1933 - What happened in 1933 ?

January 1933

Thursday 05:

Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.

Sunday 29:

President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany.

Monday 30:

The first of 2,956 episodes of The Lone Ranger radio series airs on station WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan.

February 1933

Thursday 02:

Adolf Hitler dissolves the German Parliament.

Monday 06:

The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution goes into effect.

Friday 10:

In round 13 of a boxing match at New York City's Madison Square Garden, Primo Carnera knocks out Ernie Schaaf, killing him.

Wednesday 15:

In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to assassinate President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but instead shoots Chicago, Illinois Mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds on March 6, 1933.

Monday 27:

Reichstag fire: Germany's parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, is set on fire.

March 1933

Thursday 02:

King Kong premieres in New York City.

Saturday 04:

Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss initiates authoritarian rule by decree (see Austrofascism)

Friday 10:

An earthquake in Long Beach, California kills 120 people.

Monday 13:

Great Depression: Banks in the United States begin to re-open after the Presidentially mandated "bank holiday".

Wednesday 22:

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs into law a bill legalizing the sale of beer and wine.

April 1933

Saturday 01:

The recently elected Nazis under Julius Streicher organize a one-day boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses in Germany, ushering in the series of anti-Semitic acts that will be known as the Holocaust.

Wednesday 19:

President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces that the United States will be abandoning the gold standard.

Wednesday 26:

The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established.

May 1933

Tuesday 02:

Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler bans trade unions.

Wednesday 03:

Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first woman to head the United States Mint.

Monday 08:

Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast in protest of British oppression in India.

Wednesday 10:

Censorship: In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings.

Thursday 18:

New Deal: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.

June 1933

Monday 05:

The U.S. Congress abrogates the United States' use of the gold standard by enacting a joint resolution (48 Stat. 112) nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold.

Tuesday 06:

The first drive-in theater opens, in Camden, New Jersey, United States.

Saturday 17:

Union Station Massacre: In Kansas City, Missouri, four FBI agents and captured fugitive Frank Nash were gunned down by gangsters attempting to free Nash.

Thursday 29:

Italian boxer Primo Carnera knocked out American Jack Sharkey to become the heavyweight champion of the world.

July 1933

Thursday 06:

The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played in Chicago's Comiskey Park. The American League defeats the National League, 4 to 2.

Wednesday 12:

Congress passes the first federal minimum wage law in the United States: 33 cents per hour.

Friday 14:

Gleichschaltung: In Germany, all political parties are outlawed except the Nazi Party.

Thursday 20:

In Germany, two-hundred Jewish merchants are arrested in Nuremberg and paraded through the streets.

Saturday 22:

Wiley Post becomes first person to fly solo around the world traveling 15,596 miles in 7 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes.

August 1933

Monday 14:

Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn. It is extinguished on September 5, after destroying 240,000 acres (970 km²).

September 1933

Tuesday 12:

Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, conceives the idea of the nuclear chain reaction.

October 1933

Saturday 07:

New York Giants beat Washington Senators, 4 games to 1 in 30th World Series.

Tuesday 10:

A United Airlines Boeing 247 is destroyed by sabotage while en route from Cleveland, Ohio to Chicago, Illinois, the first such proven case in the history of commercial aviation.

Thursday 12:

The United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz Island, is acquired by the United States Department of Justice

Tuesday 17:

Albert Einstein, fleeing Nazi Germany, moves to the US

Thursday 19:

Germany withdraws from the League of Nations.

November 1933

Wednesday 08:

US President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than 4 million of the unemployed.

Saturday 11:

Dust Bowl: In South Dakota, a very strong dust storm strips topsoil from desiccated farmlands.

Sunday 12:

Hugh Gray of the British Aluminium Company takes the first known photos of the Loch Ness Monster; four of them turn out to be blank, while the last one is later proven to be a hoax.

Thursday 16:

The United States and the Soviet Union establish formal diplomatic relations.

December 1933

Tuesday 05:

Prohibition ends: Utah becomes the 36th U.S. state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, thus establishing the required 3/4th of states needed to enact the amendment (this overturned the 18th Amendment which had outlawed alcohol in the United States).

Wednesday 06:

U.S. federal judge John M. Woolsey rules that the James Joyce novel Ulysses is not obscene

Thursday 21:

Newfoundland becomes a crown colony

Tuesday 26:

FM radio is patented