1933 in the United States

1933 in the United States
Decades:	1910s 1920s – 1930s – 1940s 1950s
Years:	1930 1931 1932 – 1933 – 1934 1935 1936
Flag
48 stars (1912 – 1959)
Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1918–1945)

Events from the year 1933 in the United States.

Incumbents

• President: Herbert Hoover (Republican) (until March 4), Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) (starting March 4)
• Vice President: Charles Curtis (Republican) (until March 4), John Nance Garner (Democratic) (starting March 4)
• Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: John Nance Garner (D-Texas) (until March 4), Henry Thomas Rainey (D-Illinois) (starting March 9)
• Senate Majority Leader: James Eli Watson (R-Indiana) (until March 4), Joseph Taylor Robinson (D-Arkansas) (starting March 4)
• Congress: 72nd (until March 4), 73rd (starting March 4)

Events

January–March

March 4: Franklin D. Roosevelt begins the first of four terms as President

• January 5 – Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
• January 17 – The U.S. Congress votes favorably for Philippines independence, against the view of President Herbert Hoover.
• January 23 – The Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, changing Inauguration Day from March 4 to January 20.
• January 30 – The Lone Ranger debuts on American radio.
• February 6 – The Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution goes into effect.
• February 6–February 7 – Officers on the USS Ramapo record a 34-meter high sea-wave in the Pacific Ocean.
• February 10 – The New York City-based Postal Telegraph Company introduces the first singing telegram.
• February 15 – In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to assassinate President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but instead fatally wounds Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak.
• February 17 – The Blaine Act ends Prohibition in the United States.
• March 2 – The original film version of King Kong, starring Fay Wray, premieres at Radio City Music Hall and the RKO Roxy Theatre in New York City.
• March 3 – Mount Rushmore National Memorial is dedicated.
• March 4 – U.S. President Herbert Hoover is succeeded by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who in reference to the Great Depression, proclaims "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself" in his inauguration speech. FDR is sworn in by Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes. It is also the last time Inauguration Day in the United States occurs on March 4.
• March 4 – Frances Perkins becomes United States Secretary of Labor, and the first female member of the United States Cabinet.
• March 5 – Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a "bank holiday", closing all United States banks and freezing all financial transactions (the 'holiday' ends on March 13).
• March 6 – Mayor Anton Cermak of Chicago dies of the wound he received on February 15.
• March 9 – Great Depression: The U.S. Congress begins its first 100 days of enacting New Deal legislation.
• March 10 – An earthquake in Long Beach, California kills 117 people.
• March 12 – Great Depression: Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses the nation for the first time as President of the United States, in the first of his "Fireside Chats".
• March 15 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average rises from 53.84 to 62.10. The day's gain of 15.34%, achieved during the depths of the Great Depression, remains to date as the largest 1-day percentage gain for the index.

April–June

• April 4 – The U.S. airship Akron crashes off the coast of New Jersey, leaving 73 dead.
• April 5 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a national emergency and issues Executive Order 6102, making it illegal for U.S. citizens to own gold.
• April 5 – Emergency Conservation Work founded.
• April 7 – Beer is legalized in the U.S., 8 months before the full repeal of Prohibition in December.
• April 19 – The United States officially goes off the gold standard.
• April 26 – Editors of the Harvard Lampoon steal the Sacred Cod of Massachusetts from the State House (it is returned two days later).
• May 3 – Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first woman to be named director of the United States Mint.
• May 5 – The detection by Karl Jansky of radio waves from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy is reported in the New York Times. The discovery leads to the birth of radio astronomy.
• May 12 – Agricultural Adjustment Act is enacted in the USA.
• May 18 – New Deal: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.
• May 27 – New Deal: The Federal Securities Act is signed into law, requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission.
• May 27 – The Century of Progress World's Fair opens in Chicago.
• May 27 – Walt Disney's classic Silly Symphony cartoon The Three Little Pigs is first released.
• June 5 – 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.
• June 6 – The first drive-in theater opens in Camden, New Jersey.
• June 15 – National Guard Bureau founded.
• June 17 – Union Station Massacre: In Kansas City, Missouri, Pretty Boy Floyd kills four unarmed FBI agents and accidentally kills fugitive Frank Nash in an attempt to free Nash.
• June 26 – The American Totalisator Company unveils its first electronic pari-mutuel betting machine at the Arlington Park Racetrack near Chicago.

July–September

• July 6 – The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
• July 22 – "Machine-Gun" Kelly and Albert Bates kidnap Charles Urschel, an Oklahoma oilman, and demand $200,000 ransom.
• July 24 – Several members of the Barrow Gang are injured or captured during a running battle with local police near Dexter, Iowa.
• August 10 – Division of Investigation founded.
• August 10 – Shipping Board Bureau and Merchant Fleet Corporation founded.
• August 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 (971 km²).

October–December

• October 10 – A United Airlines Boeing 247 is destroyed near Chesterton, Indiana by a bomb. This is the first proven case of air sabotage in commercial airline history.
• October 12 – The United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz is acquired by the United States Department of Justice, which plans to incorporate the island into its Federal Bureau of Prisons as a federal penitentiary.
• October 17 – Albert Einstein arrives in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany.
• November 8 – New Deal: – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than 4 million of the unemployed.
• November 11 – Dust Bowl: In South Dakota, a very strong dust storm strips topsoil from desiccated farmlands (one of a series of disastrous dust storms that year).
• November 16 – The United States and the Soviet Union establish formal diplomatic relations.
• December 5 – The 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution, repealing Prohibition, goes into effect.

Undated

• Business Plot: Gerald MacGuire allegedly organizes a coup to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It becomes public in 1934.
• US President Roosevelt rejects socialism and government ownership of industry.
• The first doughnut store under the Krispy Kreme name opens on Charlotte Pike in Nashville, Tennessee.^[1]
• 15 million unemployed in the USA.

Ongoing

• Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)
• U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915–1934)
• Prohibition (1919–1933)
• Great Depression (1929–1933)
• Dust Bowl (1930–1936)
• New Deal (1933–1938)

Births

This section requires expansion.

• January 2 – Dan Duncan, businessman, oil company executive and billionaire, cerebral hemorrhage (died 2010)
• November 10 – Ronald Evans, astronaut (died 1990)

Deaths

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it.

References

External links

• Media related to 1933 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons