USA History (1930-1940)

1930-The first supermarket is opened in the U.S.

1930-The U.S. signs a naval disarmament treaty with other European nations.

1930-"The Smoot-Hawley high tariff is approved."

March 1931-Nine African American youths who had been riding the rails were arrested and accused of raping two white women on the train.  Without being given the chance to hire a defense lawyer, eight of the nine were quickly convicted by an all white jury.

1931-The Empire State Building opens in New York, becoming the world's tallest skyscraper.

1932-Florence Kelly dies.

1932-Veterans in the Bonus Army protest in Washington, D.C. to get their money from WWI early.

1932-Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

1932-The infant son of flying hero Charles Lindbergh and wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh is kidnapped and murdered.  A German-American was convicted of the crime, yet he haughtily denied this act all the way to the electric chair.

1933-The First U.S. aircraft carrier launched

May 1933-The Tennessee Valley Authority is created to revitalize and give jobs to the Tennessee Valley.

1933-Former President Calvin Coolidge, a symbol of the age of prosperity, dies.

1933-Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated as president under his "New Deal" campaign.  It begins a new age of activist Presidents, and even with his hidden polio, he becomes one of the most popular presidents in U.S. History.

1933-Frances Perkins becomes the first woman to hold a cabinet post when FDR appoints her secretary of labor.

December 5, 1933-The 21st Amendment is added to the Constitution, repealing Prohibition.

1934-Farm families leave dust bowl-stricken Great Plains and move west to California.

1934-"Congress passes the Indian Reorganization Act."

1935-Congress passes the Social Security Act, giving elder Americans Social Security money for the first time.

1935-The wealth tax is passed which penalized the wealthy with higher taxes to help depression.

1935-Mery Bethune founds the National Council of Negro Women.

1935-The Works Progress Administration is set up to improve America and create jobs.

July 1935-With President Roosevelt's support, the Wagner is passed, guaranteeing workers' rights to join unions and bargain collectively.

1935-To keep the United States out of war in Europe, Congress passes the Neutrality Act.

1936-An auto workers strike occurs in Detroit, the nations leading producer of steel and cars.

1936-Margaret Mitchell writes Gonewith the Wind an American classic.

1937-Roosevelt's famous attempt to pack the Supreme Court fails.

1937-A steel strike happens in Chicago.

1938-The Fair Labor Standards Act makes it illegal to employ child labor.

1938-Orson Wells's radio production of H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds causes a national panic because of the believability of it.

1938-A Severe recession hits the United States economy because of the depression.

1939-Author John Steinbeck publishes The Grapes of Wrath, which was later turned into a movie that we happened to watch in American History class.

1939-Hollywood releases The Wizard of Oz, one of the first color films.

1939-Robert de Graff starts the Pocket Books company, a paperback books company.