The
1930s was the decade that ran from January 1, 1930, to December 31, 1939. The first few years of the decade was marked by the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
that had a traumatic effect worldwide. In response authoritarian regimes emerged in several countries in Europe, in particular the Third Reich in
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
. Weaker states including
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
,
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
and
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
were subjugated by their stronger expansionist neighbours, and this ultimately led to the Second World War by the decade's end. The decade also saw a proliferation in new technologies, including intercontinental aviation and radio.
Technology
Many technological advances occurred in the 1930s, including:
- The world's tallest building (for the next 35 years) was constructed, opening as the Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark Art Deco skyscraper in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. Its name is derived from the nickname for the state of New York. It stood as the world's tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion...
on May 3, 1931 in New York City, USA;
- On March 8, 1930, the first frozen food
Frozen food is food preserved by the process of freezing. Freezing food is a common method of food preservation which slows both food decay and, by turning water to ice, makes it unavailable for most bacterial growth and slows down most chemical reactions....
s of Clarence BirdseyeClarence Frank Birdseye II was an American inventor who is considered the founder of the modern frozen food industry.-Early life:...
were sold in Ringfield, Massachusetts, United States.
- Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks, A.S.C. was a two-time Academy Award winning American animator, cartoonist and special effects technician, who was famous for his work for Walt Disney...
produced the first Color Sound Cartoon in 1930, a Flip the FrogFlip the Frog is an animated cartoon character created by American cartoonist Ub Iwerks. He starred in a series of cartoons produced by Celebrity Pictures and distributed through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1930 to 1933...
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
Technicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation , now a division of Thomson SA. Technicolor was the second major color film process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color motion picture process in Hollywood...
and scores of shorts and features with color sequences;
- Air mail service across the Atlantic Ocean began;
- Radar
Radar is an object detection system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The term RADAR was coined in 1941 as an acronym for RAdio Detection And...
was invented, known as RDF (Radio Direction Finding), such as in British Patent GB593017 by Robert Watt in 1938;
- In 1933, the 3M
3M Company, formerly known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation....
company marketed Scotch TapeScotch Tape is a brand name used for certain pressure sensitive tapes manufactured by 3M as part of the company's Scotch brand.- History :...
;
- In 1931, RCA Victor introduced the first long-playing phonograph record.
- In 1935, the British London and North Eastern Railway
The London and North Eastern Railway was the second-largest of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain...
introduced the A4 Pacific, designed by Sir Nigel Gresley. Just three years later, one of these, No. 4468 MallardNumber 4468 Mallard is a London and North Eastern Railway Class A4 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotive built at Doncaster, England in 1938. While in other respects a relatively typical member of its class, it is historically significant for being the holder of the world speed record for steam...
, would become the fastest steam locomotive in the world.
- In 1936, Kodachrome is invented, being the first color film made by Kodak.
- Nuclear fission
In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fission is a nuclear reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts, often producing free neutrons and lighter nuclei, which may eventually produce photons...
discovered by Otto HahnOtto Hahn was a German chemist and Nobel laureate who pioneered the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry. He is regarded as "the father of nuclear chemistry" and the "founder of the atomic age".-Early life:...
, Lise MeitnerLise Meitner was an Austrian-born, later Swedish physicist who studied radioactivity and nuclear physics.- Biography :...
and Fritz Strassman in 1939.
- The Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Type 1 is an economy car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen from 1938 until 2003. It used an air cooled rear engined rear wheel drive ....
, one of the best selling automobileAn automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
s 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
- NSDAP (Nazi Party) comes to power in Germany under Hitler.
- The Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
seriously affects the economic, political, and social aspects of society across the world.
- Major conflict occurs across the world such as the Chaco War
The Chaco War was fought between Bolivia and Paraguay over control of the northern part of the Gran Chaco region of South America, which was incorrectly thought to be rich in oil...
, the Second Italo-Abyssinian WarThe Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a brief colonial war that started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire...
, the Spanish Civil WarThe Spanish Civil War was a major conflict that devastated Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. It began after an attempted coup d'état by a group of Spanish Army generals against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of president Manuel Azaña...
, the Chinese Civil WarThe Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China . The war began in April 1927, amidst the Northern Expedition,. The war represented an ideological split between the Western-supported Nationalist KMT and the Soviet-supported Communist CPC...
, the Second Sino-Japanese WarThe Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany and the Soviet Union...
, and the outbreak of World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
on September 1, 1939.
- Collapse of the League of Nations
The League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members...
as countries like Germany, Italy, and Japan abdicate the League.
Africa
- Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
is invaded by Italy during the Second Italo-Abyssinian WarThe Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a brief colonial war that started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire...
from 1935 to 1936 which results in the Italian occupation of Ethiopia with Ethiopia being forced to become a colony of Italy.
Americas
- The Chaco War
The Chaco War was fought between Bolivia and Paraguay over control of the northern part of the Gran Chaco region of South America, which was incorrectly thought to be rich in oil...
takes place from 1932 to 1935 between BoliviaBolivia, officially Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is bordered by Brazil to the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina to the south, and Chile and Peru to the west....
and ParaguayParaguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay , is one of the two landlocked countries which lie entirely within the Western Hemisphere, the other being Bolivia, both in South America....
over the disputed territory of Gran ChacoThe Gran Chaco is a sparsely populated, hot and semi-arid lowland region of the Río de la Plata basin, divided between eastern Bolivia, Paraguay, northern Argentina and a portion of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. This land is sometimes called the Chaco Plain.-Geography: The Gran Chaco is...
resulting in an overall Paraguayan victory in 1935. An agreement dividing the territory was made in 1938, officially ending outstanding differences and bringing an official "peace" to the conflict.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , the only U.S. President elected to more than two terms, was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
is elected President of the United StatesThe President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition...
in November 1932. Roosevelt initiates a widespread social welfare strategy called the "New DealThe New Deal was the name that United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave to his complex package of economic programs 1933-36 with the goals of what historians call the 3 Rs, of giving Relief to the unemployed and badly hurt farmers, Reform of business and financial practices, and promoting...
" to combat the economic and social devastation of the Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. The economic agenda of the "New Deal" was a radical departure from previous laissez-faireThe general meaning of Laissez-faire is to allow events to take their own course, or to let people do what they choose. The term is a French phrase literally meaning "let it be" or "leave it alone"....
economics.
- Canada and other countries under the British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
sign the Statute of Westminster in 1931 establishing effective parliamentary independence of Canada from the parliament of the United Kingdom.
- United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States armed forces responsible for providing force projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to rapidly deliver combined-arms task forces. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
general Smedley ButlerSmedley Darlington Butler , nicknamed "The Fighting Quaker" and "Old Gimlet Eye", was a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps and, at the time of his death, the most decorated Marine in U.S...
confesses to the U.S. Congress in 1934 that a group of industrialists contacted him, requesting his aid to overthrow the U.S. government of Roosevelt and establish what he claimed would be a fascist regime in the United States.
- Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador is a province of Canada on the country's Atlantic coast in northeastern North America. This easternmost Canadian province comprises two main parts: the island of Newfoundland off the country's eastern coast, and Labrador on the mainland to the northwest of the island.A...
voluntarily returns to British colonial rule in 1934 amid its economic crisis during the Great Depression with the creation of the Commission of GovernmentThe Commission of Government was a non-elected body that governed Newfoundland from 1934 to 1949...
, a non-elected body.
- Canadian Prime Minister
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary Minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government of Canada. The office is not outlined in any of the documents that constitute the written portion of the constitution of Canada; executive authority is formally vested in the...
W. L. Mackenzie KingWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was a Canadian lawyer, economist, university professor, civil servant, journalist, fisherman, waiter, teacher and politician. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921, to June 28, 1926; September 25, 1926, to August 6, 1930;...
meets with German FührerThe word Führer is 'leader' or 'guide' in the German language, derived from the verb , a cognate of the Old English words faran and fær and the Modern English words derived from the older terms such as now mostly used in compounds such as wayfarer and sea-faring...
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
in 1937 in Berlin. King is the only North American head of government to meet with Hitler.
- Multiple countries in the Americas including Canada, Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. Cuba is home to over 11 million people and is...
, and the United States controversially deny asylum to hundreds of Jewish German refugees on the SS St. LouisThe MS St. Louis was a German ocean liner most notable for a single voyage in 1939, in which her captain tried to find homes for more than 900 German Jewish refugees after they were denied entry to Cuba...
