Historical Events in 1934

Events 1 - 200 of 341

  • Jan 1 20th Rose Bowl: Columbia beats Stanford, 7-0
  • Jan 1 Alcatraz officially becomes a federal prison
  • Jan 1 Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (US bank guarantor) effective
  • Jan 1 International Telecommunication Union established
  • Jan 1 Nazi Germany passes the "Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring".
  • Jan 2 1st state liquor stores open, in Pennsylvania
  • Jan 4 1st Dutch talkie movie, Jan Teunissen's "Willem of Orange" premieres
  • Jan 5 Boston's Fenway Park catches fire for 2nd time (May 8th 1926 also)
  • Jan 5 National & American baseball leagues select a uniform ball
  • Jan 7 "Flash Gordon" comic strip created and drawn by Alex Raymond debuts
  • Jan 8 Jaap Speyers "Bluejackets" premieres in Amsterdam
  • Jan 13 The Candidate of Science degree is established in the USSR
  • Jan 15 8.4 earthquake in India/Nepal, 10,700 die

Contract of Interest

Jan 15 New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth, nearing end of illustrious career, signs a 1-year contract worth $35,000; represents a pay cut of $17,000 for "The Babe"

Event of Interest

Jan 15 While robbing the First National Bank in East Chicago, Indianapolis, John Dillinger is shot several times by officer William O'Malley, but survives because he is wearing a bullet proof vest.

  • Jan 17 Electric Home & Farm Authority incorporated

Contract of Interest

Jan 17 NY Giants reward NL MVP pitcher Carl Hubbell with a huge $18,000 contract

Event of Interest

Jan 18 Eugene O'Neill's "Days Without End" premieres in NYC

Sports History

Jan 19 MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis denies Joe Jackson's appeal for reinstatement into baseball; Jackson was banned after 1919 "Black Sox" World Series

  • Jan 20 Japan sends Henry Pu Yi as regent to emperor of Manchuria
  • Jan 21 Parisian baker and "student of medieval life" Henri Littière appears in court charged with forcing his adulterous wife Juliette to wear a chastity belt. Having committed the same offence in 1932, he was sentenced to three months in prison and fined 50 francs for cruelty to his wife

Music History

Jan 22 Dmitri Shostakovich's opera "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" debuts in Leningrad

  • Jan 23 New York Rangers' left wing Murray Murdoch plays his 400th straight NHL game in a 5-2 win over Ottawa Senators at Madison Square Garden, NYC; streak reaches 508 consecutive games
  • Jan 24 Dmitri Shostakovich's opera "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" is performed in Moscow; roundly criticized by the Communist Party, it was banned in the Soviet Union until 1961

Cricket History

Jan 26 Australian cricket batting icon Don Bradman scores 128 in just 96 minutes for NSW v Victoria in Sydney; smashes 17 x fours, 4 x sixes

  • Jan 26 Nazi Germany & Poland sign 10-year non-aggression treaty
  • Jan 26 The Apollo Theater reopens in Harlem, New York City.

Australian Men's Tennis Open

Jan 27 Australian Championships Men's Tennis: Englishman Fred Perry wins his only Australian title; beats Jack Crawford of Australia 6-3, 7-5, 6-1

  • Jan 27 Australian Championships Women's Tennis, Sydney: Joan Hartigan Bathurst retains title; beats Margaret Molesworth 6-1, 6-4
  • Jan 27 French government of Chautemps falls (Stavisky Affair)
  • Jan 27 VARA refuses to hire after commemoration of Marinus Van de Lubbe
  • Jan 28 1st US ski tow (rope) begins operation (Woodstock, Vermont)
  • Jan 30 1st theatrical presentation sponsored by US government, NYC

Event of Interest

Jan 30 Adolf Hitler's proclamation on German unified states

  • Jan 30 Former Australian cricket spin bowler Bert Ironmonger ends Sheffield Shield career age 51 years 298 days as Victoria draws with NSW at the Sydney Cricket Ground

