreed during the Suddeten crisis and Hungarian-populated sections of Czechoslovakia are partitioned to Hungary.
Starts or continue the Estado Novo in Brazil and Portugal.
Germany and Italy create the Tripartite Pact in 1939, both Germany and Italy begin more aggressive foreign policy. Germany expands its territory in 1939 with the submission of the Meuse territory from Lithuania to Germany, the invasion of Czechoslovakia, annexing Bohemia and Moravia, while creating a puppet state of Slovakia. Italy invades and annexes Albania. Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact and jointly invade Poland in September 1939, marking the beginning of World War II.

Oceania

Australia and New Zealand sign the Statute of Westminster in 1931, establishing effective parliamentary independence from the parliament of the United Kingdom.

Economics

The Great Depression occurred during the 1930s.

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").

Popular culture

Cover of the Flip the Frog Annual Comic Book from 1930.

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).
United States comedy film series such as Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, and The Three Stooges are major successes in the 1930s and are among the first comedy films with sound.
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.

Others

Military Enigma machine

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)