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
Satyagraha is a philosophy and practice of nonviolent resistance developed by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi . Gandhi deployed satyagraha in campaigns for Indian independence and also during his earlier struggles in South Africa. Satyagraha theory also influenced Martin Luther King, Jr...
movement in the Declaration of the Independence of India and the Salt MarchThe Salt Satyagraha was a campaign of nonviolent protest against the British salt tax in colonial India which began with the Salt March to Dandi on March 12, 1930. It was the first act of organized opposition to British rule after Purna Swaraj, the declaration of independence by the Indian National...
in March 1930.
- Japan captures Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a vast geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria either falls entirely within China, or is divided between China and Russia...
in 1931, creating the puppet state of ManchukuoManchukuo was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Dynasty of China...
.
- Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong was a Chinese revolutionary, political theorist and Communist leader. He led the People's Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976...
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
Civil disobedience is the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government, or of an occupying power, without resorting to physical violence. It is one of the primary methods of nonviolent resistance...
being carried out by the Indian National CongressThe Indian National Congress is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian...
(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
The Government of India Act 1935 was passed during the "Interwar Period" and was the last pre-independence constitution of India.The Act was originally passed in August 1935 , and is said to have been the longest Act of Parliament ever enacted by that time...
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
The Long March was a massive military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Chinese Communist Party, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang army. There was not one Long March, but several, as various Communist armies in the south escaped to the...
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 Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany and the Soviet Union...
.
- Colonial India's Muslim League
The All-India Muslim League , founded at Dhaka, Bengal, in 1906, was a political party in British India that played a role in the Indian independence movement and developed into the driving force behind the creation of Pakistan as a Muslim state on the Indian subcontinent...
leader Muhammed Ali Jinnah delivers his "Day of DeliveranceDuring the Indian Independence movement, Muslim League President Muhammad Ali Jinnah declared 1939-12-22 a "Day of Deliverance" for Indian Muslims...
" 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 PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
from colonial India.
Europe
- The Spanish monarchy abdicates and Spain becomes a republic
A republic is a form of government in which the head of state is not a monarch and the people have an impact on its government. The word 'republic' is derived from the Latin phrase res publica which can be translated as "a public affair".Both modern and ancient republics vary widely in their...
in 1931.
- Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
and the National Socialist German Worker's Party (Nazi Party) rise to power in Germany in 1933, forming a fascistFascism, , comprises a radical and authoritarian nationalist political ideology and a corporatist economic ideology developed in Italy. Fascists believe that nations and/or races are in perpetual conflict whereby only the strong can survive by being healthy, vital, and by asserting themselves in...
regime committed to repudiating the Treaty of VersaillesThe Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
, persecuting and removing Jews and other minorities from German society, expanding Germany's territory, and opposing the spread of communismCommunism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general. Karl Marx posited that communism would be the final stage in human...
.
- Hitler pulls Germany out of the League of Nations, but hosts the 1936 Summer Olympics to show his new reich to the world as well as the supposed Athleticism of his Aryan troops/athletes.
- Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain was a British Conservative politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940...
, British prime minister (1937–1940), attempts to appease Hitler in hope of avoiding war by allowing the dictator to annex the Sudentanland. Later signing the Munich Pact and promising constituets "Peace in our Time". He was ousted in favor of Winston Churchill in late 1939, after the invasion of Poland.
- In the Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
, agricultural collectivization and rapid industrialization take place.
- More than 25 million people migrate to cities in the USSR.
- 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
Yugoslavia is a term that describes three political entities that existed successively on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, during most of the 20th century.The first country to be known by this...
is assassinated in 1934 by a radical Macedonian nationalist.
- Anglo-German naval agreement
The Anglo-German Naval Agreement of June 18, 1935 was a bilateral agreement between the United Kingdom and German Reich regulating the size of the Kriegsmarine in relation to the Royal Navy. The A.G.N.A fixed a ratio where the total tonnage of the Kriegsmarine was to be 35% of the total tonnage of...
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
- Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict that devastated Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. It began after an attempted coup d'état by a group of Spanish Army generals against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of president Manuel Azaña...
occurs from 1936 to 1939. Germany and Italy back anti-communist nationalist forces of Francisco FrancoFrancisco Franco Bahamonde, commonly known as Francisco Franco , or simply Franco, was a military general and dictator of Spain from October 1936, and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in 1975...
. The Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
and international communist parties (see Abraham Lincoln BrigadeThe Abraham Lincoln Brigade refers to volunteers from the United States who served in the Spanish Civil War in the International Brigades. They fought for Spanish Republican forces against Franco and the Spanish Nationalists....
) back the left-wing republican faction in the war. The war ends in April 1939 with Franco's nationalist forces defeating the republican forces. Franco becomes dictator of Spain.
- Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in 20th century Ireland...
introduces a new constitutionA constitution is a set of rules for government—often codified as a written document—that establishes principles of an autonomous political entity. In the case of countries, this term refers specifically to a national constitution defining the fundamental political principles, and establishing the...
for the Irish Free StateThe Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand....
in 1937, effectively ending its status as a British DominionA dominion, often Dominion, refers to one of a group of semi-autonomous polities that were nominally under British sovereignty, constituting the British Empire and British Commonwealth, from the late 19th century. They included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the...
.
- The "Great Purge
Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin in 1937–1938. It involved a large-scale purge of the Communist Party and Government officials, repression of peasants, Red Army leadership, and the persecution of...
" of "Old Bolsheviks" from the Communist Party of the Soviet UnionThe Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the ruling and only legal political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the...
takes place from 1936 to 1938, as ordered by Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
leader Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953...
, resulting in hundreds of thousands of people being killed. This purge was due to mistrust and political differences, as well as the massive drop in Grain produce. This was due to the method of collectivization in Russia. The Soviet Union produced 16 million lbs of grain less in 1934 compared to 1930. This led to the starvation of millions of Russians.
- Germany and Italy pursue territorial expansionist agendas. Germany demands the annexation of Austria and German-populated territories in Europe. From 1935 to 1936, Germany receives the Saar
- Places :*Saar, Bahrain, a town in Bahrain*Saar Region and Saar Area— in context, any of the below:*Saar , or Saar River valley — an important navigable river running through the borderlands of France and Germany through a mineral rich, highly developed, industrial region once part of...
, remilitarizes the RhinelandThe Rhineland is the general name for the land on both sides of the river Rhine in the west of Germany. After the collapse of the French Empire in the early 19th century, the German and Dutch speaking regions at the middle and lower course of the Rhine were annexed to the kingdom of Prussia...
. Italy initially opposes Germany's aims on Austria but the two countries resolve their differences in 1936 in the aftermath of Italy's diplomatic isolation after its invasion of Ethiopia which only Germany supported. Germany and Italy improve relations by forming an alliance against communism in 1936 with the signing of the Anti-Comintern PactThe Anti-Comintern Pact was concluded between Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan on November 25, 1936 and was directed against the Communist International in general, and the Soviet Union in particular....
. Germany annexes Austria and then the SudetenlandSudetenland is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia associated with Bohemia.The name is derived from the...
after negotiations which resulted in the Munich AgreementThe Munich Agreement was an agreement permitting German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along borders of Czechoslovakia, mainly inhabited by Czech Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe...
in 1938. Italy invades and annexes AlbaniaAlbania , officially the Republic of Albania , is a Mediterranean country in South Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Montenegro to the north, Kosovo to the northeast, Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south-east...
in 1939 and Germany receives the Memel territory from LithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of...
, occupies CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, and finally invades Poland which results in the outbreak of World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
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
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
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
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
.
- Prohibition in the United States
In the history of the United States, Prohibition, also known as The Noble Experiment, is the period from 1919 to 1933, during which the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol for consumption were banned nationally as mandated in the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States...
finally ended in 1933. On December 5, 1933, the ratification of the Twenty-first AmendmentThe Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which mandated nationwide Prohibition.- Text :- Background :...
repealed the Eighteenth AmendmentAmendment XVIII of the United States Constitution, along with the Volstead Act , established Prohibition in the United States. Its ratification was certified on January 16, 1919...
to the U.S.ConstitutionThe Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of America and the federal government of the United States...
.
Literature and Art
- Notable poetry include W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden who signed his works W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet,The first definition of "Anglo-American" in the OED is: "Of, belonging to, or involving both England and America." See also the definition "English in origin or birth, American by settlement or...