Event of Interest

Jan 31 FDR devalues US dollar in relation to gold at $35 per ounce

  • Feb 1 Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss dissolves all political parties but his own right-wing Fatherland Front (Vaterländische Front)
  • Feb 2 Dutch RC Bishops warn against fascism and Nazism
  • Feb 6 Far right leagues rally in front of the Palais Bourbon in an attempted coup against the French Third Republic, creating a political crisis in France
  • Feb 6 Reds purchase 43-year-old Dazzy Vance from the Cards for $7,500
  • Feb 7 1st contract for TVA power, Tupelo, Miss
  • Feb 8 Export-Import Bank organizes in Washington, D.C.
  • Feb 8 Gaston Doumergue forms new French government
  • Feb 9 -14.3°F (-25.7°C), coldest day in New York City
  • Feb 9 -51°F (-46°C), Vanderbilt, Michigan (state record)
  • Feb 9 Balkan Entente alliance forms (Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey & Romania)
  • Feb 10 1st Jewish immigrant ship to break the English blockade in Palestine
  • Feb 10 Byrd souvenir sheet issued, NYC; 1st unperforated ungummed US stamp

Music History

Feb 10 Howard Hanson's "Merry Mount" premieres in NYC

  • Feb 12 Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss government bans Social Democrat party
  • Feb 12 Export-Import Bank incorporates
  • Feb 12 France hit by a general strike against fascists & royalists
  • Feb 12 The four-day February Uprising, sometimes called the Austrian Civil War, begins.
  • Feb 13 The Soviet steamship Cheliuskin sinks in the Arctic Ocean.
  • Feb 14 NHL Ace Bailey Benefit Game: Toronto beats All-Stars 7-3 in Toronto
  • Feb 16 Austrian Civil War ends with the defeat of the Social Democrats and the Republican Schutzbund
  • Feb 16 Commission of Government is sworn in as form of direct rule for the Dominion of Newfoundland
  • Feb 17 1st high school auto driving course offered (State College, Pennsylvania)
  • Feb 19 US contract air mail service canceled, replaced by US army for 6 months
  • Feb 20 Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein's opera "Four Saints in Three Acts" opens on Broadway at the 44th Street Theatre, NYC
  • Feb 21 Nicaraguan patriot Augusto César Sandino and three others kidnapped and assassinated by the National Guard in Larreynaga

It Happened One Night

Feb 22 "It Happened One Night" directed by Frank Capra and starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert opens at NY's Radio City Music Hall (Academy Awards Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay 1935)

In Search of Sheba

Feb 22 André Malraux and Édouard Corniglion-Molinier set out to find the lost capital of the Queen of Sheba, as mentioned in the Old Testament

Baseball History

Feb 23 Casey Stengel becomes manager of Brooklyn Dodgers

  • Feb 23 Coronation of King Leopold III of Belgium
  • Mar 1 Henry Pu Yi crowned Emperor Kang Teh of Manchuria

Boxing Title Fight

Mar 1 Italian boxer Primo Carnera beats American challenger Tommy Loughran by unanimous points decision at Madison Square Garden, NYC for the NYSAC and NBA heavyweight titles

  • Mar 2 Union Pacific tests light-weight high-speed passenger train, Omaha
  • Mar 3 John Dillinger breaks out of jail using a wooden pistol
  • Mar 4 Easter Cross on Mt. Davidson (San Francisco) dedicated
  • Mar 5 Mother-in-law's day 1st celebrated (Amarillo, Texas)
  • Mar 6 Sidney Howard & Paul de Kruif's "Yellowjacket" premieres in NYC

Astronomy

Mar 8 Edwin Hubble photo shows as many galaxies as Milky Way has stars

  • Mar 10 Longest undefeated streak in Toronto Maple Leaf history ends - 18 games with 15 wins, 3 ties
  • Mar 10 US Ladies' Figure Skating championship won by Suzanne Davis
  • Mar 12 Acting President Constantine Päts commits coup in Tallinn, Estonia

Music History

Mar 12 Paul Hindemith's "Mathis der Maler" premieres in Berlin

  • Mar 15 US Information Service opens

Academy Awards

Mar 16 6th Academy Awards: "Cavalcade" and its director Frank Lloyd, Charles Laughton (The Private Life of Henry VIII), and Katharine Hepburn (Morning Glory) win; host Will Rogers announces "Come and get it, Frank" and Frank Capra gets up

  • Mar 16 Academy Award gold statuette 1st called Oscar in print by Sidney Skolsky
  • Mar 16 US Congress passes Migratory Bird Conservation Act

