| Timeline |
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| 1920 |
The 18th Amendment goes into effect, established Prohibition, which made the manufacture, transportation, import, export, and sale of alcoholic beverages illegal.
|
| 1929 |
October
24th, 1929 - Black Thursday, Marks the beginning of the great
depression.
|
| 1930 |
The planet
Pluto is discovered.
En route to India, British Airship R101 crashes in France.
Radar used to detect airborne objects.
American Interplanetary Society founded.
Russian biologist Ilya Ivanov arrested for failing to produce human-ape hybrid for Stalin.
Wonder sliced bread introduced to the market.
Constantinople renamed
Istanbul.
Federal Bureau of Narcotics formed.
US War Department approves plan to invade, seize and annex Canada.
The game Battleship produced by the Milton Bradley Company.
The Shadow Appears on CBS Radio & In Print.
The Lone Ranger makes his radio debut.
Sherlock Holmes debuts on radio.
Betty Boop debuts in "Dizzy Dishes".
|
| 1931 |
Al Capone convicted of income tax evasion
& sentenced to 11 years in prison.
"The Night of the Sicilian Vespers", Lucky Luciano assassinates mob competitors.
The Castellammarese War ends in NYC.
Dust Bowl begins, thanks to a drought that continues on until
1939.
The Empire State Building is opened, making it the world's
tallest structure.
First Las Vegas gaming license issued to "The Northern Club" for $1410.
Amelia Earhardt is first president of the 99s, the Association of Female Aviators.
Mayan ruins of Calakmul discovered in Mexico.
Mao Tse-Tung elected Chairman of the Soviet Republic of China.
Japan invades Manchuria, effectively the first shot of World War II.
Robert Johnson sells his soul at the intersection of Highways 61 and 49.
Thomas Edison dies at the age of 84
Adolph Rickenbacker applies for a patent on the Electric Guitar.
H.P. Lovecraft writes At the Mountains of Madness (serialized in 1936)
Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, appears on the silver screen.
Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff, appears on the silver screen.
Dick Tracy arrives in newspaper comics as "Plainclothes Tracy."
|
| 1932 |
Amelia Earhart becomes the
first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.
Karl Jansky discovers radio waves coming from space.
Charles Lindbergh's infant son is kidnapped.
Franklin Dleano Roosevelt Elected President.
Stalin institutes Holodomer, a forced famine in the Ukraine, killing 7 million people.
NFL's first playoff game was played at Chicago Stadium. Bears 9, Spartans 0.
Iraq achieves independance from Britain.
Shiro Ishii begins his preliminary experiments with Biochemical warfare.
Murder, Inc. hired by Luciano for Syndicate-ordered assassinations.
FBI's Law Enforcement Bulletin, better known as "Most Wanted", implemented.
FBI's Federal Crime Lab Established.
US Post Office increases first class postage from 2¢ to 3¢ & air mail from 5¢ to 8¢ per oz.
July 8, the Dow Jones Industrial Average falls to 41, the lowest point of the Great Depression.
The Cipher Bureau breaks the German Enigma cipher.
Sir James Chadwick discovers the neutron.
Route 66 opens connecting Chicago, IL to Los Angeles, CA.
First Section of the Autobahn opens between Cologne and Bonn.
Ford introduces the V-8 motor.
The Radio City Music Hall opens in New York City.
Buck Rogers airs on CBS radio.
Conan the Barbarian debuts in Weird Tales magazine.
The Mummy, starring Boris Karloff, appears on the silver
screen.
The Island of Dr. Moreau is shown in theaters.
White Zombie, starring Bela Lugosi, appears on the silver screen.
|
| 1933 |
Prohibition repealed with the XXI Amendment.
Guiseppe Zangara, an Italian anachist, attemptes to assassinate President Roosevelt.
Kansas City Massacre committed by "Pretty Boy" Floyd in an attempt to free Frank Nash.
Construction begins on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.
The Loch Ness Monster caught on film.
Adolf Hitler named Chancellor of Germany.
Hitler makes concordat with the Vatican.
The Nazis erect the first concentration camps in Germany.
Germany withdraws from League of Nations.
The airship USS Akron crashed off the New Jersey coast during severe weather.
Work begins on Villa Gustav Winter, a secret Nazi base on Fuerteventura, Canary Islands.
