What happened in the 1930s?
The 1930s were the decade of the Great Depression, the rise of dictators and the golden age of Hollywood.
80 events, oldest first.
Timeline of The 1930s
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1930
Amy Johnson flies solo to Australia
She had gained her pilot's licence only about a year earlier.
History of exploration
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1930
Gandhi leads the Salt March
He walked about 390 km to the sea to make salt in protest.
Politics & society history
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1930
Pluto is discovered
Its name was suggested by Venetia Burney, an 11-year-old schoolgirl in Oxford.
Science & technology history
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1930
Snickers is launched
It was named after the Mars family's favourite horse.
Food & brand history
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1930
The first British Empire Games
They were held in Hamilton, Canada, and are now the Commonwealth Games.
History of sport
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1930
The first FIFA World Cup
Only 13 teams took part, and the hosts Uruguay won.
History of sport
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1930
The first flight attendant takes to the air
Ellen Church was a registered nurse.
Science & technology history
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1930
Twinkies are invented
The original filling was banana cream, until a wartime banana shortage forced a switch to vanilla.
Food & brand history
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1931
Auguste Piccard flies into the stratosphere
His pressurised balloon gondola reached about 15.8 km.
History of exploration
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1931
Christ the Redeemer is completed in Rio
The statue is struck by lightning several times a year.
Art & literature history
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1931
Dalí paints The Persistence of Memory
Dalí said the melting clocks were inspired by Camembert cheese softening in the sun.
Art & literature history
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1931
Frankenstein is released
Boris Karloff spent hours in the make-up chair every day.
Pop culture history
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1931
The Empire State Building opens
It was built in just 410 days.
Science & technology history
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1931
The Statute of Westminster
It made dominions like Canada and Australia legally independent of the British Parliament.
Politics & society history
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1932
Amelia Earhart flies solo across the Atlantic
She landed in a field in Northern Ireland and told a farmhand she'd come from America.
History of exploration
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1932
Australia's 'Emu War'
Soldiers armed with machine guns failed to make much of a dent in the emu population.
Modern history
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1932
Babe Didrikson wins two Olympic golds
She also became one of the greatest golfers of her era.
History of sport
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1932
Brave New World is published
Aldous Huxley's dystopia came out 17 years before Orwell's 1984.
Art & literature history
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1932
The first Mars bar is made, in Slough
Forrest Mars made it in a small rented factory in Slough, England.
Food & brand history
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1932
The neutron is discovered
James Chadwick won the Nobel Prize for it just three years later.
Science & technology history
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1933
Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
He was appointed rather than elected to the role.
Politics & society history
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1933
King Kong is released
The giant ape was mostly a model only about 45 cm tall.
Pop culture history
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1933
Prohibition ends in the United States
It ended after 13 years, partly to raise tax money during the Great Depression.
Politics & society history
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1933
Roosevelt launches the New Deal
His first 100 days set a benchmark for every president since.
Politics & society history
-
1933
The first Zippo lighter is made
George Blaisdell based its windproof design on an Austrian lighter he saw at a country club.
Food & brand history
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1933
The Reichstag fire
The Nazis used the blaze as an excuse to suspend civil liberties.
Modern history
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1933
Wiley Post flies solo around the world
He completed the trip in under eight days.
History of exploration
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1934
Mao's Long March begins
The Communist army marched roughly 10,000 km in a year.
Modern history
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1934
Ritz crackers are launched
They were marketed as an affordable luxury during the Great Depression.
Food & brand history
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1934
The first Masters golf tournament
Augusta's famous green jacket wasn't given to winners until 1949.
History of sport
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1934
Turkish women gain the national vote
Turkey gave women the vote a decade before France and twelve years before Italy.
Politics & society history
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1934
William Beebe's bathysphere dives half a mile
He described glowing deep-sea creatures by telephone to the surface.
History of exploration
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1935
Cane toads are released in Australia
They were meant to eat beetles but became a major pest themselves.
Natural history & deep time
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1935
Kit Kat is launched
It was first sold as Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp.
Food & brand history
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1935
Parker Brothers publishes Monopoly
It descends from The Landlord's Game, created by Lizzie Magie to criticise greedy landlords.
Pop culture history
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1935
Penguin publishes its first paperbacks
They cost sixpence, about the price of a packet of cigarettes.
Art & literature history
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1935
The Dust Bowl's 'Black Sunday'
A huge dust storm turned day into night across the Great Plains.
Natural history & deep time
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1935
The first parking meter is installed
It was installed in Oklahoma City.
Science & technology history
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1935
The US Social Security Act is signed
The first monthly payment went to a retired legal secretary named Ida May Fuller.
Politics & society history
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1936
Alan Turing describes a universal computer
He imagined a universal machine years before any real computer existed.