Rome Protocols

Mar 17 Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, and Hungarian Prime Minister Gyula Gömbös sign Donau Pact (Protocols of Rome) guaranteeing Austrian independence

  • Mar 17 England beats Scotland, 6-3 at Twickenham, London to win the Home Nations Rugby Championship and Triple Crown

Sports History

Mar 20 American all-round female super athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias pitches a hitless inning for Philadelphia A's in their exhibition pre-season baseball game against Brooklyn Dodgers

  • Mar 20 Rudolf Kuhnold demonstrates radar in Kiel Germany
  • Mar 21 Fire destroys Hakodate Japan, killing about 1,500
  • Mar 22 Fire destroys Hakodate, Japan, kills 1,500, injures 1,000
  • Mar 23 93rd Grand National: Gerry Wilson wins aboard 8/1 Golden Miller in race record 9:20.04; becomes only horse to win both UK's premier steeplechases with Cheltenham Gold Cup victory 1934
  • Mar 24 Dmitri Shostakovich's Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 1 premieres in Leningrad, USSR
  • Mar 24 U.S. Congress passes the Tydings-McDuffie Act, declaring the Philippines independent after a period of 10 years

US Masters Golf

Mar 25 1st Augusta National Invitation Tournament (Masters) Golf: Horton Smith wins with 20-foot birdie putt at the 17th hole, 1 stroke ahead of Craig Wood

  • Mar 26 Driving tests introduced in Britain
  • Mar 29 Bank of Travail in Belgium, socialist workers' movement bankrupt
  • Mar 31 Netherlands Indies BC Ltd begins radio transmission (Indonesia)

Murder of Interest

Apr 1 Clyde Barrow kills two young highway patrolmen, H. D. Murphy and Edward Bryant Wheeler, at the intersection of Route 114 near Grapevine, Texas. Bonnie Parker's role in the murders helps turn public perception against the gang for good

  • Apr 5 Baseball superstar Babe Ruth agrees to do three 15-minute broadcasts a week over NBC for a fee of $39,000 for 13 weeks; $4,000 more than his NY Yankees playing contract
  • Apr 6 418 Lutheran ministers arrested in Germany

Event of Interest

Apr 7 In India, Mahatma Gandhi suspends his campaign of civil disobedience

  • Apr 10 Stanley Cup Final, Chicago Stadium, Chicago, IL: Chicago Blackhawks beat Detroit Red Wings, 1-0 in double OT for a 3-1 series win; Black Hawks' first Stanley Cup
  • Apr 12 Second highest ever wind speed of 372 km/h (231 mph) recorded on Mt Washington
  • Apr 12 The US Auto-Lite Strike begins, culminating in a five-day melee between Ohio National Guard troops and 6,000 strikers and picketers.
  • Apr 13 4.7 million US families report receiving welfare payments
  • Apr 13 US Congress passes Johnson Debt Default Act
  • Apr 16 38th Boston Marathon won by Dave Komonen of Canada in 2:32:53.8
  • Apr 17 Fenway Park in Boston re-opens after a major renovation including a hand-operated electronic scoreboard, though it didn't help the Red Sox who lost to the Washington Senators 6-5
  • Apr 18 1st "Washateria" (laundromat) opens (Fort Worth, Texas)

Film & TV History

Apr 19 Shirley Temple appears in her 1st feature length film, "Stand Up & Cheer"

German History

Apr 20 Heinrich Himmler appointed chief of all German police including the Prussian secret state police

  • Apr 21 Moe Berg, Senators catcher, plays AL record 117th cons errorless game

Little Bohemia Lodge Raid

Apr 22 US Division of Investigation (later the FBI) under Melvin Purvis botch an operation to capture the John Dillinger Gang at Little Bohemia Lodge, Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin, with 2 dead and 4 injured

  • Apr 28 Soccer team Blue White '34 forms
  • Apr 28 Spanish government of Ricardo Samper forms
  • Apr 28 Tigers' Goose Goslin grounds into 4 straight double plays
  • Apr 28 US President FDR signs Home Owners Loan Act
  • Apr 29 Pittsburgh is last major league city to play a home game on a Sunday
  • Apr 30 Austria gets "Austrian fascist" constitution
  • May 1 Austria signs pact with Vatican
  • May 1 Philippine legislature accepts US proposal for independence
  • May 1 Water state kingdom dismisses NSB-leader Anton Mussert
  • May 2 Nazi Germany begins People's Court
  • May 5 60th Kentucky Derby: Mack Garner aboard Cavalcade wins in 2:04