's Poems.
- Notable literature includes F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are evocative of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost Generation" of the Twenties...
's Tender Is the NightTender Is the Night is an English language novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was first published in Scribner's Magazine between January-April, 1934 in four issues. It is ranked #28 on the Modern Library's list of the 100 Greatest Novels of the 20th Century.In 1932, Fitzgerald's wife Zelda Sayre...
(1934), J.R.R. Tolkien's The HobbitThe Hobbit, or There and Back Again is a fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in a time "Between the Dawn of Færie and the Dominion of Men", The Hobbit follows the quest of home-loving Bilbo Baggins to win a share of the treasure guarded by the dragon, Smaug...
(1937), Aldous HuxleyAldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. He spent the later part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death in 1963...
's Brave New WorldBrave New World is a novel by Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Set in the London of AD 2540 , the novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology and sleep-learning that combine to change society. The future society is an embodiment of the ideals that form the basis...
(1932), John SteinbeckJohn Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and the novella Of Mice and Men . He wrote a total of twenty-seven books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books and five collections of short stories...
's Grapes of Wrath (1939) and Of Mice and MenOf Mice and Men is a novella written by Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck. Published in 1937, it tells the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers during the Great Depression in California....
(1937), Ernest HemingwayErnest Miller Hemingway was an American writer and journalist. He was part of the 1920s expatriate community in Paris, and one of the veterans of World War I later known as "the Lost Generation." He received the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for The Old Man and the Sea, and the Nobel Prize in Literature...
's To Have and Have NotTo Have and Have Not is a 1937 novel by Ernest Hemingway about Harry Morgan, a fishing boat captain who runs contraband between Cuba and Florida. The novel depicts Harry as an essentially good man who is forced into blackmarket activity by economic forces beyond his control...
(1937), John Dos PassosJohn Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist and artist.-Early life:Dos Passos was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of John Randolph Dos Passos Jr. . The elder Dos Passos was a lawyer of Madeiran Portuguese descent, the son of John Randolph Dos Passos and Mary Hays and the brother of Louis...
's U.S.A trilogy, William FaulknerWilliam Faulkner was a Nobel Prize-winning American author. One of the most influential writers of the 20th century, his reputation is based on his novels, novellas and short stories. He was also a published poet and an occasional screenwriter.Most of Faulkner's works are set in his native state...
's As I Lay Dying (1930) and Absalom, Absalom!Absalom, Absalom! is a Southern Gothic novel by the American author William Faulkner, first published in 1936. It is a story about three families of the American South, taking place before, during, and after the Civil War, with the focus of the story on the life of Thomas Sutpen.-Plot...
(1936), John O'HaraJohn Henry O'Hara was an American writer born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. He initially made a name for himself with his short stories and later became a best-selling novelist whose works include Appointment in Samarra and BUtterfield 8. He was particularly known for an uncannily accurate ear for...
's Appointment in SamarraAppointment in Samarra, published in 1934, is the first novel by John O'Hara. It concerns the self-destruction of Julian English, once a member of the social elite of Gibbsville ....
(1934) and BUtterfield 8 (1935).
- Notable "hardboiled
Hardboiled detective fiction is a literary style which portrays crime and violence in an unsentimental way.Pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s, popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the decade, and refined by Raymond Chandler beginning in the late 1930s, hardboiled fiction...
" crime fiction includes Raymond ChandlerRaymond Thornton Chandler was an Anglo-American novelist and screenwriter who had an immense stylistic influence upon the modern private detective story, especially in the style of the writing and the attitudes now characteristic of the genre...
's The Big SleepThe Big Sleep is a crime novel by Raymond Chandler, the first in his acclaimed series about hardboiled detective Philip Marlowe. The work has been adapted twice into film, once in 1946 and again in 1978....
, James M. CainJames Mallahan Cain was an American author and journalist. Although Cain himself vehemently opposed labelling, he is usually associated with the hardboiled school of American crime fiction and seen as one of the creators of the roman noir...
's The Postman Always Rings TwiceThe Postman Always Rings Twice is a 1934 crime novel by James M. Cain.The novel was quite successful and notorious upon publication, and is regarded as one of the more important crime novels of the 20th century...
(1934).
- Notable plays include Thorton Wilder's Our Town
Our Town is a three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. The play is set in the fictional community of Grover's Corners, modeled upon several New Hampshire towns in the Mount Monadnock region: Jaffrey, Peterborough, Dublin, and others. Using metatheatrical devices, Wilder sets the play...
(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
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American drama romance film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel of the same name and directed by Victor Fleming...
and The Wizard of OzThe Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical / fantasy film directed mainly by Victor Fleming from a script by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Woolf, and others and based on the 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum...
- the soundtrack and photographic technology prompted many films to be made or re-made, such as the 1934 version of Cleopatra
Cleopatra is a 1934 epic film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and distributed by Paramount Pictures, which retells the story of Cleopatra VII of Egypt....
, using lush art decoArt Deco was a popular international art design movement from 1925 until the 1940s, affecting the decorative arts such as architecture, interior design, and industrial design, as well as the visual arts such as fashion, painting, the graphic arts, and film...
sets which won an Academy Award (see films 1930–1939 in: Academy Award for Best CinematographyThe Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture....
);
- the horror film
Horror films are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness...
s (or monster movieMonster movie is a name commonly given to movies, which centre around the struggle between human beings and one or more monsters...
s) included many cult classics, such as DraculaDracula is a horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring Béla Lugosi as the title character. The film was produced by Universal Pictures Co. Inc. and is based on the stage play of the same name by Hamilton Deane and John L...
, FrankensteinFrankenstein is a horror film from Universal Pictures directed by James Whale and very loosely based on the novel of the same name by Mary Shelley as well as the play adapted from it by Peggy Webling. The film stars Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles and Boris Karloff, and features Dwight Frye...
, The MummyThe Mummy is a horror film from Universal Studios directed by Karl Freund and starring Boris Karloff as a revived ancient Egyptian priest. The movie also features Zita Johann, David Manners and Edward van Sloan...
, Jekyll/HydeDr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a horror film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Fredric March. The film is an adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde , the Robert Louis Stevenson tale of a man who takes a potion which turns him from a mild-mannered man of science into a crude...
, King KongKing Kong is a 1933 landmark black-and-white monster film about a gigantic gorilla named "Kong" and how he is captured from a remote lost prehistoric island and brought to civilization against his will. The film was made by RKO and was originally written for the screen by Ruth Rose and James...
, The Hunchback of Notre DameThe Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1939 American monochrome motion picture. It is considered by some reviewers to be the best of the many film versions of Victor Hugo's classic novel, and perhaps the one that sticks closest to Hugo's plot and intention although the ending differs. Esmeralda and...
, and other films about wax museumA wax museum or waxworks consists of a collection of wax figures representing famous people from history and contemporary personalities exhibited in lifelike poses....
s, vampireVampires are legendary creatures said to subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, generally by drinking their blood. Although typically described as undead, some minor traditions believed in vampires that were living people....
s and zombieA zombie is a creature that appears in folklore and popular culture typically as a reanimated corpse or a mindless human being. Stories of zombies originated in the Afro-Caribbean spiritual belief system of Vodou, which told of the people being controlled as laborers by a powerful sorcerer...
s, leading to the 1941 film The Wolf ManThe Wolf Man is a 1941 monster horror film written by Curt Siodmak and produced and directed by George Waggner, starring Lon Chaney, Jr., Claude Rains, Evelyn Ankers, Ralph Bellamy, Patric Knowles, Béla Lugosi, and Maria Ouspenskaya. The title character has had a great deal of influence on...
(wolfman);
- recurring themes included: Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were a popular comedy team composed of thin, English-born Stan Laurel and heavy, American-born Oliver Hardy . They became famous during the early half of the 20th century for their work in motion pictures and also appeared on stage throughout America and Europe.The two comedians...
, the Marx BrothersThe Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
, TarzanTarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by fictional great apes, who later returns to civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
, Charlie ChanCharlie Chan is a fictional Chinese-American detective created by Earl Derr Biggers in 1923 for a novel published in 1925. Biggers conceived of the character as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes; unlike such villains as Fu Manchu, Chan is portrayed as non-threatening and benevolent...
, Alfred HitchcockSir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British filmmaker and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in his native United Kingdom in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
films, Our GangOur Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, Our Gang was produced at the Roach studio starting in 1922 as a...