Science & technology history
-
1936
Edward VIII abdicates
He reigned for less than a year and was never crowned.
Politics & society history
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1936
Jesse Owens wins four Olympic golds in Berlin
His triumph at Hitler's Olympics undercut Nazi propaganda about racial superiority.
History of sport
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1936
Maltesers are launched
They were first marketed as 'energy balls' for slimmers.
Food & brand history
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1936
The Crystal Palace burns down
The glow from the fire could be seen across eight counties.
Modern history
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1936
The first Olympic torch relay
It was devised for the Berlin Games and has been part of the Olympics ever since.
History of sport
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1936
The Jarrow March
Around 200 unemployed men walked about 450 km from Jarrow to London.
Modern history
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1936
The last known thylacine dies
It died at Hobart Zoo just 59 days after the species was given legal protection.
Natural history & deep time
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1936
The Spanish Civil War begins
Volunteers from dozens of countries, including George Orwell, went to fight.
Modern history
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1936
Toyota builds its first car
The Toyoda family business started out making automatic looms.
Food & brand history
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1937
Amelia Earhart disappears over the Pacific
What happened to her remains one of aviation's great mysteries.
History of exploration
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1937
Kraft Macaroni & Cheese is launched
A box could feed a family of four for 19 cents.
Food & brand history
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1937
Picasso paints Guernica
It was painted for the Paris World's Fair in about five weeks.
Art & literature history
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1937
Smarties are launched
They were originally called Chocolate Beans.
Food & brand history
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1937
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premieres
Many predicted 'Disney's Folly' would bankrupt the studio.
Pop culture history
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1937
Spam is introduced
Hormel's canned meat fed so many Allied troops that it became a wartime staple worldwide.
Food & brand history
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1937
Technetium, the first artificial element, is made
Its name comes from the Greek word for 'artificial'.
Science & technology history
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1937
The Dandy comic is launched
Its star, Desperate Dan, eats cow pies with the horns still on.
Pop culture history
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1937
The Golden Gate Bridge opens
Its famous 'International Orange' colour was inspired by the primer used on the steel.
Science & technology history
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1937
The Hindenburg airship disaster
Remarkably, 62 of the 97 people on board survived.
Modern history
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1937
The Hobbit is published
Tolkien began it by scribbling 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit' on an exam paper.
Art & literature history
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1938
A living coelacanth is found
Thought extinct for 66 million years, one turned up in a South African fishing catch.
Natural history & deep time
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1938
Errol Flynn plays Robin Hood
The Adventures of Robin Hood was one of the first Technicolor epics.
Pop culture history
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1938
Joe Louis knocks out Max Schmeling
The rematch lasted just over two minutes.
History of sport
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1938
Nescafé instant coffee is launched
Nestlé developed it to help use up Brazil's coffee surplus.
Food & brand history
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1938
Nuclear fission is discovered
Lise Meitner helped explain it but was left out of the Nobel Prize.
Science & technology history
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1938
Ribena is launched
Its vitamin C made it a wartime staple for British children.
Food & brand history
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1938
Samsung is founded as a grocery trader
It started out selling dried fish, vegetables and noodles.
Food & brand history
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1938
László Bíró patents his ballpoint pen
The Hungarian journalist got the idea from the fast-drying ink used to print newspapers.
Science & technology history
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1938
The Beano is launched
Dennis the Menace first appeared in it in 1951.
Pop culture history
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1938
The Eiger's North Face is first climbed
The 1,800-metre wall was climbed by a team of two Germans and two Austrians.
History of exploration
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1938
The Munich Agreement is signed
Chamberlain returned waving a paper promising 'peace for our time'.
Modern history
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1938
The War of the Worlds radio broadcast
Newspapers greatly exaggerated the panic that Orson Welles's drama caused.
Pop culture history
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1939
Batman makes his debut
Bob Kane and Bill Finger created him, though Finger's credit came decades later.
Pop culture history
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1939
Frida Kahlo paints The Two Fridas
She painted it around the time of her divorce from Diego Rivera.
Art & literature history
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1939
Gone with the Wind premieres
Adjusted for inflation, it is still the highest-grossing film ever.
Pop culture history
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1939
Hewlett-Packard is founded in a garage
The Palo Alto garage is now known as the birthplace of Silicon Valley.
Food & brand history
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1939
Lou Gehrig's 'luckiest man' speech
He gave it at Yankee Stadium weeks after being diagnosed with ALS.
History of sport
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1939
The Second World War begins
Britain and France declared war two days after Germany invaded Poland.
Modern history
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1939
The Sutton Hoo ship burial is excavated
The Anglo-Saxon treasure was found on a Suffolk estate weeks before war broke out.
History of exploration
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1939
The Wizard of Oz film is released
Dorothy's slippers were silver in the book; the film made them red to show off Technicolor.
Pop culture history
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