1930s encyclopedia topics

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;
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

Rise of authoritarian, nationalist, and fascist regimes.
The Great Depression seriously affects the economic, political, and social aspects of society across the world.
Major conflict occurs across the world such as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, the Spanish Civil War, the Chinese Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

Africa

Ethiopia is invaded by Italy during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War from 1935 to 1936 which results in the Italian occupation of Ethiopia with Ethiopia being forced to become a colony of Italy.

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.
United States Marine Corps general Smedley Butler confesses to the U.S. Congress in 1934 that a group of industrialists contacted him, requesting his aide to overthrow the U.S. government of Roosevelt and establish what he claimed would be a fascist regime in the United States.
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.
Canadian Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie King meets with German Führer Adolf Hitler in 1937 in Berlin. King is the first and only North American head of government to meet with Hitler.
Multiple countries in the Americas including Canada, Cuba, and the United States controversially deny asylum to hundreds of Jewish German refugees on the SS St. Louis who are fleeing Germany in 1939 which under the Nazi regime was pursuing a racist agenda of anti-Semitic persecution. In the end, no country accepted the refugees and the ship returns to Germany with most of its passengers onboard, while some commit suicide based on the prospect of returning to Nazi-run Germany.

Asia

Mohandas Gandhi leads the non-violent Satyagraha movement in the Declaration of the Independence of India and the Salt March in March 1930.
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.
The Gandhi–Irwin Pact is signed by Mohandas Gandhi and Viceroy of India, Lord Irwin on March 5, 1931. Gandhi agrees to end the campaign of civil disobedience being carried out by the Indian National Congress (INC) in exchange for Irwin accepting the INC to participate in roundtable talks on British colonial policy in India.
The Government of India Act of 1935 is passed in British colonial India, separating Burma into a separate British colony and increasing political autonomy of the princely states in India.
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.
Colonial India's Muslim League leader Muhammed Ali Jinnah delivers his "Day of Deliverance" speech on December 2, 1939, calling upon Muslims to begin to engage in civil disobedience against the British colonial government starting on December 12. Jinnah demands redress and resolution to tensions and violence occurring between Muslims and Hindus in India. Jinnah's actions are not supported by the largely Hindu-dominated Indian National Congress whom he had previously closely allied with. The decision is seen as part of an agenda by Jinnah to support the eventual creation of an independent Muslim state called Pakistan from colonial India.

Europe

The Spanish monarchy abdicates and Spain becomes a republic in 1931.
Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party (Nazi Party) rise to power in Germany 1933, forming a fascist regime committed to repudiating the Treaty of Versailles, removing Jews and other minorities from German society, expanding Germany's territory, and opposing the spread of communism.
In the Soviet Union, agricultural collectivization and rapid industrialization take place.
Left-wing Nazis are violently purged from the Nazi Party during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934.
Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dolfuss is assassinated 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 assassinated 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 Sudeten Crisis of Hungarian-populated sections of Czechoslovakia are partitioned to Hungary in September 1938. After the Sudeten Crisis is solved, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declares that he has received a commitment by Adolf Hitler that Germany will pursue no further territorial expansion.
The Spanish Civil War ends in April 1939 with Francisco Franco's nationalist forces defeating the republican forces. Franco becomes dictator of Spain.
Germany and Italy create the Pact of Steel 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. France, the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth countries respond to the German invasion of Poland by declaring war on Germany, 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.
Economic interventionist policies increase in popularity as a result of the Great Depression in both authoritarian and democratic countries. In the western world, Keynesianism replaces classical economic theory.
Rapid industrialization takes place in the Soviet Union.

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

Radio becomes dominant mass media in industrial nations
First intercontinental commercial airline flights
Height of the Art Deco movement in North America and western Europe.
Major international media attention follows Mohandas Gandhi's peaceful resistance movement against British colonial rule in India.
The U.S. film The Wizard of Oz is the first colour film and is enormously popular.
"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.
Triumph of the Will - Leni Riefenstahl's ground-breaking Nazi propaganda film.
The 1937 World's Fair in Paris, France displays the growing political tensions in Europe. The pavilions of the rival countries of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union face each other. Germany at the time was internationally condemned for its air forces bombing of the Basque town of Guernica in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, which Spanish artist Pablo Picasso depicted in his masterpiece painting Guernica at the World Fair, which was a surrealist depiction of the horror of the bombing.

Disasters

The German dirigible airship Hindenburg explodes in the sky above Lakehurst, New Jersey, United States on May 6, 1937. 36 people are killed. The event leads to an investigation of the explosion and the disaster causes major public distrust of the use of hydrogen-inflated airships and seriously damages the reputation of the Zeppelin company.
The New London School in New London, Texas is destroyed by an explosion, killing in excess of 300 students and teachers (1937).

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
Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean (1932)