, and the filming of "superheroA superhero is "a fictional character of unprecedented powers dedicated to acts of derring-do in the public interest"...
es" such as The PhantomThe Phantom is an American adventure comic strip created by Lee Falk, also creator of Mandrake the Magician. A popular feature adapted into many forms of media, including television and film, it stars a costumed crimefighter operating from the African jungle...
and SupermanSuperman is a fictional character, a comic book superhero widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective Comics, Inc...
;
Visual arts
Social RealismSocial Realism, also known as Socio-Realism, is an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts social and racial injustice, economic hardship, through unvarnished pictures of life's struggles; often depicting working class activities as heroic...
became an important
art movementAn art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a restricted period of time, or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defined within usually a number of years.-The concept:...
during the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
in the United States in the 1930s. Social realism generally portrayed imagery with socio-political meaning. Other related American artistic movements of the 1930s were
American scene paintingAmerican scene painting refers to a naturalist style of painting and other works of art of the 1920s through the 1950s in the United States. American scene painting is also known as Regionalism....
and
RegionalismRegionalism is an American realist modern art movement that was popular during the 1930s. The artistic focus was from artists who shunned city life, and rapidly developing technological advances, to create scenes of rural life...
which were generally depictions of rural America, and historical images drawn from American history.
PrecisionismPrecisionism, also known as Cubist Realism,was an artistic movement that emerged in the United States after World War I and was at its height during the inter-War period...
with its depictions of industrial America was also a popular art movement during the 1930s in the USA. During the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
the art of
PhotographyPhotography is the process, activity and art of creating still or moving pictures by recording radiation on a sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or an electronic sensor...
played an important role in the Social Realist movement. The work of
Dorothea LangeDorothea Lange was an influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration...
,
Walker EvansWalker Evans was an American photographer best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans' work from the FSA period uses the large-format, 8x10-inch camera...
,
Margaret Bourke-WhiteMargaret Bourke-White was an American photographer and documentary photographer. Farrah Fawcett starred in a TV movie about her life, .-Early life:...
,
Lewis HineLewis Wickes Hine was an American sociologist and photographer. Hine used his camera as a tool for social reform. His photographs were instrumental in changing the child labor laws in the United States. -Early life:...
,
Edward SteichenEdward Steichen , born in Bivange, Luxembourg, was an American photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator. He was the most frequently featured photographer in Alfred Stieglitz' groundbreaking magazine Camera Work during its run from 1903 to 1917. Steichen also contributed the logo...
,
Gordon ParksGordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks was a groundbreaking American photographer, musician, poet, novelist, journalist, activist and film director...
,
Arthur RothsteinArthur Rothstein was an American photographer.During the Depression Rothstein was invited by Roy Stryker to join the federally sponsored Farm Security Administration...
,
Marion Post WolcottMarion Post was a noted photographer who worked for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression documenting poverty and deprivation. She was born in New Jersey. Her parents split up and she was sent to boarding school, spending time at home with her mother in Greenwich Village...
,
Doris UlmannDoris Ulmann was an American photographer, best known for her portraits of the people of Appalachia made between 1928 and 1934.Ulmann was a native of New York City, the daughter of Bernhard and Gertrude Ulmann...
,
Berenice AbbottBerenice Abbott , born Bernice Abbott, was an American photographer best known for her black-and-white photography of New York City architecture and urban design of the 1930s.-Youth:...
,
Aaron SiskindAaron Siskind was an American abstract expressionist photographer. In his biography he wrote that he began his foray into photography when he received a camera for a wedding gift and began taking pictures on his honeymoon. He quickly realized the artistic potential this offered...
,
Russell LeeRussell Lee was an American photographer and photojournalist.Lee had trained as a chemical engineer, and in the fall of 1936 became a member of the team of photographers assembled under Roy Stryker for the federally sponsored Farm Security Administration documentation project...
,
Ben ShahnBen Shahn was a Lithuanian-born American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as The Shape of Content.-Biography:...
(as a photographer) among several others were particularly influential.
The
Works Progress AdministrationThe Works Progress Administration was the largest "New Deal" agency, employing millions of people and affecting almost every locality in the United States, especially rural and western mountain populations...
part of the Roosevelt Administration's
New DealThe New Deal was the name that United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave to his complex package of economic programs 1933-36 with the goals of what historians call the 3 Rs, of giving Relief to the unemployed and badly hurt farmers, Reform of business and financial practices, and promoting...
sponsored the
Federal Art ProjectThe Federal Art Project was the visual arts arm of the Great Depression-era New Deal WPA Federal One program in the United States. It operated from August 29, 1935 until June 30, 1943...
, the
Public Works of Art ProjectThe Public Works of Art Project was a program to employ artists, as part of the New Deal, during the Great Depression. It was the first such program, running from December 1933 to June 1934...
, and the
Section of Painting and SculptureDuring the Great Depression in the United States, the Section of Painting and Sculpture was a public art program administered by the Procurement Division of the Treasury Department as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal...
which employed many American artists and helped them to make a living during the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
.
Mexican muralismMexican muralism is a Mexican art movement that took place primarily in the 1930s. The movement stands out historically because of its political undertones, the majority of which of a Marxist nature, or related to a social and political situation of post-revolutionary Mexico.- About the movement...
was a Mexican art movement that took place primarily in the 1930s. The movement stands out historically because of its political undertones, the majority of which of a Marxist nature, or related to a social and political situation of post-revolutionary Mexico. Also in Latin America
SymbolismSymbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the movement had its roots in Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
and
Magic RealismMagic realism, or magical realism, is an artistic genre in which magical elements or illogical scenarios appear in an otherwise realistic or even "normal" setting...
were important movements.
In Europe during the 1930s and the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
,
SurrealismSurrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, late
CubismCubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music and literature. The first branch of cubism, known as "Analytic Cubism", was both radical and influential as...
, the
Bauhaus' is the common term for the ', a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933....
,
De StijlDe Stijl , Dutch for "The Style", also known as neoplasticism, was a Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917. In a narrower sense, the term De Stijl is used to refer to a body of work from 1917 to 1931 founded in the Netherlands....
,
DadaDada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zürich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
,
German ExpressionismGerman Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s. These developments in Germany were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central European art...
,
ExpressionismExpressionism was a cultural movement originating in Germany at the start of the 20th-century as a reaction to positivism and other artistic movements such as naturalism and impressionism. It sought to express the meaning of "being alive" and emotional experience rather than physical reality...
,
SymbolistSymbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the movement had its roots in Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
and modernist painting in various guises characterized the art scene in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and elsewhere.
Painters and sculptors
- Anni Albers
Annelise Albers was a German-American textile artist and printmaker. She is perhaps the best known textile artist of the 20th century.-Life:...
- Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
- Hans Arp
- Milton Avery
Milton Avery was an American modern painter. Although born in Altmar, New York, he moved to Connecticut in 1898 and later to New York City.-Biography:...
- Romare Bearden
Romare Bearden was an American artist and writer. He worked in several media including cartoons, oils, and collage.-Education:...
- Paula Modersohn-Becker
Paula Modersohn-Becker was a German painter and one of the most important representatives of early expressionism. In a brief career, cut short by her death from an embolism at the age of 31, she executed groundbreaking images of great intensity.-Life and work:Paula Becker was born and grew up in...
- Max Beckmann
Max Beckmann was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement...
- Thomas Hart Benton
Thomas Hart Benton was an American painter and muralist. Along with Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry, he was at the forefront of the Regionalist art movement. His fluid, almost sculpted paintings showed everyday scenes of life in the United States...
- Max Bill
Max Bill was a Swiss architect, artist, painter, typeface designer, industrial designer and graphic designer.Bill was born in Winterthur...
- Isabel Bishop
Isabel Bishop was an American painter and graphic artist, who produced numerous paintings and prints of working women in realistic urban settings...
- Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer , architect and furniture designer, was an influential Hungarian-born modernist of Jewish descent...
- Paul Cadmus
Paul Cadmus was an American artist. He is best known for his paintings and drawings of nude male figures. His works combined elements of eroticism and social critique to produce a style often called magic realism...
- Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall ; [shuh-GAHL] , was a Russian-French artist, associated with several key art movements and was one of the most successful artists of the twentieth century. He forged a unique career in virtually every artistic medium, including paintings, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets,...
