1934 Explained

Year 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1934

January

• January 1
  • Alcatraz becomes a prison.
  • Nazi Germany passes the "Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring."
• January 7 - The first Flash Gordon comic strip is published.
• January 10 - Marinus van der Lubbe is executed in Germany.
• January 13 - The Candidate of Science degree is established in the USSR.
• January 20 - FUJI PHOTO FILM CO., LTD., the pioneer of Fujifilm, is established
• January 24
  • The new Constitution of Estonia enters into force.
  • Einstein visits the White House.
• January 26
  • The Apollo Theater opens in Harlem, New York City.
  • The 10 year German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact is signed by Germany and the Second Polish Republic.

February

• February 6 - February 6, 1934 French political crisis: The French far right leagues rally in front of the Palais Bourbon, in an attempted coup against the Third Republic.
• February 9 - Gaston Doumergue forms a new government in France.
• February 12 - The Export-Import Bank is incorporated.
• February 12 to February 16 - Austrian Civil War
• February 16 - Commission of Government sworn in as form of direct rule for the Dominion of Newfoundland.
• February 22 - Frank Capra's It Happened One Night , starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, is released. It becomes a smash hit and the first of Capra's great screen classics. It becomes the first film to win all 5 of the major Academy Awards - Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture. Gable and Colbert receive their only Oscars for this film.
• February 23 - Léopold III becomes King of Belgium.

March

• March 1 - Manchuria becomes Manchukuo, following an invasion by the Japanese.
• March 3
  • John Dillinger escapes from jail in Crown Point, Indiana, using a wooden pistol.
  • Erich Franke invents the wire bearing (today wire race bearing) and files a patent application.
• March 8 - Prince Sigvard of Sweden loses his titles because of his marriage.
• March 12 -Konstantin Päts and general Johan Laidoner stage a coup in Estonia, and ban all political parties.
• March 13 - John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and their gang rob the First National Bank in Mason City, Iowa.
• March 20 - All the police forces in Germany come under the command of Heinrich Himmler.
  • The Great Hakodate fire kills at least 2,166 people in southern Hokkaido, Japan.
• March 24 - The Philippine Commonwealth becomes established allowing for more self-government from the United States.

April

• April 1 - Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker kill 2 young highway patrolmen near Grapevine, Texas.
• April 6 - Rudyard Kipling and William Butler Yeats are awarded the Gothenburg Prize for Poetry.
• April 14 - Black Sunday: Twenty of the worst dust storms within the Dust Bowl occur.
• April 19 - Surgeon R.K. Wilson allegedly photographs the Loch Ness Monster.
• April 22 - John Dillinger and two others shoot their way out of an FBI ambush in northern Wisconsin.
• April 28 - FA Cup: Manchester City beat Portsmouth 2 - 1 at Wembley Stadium

May

• May 5 - The first Three Stooges short, Woman Haters, is released.
• May 7 - The Pearl of Lao Tzu, 24 x 14 cm, is found in a giant clam off Palawan, Philippines.
• May 11 - Dust Bowl: A strong 2-day dust storm removes massive amounts of Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst dust storms of the Dust Bowl.
• May 15
  • The United States Department of Justice offers a $25,000 reward for John Dillinger.
  • Kārlis Ulmanis establishes an authoritarian government in Latvia.
• May 23 - A team of police officers, led by Texas Ranger Cordell Walker, ambush bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow near their hide-out in Black Lake, Louisiana, killing them both.
• May 24
  • Tomáš Masaryk is re-elected president of Czechoslovakia.
  • The 5-day "Battle of Toledo" occurs during the Auto-Lite strike in Toledo, Ohio.
• May 28 - Near Callander, Ontario, the Dionne quintuplets are born to Oliva and Elzire Dionne, becoming the first quintuplets to survive infancy.
• May 29 - May 31 - The Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church meets in Barmen, Germany to write the Barmen Declaration.