Sports History

May 6 Red Sox score 12 runs in 4th inning including record 4 consecutive triples hit by Carl Reynolds, Moose Solters, Rick Ferrell, & B Walters

  • May 7 Part of Khabarovsk becomes a Jewish Autnomous Region
  • May 7 Princess Juliana of the Netherlands opens Juliana Canal between Maastricht and Maasbracht
  • May 7 Pulitzer prize awarded to Sidney Kingsley for his play "Men in White"
  • May 7 World's largest pearl (6.4 kg) found at Palawan, Philippines

#1 in the Charts

May 12 "Cocktails For Two" by Duke Ellington hits #1

  • May 12 59th Preakness: Robert Jones aboard High Quest wins in 1:58.2
  • May 13 Great dustbowl storm sweeps across US prairies
  • May 15 Karlis Ulmanis names himself fascist dictator of Latvia
  • May 15 US Department of Justice offers $25,000 reward for Dillinger, dead or alive
  • May 18 Trans-Word Airlines (TWA) begins commercial service
  • May 19 Military coup by Colonel Damian Veltsjev in Bulgaria
  • May 19 Sherlock Holmes crossword puzzle in "Saturday Review of Literature"; males who solved puzzle became members of Baker Street Irregulars [1]
  • May 21 Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes first US city to fingerprint its citizens

Bonnie and Clyde Killed

May 23 American outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow - Bonnie and Clyde, are killed by police in an ambush near Sailes, Louisiana

  • May 23 The Auto-Lite Strike culminates in the "Battle of Toledo", a five-day melée between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers
  • May 24 Colombia & Peru sign accord about harbor city Leticia

Cantata Profana

May 25 Béla Bartók's "Cantata Profana - The Nine Enchanted Stags" premieres in London, England, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Wireless Chorus conducted by Aylmer Buesst

  • May 26 Century of Progress Exposition reopens in Chicago

Cricket History

May 28 Jack Hobbs scores his 197th (or 199th) and last 1st class cricket century at 51 years and 163 days of age [1]

  • May 28 Near Callander, Ontario, the Dionne quintuplets are born to Olivia and Elzire Dionne, later becoming the first quintuplets to survive infancy
  • May 28 The Glyndebourne festival in Sussex, England, inaugurated
  • May 30 Indianapolis 500: Indianapolis native Bill Cummings accompanied by riding mechanic Earl Unversaw wins race where only 12 of 33 entrants finish
  • May 31 The Barmen Declaration is published by a group of church leaders in Germany including Karl Barth to help Christians withstand the challenges of the Nazi party

French Open Women's Tennis

Jun 2 French Championship Women's Tennis: England's defending champion Margaret Scriven beats American Helen Jacobs 7-5, 4-6, 6-1

  • Jun 2 French Championships Men's Tennis: Gottfried von Cramm of Germany wins 1st of 2 French titles; beats Australian Jack Crawford 6-4, 7-9, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3

Knighthood

Jun 4 Dr Frederick Banting, co-discoverer of insulin, is knighted

  • Jun 5 1st formal meeting of Baker Street Irregulars (NYC)
  • Jun 6 Securities & Exchange Commission established
  • Jun 6 Yankee Myrl Hoag hits 6 singles in one game
  • Jun 9 1st appearance of Donald Duck in a cartoon, "The Wise Little Hen"
  • Jun 9 66th Belmont: Wayne D Wright aboard Peace Chance wins in 2:29.2

US Golf Open

Jun 9 US Open Men's Golf, Merion Cricket Club: Olin Dutra overcomes an 8-stroke deficit after 36 holes to win his second major title by 1 stroke from Gene Sarazen

  • Jun 10 FIFA World Cup Final, Stadio Nazionale PNF, Rome, Italy: Angelo Schiavio scores the winner in extra time as Italy beats Czechoslovakia, 2-1
  • Jun 10 USSR & Romania re-establish diplomatic relations
  • Jun 11 Disarmament conference in Geneva fails

