Timeline of United States history (1930–49)

This section of the Timeline of United States history concerns events from 1930 to 1949.

1930s

Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother", an iconic image of the Great Depression in United States

• 1930 - The Motion Picture Production Code becomes set of industry censorship guidelines governing production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures released by major studios; is effective for 38 years
• 1930 - Frozen vegetables, packaged by Clarence Birdseye, become the first frozen food to go on sale
• 1931 - Empire State Building opens in New York City.
• 1931 - Japanese invasion of Manchuria
• 1931 - The Whitney Museum of American Art opens to the public in New York City.
• 1932 - Stimson Doctrine
• 1932 - Norris-La Guardia Act
• 1932 - Hans Hofmann - influential artist and teacher emigrated to the United States from Germany.
• 1932 - Bonus Army marches on DC
• 1932 - Reconstruction Finance Corporation
• 1932 - Ford introduces the Model B, the first low-priced car to have a V-8 engine
• 1933 - 20th Amendment, establishing the beginning and ending of the terms of the elected federal offices on January 20.
• 1933 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt sworn in as President; he is the last president to be inaugurated on March 4.
• 1933 - President Roosevelt establishes the New Deal, a response to the Great Depression, and focusing on what historians call the "3 Rs": relief, recovery and reform
• 1933 - Sweeping new programs proposed under President Roosevelt take effect: the Agricultural Adjustment Act, Civil Works Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps, Farm Credit Administration the Home Owners Loan Corporation, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Public Works Administration, the National Industrial Recovery Act
• 1933 - Giuseppe Zangara assassinates Chicago mayor Anton Cermak; the intended target was President-elect Roosevelt, who was not wounded.
• 1933 - Frances Perkins appointed United States Secretary of Labor
• 1933 - 21st Amendment, ending Prohibition
• 1934 - Glass–Steagall Act
• 1934 - U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission established
• 1934 - Dust Bowl begins, causing major ecological and agricultural damage to the Great Plains states; severe drought, heat waves and other factors were contributors.
• 1934 - Federal Housing Administration
• 1934 - Johnson Act
• 1934 - Philippine Commonwealth established
• 1934 - Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act
• 1934 - Tydings–McDuffie Act
• 1934 - John Dillinger killed
• 1934 - Indian Reorganization Act
• 1934 - Share the Wealth society founded by Huey Long
• 1935 - Works Progress Administration
• 1935 - The F.B.I. is established with J. Edgar Hoover as its first director.
• 1935 - Neutrality Act
• 1935 - Motor Carrier Act
• 1935 - Social Security Act
• 1935 - Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States
• 1935 - National Labor Relations Act
• 1935 - Huey Long assassinated
• 1935 - Congress of Industrial Organizations formed
• 1935 - Alcoholics Anonymous founded
• 1935 - Revenue Act of 1935
• 1936 - Robinson-Patman Act
• 1936 - Life magazine publishes first issue
• 1936 - United States v. Butler, which ruled that the processing taxes instituted under the 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act were unconstitutional
• 1936 - Second London Naval Treaty
• 1937 - Look magazine publishes first issue
• 1937 - Neutrality Acts
• 1937 - Hindenburg disaster, killing 35 people and marking an end to airship travel
• 1937 - Panay incident, a Japanese attack on the United States Navy gunboat USS Panay while anchored in the Yangtze River outside of Nanjing
• 1937 - Golden Gate Bridge completed in San Francisco
• 1938 - Wheeler-Lea Act
• 1938 - Fair Labor Standards Act
• 1939 - Hatch Act, aimed at corrupt political practices and prevented federal civil servants from campaigning
• 1938 - Orson Welles' The War of the Worlds broadcast
• 1939 - Nazi Germany invades Poland; World War II begins
• 1939 - Cash and carry proposed to replace the Neutrality Acts
• 1939 - President Roosevelt, appearing at the opening of the 1939 New York World's Fair, becomes the first President to give a speech that is broadcast on television. Semi-regular broadcasts air during the next two years

