This section of the timeline of United States history concerns events from 1930 to 1949.See Richard B. Morris, Encyclopedia of American History (Harper and Brothers, 1953 and later editions). online
1930s
Presidency of Herbert C. Hoover
1930 – The Great Depression in the United States continues to worsen, reaching a nadir in early 1933. 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 1930 – The Democrats take Congress in the Midterms. Will keep it until 1946. 1930 - Hawley-Smoot Tariff 1930 - Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto 1930 - Sinclair Lewis is the first American to win Nobel Prize for Literature 1931 – Empire State Building opens in New York. 1931 – Japanese invasion of Manchuria, start of World War II in the Pacific. 1931 – The Whitney Museum of American Art opens to the public in New York City. 1931 - “The Star-Spangled Banner” becomes official U.S. national anthem 1931 - Hoover vetoes Veteran Bonus 1931 - Pearl Buck publishes The Good Earth making heroes of the Chinese peasants 1932 – Stimson Doctrine opposes Japanese expansion into Manchuria 1932 – Norris-La Guardia Act strengthens labor unions 1932 - Baby son of Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped and found dead 1932 – Bonus Army marches on DC; repressed by President Hoover 1932 – Reconstruction Finance Corporation finances relief 1932 – 1932 United States presidential election: Franklin D. Roosevelt elected president, John Nance Garner elected vice president 1933 – Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak killed during a failed assassination attempt on President-elect Roosevelt by Giuseppe Zangara; the intended target was not wounded. 1933 - Over 12 million or 25% of Americans were unemployed 1933 – 20th Amendment, establishing the beginning and ending of the terms of the elected federal offices.
Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt March 4, 1933 – Roosevelt becomes the 32nd president. He is the last president to be inaugurated on March 4. It also began his "Hundred Days". Garner becomes the 32nd vice president. He is the last vice 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 - Emergency Banking Act 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 - San Francisco Ballet founded 1933 – Frances Perkins appointed United States Secretary of Labor 1933 – 21st Amendment, ending Prohibition 1933 - United States government recognizes the Soviet Union 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 - Indian Reorganization Act 1934 – Philippine Commonwealth established 1934 – Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act 1934 – Tydings–McDuffie Act 1934 – John Dillinger killed 1934 – Share the Wealth society founded by Huey Long 1934 - The first federal prisoners arrived at Alcatraz 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 1935 - Middletown is published 1936 – Robinson-Patman Act 1936 - Hoover Dam 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 1936 - Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals at the Olympics in Berlin, Germany 1936 – 1936 United States presidential election: Franklin D. Roosevelt reelected president, John Nance Garner reelected vice president 1936 - 1936 Tupelo–Gainesville tornado outbreak 1936 - Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb named to baseball's Hall of Fame 1937 – Look magazine publishes first issue 1937 – Neutrality Acts January 20, 1937 – President Roosevelt and Vice President Garner begin second terms. 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 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 1938 - Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town wins Pulitzer Prize 1938 - The comic book superhero Superman debuts in Action Comics #1 (June 1938) 1938 – Orson Welles' The War of the Worlds broadcast 1939 – Hatch Act, aimed at corrupt political practices and prevented federal civil servants from campaigning 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
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 and Woody Woodpecker make their cartoon debuts 1940 – Billboard magazine publishes its first music popularity chart, the predecessor to today's Hot 100 1940 – 1940 United States presidential election: Franklin D. Roosevelt is reelected president to a record third term, Henry A. Wallace is elected vice president 1940 - Color television is demonstrated by the Columbia Broadcasting System 1941 – Regular commercial television broadcasting begins; CBS and NBC television networks launched. January 20, 1941 – President Roosevelt begins third term; Wallace becomes the 33rd vice president March 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 June 22, 1941 – Operation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany begins war against the Soviet Union August 1941 – Atlantic Charter, drafted by the UK and U.S., to serve as the blueprint for the postwar world after World War II December 7, 1941 – Attack on Pearl Harbor; U.S. enters World War II by declaring war on Japan the next day; and three days later against Germany and against Italy. 1942 – Japanese American internment, German American Internment, and Italian American Internment begin, 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 - Sugar and gasoline are rationed March 1942 – Congress of Racial Equality founded 1942 – U.S.-controlled Commonwealth of the Philippines conquered by Japanese forces April 1942 – Doolittle Raid May 1942 – Battle of the Coral Sea June 1942 – Battle of Midway August 1942 – Guadalcanal campaign begins August 1942 – Office of Price Administration founded 1942 – Revenue Act of 1942 November 1942 – Operation Torch 1942 – Cocoanut Grove fire kills 492 people, leads to vast reforms in fire codes and safety standards 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 – Allied invasion of Sicily September 1943 – Allied invasion of Italy begins 1943 – Cairo Conference 1943 – Casablanca Conference 1943 – Tehran Conference (meeting between the leaders of USSR, UK, and US (Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt) to discuss D-day)
1944 – Battle of Monte Cassino 1944 – Dumbarton Oaks Conference 1944 – G.I. Bill June 6, 1944 – D-Day. Operation Overlord begins. July 1944 – Bretton Woods Conference August 1944 - battle of the Falaise pocket. It opens the way to the Liberation of Paris and the Franco-German border 1944 – Battle of Peleliu 1944 – Battle of Leyte 1944 – 1944 United States presidential election: Franklin D. Roosevelt reelection for a fourth term, becomes the only U.S. president elected four times. Harry S. Truman is elected vice president December 1944 – the Wehrmacht begins the Battle of the Bulge
January 20, 1945 – President Roosevelt begins fourth term; Truman becomes the 34th vice president February 1945 – Yalta Conference 1945 – Battle of Iwo Jima 1945 – Battle of Okinawa 1945 – due to inflation and working conditions, nationwide labor strikes begin.
Presidency of Harry S. Truman April 12, 1945 – President Roosevelt dies, Vice President Truman becomes the 33rd US president May 8, 1945 – Germany surrenders, end of World War II in Europe 1945 – Carousel opens on Broadway July 1945 – Potsdam Conference 1945 - Tennessee Williams’s play The Glass Menagerie opens in New York August 6 and 9, 1945 – Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki August 15, 1945 – Surrender of Japan (formally signed on 2 September 1945, ending the war) 1945 – United Nations Conference on International Organization; United Nations established June 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 March 1946 – 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. November 1946 – Republicans win the US House of Representatives elections for the first time in 16 years. March 1947 – Federal Employee Loyalty Program 1947 – Presidential Succession Act May 1947 - Office of Price Administration dissolved 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 (GATT) 1947 – Marshall Plan drafted 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 – 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 1947 - World Series is broadcast live on television 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 – 1948 United States presidential election: Harry S. Truman is elected president for a full term, Alben W. Barkley is elected vice president 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