The Gestapo, the secret police force of Nazi Germany established.
President Roosevelt gives his first "fireside chat".
Budweiser use Clydesdales in ads to celebrate the repeal of Prohibition.
Albert Einstein flees from Nazi Germany.
Chicago hosts the World's Fair.
Wiley Post completes first solo airplane flight around the world.
First transatlantic air line links Africa to South America.
Blood typing is used as evidence in murder trials.
Unemployment reaches 24.9%.
Doc Savage appears in print.
King Kong climbs the Empire State Building.
Shangri-La described in the novel Lost Horizon.
Ford introduces a car radio tailor made for the dashboard. |
| 1934 |
Alcatraz Island established as a federal prison.
Bonnie & Clyde were shot to death in a
police ambush in Bienville Parish, LA.
"Pretty Boy" Floyd gunned down by Federal agents.
John Dillinger, killed outside a cinema in Chicago by federal agents.
Baby Face Nelson died after a gun battle on Hwy 14 with federal agents.
Al Capone moved from federal prison in Atlanta to Alcatraz (cell #181).
Boston Police begin using the two-way radio.
The drought covers 27 states, 75% of the country, the
worst in US history.
US experiences its hottest year on record.
National Firearms Act passed, restricting the sale of machineguns and others
arms.
Gold Reserve Act passed, outlawing the circulation & private possession of U.S. gold coins.
"Night of the Long Knives" carried out by Hitler against the "Storm Battalion" (SA).
Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany.
USSR joins League of Nations.
Death Ray Machine claimed to be invented by Cleveland Scientist.
Fritz Lang director of Metropolis and M Leaves Nazi Germany.
Flash Gordon makes his first appearance in the New York American Journal.
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie is published. |
| 1935 |
Parker Brothers releases board game,
Monopoly.
Italian troops invade Ethiopia.
Black Sunday, named after a dust storm of mythic proportions blotted
out the sun.
The phrase "Dust Bowl" coined by AP writer Robert Geiger, after Black Sunday.
Will Rogers & Wiley Post die in airplane crash near Point Barrow, Alaska.
Land speed record of 301.129 MPH set by Sir Malcolm Campbell.
Babe Ruth ends his Major League career after 22 seasons, 10 World Series and 714 home runs.
The first Heisman Trophy awarded to halfback Jay Berwanger of the Chicago Maroons.
Fort Knox created to house US gold bullion.
Bureau of Investigation officially renamed Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
President Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act into law.
The Ahnenerbe (Ancestral Heritage), An SS occult research department, was established.
Turkish leader Atatürk promotes research on the lost continent of Mu
Hitler signs a secret decree to establish the Luftwaffe.
Hitler implemented the Nuremberg laws, seperating Jews from society.
J. Edger Hoover becomes director of the FBI.
Persia becomes Iran.
First lobotomy performed by Egas Moniz.
U-235 (uranium isotope) discovered.
.357 Magnum cartridge introduced.
Beer in a can first sold.
The first parking meter installed in Oklahoma City.
The USS Macon, twin of the USS Akron, plunged into the Pacific during severe weather.
|
| 1936 |
Civil War
breaks out in Spain. Italy & Germany send assistance to Francisco
Franco.
Chiang Kai-Shek declares war on Japan
Roosevelt is re-elected to a second term as President.
King George V of the UK dies, Edward VIII ascends to the throne.
Edward VIII relinquishs the throne to marry Wallis Simpson, becoming the Duke of Windsor.
Arab Revolt in Palestine, Britain crushes rebellion in 1939.
Heinrich Himmler is appointed chief of the German Police.
Prince Albert, Duke of York, takes the throne as King George VI.
The Anglo-Egyptian treaty makes Egypt virtually independent of Brithsh rule.
Lucky Luciano convicted on trumped up prostitution charges.
Robert E. Howard commits suicide.
Jesse Owens wins 4 gold medals at the Olympics in Berlin.
Konrad Zuse invents the Z1 Computer.
2000 year old "battery" discovered in an archeological dig near Baghdad, Iraq.
Germany & Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact against international communism.
Unit 731, a secret military experimentation unit of the Imperial Japanese Army established.
The first of 48 "Lost Colony" stones are found in North Carolina.
The BBC begins broadcasting.
The Phantom appears in the daily newspapers.