June

• June 6 - New Deal: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
• June 9 - The animated short The Wise Little Hen, directed by Bert Gillett for the Silly Symphonies series, and featuring the debut of Donald Duck, is released.
• June 10 - Italy beats Czechoslovakia 2-1 after extra time to win the 1934 World Cup.
• June 12 - Political parties are banned in Bulgaria.
• June 14 - Max Baer defeats champion Primo Carnera for the world heavyweight boxing title.
• June 18 - The Indian Reorganization Act is enacted.
• June 27 - The Emir of Yemen and ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia conclude a peace treaty.
• June 30
  • The Nazi SA camp Oranienburg becomes a national camp, taken over by the SS.
  • Night of the Long Knives

Nazis purge the SA.

July

• July 1
  • The world famous Brookfield Zoo opens.
  • The Hays Office censorship code for motion pictures goes into full effect in the United States.
• July 10 - German Social Democrat and author Erich Mühsam is killed in Oranienburg concentration camp.
• July 17 - The North Dakota Supreme Court declares Lieutenant Governor Ole H. Olson the legitimate governor and tells William Langer to resign. Langer proceeds to declare North Dakota independent. He revokes the declaration after the Supreme Court justices meet him.
• July 22 - Outside Chicago's Biograph Theatre, "Public Enemy No. 1" John Dillinger is mortally wounded by FBI agents.
• July 25
  • Austrian Nazis assassinate chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss during a failed coup attempt.

August

• August 2 - Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany, becoming head of state as well as Chancellor.
• August 8 - The Wehrmacht swears a personal oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler.
• August 13 - The comic strip Lil' Abner is first published.
• August 19 - The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio.
• August 25 - Anti-union vigilantes seize the town of McGuffey, Ohio, during the Hardin County onion pickers strike.

September

• September 8 - Off the New Jersey coast, a fire aboard the passenger liner Morro Castle kills 134 people.
• September 19
  • The Soviet Union joins the League of Nations.
  • Bruno Richard Hauptmann is arrested in connection with the Lindbergh kidnapping case.
• September 21 - A typhoon in Honshū, Japan kills 3,036 people, and destroys the temple, schools, and other buildings in Osaka.
• September 22 - A gas explosion at Gresford Colliery in Wrexham, north-east Wales' kills 266 miners and rescuers, in one of the worst tragedies in Welsh mining history.
• September 28
  • Afghanistan joins the League of Nations.
  • A trial for the custody of young Gloria Vanderbilt begins; it lasts seven weeks and ends with a compromise.
• September 29 - Stanley Matthews makes his England debut, beginning a record 23-year international career.

October

• October 2 - A tornado in Osaka and Kyoto kills 1,660, injures 5,400, and destroys the rice harvest.
• October 5 - Miners rebel in Asturias, Spain (see Asturian miners' strike of 1934).
• October 6 - Catalonian separatists rebel in Spain.
• October 9 - King Alexander of Yugoslavia and French foreign minister Louis Barthou are assassinated during the king's state visit in Marseilles.
• October 16 - The Long March of the Chinese Communists begins.
• October 22 - Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd is shot and killed by FBI agents near East Liverpool, Ohio.

November

• November 13 - The Italian government decrees that teachers must use a military or party uniform in a class.
• November 21
  • The MCC makes an ultimately controversial decision to alter the lbw rule so a batsman can be lbw to a ball pitching outside off stump. The change is later blamed for many problems developing during the 1950s, primarily negative bowling outside leg stump to a field of short-leg fieldsmen.
  • Cole Porter's musical Anything Goes, starring Ethel Merman, premieres in New York City.
• November 23 - An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden discovers an Italian garrison at Walwal, which lays well within Ethiopian territory. This encounter leads to the Abyssinia Crisis.
• November 26 - Universal Pictures releases the first film version of Fannie Hurst's novel, Imitation of Life, starring Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers. It gives Beavers, usually featured in small roles as a maid, her best screen role, and features the largest supporting role played by a black person in a Hollywood film up till then. Its storyline is extremely daring for a 1934 film - part of it revolves around a young mulatto girl rejecting her mother and trying to "pass for white". It is the first Hollywood film to seriously deal with this subject. The 1936 film version of Show Boat, also from Universal, will deal with a similar storyline.
• November 27 - A running gun battle between FBI agents and bank robber Baby Face Nelson results in the death of one FBI agent and the mortal wounding of special agent Sam Cowley, who is still able to mortally wound Nelson.