1940s

The USS Arizona, aflame and sinking, on December 7, 1941

• 1940 - Selective Service Act, establishing the first peacetime draft in U.S. history
• 1940 - Alien Registration (Smith) Act
• 1940 - Oldsmobile becomes the first car maker to offer a fully automatic transmission
• 1940 - Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry make their cartoon debuts
• 1940 - Billboard magazine publishes its first music popularity chart, the predecessor to today's Hot 100
• 1940 - U.S. presidential election, 1940: Franklin D. Roosevelt wins reelection to a record third term
• 1941 - Regular commercial television broadcasting begins; NBC television launched.
• 1941 - Lend-Lease, which supplies the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, France and other Allied nations with vast amounts of war material during World War II
• 1941 - Attack on Pearl Harbor; U.S. enters World War II by declaring war on Japan the next day on December 8; and three days later against Germany and Italy.
• 1941 - Atlantic Charter, drafted by the UK and U.S., to serve as the blueprint for the postwar world after World War II
• 1942 - Japanese American internment begins, per executive order by President Roosevelt; the order also authorizes the seizure of their property.
• 1942–1945 - Automobile production in the United States for private consumers halted.
• 1942 - Casablanca released
• 1942 - Operation Barbarossa
• 1942 - Office of Price Administration
• 1942 - Cocoanut Grove fire kills 492 people, leads to vast reforms in fire codes and safety standards
• 1942 - Congress of Racial Equality
• 1942 - Battle of Stalingrad begins
• 1942 - Revenue Act of 1942
• 1942 - Operation Torch
• 1942 - U.S.-controlled Commonwealth of the Philippines conquered by Japanese forces
• 1943 - Office of Price Administration established
• 1943 - Oklahoma! the first musical written by the team of composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II opens on Broadway
• 1943 - Detroit, Michigan race riots
• 1943 - Cairo Conference
• 1943 - Casablanca Conference
• 1943 - Tehran Conference(meeting between the leaders of USSR, UK, and US to discuss D-day)
• 1944 - Dumbarton Oaks Conference
• 1944 - G.I. Bill
• 1944 - D-Day(also known as operation overlord)
• 1944 - Bretton Woods Conference
• 1944 - Battle of the Bulge
• 1944 - U.S. presidential election, 1944: Franklin D. Roosevelt wins reelection, becomes the only U.S. president elected to a fourth term
• 1945 - Yalta Conference
• 1945 - Battle of Okinawa
• 1945 - Nationwide labor strikes due to inflation; OPA disbanded
• 1945 - Franklin D. Roosevelt dies; Harry S. Truman becomes President
• 1945 - Germany surrenders, end of World War II in Europe
• 1945 - Carousel opens on Broadway
• 1945 - Potsdam Conference
• 1945 - Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Days later, Japan surrenders, ending World War II
• 1945 - United Nations Conference on International Organization; United Nations established
• 1945 - United Nations Charter signed in San Francisco, establishing the United Nations; it replaces the League of Nations
• 1945–1949 - Nuremberg Trials and Subsequent Nuremberg Trials
• 1946 - Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech
• 1946 - Benjamin Spock's The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care published
• 1946 - Employment Act
• 1946 - United States Atomic Energy Act of 1946
• 1946 - President's Committee on Civil Rights
• 1946 - Philippines regain independence from the U.S.
• 1947 - Presidential Succession Act
• 1947 - Taft Hartley Act
• 1947 - U.F.O. crash at Roswell, New Mexico
• 1947 - National Security Act of 1947
• 1947 - General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
• 1947 - The Marshall Plan
• 1947 - Polaroid camera invented
• 1947 - Truman Doctrine establishes "the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures"
• 1947 - Federal Employee Loyalty Program
• 1947 - Jackie Robinson breaks color barrier in baseball
• 1947 - Studebaker becomes the first automobile manufacturer to introduce a "post-war" model; most automakers wait until 1948 or 1949
• 1947 - Jackson Pollock begins painting his most famous series of paintings called the drip paintings in Easthampton, New York
• 1947 - First broadcast of Meet the Press; the World Series is broadcast live for the first time
• 1948 - The Texaco Star Theater, starring Milton Berle, becomes the first major successful U.S. television program; The Toast of the Town also debuts
• 1948 - Berlin Blockade
• 1948 - U.S. presidential election, 1948: President Truman re-elected
• 1948 - Truman desegregates armed forces
• 1948 - Selective Service Act of 1948: Passed after first such act expired
• 1948 - Organization of American States: Alliance of North America and South America
• 1948 - Alger Hiss Case
• 1949 - North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) formed
• 1949 - In China, Communists under Mao Zedong force Chiang Kai-shek's KMT government to retreat to Taiwan
• 1949 - Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb
• 1949 - Department of War becomes Department of Defense
• 1949 - Germany divided into East and West
• 1949 - Truman attempts to continue FDR's legacy with his Fair Deal, but most acts don't pass

References

• Kutler, Stanley L., ed. Encyclopedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century (4 vol, 1996)
• Morris, Richard, ed. Encyclopedia of American History (7th ed. 1996)
• Schlesinger, Jr., Arther M. The Almanac of American History (1983)

See also

Timeline of modern American conservatism