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World Events
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Stock Market Crash
In October, 1929, the Stock Market crashes. Fortunes of investors around the world are destroyed President Herbert Hoover was then blamed for the plight of Americans. -
Economic depression
After the Stock Market Crash, the economic depression became longer and harder than any other in American History. The United States reported to have almost 80 percent of the States dry. -
Extreme Wether Conditions
There were extreme weather conditions which brought diseases to the small quantity of crops that can be raised. The federal government provides assistance to school lunch programs. -
Star Spangeled Banner
In 1931, the "Star Spangled Banner" becomes the country's official national anthem. Gangster Al ("Scarface") Capone is convicted of tax evasion. An outbreak of grasshoppers arrives in Nebraska. -
First Woman to Fly
In 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a democrat from New York, defeats Hoover for presidency. -
CCC, Civilian Conservation Corps
It's ironic that the first "C" in the CCC refers to the "Civilian" Conservation Corps because the program was actually run by the U.S. Army. The CCC was a public works program that put more than three million young men and adults to work building roads and trails in parks, building conservation dams, building campgrounds, planting trees, draining swamps, replanting grazing land, renovating historic buildings and stringing telephone lines. -
FSA, Farm Security Administration
One of the unintended consequences of the AAA was that landowners used new government payments to buy tractors. Farmers who had been renting a small parcel of land and farming it with horses were displaced by the landowner who now only needed one farmer and a tractor instead of several with horses. -
Warner Bros
Hopping freights became so common that in 1933 Warner Brothers studio – at the time run by Nebraska Darryl F. Zanuck – produced a film called "Wild Boys of the Road" to try to scare young people away from riding the rails. In the film, a boy falls on the track and loses his leg to an oncoming train. The celebrated director William Wellman completed the film for Zanuck. -
AAA, Agricultural Adjustment Act
Within days of his inauguration in 1933, President Roosevelt called Congress into special session and introduced a record 15 major pieces of legislation. One of the first to be introduced and enacted was the AAA, the Agricultural Adjustment Act. -
FSA Photographers
Like many governmental agencies, the FSA set up a publicity department to help explain to the public and Congress what its programs were trying to accomplish and the problems it was trying to solve. But because of the desperation of the Depression and the missionary zeal of the New Dealers, the FSA went far beyond almost any other agency before or since in documenting this era. -
Another War Year
The first year of the 1940s was filled with war-related news. The Germans opened the Auschwitz concentration camp, the Battle of Britain raged, with Nazi bombings of military bases and London, known as the Blitz. Britain's Royal Air Force was ultimately victorious in its defense of the U.K. Also in 1940, in a devastating setback, Britain had to retreat from France in the Dunkirk evacuation. -
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
By far the biggest event for Americans in 1941 was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Signing of the Atlantic Charter; the Babi Yar Massacre; the sinking of the HMS Hood by the German Battleship Bismarck; the passage of the Lend-Lease Act; the Nazis began Operation Barbarossa, code name for the invasion of the Soviet Union; the Siege of Leningrad; and the first killings of adults and children with disabilities by the Nazis began. -
Anne Frank
In 1942, World War II continued to dominate the news: Anne Frank went into hiding, the Bataan Death March occurred, as did the Battles of Midway and Stalingrad. Japanese-Americans were interred in camps and the Manhattan Project began. -
Warsaw Ghetto uprising
The year 1943 saw the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and the killing of French Resistance leader Jean Moulin. Italy joined the Allies, and the grave of the Katyn Forest Massacre was found. -
D-Day and World War II
June 6, 1944, was momentous: D-Day, when the Allies landed in Normandy on the way to liberate Europe from the Nazis. Adolf Hitler escaped an assassination attempt, and the first German V1 and V2 rockets were fired. Ballpoint pens went on sale in 1944, which eventually completely overtook fountain pens as the writing instrument of choice. -
1945
World War II ended in Europe and the Pacific in 1945, and those two events dominated this year.
Leading up to the end of the war, there was the firebombing of Dresden and the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States. Hitler committed suicide, the Germans and the Japanese surrendered -
World War II Over
With World War II over, the news lightened up considerably in 1946. Bikinis made their debut on beaches everywhere, and Dr. Spock's "The Common Book of Baby and Child Care" was published, just in time for the start of the Baby Boom. The landmark holiday movie "It's a Wonderful Life" had its premiere. -
Braking the sound barrier
In 1947, Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, and the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first African-American baseball player in the Major Leagues. -
1948
The year 1948 witnessed the Berlin Airlift, the assassination of India's Mahatma Gandhi, the formulation of the "Big Bang" theory, the founding of Israel and the beginning of apartheid in South Africa. Despite headlines saying "Dewey Defeats Truman," Harry Truman was elected president. -
NATO
The Print Collector / Print Collector / Getty Images
In 1949, NATO was established, the Soviet Union developed the atomic bomb, and China became communist.
The year also witnessed the first non-stop flight around the world, and George Orwell's landmark "Nineteen Eighty-Four" was published. -
President Truman
On the political front, President Harry Truman ordered the building of the hydrogen bomb, the Korean War began, and Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisconsin) began a witch hunt that would result in the blacklisting of many Americans as communists. -
Color TV
In 1951, color TV was introduced, bringing life-like shows into American homes. Truman signed the peace treaty with Japan, officially ending World War II, and Winston Churchill again took the reins in Britain as prime minister. South Africans were forced to carry identification cards that included their race. -
Princess Elizabeth
In 1952, Britain's Princess Elizabeth became queen at age 25 after the death of her father, King George VI. London suffered through the Great Smog of 1952, with deaths numbering in the thousands. In the "firsts" department, seat belts were introduced, and the vaccine for polio was created. -
DNA discovered
In 1953, DNA was discovered, and Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to ever climb to the summit of Mount Everest. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin died, and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for espionage. Another first: Playboy magazine made its debut. -
Segregation Illegal
In a landmark decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregation was illegal in the Brown v. Board of Education decision.
In other news, the first atomic submarine was launched, Jonas Salk's polio vaccine was given to children in a massive trial, and cigarettes were reported to cause cancer. -
Disneyland opened
The good news of 1955: Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California, and Ray Kroc founded McDonald's. The bad news: Actor James Dean died in a car accident. The civil rights movement began with the murder of Emmett Till, the refusal by Rosa Parks to give up her seat on the bus to a white man, and the subsequent Montgomery Bus Boycott. -
Elvis Presely burst
On the light side of 1956, Elvis Presley burst onto the entertainment scene on "The Ed Sullivan Show"; actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier III of Monaco; that great device, the TV remote, was invented; and Velcro was first used on products. Internationally, the world saw the explosion of the Hungarian Revolution and the Suez Crisis. -
Soviet satellite
The year 1957 is most remembered for the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik, which began the space race and the space age. Dr. Seuss published the children's classic "The Cat in the Hat," and the European Economic Community was established. -
NORAD Radarr Systam
Located close to North Pole to detect missile attack from Soviets on North America. -
Fidel Castro
On the first day of 1959, Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban Revolution, became the dictator of Cuba and brought communism to the Caribbean country. The year also saw the famous Kitchen Debate between Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon. The great fixed quiz show scandals were revealed in 1959, and the legendary "Sound of Music" opened on Broadway.