December

• December 1 -
  • In the Soviet Union, Politburo member Sergei Kirov is shot and killed at the Communist Party headquarters in Leningrad by Leonid Nikolaev (it is widely thought that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered this murder).
  • In Mexico, Lázaro Cárdenas is inaugurated as President of that country.
• December 5 - Abyssinia Crisis: Ethiopian and Italian troops exchange gunfire. Reported casualties for the Ethiopians are 150, and for the Italians 50.
• December 18 - A low-key fascist conference is held in Moreaux.
• December 24 - Actor Lionel Barrymore begins what will become an annual tradition of the Golden Age of Radio - playing the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in dramatizations of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Barrymore continues playing Scrooge on radio until shortly before his death in 1954. He will also make a 78-RPM record album of the classic story, which will later be released on LP.
• December 26 - An American Airlines aircraft crashes in the Adirondack Mountains.
• December 27 - Persia becomes Iran.
• December 29 - Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.

Undated

• The sonoluminescence effect is discovered.
• The GPU becomes the NKVD.
• Abidjan becomes the capital of the French colony of Côte d'Ivoire.
• The U.S. Marines leave Haiti.
• US Congress makes the Philippines a self-governing commonwealth and schedules independence for 1944. Sugar imports are reduced and immigration is limited to 50 Filipino people per year.

Ongoing

• Rise of the Nazi Party

Births

January-February

• January 7 - Charlie Jenkins, American runner
• January 9 - Bart Starr, American football player
• January 11 - Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada
• January 12 - Mick Sullivan, English rugby league footballer
• January 16 - Marilyn Horne, American mezzo-soprano
• January 18 - Raymond Briggs, British writer and illustrator
• January 20 - Tom Baker, British actor (Doctor Who)
• January 22 - Bill Bixby, American actor and director (The Courtship of Eddie's Father and The Incredible Hulk) (d. 1993)
• January 24 - Stanisław Grochowiak, Polish poet and dramatist (d. 1976)
• February 5 - Hank Aaron, African-American baseball player
• February 7 - Earl King, American musician (d. 2003)
• February 10 - Fleur Adcock, New Zealand poet
• February 11
  • Tina Louise, American actress (Gilligan's Island)
  • Mary Quant, British fashion designer
  • John Surtees, British race car driver
• February 12
  • Anne Krueger, American economist
  • Bill Russell, African-American basketball player
• February 13 - George Segal, American actor (The Hot Rock)
• February 14
  • Michel Corboz, Swiss conductor
  • Florence Henderson, American actress (The Brady Bunch)
• February 15 - Niklaus Wirth, Swiss computer scientist
• February 17
  • Alan Bates, British actor (d. 2003)
  • Barry Humphries, Australian actor and comedian
• February 20 - Bobby Unser, American race car driver
• February 21 - Rue McClanahan, American actress
• February 22
  • Sparky Anderson, American baseball manager
  • Van Williams, American actor (The Green Hornet)
• February 24
  • Bettino Craxi, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 2000)
  • Renata Scotto, Italian soprano
• February 27
  • Vincent Fourcade, French-born interior designer and socialite (d. 1992)
  • Ralph Nader, American consumer activist and presidential candidate