- John Steuart Curry
John Steuart Curry was an American painter whose career spanned from 1924 until his death. He was noted for his paintings depicting life in his home state, Kansas...
- Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquis of Púbol was a Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres....
- Stuart Davis
Stuart Davis , was an early American modernist painter. He was well known for his Jazz influenced, proto pop art paintings of the 1940s and 1950s, bold, brash, and colorful.-Biography:...
- Charles Demuth
Charles Demuth was an American watercolorist who turned to oils late in his career, developing a style of painting known as Precisionism....
- Otto Dix
Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix was a German painter and printmaker. Noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of Weimar society and of the brutality of war, he, along with George Grosz, is widely considered one of the most important artists of the Neue Sachlichkeit.-Early life and...
- Arthur Dove
Arthur Garfield Dove was an American artist. An early American modernist, he was one of America's first abstract painters.-Childhood:...
- Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
- Max Ernst
Max Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst is considered to be one of the primary pioneers of the Dada movement and Surrealism.-Early life:...
- Philip Evergood
Philip Howard Francis Dixon Evergood was an American painter, etcher, lithographer, sculptor, illustrator and writer. He was particularly active during the Depression and World War II era...
- Lyonel Feininger
Lyonel Charles Feininger was a German-American painter and caricaturist.-Life and work:Lyonel Feininger was born to parents of German American descent and grew up in New York City...
- Joaquín Torres García
Joaquín Torres García , was a Uruguayan plastic artist and art theorist, also known as the founder of Constructive Universalism...
- Alberto Giacometti
Alberto Giacometti was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman, and printmaker. Alberto Giacometti was born in October 1901 in Italian-speaking Switzerland and came from an artistic background - his father, Giovanni, was a well known Post-Impressionist painter...
- Arshile Gorky
Arshile Gorky , was an Armenian-born American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism.-Biography:...
- John D. Graham
John D. Graham was a Russian-born American Modernist / figurative painter.He was born Ivan Gratianovitch Dombrowsky in Kiev, Ukraine...
- George Grosz
George Grosz was a German artist known especially for his savagely caricatural drawings of Berlin life in the 1920s...
- Philip Guston
Philip Guston was a notable painter and printmaker in the New York School, which included many of the Abstract expressionists, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning...
- Marsden Hartley
Marsden Hartley was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist of the early 20th century. Hartley was born in Lewiston, Maine, USA, where his English parents had settled. He began his art training at the Cleveland Institute of Art after the family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1892...
- Hans Hofmann
Hans Hofmann was a German-born American abstract expressionist painter. He was born in Weißenburg, Bavaria on March 21, 1880 the son of Theodor and Franziska Hofmann...
- Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper was a prominent American realist painter and printmaker. While most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching...
- Johannes Itten
Johannes Itten was a Swiss expressionist painter, designer, teacher, writer and theorist associated with the Bauhaus school...
- Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter. She painted using vibrant colors in a style that was influenced by indigenous cultures of Mexico and European influences including Realism, Symbolism, and Surrealism. Many of her works are self-portraits that symbolically articulate her own pain and sexuality...
- Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was a Russian painter, and art theorist. He is credited with painting the first modern abstract works....
- Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was a German expressionist painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expressionism in 20th century art. He volunteered for army service in the First World War, but soon suffered a...
- Paul Klee
Paul Klee was a Swiss painter of German nationality. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented with and eventually mastered color...
- Oskar Kokoschka
Oskar Kokoschka was an Austrian artist, poet and playwright best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes....
- Käthe Kollwitz
Käthe Schmidt Kollwitz was a German painter, printmaker, and sculptor whose work offered an eloquent and often searing account of the human condition in the first half of the 20th century...
- Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning was an abstract expressionist artist, born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.In the post-World War II era, de Kooning painted in a style that came to be referred to variously as Abstract expressionism, Action painting, and the New York School...
- Walt Kuhn
Walt Kuhn was an American painter and was an organizer of the modern art Armory Show of 1913, which was the first of its genre in America.-Biography:Kuhn was born in Brooklyn, New York City...
- Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence was an African American painter; he was married to fellow artist Gwendolyn Knight. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", though by his own account the primary influence was not so much French art as the shapes and colors of Harlem.Lawrence is among the best-known...
- Fernand Léger
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker.-Biography:Léger was born in the Argentan, Orne, Basse-Normandie, where his father raised cattle. Fernand Léger initially trained as an architect from 1897-1899 before moving in 1900 to Paris, where he supported himself as an...
- Reginald Marsh
Reginald Marsh may refer to:* Reginald Marsh , American painter most notable for his detailed depictions of life in New York City in the 1920s* Reginald Marsh , actor in many British sitcoms...
- André Masson
André-Aimé-René Masson was a French artist.-Biography:Masson was born in Balagny-sur-Thérain, near Senlis in Picardy, but was brought up in Belgium. He studied art in Brussels and Paris. He fought for France in World War I and was seriously injured.Masson's early works display an interest in cubism...
- Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid, brilliant and original draughtsmanship. He was a master draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but excelled primarily as a painter. Matisse is regarded, with Picasso, as the greatest artist of the 20th century...
- Joan Miró
Joan Miró i Ferrà was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramist born in Barcelona.Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride...
- Piet Mondrian
Pieter Cornelis "Piet" Mondriaan, after 1912 Mondrian , was a Dutch painter.He was an important contributor to the De Stijl art movement and group, which was founded by Theo van Doesburg. He evolved a non-representational form which he termed Neo-Plasticism...
- Gabriele Münter
Gabriele Münter was a German expressionist painter who was at the forefront of the Munich avant-garde in the early 20th century.-Life and work:...
- Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist. Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe was a major figure in American art from the 1920s. She received widespread recognition for her technical contributions, as well as for challenging the boundaries of modern American artistic style...
- Francis Picabia
Francis Picabia was a French painter and poet.-Biography:Francis Picabia was born in Paris of a French mother and a Spanish-Cuban father who was an attaché at the Cuban legation in Paris. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was seven. His father was of aristocratic Spanish descent...
- Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso was a Spanish painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. Commonly known simply as Picasso, he is one of the most recognized figures in 20th-century art...
- Horace Pippin
Horace Pippin was a self-taught African-American painter who worked in a naive style. The injustice of slavery and American segregation figure prominently in many of his works.-Biography:...
- Ben Shahn
Ben Shahn was a Lithuanian-born American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as The Shape of Content.-Biography:...
- Charles Sheeler
Charles Sheeler is recognized as one of the founders of American modernism and one of the master photographers of the 20th century....
- David Smith
David Roland Smith was an American Abstract Expressionist sculptor best known for creating large steel abstract geometric sculptures.-Biography:...
- Isaac Soyer
Isaac Soyer was a social realist painter and often portrayed working-class people of New York City in his paintings.-Biography:...
- Rafael Soyer
- Chaim Soutine
Chaïm Soutine was a Jewish, expressionist painter from Belarus. He has been interpreted as both a forerunner of Abstract Expressionism and as a proponent of painting in the European tradition exemplified by the works of Rembrandt, Chardin, and Courbet.-Biography:Soutine was born in Smilavichy near...
- Rufino Tamayo
Rufino Tamayo was a Zapotecan Indian painter born in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico, of Mestizo parents.-Early life:...
- Yves Tanguy
Raymond Georges Yves Tanguy , known as Yves Tanguy was a surrealist painter.-Biography:Tanguy was born in Paris, France, the son of a retired navy captain. His parents were both of Breton origin...
- Grant Wood
Grant DeVolson Wood was an American painter, born in Anamosa, Iowa. He is best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest, particularly the painting American Gothic, an iconic image of the 20th century.- Life and career :His family moved to Cedar Rapids after his father died in...
- N.C. Wyeth
- Andrew Wyeth
Andrew Newell Wyeth was a visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S...
Photography
- Ansel Adams
Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West and primarily Yosemite National Park....
- Margaret Bourke-White
Margaret Bourke-White was an American photographer and documentary photographer. Farrah Fawcett starred in a TV movie about her life, .-Early life:...
- Walker Evans
Walker Evans was an American photographer best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans' work from the FSA period uses the large-format, 8x10-inch camera...
- Lewis Hine
Lewis Wickes Hine was an American sociologist and photographer. Hine used his camera as a tool for social reform. His photographs were instrumental in changing the child labor laws in the United States. -Early life:...
- Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange was an influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration...
