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1933

Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1933

January

January 5 - Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
January 11 - Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand.
January 15 - Political violence causes almost 100 deaths in Spain.
January 17 - US Congress votes favorably for Philippines independence, against the view of President Herbert Hoover.
January 28 - The word Pakistan comes into being and is recognized by the Pakistan Movement to press for freedom.
January 30

Edouard Daladier forms a government in France.
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany by President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg.
The Lone Ranger debuts on radio.

February

February 1 - Adolf Hitler gives his "Proclamation to the German People" in Berlin.
February 4 - Mutiny starts on the Dutch pantserschip De Zeven Provinciën.
February 6 - The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution goes into effect.
February 6-February 7 - Officers on the USS Ramapo record a 34-meter high sea-wave in the Pacific Ocean.
February 9 - The Oxford Union approves a resolution stating, "That this House will in no circumstances fight for its King and country."
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 fatally wounds Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak.

February 17

The magazine Newsweek is published for the first time.
The Blaine Act ends Prohibition in the United States.

February 27 - Germany's parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, is set on fire (see: Reichstag fire).
February 28 - Reichstag Fire Decree is passed in response to Reichstag fire, nullifying many German civil liberties.

March

March 2 - The original film version of King Kong, starring Fay Wray, premieres at Radio City Music Hall and the RKO Roxy Theatre in New York City.
March 3

Ching Yun University was established.
Mount Rushmore National Memorial is dedicated.
A powerful earthquake and tsunami hit Honshū, Japan killing some 3,000.

March 4

American President Herbert Hoover is succeeded by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who in reference to the Great Depression, gives his "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself" inauguration speech. FDR is sworn in by Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes. It would also be the last time Inauguration Day in the United States would occur on March 4.
Frances Perkins becomes United States Secretary of Labor, and the first female member of the United States Cabinet.
The Parliament of Austria is suspended because of a quibble over procedure - Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss initiates authoritarian rule by decree (see Austrofascism).

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).
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 15

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rises from 53.84 to 62.10. The day's gain of 15.34%, achieved during the depths of the Great Depression, remains to date as the largest one-day percentage gain for the index.
Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss keeps members of the National Council from convening, starting the austrofascist dictatorship.

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 24 - Jews call for a boycott of German goods.
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.
April 3 - Anti-monarchist rebellion in Siam (Thailand).
April 4 - US airship Akron crashes off the coast of New Jersey- leaves 73 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.
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a National Emergency and makes it illegal for U.S. citizens to own gold.

April 7

Beer is legalized in the U.S., eight months before the full repeal of Prohibition on December 5, 1933.
Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service passed in Germany

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 the Sahara Desert).
April 19 - The United States officially goes off the gold standard.
April 21 - Nazi Germany outlaws kosher ritual shechita.
April 26

Gestapo established.
Editors of Harvard Lampoon steal the Sacred Cod of Massachusetts from the State House. It is returned two days later.

April 27

Jessop & Son department store in Nottingham, England acquired by John Lewis Partnership. The partnership's first shop outside London.
Stahlhelm organizations joins the Nazi party.

May

May 2

First modern sighting of the Loch Ness Monster.
Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler bans trade unions.

May 3 - Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first woman to be named director of the United States Mint.
May 5 - Detection by Karl Jansky of radio waves from the center of the Milky Way galaxy is reported in the New York Times. The discovery leads to the birth of radio astronomy.
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.
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 26 - Nazi party in Germany introduces law to legalize eugenic sterilization
May 27

New Deal: The Federal Securities Act is signed into law requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission.
The Century of Progress World's Fair opens in Chicago.
Walt Disney's classic Silly Symphony cartoon The Three Little Pigs is first released.

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 6 - The first drive-in theater opens in Camden, New Jersey.
June 6 - AnnaMae Marie Flynn born in Philadelphia, PA
June 12 - London Economic Conference
June 12 - Anneliese Marie Frank born in Germany
June 13 - German Secret State Police (Gestapo) is established (but see April, above).
June 17 - In Kansas City, Missouri, Pretty Boy Floyd kills four unarmed FBI agents and captured fugitive Frank Nash in a failed attempt to free Nash. This becomes known as the Union Station Massacre.
June 21 - All non-Nazi parties forbidden in Germany
June 25 - Wilmersdorfer Tennishallen delegate convention in Berlin
June 26 - American Totalisator Company unveils its first electronic pari-mutuel betting machine at Arlington Park racetrack near Chicago.

July

July 4 - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi sentenced to prison.
July 6 - The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
July 14 - Forming new political parties forbidden in Germany.
July 20 - Vatican state secretary Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) signed an accord with Hitler.
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.
"Machine-Gun" Kelly and Albert Bates kidnap Charles Urschel, an Oklahoma oilman, and demand $200,000 ransom.

July 24 - Several members of the Barrow Gang are injured or captured during a running battle with local police near Dexter, Iowa.

August - September

August - The start of the Simele massacre more than 3,000 killed.
August 1 - The Blue Eagle emblem of the National Recovery Administration is displayed publicly for the first time.
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 25 - Diexi earthquake shook Mao County, Sichuan, China and killed 9,000 people.
August 30 - Assassination of Theodor Lessing in Marienbad (Mariánské Lázně), Czechoslovakia
August 30 - Air France begins operations with 250 planes.
September 3 - Alejandro Lerroux 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 seriously injures him.
October 10 - A United Airlines Boeing 247 is destroyed near Chesterton, Indiana by a bomb. This was the first proven case of air sabotage in commercial airline history.
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 Federal Bureau of Prisons as a federal penitentiary.
October 16 - Germany announces intention to leave the League of Nations - officially
October 17 - Albert Einstein arrives in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany.

November

November 5 - Spanish Basques voted for autonomy.
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