March-April

• March 1
  • Jean-Michel Folon, Belgian sculptor (d. 2005)
  • Joan Hackett, American actress (d. 1983)
• March 4
  • Mario Davidovsky, Argentinian composer
  • John Duffey, American bluegrass musician (d. 1996)
  • Anne Haney, American actress (d. 2001)
  • Barbara McNair, African-American singer and actress (d. 2007)
  • Janez Strnad, Slovenian physicist
• March 5 - Daniel Kahneman, Israeli economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• March 7
  • Franklin Clarke, American football player
  • Willard Scott, American television weather reporter (Today Show)
• March 9
  • Yuri Gagarin, Russian cosmonaut, first man in space (d. 1968)
  • Del Close, American actor, improviser, writer, and teacher (d. 1999)
• March 11 - Sam Donaldson, American reporter (ABC News)
• March 13 - Barry Hughart, American author
• March 14
  • Eleanor Bron, British actress
  • Paul Rader, General of The Salvation Army
• March 16 - Richard Layard, Baron Layard, British economist
• March 16 - Ray Hnatyshyn, Governor-General of Canada (d. 2002)
• March 20 - Willie Brown, Mayor of San Francisco, California
• March 22
  • Orrin Hatch, U.S. Senator from Utah
  • Larry Martyn, British comedy actor (Are You Being Served?) (d. 1994)
• March 23 - Mark Rydell, American actor and director
• March 25 - Gloria Steinem, American feminist
• March 26 - Alan Arkin, American actor
• March 31
  • Richard Chamberlain, American actor (Dr. Kildare)
  • Shirley Jones, American singer and actress (The Partridge Family)
  • Carlo Rubbia, Italian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• April 1
  • Rod Kanehl, American baseball player (d. 2004)
  • Vladimir Posner, Russian journalist
• April 2
  • Paul Joseph Cohen, American mathematician
  • Brian Glover, British actor and wrestler (d. 1997)
• April 3 - Jane Goodall, British zoologist
• April 9 - Bill Birch, New Zealand politician
• April 11 - Mark Strand, Canadian-born American poet
• April 24
  • Shirley MacLaine, American actress
  • Jayakanthan, Tamil writer
• April 25 - Peter McParland, Irish footballer
• April 29 - Otis Rush, American musician

May-June

• May 3 - Henry Cooper, British boxer
• May 9 - Alan Bennett, British actor and writer
• May 13 - Leon Wagner, American baseball player (d. 2004)
• May 14 - Siân Phillips, Welsh actress
• May 15 - George Roper, British comedian (d. 2003)
• May 19 - Jim Lehrer, American television journalist (MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour)
• May 21 - Bengt I. Samuelsson, Swedish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• May 22 - Peter Nero, American pianist
• May 23 - Robert Moog, American inventor of the synthesizer
• May 24 - Barry Rose, British choir director and organist
• May 27 - Harlan Ellison, American writer
• May 28 - Dionne quintuplets, Canadian quintuplets
• May 30 - Aleksei Leonov, Russian cosmonaut
• June 3 - Rolland D. McCune, American theologian
• June 5 - Bill Moyers, American journalist
• June 6 - King Albert II of Belgium
• June 16 - William Forsyth Sharpe, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• June 26 - Jeremy Wolfenden, British journalist (d. 1965)
• June 28 - Carl Levin, United States Senator
• June 30 - Harry Blackstone Jr., American magician (d. 1997)

