Timeline of United States history

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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 the United States

• 1931 - Empire State Building opens
• 1931 - Japanese invasion of Manchuria
• 1932 - Stimson Doctrine
• 1932 - Norris-La Guardia Act
• 1932 - Bonus Army marches on DC
• 1932 - Amelia Earhart flies across Atlantic Ocean
• 1932 - Reconstruction Finance Corporation
• 1933 - 20th Amendment
• 1933 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt becomes President
• 1933 - Agricultural Adjustment Act
• 1933 - Civil Works Administration
• 1933 - Civilian Conservation Corps
• 1933 - Farm Credit Administration
• 1933 - Home Owners Loan Corporation
• 1933 - Tennessee Valley Authority
• 1933 - Public Works Administration
• 1933 - National Industrial Recovery Act
• 1933 - Giuseppe Zangara kills Anton Cermak
• 1933 - Frances Perkins appointed United States Secretary of Labor
• 1933 - New Deal
• 1934 - Glass-Steagall Act
• 1934 - U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission established
• 1934 - Dust Bowl begins
• 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 - 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
• 1936 - Second London Naval Treaty
• 1937 - Neutrality Acts
• 1937 - Hindenburg disaster
• 1937 - Panay incident
• 1937 - Golden Gate Bridge completed
• 1938 - Wheeler-Lea Act
• 1938 - Fair Labor Standards Act
• 1939 - Hatch Act
• 1938 - Orson Welles' The War of the Worlds broadcast
• 1939 - Nazi Germany invades Poland; World War II begins
• 1939 - Cash and carry

1940s

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

• 1940 - Selective Service Act
• 1940 - Alien Registration (Smith) Act
• 1941 - Lend-Lease
• 1941 - Attack on Pearl Harbor
• 1941 - U.S. enters World War II
• 1941 - Atlantic Charter
• 1941 - Japanese American internment begins
• 1942 - Casablanca released
• 1942 - Office of Price Administration
• 1942 - Cocoanut Grove fire
• 1942 - Congress of Racial Equality
• 1942 - Revenue Act of 1942
• 1942 - U.S.-controlled Commonwealth of the Philippines conquered by Japanese forces
• 1943 - Office of Price Administration established
• 1943 - Detroit, Michigan race riots
• 1943 - Cairo Conference
• 1943 - Casablanca Conference
• 1943 - Tehran Conference
• 1944 - Dumbarton Oaks Conference
• 1944 - G.I. Bill
• 1944 - D-Day
• 1944 - Bretton Woods Conference
• 1944 - Battle of the Bulge
• 1945 - Yalta Conference
• 1945 - Battle of Okinawa
• 1945 - United Nations Conference on International Organization; United Nations established
• 1945 - Nationwide labor strikes due to inflation; OPA disbanded
• 1945 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt dies; Harry S. Truman becomes President
• 1945 - Germany surrenders, end of World War II in Europe
• 1945 - Potsdam Conference
• 1945 - atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• 1945 - Japan surrenders, ending World War II
• 1946 - Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech
• 1946 - Benjamin Spock's Child Care book published
• 1946 - Employment Act
• 1946 - Atomic Energy Act
• 1946 - Civil Rights Commission
• 1946 - Philippines regain their 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
• 1947 - Federal Employee Loyalty Program
• 1947 - Jackie Robinson breaks color barrier in baseball
• 1948 - Berlin Blockade
• 1948 - Election of 1948: Truman defeats Dewey
• 1948 - Truman desegregates armed forces
• 1948 - Selective Service Act: Passed after first such act expired
• 1948 - Organization of American States: Alliance of North America and South America
• 1948 - Alger Hiss Case
• 1948 - Nuremberg trials
• 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