- Gordon Parks
Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks was a groundbreaking American photographer, musician, poet, novelist, journalist, activist and film director...
- Man Ray
Man Ray, born Emmanuel Radnitzky , was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal...
- Edward Steichen
Edward Steichen , born in Bivange, Luxembourg, was an American photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator. He was the most frequently featured photographer in Alfred Stieglitz' groundbreaking magazine Camera Work during its run from 1903 to 1917. Steichen also contributed the logo...
- Edward Weston
Edward Henry Weston was an American photographer, and co-founder of Group f/64. Most of his work was done using an 8 by 10 inch view camera.-Life and work:...
Muralists
- Santiago Martínez Delgado
Santiago Martínez Delgado was a Colombian painter, sculptor, art historian and writer. He established a reputation as a prominent muralist during the 1940s and is also known for his watercolors, oil paintings, illustrations and woodcarvings....
- Pedro Nel Gómez
Pedro Nel Gómez was a Colombian engineer, architect, painter, and sculptor. He started the Colombian Muralist Movement with Santiago Martinez Delgado, strongly influenced by the Mexican movement. With the fresco mural technique, Pedro Nel Gómez created 2,200 square meters of murals in public...
- José Orozco
- Diego Rivera
Diego Rivera was born Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez in Guanajuato, Gto. He was a world-famous Mexican painter, an active Communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo, 1929–1939 and 1940–1954...
- David Siqueiros
Popular culture
- Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
becomes dominant mass media in industrial nations.
- First intercontinental commercial airline flights.
- Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart ; was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...
receives major attention in the 1930s as the first woman pilot to conduct major air flights. Her disappearance for unknown reasons in 1937 while on flight prompted search efforts which failed.
- Height of the Art Deco
Art Deco was a popular international art design movement from 1925 until the 1940s, affecting the decorative arts such as architecture, interior design, and industrial design, as well as the visual arts such as fashion, painting, the graphic arts, and film...
movement in North America and western Europe.
- Major international media attention follows Mohandas Gandhi's peaceful resistance movement against British colonial rule in India.
- "Swing
Swing music, also known as swing jazz or simply swing, is a form of jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and had solidified as a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States...
" music starts becoming popular (from 1935 onward). It gradually replaces the sweet form of JazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
that had been popular for the first half of the decade.
- Triumph of the Will
Triumph of the Will is a propaganda film made by Leni Riefenstahl. It chronicles the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg. The film contains excerpts from speeches given by various Nazi leaders at the Congress, including portions of speeches by Adolf Hitler, interspersed with footage of massed...
– Leni RiefenstahlHelene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl was a German film director, actress and dancer widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmmaker. Her most famous film was Triumph des Willens , a propaganda film made at the 1934 Nuremberg congress of the Nazi Party...
's ground-breaking NaziNazism, known officially in German as National Socialism , is the totalitarian ideology and practices of the Nazi Party or National Socialist German Workers’ Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.Nazism is often considered...
propagandaPropaganda is communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience...
film.
- The 1937 World's Fair
The Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne was held in 1937 in Paris, France. The Musée de l'Homme was created at this occasion.-Exhibitions:...
in Paris, France displays the growing political tensions in Europe. The pavilions of the rival countries of Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
and the Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
face each other. Germany at the time was internationally condemned for its air force's bombing of the Basque town of Guernica in Spain during the Spanish Civil WarThe Spanish Civil War was a major conflict that devastated Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. It began after an attempted coup d'état by a group of Spanish Army generals against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of president Manuel Azaña...
, which Spanish artist Pablo PicassoPablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso was a Spanish painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. Commonly known simply as Picasso, he is one of the most recognized figures in 20th-century art...
depicted in his masterpiece painting GuernicaGuernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso, depicting the bombing of Guernica, Spain, by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalist forces, on April 26, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War...
at the World Fair, which was a surrealist depiction of the horror of the bombing.
Disasters
- The German dirigible airship
An airship or dirigible is a lighter-than-air aircraft that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust...
HindenburgLZ 129 Hindenburg was a large German commercial passenger-carrying rigid airship, the lead ship of the Hindenburg class, the largest flying machines of any kind ever built...
explodes in the sky above LakehurstThere are a number of places named Lakehurst:*Lakehurst, New Jersey.*Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst, the location of the Hindenburg Disaster*Lakehurst Mall, a defunct shopping complex in Waukegan, Illinois...
, New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, and to the east by the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, the Kill Van Kull, Newark Bay, the Arthur Kill, Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Westchester County, New York City, Long Island, and...
, 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 hydrogenHydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, nonmetallic, tasteless, highly flammable diatomic gas with the molecular formula H
2...
-inflated airships and seriously damages the reputation of the Zeppelin companyLuftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH is a German company which, during the early 20th century, was a leader in the design and manufacture of rigid airships, specifically of the Zeppelin type. The company was founded by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin...
.
- The New London School
The New London School explosion occurred on March 18, 1937, when a natural gas leak caused an explosion, destroying the New London School of the city of New London, Texas. The disaster killed in excess of 295 students and teachers, making it the worst catastrophe to take place in a U.S...
in New London, TexasNew London is a city in Rusk County, Texas, United States. The population was 987 at the 2000 census.On March 18, 1937, the New London School explosion killed in excess of three hundred people...
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
An Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. The first Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...
with plugboardA plugboard, or control panel , is an array of jacks, or hubs, into which patch cords can be inserted to complete an electrical circuit. Control panels were used to direct the operation of some unit record equipment...
, the main German cipher device during World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
- U.S. presidential candidate Huey Long
Huey Pierce Long, Jr. , nicknamed The Kingfish, served as the Governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a U.S. senator from 1932 to 1935. A Democrat, he was noted for his radical populist policies. Though a backer of Franklin D...
assassinated (1935).
- 1936 Berlin Olympics
- Board of Temperance Strategy
The Anti-Saloon League launched the Board of Temperance Strategy to coordinate resistance to the growing public demand for the repeal of prohibition that was occurring in the U.S. in the early 1930s....
established in U.S. to fight repeal of prohibitionIn 1919, the requisite number of legislatures of the States ratified The 18th Amendment to the Federal Constitution, enabling national Prohibition within one year of ratification...
- Southern Great Plains
The Great Plains are the broad expanse of prairie and steppe which lie west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
devastated by decades-long Dust BowlThe Dust Bowl or the Dirty Thirties was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936 . The phenomenon was caused by severe drought coupled with decades of extensive farming without crop rotation, fallow...
World leaders
- Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (India)
- President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
)
- Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
Vallabhbhai Patel was a political and social leader of India who played a major role in the country's struggle for independence and guided its integration into a united, independent nation...
(India)
- Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru was an Indian statesman who was the first, and has been the longest-serving prime minister of India to date, having served from 1947 until 1964...
(India)
- Governor-General Lord Edward Irwin
Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, KG, OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, PC , known as The Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and as The Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was one of the most senior British Conservative politicians of the 1930s, and served at the highest levels until after...
(British India)
- Governor-General The Marquess of Linlithgow (British India)
- King Faisal I
Faisal bin al-Hussein bin Ali al-Hashemi , was for a short time King of Greater Syria in 1920 and King of Iraq from 23 August 1921 to 1933...
(IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
)
- King Ghazi
Ghazi bin Faisal was the King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq from 1933 to 1939. He was born in Mecca , the only son of Faisal I, the first King of Iraq.- Early life :...
(IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
)
- King Faisal II
Faisal II was the Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq's last King. He reigned from 4 April 1939 until July 1958, when he was killed during the "14 July Revolution" together with several members of his family...
(IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
)
- President of the Executive Council W. T. Cosgrave (Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand....
)
- President of the Executive Council Eamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in 20th century Ireland...
(Irish Free StateThe Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand....
)
- Taoiseach Eamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in 20th century Ireland...
(Éireis the Irish name for the island of Ireland and the sovereign state of the same name.- Etymology :The modern Irish Éire evolved from the Old Irish word Ériu, which was the name of a Gaelic goddess. Ériu is generally believed to have been the matron goddess of Ireland, a goddess of sovereignty, or...
)
- King Victor Emmanuel III
Vittorio Emanuele III was a member of the House of Savoy and King of Italy . In addition, he claimed the crowns of Ethiopia and Albania and claimed the titles Emperor of Ethiopia and King of Albania which were recognised by the great powers in 1937 and 1939...
(Italy)
- Prime Minister Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini,
KSMOM GCTE was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism. He became the Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and began using the title Il Duce by...
(Italy)
- Emperor Hirohito
, also known as , was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926 until his death in 1989....
(Japan)
- Emir Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah
Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, KCSI, KCIE was sheikh of Kuwait from March 29, 1921 to January 29, 1950, and 10th ruler of the Al-Sabah dynasty of Kuwait.....
(KuwaitThe State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab emirate bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south and Iraq to the north and west. The greatest distance from north to south is 200 km and from east to west 170 km . The name is a diminutive of an Arabic word meaning "fortress built near water." It has a...
)
- Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar
António de Oliveira Salazar,
GColIH,
GCTE,
GCSE served as the Prime Minister and dictator of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. He was the President of the Republic in 1951, as interim...
(Portugal)
- President Lázaro Cárdenas
Lázaro Cárdenas del Río was President of Mexico from 1934 to 1940.Lázaro Cárdenas was born into a lower-middle class family in the village of Jiquilpan, Michoacán. He supported his family from age 16 after the death of his father...
(Mexico)
- Sultan Mohammed V
Mohammed V was Sultan of Morocco from 1927 to 1953, exiled from 1953-55, where he was again recognized as Sultan upon his return, and King from 1957 to 1961. His full name was Sidi Mohammed ben Yusef, or Son of Yusef, upon whose death he succeeded to the throne...
(MoroccoMorocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 32 million and an area just under . Its capital is Rabat, and its largest city is Casablanca. Morocco has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the...
)
- Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage
Michael Joseph Savage was the first Labour Prime Minister of New Zealand.- Early life :Born in Tatong, Victoria, Australia, Savage first became involved in politics while working in that state. He emigrated to New Zealand in 1907...
(New Zealand)
- President Paul von Hindenburg
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg , known universally as Paul von Hindenburg was a German field marshal and statesman....
(Germany)
- Chancellor Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
(Germany)
- Prime Minister James Barry Munnik Hertzog
James Barry Munnik Hertzog, better known as J. B. M. Hertzog was a general on the Boer side during the second Anglo-Boer War and the Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1924 to 1939...
(South Africa)
- General Secretary Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953...
(Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
)
- President Alcalá Zamora (Spain)
- Prime Minister Manuel Azaña
Dr. Manuel Azaña Díaz was a Spanish politician, the second and last President of the Second Spanish Republic...
(Spain)
- Prime Minister Alejandro Lerroux
Alejandro Lerroux y García was a Spanish politician who was the leader of the Radical Republican Party during the Second Spanish Republic....
(Spain)
- President (Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
)
- President Bahij Bey al-Khatib (Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
)
- Bey (Crown Prince) Ahmad II
Ahmad II ibn Ali was the ruler of Tunisia from 11 February 1929 until his death. He was the son of Ali Muddat ibn al-Husayn.He was born in the Dar al-Taj Palace at La Marsa...
(TunisiaTunisia , officially the Tunisian Republic , is a country located in North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and Libya to the southeast. Tunisia is located southwest of the island of Sicily and south of Sardinia. Its size is almost 165,000 km² with an estimated population of just...
)
- King George V
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 1910 through World War I until his death in 1936...
(United Kingdom)
- King Edward VIII
Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the British dominions, and Emperor of India from 20 January 1936 until his abdication on 11 December 1936, after which he was immediately succeeded by his younger brother, George VI...
(United Kingdom)
- King George VI
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions from 11 December 1936 until his death...
(United Kingdom)
- Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald was a British politician and twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He rose from humble origins to become the first Labour Prime Minister in 1924....
(United Kingdom)
- Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC was a British Conservative politician, statesman, and major figure on the political scene in the interwar years...
(United Kingdom)
- Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain was a British Conservative politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940...
(United Kingdom)
- President Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted government intervention under the rubric "economic...
(United States)
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , the only U.S. President elected to more than two terms, was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
(United States)
- Holy Father Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...
(VaticanThe Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, and is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and speaks for the whole Catholic...
)
- Minister of foreign Józef Beck
' was a Polish statesman, diplomat, military officer, and close associate of Józef Piłsudski.-Early life:When World War I started, Beck was a student at a college of Engineering...
(Poland)
Global
- Cliff Bastin
Clifford Sydney Bastin was an English football player.Born in Heavitree near Exeter, Bastin started his career at Exeter City, making his debut for the club in 1928, at the age of 16...
(English footballAssociation football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players using a spherical ball...
er)
- Donald Bradman
Sir Donald George Bradman, AC , often referred to as The Don, was an Australian cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time...
(Australian cricketCricket is a bat-and-ball team sport that is first documented as being played in southern England in the 16th century. By the end of the 18th century, cricket had developed to the point where it had become the national sport of England. The expansion of the British Empire led to cricket being...
er)
- Haydn Bunton, Sr (Australian Rules Footballer)
- Jack Crawford (tennis
Tennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court....
)
- Jack Dyer
John Raymond Dyer senior , always known as Jack Dyer, was one of the colossal figures of Australian rules football during two distinct careers, firstly as an outstanding player and coach of the Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football League between 1931 and 1952, and later in the broadcast...
(Australian rules footballAustralian football, also commonly referred to as Australian rules football, football, or Aussie rules, colloquially as footy, and historically as Australasian football or Victorian football, is a variant of football played between two teams of 18 players, plus four interchange players, outdoors on...
player)
- Walter Hammond (English cricketer)
- Eddie Hapgood
Edris Albert "Eddie" Hapgood was an English footballer, who captained both Arsenal and England during the 1930s....
(English footballer)
- George Headley
George Alphonso Headley was a West Indian cricketer. He is universally acknowledged as one of the finest batsmen of all time and his career batting average in Test cricket, an exceptional 60.83, is the third highest of any player with a completed career, behind Don Bradman and Graeme Pollock...
(West Indies cricketer)
- Alex James
Alexander Wilson James was a Scottish footballer, and is most noted for his success with Arsenal, where he is regarded as one of the club's greatest players of all time. James played as an inside forward, as a supporting player for the main strikers...
(Scottish footballer)
- Douglas Jardine
For the article about the British colonial administrator and Governor, see Douglas James JardineDouglas Robert Jardine was an English cricketer and captain of the England cricket team from 1931 to 1933-34...
(English cricketer)
- Harold Larwood
Harold Larwood was an English cricket player, an extremely accurate fast bowler best known for his key role as the implementer of fast leg theory in the infamous "Bodyline" Ashes Test series of 1932-33....
(English cricketer)
- Jack Lovelock
John "Jack" Edward Lovelock was a New Zealand athlete, and the 1936 Olympic champion in the 1500 metres....
(New Zealand runner)
- Fred Perry
Frederick John Perry born in Stockport, Cheshire, was a British tennis and table tennis player and three-time Wimbledon champion. He was the World No...
(English tennisTennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court....
player)
- Leonard Hutton, English cricketer.
- Percy Williams
Competitor for CanadaPercy Alfred Williams, OC was a Canadian athlete, winner of the 100 m and 200 m races at the 1928 Summer Olympics.He was born and died in Vancouver....
(sprinter)
- Dhyan Chand
Major Dhyan 'Chand' Singh , better known as Dhyan Chand was an Indian hockey player, widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time . A legendary center-forward, he is remembered for his goal-scoring feats and successful matches, both as a player and later as captain...
, Indian hockey player
- Lala Amarnath
Nanik Amarnath Bhardwaj was an Indian Test cricketer. He was the first cricketer to score a Test century for the Indian cricket team, which he achieved on debut...
, Indian cricketer
- Josh Crociani, Italian soccer player
United States
- Joe Louis
Joseph Louis Barrow , better known as Joe Louis, was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949....
(boxingBoxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. There are three ways to win...
)
- Lou Ambers
Luigi Giuseppe d'Ambrosio , aka Lou Ambers, was a lightweight boxer who fought from 1932 to 1941.Managed by Al Weill and trained by Charley Goldman, the "Herkimer Hurricane", as he was known, began his career losing only once in more than three years when he faced future hall of fame lightweight...
(boxingBoxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. There are three ways to win...
)
- Henry Armstrong
Henry Jackson Jr. was a world boxing champion who fought under the name Henry Armstrong....
(boxingBoxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. There are three ways to win...
)
- Max Baer (boxing
Boxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. There are three ways to win...
)
- Cliff Battles
Clifford Franklin Battles was an American football halfback in the National Football League. Battles was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1968.-Early life:...