The Green Hornet radio program airs on WXYZ in Detroit. |
| 1937 |
HP
Lovecraft dies at the age of 47.
Pablo Picasso, inspired by the Spanish Civil War, paints Guernica.
The Hindenburg air ship explodes over Lakehurst Naval Air Station.
Hormel introduces SPAM® to the market.
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien Published.
Amelia Earhart is lost at sea during her around the world flight.
Japan invades China, captures Beijing, Shanghai, & Nanjing; starts the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
US Gunboat, USS Panay, sunk by Japanese in Chinese waters
Italy joins the Anti-Comintern Pact
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor visit Germany as personal guests of Adolf Hitler
Leon Trotsky, founder of the Red Army and the Politburo, flees to Mexico.
Joe Louis wins the world heavy weight title.
Route 66 paved end-to-end.
Waldo Waterman builds first (working) flying car.
First blood bank opens in Chicago.
Maiden voyage of the RMS Queen Mary
Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 passed, which made the use of marijuana illegal.
|
| 1938 |
The Devil Collects on Robert Johnson's Soul.
Austria annexed by Nazi Germany.
Hitler gains possesion of the Spear of Destiny from the Hofmuseum in Austria.
Kristallnacht or "Night of broken glass" - Nazis loot and burn Jewish businesses.
Nazi expedition goes to Antarctica in search for resources needed for the war effort.
German scientists discover fission.
Oil discovered in Saudi Arabia.
"Extinct" Coelacanth caught off east coast of South Africa.
Electroshock therapy introduced as a psychiatric practice.
Ahnenerbe sends expedition to Tibet to find origins of Arian race. a.k.a."Himmler's Cruasde".
War of the Worlds by Orson Welles broadcasts on Radio
causing widespread panic.
Abbott and Costello perform Who's on First?
Organized labor rift, the CIO splits from the AFL.
Henry Ford recieves Germany's highest honor for a non-German, with a note from Hitler.
Adolph Hitler named Time Magazine's Man of the Year
Provisional committee established that would become the World Council of Churches.
A powerful hurricane called "The Long Island Express" strikes New England, killing 600.
Steam locomotive "Mallard" sets the world speed record for steam by reaching 126 mph.
Howard Hughes sets a new record by flying around the world in 91 hours.
"Wrong Way" Corrigan flew from New York to Ireland, he was supposed to be flying to California.
First issue of Action Comic appears
with Superman on the cover. |
| 1939 |
Germany & Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact.
Germany invades Western Poland. 16 days later, USSR invades Eastern Poland.
USSR invades Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
USSR attacks Finland.
USSR Expelled from the League of Nations.
Britain, France declare war on Germany.
General Franco's forces capture Madrid, ending the Spanish Civil War.
Germany stakes a 600,000km area of Antarctica as "Neuschwabenland".
Einstein writes President Roosevelt about developing the Atomic Bomb (the Manhattan Project).
Thailand Changes it's Name From Siam
Helicopter invented.
Attila von Szalay claims to record spirit voices using a phonograph record cutter.
Professor Heinrich Focke patents a saucer-type aircraft with enclosed twin rotors.
Jackie Cochran breaks the int'l open-class speed record for men and women.
German firm Heinkel tests the first jet powered aircraft, the HE-178.
Batman makes his debut in Detective Comics #27.
Wizard of Oz appears on the silver screen.
The drought that caused the Dust Bowl finally ends.
John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath published.
Joseph Stalin named Time Magazine's Man of the Year
Assassination attempt on Hitler fails.
Jewish refugees on the SS St. Louis from Germany were not allowed refuge in Cuba or the USA.
New York City hosts the World's Fair.
Television introduced at the World's Fair
Lock pick gun invented, could open a lock in as little as 2 seconds.
Pope Pius XI dies and is succeeded by Pius XII.
Al Capone is released from Alcatraz
Margaret Sanger starts "Negro Project" to quell the black population.
J. R. Oppenheimer discovers the properties of what is later known as a "black hole."
Teflon® was accidentally discovered by a DuPont chemist.
Western Union introduces coast-to-coast fax service.
|
| 1940+ |
June 22, 1941 - Germany invades the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa).
December 7th, 1941 - Japanese attack Pearl Harbor.
December 8th, 1941 - U.S.
declares war on Japan.
December 11th, 1941 - Germany
and Italy declare war on U.S.
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