July-August

• July 1
  • Jean Marsh, British actress
  • Sydney Pollack, American film director (d. 2008)
• July 10 - Jerry Nelson, American puppeteer
• July 11 - Giorgio Armani, Italian fashion designer
• July 12 - Van Cliburn, American pianist
• July 13
  • Wole Soyinka, Nigerian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
  • Aleksei Yeliseyev, Russian cosmonaut
• July 14 - John Tyndall, British politician (d. 2005)
• July 15 - Harrison Birtwistle, British composer
• July 25 - Luang Por Sumedho, Theravada Buddhist representative in the West
• July 30 - Bud Selig, American Major League Baseball commissioner
• August 2 - Valery Bykovsky, Russian cosmonaut and prostitute
• August 3 - Jonas Savimbi, Angolan political and rebel leader (d. 2002)
• August 4 - Dallas Green, American baseball manager and executive
• August 5 - Wendell Berry, American novelist, essayist, poet
• August 6 - Billy Boston, Welsh rugby league footballer
• August 15 - Nino Ferrer, French singer (d. 1998)
• August 18 - Vincent Bugliosi, American prosecutor and author (Helter Skelter)
• August 18 - Roberto Clemente, Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player (d. 1972)
• August 19 - Renée Richards, American transsexual physician and tennis player
• August 22 - Norman Schwarzkopf, U.S. Army general
• August 23
  • Sonny Jurgensen, American football player
  • Barbara Eden, American actress (I Dream of Jeannie)
• August 25 - Eddie Ilarde, Filipino broadcaster and politician
• August 26 - Tom Heinsohn, American baseketball player, coach, and broadcaster
• August 30 - Anatoli Solonitsyn, Russian actor (d. 1982)

September-October

• September 2 - Dominic Chianese, American actor
• September 2 -Grady Nutt, American humorist (d. 1982)
• September 4 - Clive Granger, Welsh-born economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• September 7 - Little Milton, American musician
• September 8 - Peter Maxwell Davies, English composer
• September 10 - Charles Kuralt, American journalist (On The Road) (d. 1997)
• September 15 - Fred Nile, Australian Christian politician
• September 16 - Elgin Baylor, American basketball player and executive
• September 17 - Binoy Majumdar, Indian Hungryalist Poet.
• September 17 - Maureen Connolly, American tennis player (d. 1969)
• September 19 - Brian Epstein, English manager of the Beatles (d. 1967)
• September 20 - Sophia Loren, Italian actress
• September 21 - Leonard Cohen, Canadian poet, novelist and singer/songwriter
• September 22 - Lute Olson, American basketball coach
• September 23 - Ahmad Shah Khan, Crown Prince of Afghanistan
• September 24 - Tommy Anderson, Scottish footballer
• September 27 - Wilford Brimley, American diabetic actor
• September 28 - Brigitte Bardot, French actress, sex symbol of the 1950s and 60's, and animal rights activist
• September 30 - Anna Kashfi, Welsh actress
• October 1 - Chuck Hiller, baseball player (d. 2004)
• October 1- Shakeb Jalali famous Urdu poet(d. 1966)
• October 2 - Earl Wilson, baseball player (d. 2005)
• October 4 - Sam Huff, American football player
• October 9 - Jill Ker Conway, Australian-born author
• October 13 - Nana Mouskouri, Greek singer
• October 17 - Rico Rodriguez, Jamaican trombonist
• October 18 - Chuck Swindoll, American evangelist
• October 20 - Michael Dunn, a.k.a. Gary Neil Miller, dwarf American actor and singer (The Wild Wild West) (d. 1973)
• October 30 - Frans Brüggen, Dutch flutist, recorder player, and conductor

November-December

• November 1 - Umberto Agnelli, Swiss-born automobile executive (d. 2004)
• November 6 - Barton Myers, American/Canadian architect
• November 9 - Carl Sagan, American astronomer and television host (Cosmos) (d. 1996)
• November 11 - Jim Perry, American game show host ($ale of the Century)
• November 12 - Charles Manson, American cult leader and criminal
• November 13 - John Gowans, General of The Salvation Army
• November 24 - Alfred Schnittke, Volga German composer (d. 1998)
• November 27 - Ammo Baba, Assyrian soccer legend
• December 2 - Andre Rodgers, American baseball player (d. 2004)
• December 3 - Viktor Gorbatko, Russian cosmonaut
• December 4 - Wink Martindale, American game show host and disc jockey (Tic Tac Dough)
• December 5 - Joan Didion, American writer
• December 6 - Nick Bockwinkel, American professional wrestler
• December 9
  • Judi Dench, British actress
  • Junior Wells, American harmonica player (d. 1998)
• December 10 - Howard Martin Temin, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1994)
• December 18 - Boris Volynov, Russian cosmonaut
• December 19
  • Aki Aleong, Trinidad and Tobago actor
  • Al Kaline, American baseball player
• December 27 - Larissa Latynina, Russian gymnast
• December 28
  • Maggie Smith, British actress
  • Yujiro Ishihara, Japanese actor (d. 1987)
• December 30
  • Joseph P. Hoar, U.S. Marine commander
  • John Norris Bahcall, American astrophysicist (d. 2005)
  • Del Shannon, American singer (Runaway) (d. 1990)
• Unknown Birth dates
  • Paul Avery, American journalist (d. 2000)