(halfback)
- Jay Berwanger
John Jacob "Jay" Berwanger was an American football halfback born in Dubuque, Iowa. He was the first winner of the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy in 1935...
(halfback)
- James J. Braddock
James Walter Braddock was an Irish-American boxer who held the world heavyweight championship.Fighting under the name James J. Braddock James Walter Braddock (June 7, 1905 – November 29, 1974) was an Irish-American boxer who held the world heavyweight championship.Fighting under the name...
(boxingBoxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. There are three ways to win...
)
- Ellison M. ("Tarzan") Brown (marathon
The marathon is a long-distance foot race with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres that is usually run as a road race. The event is named after the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens...
)
- Don Budge
John Donald Budge was an American tennis champion who was a World No. 1 player for five years, first as an amateur and then as a professional. He is most famous as the first man to win in a single year the four tournaments that comprise the Grand Slam of tennis...
(tennisTennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court....
)
- Tony Canzoneri
Tony Canzoneri was an American boxer who was born in the town of Slidell, Louisiana.Canzoneri, an Italian American, was one of the members of the exclusive group of boxing world champions who have won titles in three or more divisions.-Career history:When he was a teenager, he and his family moved...
(boxingBoxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. There are three ways to win...
)
- Mickey Cochrane
Gordon Stanley "Mickey" Cochrane was a catcher and manager in Major League Baseball for the Philadelphia Athletics and Detroit Tigers. New York Yankees Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle was named after Cochrane...
(baseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond...
)
- Buster Crabbe
Clarence Linden "Buster" Crabbe was an American athlete and actor, who starred in a number of popular serials in the 1930s and 1940s.- Birth :...
(swimming)
- Glenn Cunningham
Glenn Cunningham may refer to:*Glenn Cunningham , American runner, Olympic Games medalist*Glenn Cunningham , American politician, mayor of Omaha, and congressman for Nebraska...
(runningRunning is a means for an animal to move on foot. It is defined in sporting terms as a gait in which at some point all feet are off the ground at the same time. This is in contrast to walking, where one foot is always in contact with the ground, the legs are kept mostly straight and the center of...
)
- Dizzy Dean
Jerome Hanna "Dizzy" Dean was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball, and was the last National League pitcher to win 30 games in one season. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953....
(baseball)
- Joe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio , born Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio, Jr., was an American baseball player for the New York Yankees. He was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955...
(baseball)
- Babe Didrikson (track)
- Leo Durocher
Leo Ernest Durocher , nicknamed Leo the Lip, was an American infielder and manager in Major League Baseball. Upon his retirement, he ranked fifth all-time among managers with 2,009 career victories, second only to John McGraw in National League history. Durocher still ranks tenth in career wins by...
(baseball)
- Turk Edwards
Albert Glen "Turk" Edwards was an American football offensive tackle in the National Football League. He played his entire career for, and eventually became the head coach of, the Washington Redskins...
(tackle)
- Jimmie Foxx
James Emory "Jimmie" Foxx was an American first baseman and noted power hitter in Major League Baseball...
(baseball)
- Lou Gehrig
Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig was an American baseball player in the 1920s and 1930s, chiefly remembered for his prowess as a hitter, his consecutive games-played record and its subsequent longevity, and the pathos of his farewell from baseball at age 36, when he was stricken with a fatal disease...
(baseball)
- Hank Greenberg
Henry Benjamin "Hank" Greenberg , nicknamed "Hammerin' Hank," was an American professional baseball player in the 1930s and 1940s....
(baseball)
- Lefty Grove
Robert Moses "Lefty" Grove was a pitcher in Major League Baseball.Born in Lonaconing, Maryland, Grove was a sandlot star in the Baltimore area during the 1910s...
(baseball)
- Dixie Howell
Millard "Dixie" Howell was an American football running back and head coach.-College career:Howell played college football at the University of Alabama from 1932 to 1934. He was a consensus All-America selection in 1934 at the quarterback position, as well as being know as a good punter...
(halfback)
- Don Hutson
Donald Montgomery Hutson was the first star wide receiver in National Football League history. He joined the Green Bay Packers out of the University of Alabama in 1935 and retired in 1945 after 11 seasons....
(end)
- Cecil Isbell
Cecil Isbell was a professional football player for the Green Bay Packers. He attended Purdue University. He was best known for passing to Don Hutson when Hutson was at his peak. He led the Packers to a NFL championship in 1939....
(quarterback)
- Bobby Jones
Robert Tyre "Bobby" Jones Jr. was one of the greatest golfers to compete on a national and international level. He participated only as an amateur, primarily on a part-time basis, and chose to retire from competition at age 28.Explaining his decision to retire, Jones said, "It is something like a...
(golf)
- John A. Kelley (marathon
The marathon is a long-distance foot race with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres that is usually run as a road race. The event is named after the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens...
)
- Nile Kinnick
Nile Clarke Kinnick, Jr. was a student and a college football player at the University of Iowa. He won the 1939 Heisman Trophy and was a consensus All-American. He died during a training flight while serving as a U.S Navy airplane pilot in World War II...
(halfback)
- Tommy Loughran
Tommy Loughran was the light heavyweight boxing champion of the world.Loughran's effective use of coordinated foot work, sound defense and swift, accurate counter punching is now regarded as a precursor to the techniques practiced in modern boxing...
(boxingBoxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. There are three ways to win...
)
- Alice Marble
Alice Marble was a World No. 1 American tennis player who won 18 Grand Slam championships from 1936 through 1940...
(tennisTennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court....
)
- Ralph Metcalfe
Ralph Harold Metcalfe was an African-American athlete and politician who came second to Jesse Owens in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Metcalfe jointly held the world record for the 100 meter sprint. Metcalfe was known as the world’s fastest human from 1932 through 1934...
(sprinter)
- Bronko Nagurski
Bronislau "Bronko" Nagurski was a Canadian American football player of Polish-Ukrainian descent. He was also a successful professional wrestler, recognized as a multiple-time world heavyweight champion....
(fullback)
- Mel Ott
Melvin Thomas "Mel" Ott , nicknamed "Master Melvin", was a Major League Baseball right fielder who played his entire career for the New York Giants . Ott was born in Gretna, Louisiana. He batted left-handed and threw right-handed...
(baseball)
- Jesse Owens
James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was an American track and field athlete. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 metres, the 200 metres, the long jump, and as part of the 4x100 meter relay...
(sprinter)
- Bobby Riggs
Robert Larimore "Bobby" Riggs was a 1930s–40s tennis player who was the World No. 1 or the co-World No. 1 player for three years, first as an amateur in 1941, then as a professional in 1946 and 1947...
(tennisTennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court....
)
- Barney Ross
Barney Ross, born Dov-Ber Rasofsky was a boxer. After his beloved father, a rabbi, dies in his arms after being shot in a robbery, Ross, a rabbinical student: loses his faith in God and abandons his studies; becomes a street brawler alongside his buddy Jack Ruby; goes to work for Al Capone;...
(boxingBoxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. There are three ways to win...
)
- Al Simmons
Aloysius Harry Simmons , born Aloisius Szymanski in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was an American player in Major League Baseball for over two decades. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953....
(baseball)
- Helen Stephens
Helen Herring Stephens was an American athlete, a double Olympic champion in 1936.Stephens, nicknamed the 'Fulton Flash' after her birthplace Fulton, Missouri, was a strong athlete in sprint events - she never lost a race in her entire career - but also in weight events like the shot put and...
(track)
- Eddie Tolan
Thomas Edward "Eddie" Tolan , nicknamed the "Midnight Express" was an American athlete and sprinter. He set world records in the 100-yard dash and 100-meter event and Olympic records in the 100-meter and 200-meter events...
(sprinter)
- Ellsworth Vines
Henry Ellsworth Vines, Jr. was an American tennis champion of the 1930s, the World No. 1 player or the co-No...
(tennisTennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court....
)
- Stella Walsh (sprinter)
- Frank Wykoff
Frank Clifford Wykoff was an American athlete, triple gold medal winner in 4x100 m relay at the Olympic Games....
(sprinter)
External links
- The Dirty Thirties — Images of the Great Depression in Canada
- America in the 1930s Extensive library of projects on America in the Great Depression from American Studies at the University of Virginia
- The 1930s Timeline year by year timeline of events in science and technology, politics and society, culture and international events with embedded audio and video. AS@UVA