Black-McKeller Bill

Jun 12 Black-McKeller Bill passes causes the break-up of William Boeing's empire into Boeing United Aircraft [Technologies] and United Airlines

  • Jun 14 American boxer Max Baer KO's defending champion Primo Carnera of Italy in 11th round at Madison Square Garden for the lineal world heavyweight title
  • Jun 14 European despots Adolf Hitler, of Germany, and Benito Mussolini, of Italy, meet in Vienna, Austria
  • Jun 14 WOQ-AM in Kansas City Missouri goes off the air
  • Jun 15 Great Smokey Mountains National Park on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee is dedicated
  • Jun 18 US Highway planning surveys nationwide authorized
  • Jun 19 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) created
  • Jun 22 John Dillinger is informally named America's first Public Enemy Number One
  • Jun 25 Hedley Verity takes 15 wickets for England v Australia (7-61 & 8-43)
  • Jun 25 NY Yank pitcher John Broaca ties record by striking out 5 times

Sports History

Jun 25 NY Yankee Lou Gehrig hits for the cycle beating White Sox 11-2

  • Jun 25 Previously unknown Winchester Manuscript of Sir Thomas Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur" (1485) announced discovered in the library of Winchester College, England
  • Jun 26 FDR signs Federal Credit Union Act, establishing Credit Unions
  • Jun 26 Germany & Poland sign non-aggression treaty

W.E.B. Du Bois Resigns

Jun 26 W.E.B. Du Bois resigns position at NAACP

  • Jun 27 Federal Savings & Loan Association created
  • Jun 28 Adolf Hitler flies to Essen, Germany for "Night of Long Knives"
  • Jun 29 British Open Men's Golf, Royal St. George's GC: Henry Cotton of England wins wire-to-wire by 5 shots from South African Sid Brews
  • Jun 30 "Night of Long Knives" - Adolf Hitler stages a bloody purge of the Nazi party
  • Jun 30 Detroit radio executive George Richards pays $7,952.08 to buy NFL's Portsmouth Spartans; moves team to Detroit and rebrands it to 'Lions'
  • Jun 30 French Equatorial Africa constituted a single administrative unit
  • Jul 1 1st x-ray photo of entire body, taken by Arthur Fuchs of Eastman-Kodak Company in Rochester, New York
  • Jul 1 Brookfield Zoo opens in Chicago, Illinois
  • Jul 2 General Lazaro Cardenas elected president of Mexico
  • Jul 3 FDIC pays off 1st insured depositors, Fon du Lac Bank, East Peoria, Illinois

Historic Invention

Jul 4 Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard patents the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb

  • Jul 4 Jordanians revolt in Amsterdam after reduction in employment
  • Jul 5 "Bloody Thursday" - Police open fire on striking longshoremen in San Francisco
  • Jul 5 Lou Gehrig hits record 17th career grand slam in Yankees 8-3 win v Washington, passes Babe Ruth's total

Sports History

Jul 6 American doubles specialist Elizabeth Ryan wins her 12th Wimbledon doubles title as she and Simone Mathieu of France defend their crown 6-3, 6-3 vs Dorothy Andrus & Sylvie Henrotin

  • Jul 6 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Home favourite Fred Perry beats Australian Jack Crawford 6-3, 6-0, 7-5 for the first of 3 straight Wimbledon titles
  • Jul 7 Mary Hirsch, daughter of 3-time Kentucky Derby winning trainer Max Hirsch, becomes first woman to be licensed to train thoroughbred horses in the United States
  • Jul 7 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Dorothy Round Little of England beats American Helen Jacobs 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 for her first Wimbledon singles title
  • Jul 9 SS-Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler takes command of German Concentration Camps
  • Jul 10 1st sitting US President to visit South America, FDR in Colombia
  • Jul 10 2nd All Star Baseball Game: AL wins 9-7 at Polo Grounds, NYC
  • Jul 10 NL pitcher Carl Hubbell strikes out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin for MLB All Star game record for consecutive strikeouts; AL still win, 9-7
  • Jul 11 FDR became 1st US President to travel through Panama Canal
  • Jul 12 US Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz Island abandoned
  • Jul 12 Willy de Supervise swims world record 400m (5:16.0)
  • Jul 13 Babe Ruth hits 700th career home run against Detroit