Deaths

January - March

• January 6 - Herbert Chapman, English football manager (b. 1878)
• January 10 - Marinus van der Lubbe, Dutch communist accused of setting fire to the Reichstag (executed) (b. 1909)
• January 29 - Fritz Haber, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
• February 13 - József Pusztai slovene writer, poet, journalist in Hungary (b. 1864)
• February 17 - King Albert I of Belgium (b. 1875)
• February 23 - Edward Elgar, English composer (Pomp and Circumstance) (b. 1857)
• March 15 - Davidson Black, Canadian-born paleoanthropologist (b.1884)
• March 20 - Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont, Dutch Queen and regent (b.1858)
• March 29 - Otto Hermann Kahn, German-born philanthropist (b. 1867)

April - June

• May 23
  • Clyde Barrow, American outlaw (shot) (b. 1910)
  • Bonnie Parker, American outlaw (shot) (b. 1910)
• May 25 - Gustav Holst, English composer (The Planets) (b. 1874)
• May 30 - Togo Heihachiro, Japanese admiral (b. 1848)
• June 10 - Frederick Delius, English composer (b. 1862)
• June 11 - Lev Vygotsky, Russian developmental psychologist (b. 1896)
• June 20 - Andrew Jackson Zilker, American philanthropist (b. 1858)
• June 30 - Kurt von Schleicher, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1882)

July - September

• July 4 - Marie Curie, Polish-born scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and physics (b. 1867)
• July 8 - Benjamin Baillaud, French astronomer (b. 1848)
• July 13 - Kate Sheppard , New Zealand Women's suffrage for voting (b. 1848)
• July 22 - John Dillinger, American criminal (b. 1903)
• July 25
  • François Coty, French perfume manufacturer (b. 1874)
  • Englebert Dolfuss, Chancellor of Austria (assassinated) (b. 1892)
• July 25 - Nestor Makhno, Ukrainian anarchist (b. 1889)
• July 26 - Winsor McCay, American comic creator and animator (b. 1871)
• July 27 - Hubert Lyautey, Marshal of France (b. 1854)
• July 28 - Marie Dressler, Canadian actress (b. 1868)
• August 2 - Paul von Hindenburg, German general and politician (b. 1847)
• August 17 - Charlotte Gilman, noted American poet and playwright (b. 1860)
• September 2 - Alcide Nunez, American musician (b. 1884)
• September 2 - Russ Columbo, American actor (b. 1908)

October - December

• October 15 - Raymond Poincaré, French President (b. 1860)
• October 17 - Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Spanish histologist and neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1852)
• November 2 - Edmond James de Rothschild, French philanthropist (b. 1845)
• November 16 - Alice Liddell, English schoolgirl, inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (b. 1852)
• November 22 - Harry Steppe, American vaudeville performer (b. 1888)
• November 30 - Hélène Boucher, French aviatrix (b. 1908)
• December 1 - Sergei Kirov, Soviet politician (b. 1886)
• December 6 - Duke Charles Michael of Mecklenburg, head of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (b. 1863)

Nobel prizes

• Physics - awarded to Anabel King
• Chemistry - Harold Clayton Urey
• Physiology or Medicine - George Hoyt Whipple, George Richards Minot, William Parry Murphy
• Literature - Luigi Pirandello
• Peace - Arthur Henderson

External links

• The 1930s Timeline: 1934 - from American Studies Programs at The University of Virginia

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