1933

1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday.

Events

January

• January 5 - Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
• January 11 - Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand.
• January 15 - Political violence causes almost 100 deaths in Spain.
• January 17 - US Congress votes favorably for Philippines independence, against the view of president Hoover.
• January 28 - The word Pakistan for the first time in history comes into being and is recognized by the Pakistan Movement to press for freedom.
• January 30 - Edouard Daladier forms a government in France.
• January 30 - Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany by President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg.
• January 30 - The first airing of episode 1 of 2,956 episodes of the radio program The Lone Ranger.

February

• February 4 - Mutiny starts on the Dutch pantserschip Zeven Provincien.
• February 6 - The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution goes into effect.
• February 6-February 7 - Officers on the USS Ramapo record a 34-meter high sea-wave in the Pacific Ocean.
• February 10 - The New York City-based Postal Telegraph Company introduces the first singing telegram.
• February 15 - In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to assassinate President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but instead kills Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak.
• February 17 - The magazine Newsweek is published for the first time.
• February 17 - The Blaine Act ends Prohibition in the United States.
• February 27 - Germany's parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, is set on fire (see: Reichstag fire).
• February 28 - Reichstag Fire Decree is passed in response to Reichstag fire, nullifying many German civil liberties.

March

• March 1 - Kyriakos Varvaressos becomes Deputy Governor to the Bank of Greece.
• March 2 - The original film version of King Kong, starring Fay Wray, premieres at Radio City Music Hall and the Roxy Theater in New York City.
• March 3 - Mount Rushmore is dedicated.
• March 4 - American President Herbert Clark Hoover is succeeded by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who in reference to the Great Depression, gives his "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself" inauguration speech.
• March 4 - Frances Perkins becomes United States Secretary of Labor, first female member of the United States Cabinet.
• March 4 - The Parliament of Austria is suspended because of a quibble over procedure - Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss initiates authoritarian rule by decree (see Austrofascism).
• March 5 - Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a "bank holiday", closing all United States banks and freezing all financial transactions (the 'holiday' ended on March 13).
• March 5 - in German elections, National Socialists gain 43.9% of the votes.
• March 9 - Great Depression: The U.S. Congress begins its first 100 days of enacting New Deal legislation.
• March 10 - Earthquake in Long Beach, California kills 117 people.
• March 12 - Great Depression: Franklin Delano Roosevelt addresses the nation for the first time as President of the United States. This was also the first of his "Fireside Chats".
• March 20 - Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp, is completed - opened March 22.
• March 23 - The Reichstag passes the Enabling Act, making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany.
• March 27 - Japan leaves the League of Nations.
• March 31 - The Civilian Conservation Corps is established with the mission to relieve rampant unemployment.

April

• April 1 - The recently elected Nazis under Julius Streicher organize a one-day boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses in Germany.
• April 3 - Anti-monarchist rebellion in Siam (Thailand).
• April 4 - US airship Akron crashes off the coast of New Jersey- leaves 73 dead.
• April 5 - International court in the Hague decides that Greenland belongs to Denmark and condemns Norwegian landings on eastern Greenland. Norway submits to the decision.
• April 7 - Beer is legalized in the U.S., eight months before the full repeal of Prohibition on December 5, 1933
• April 11 - Aviator William Lancaster takes off in England in an attempt to make a speed record to Cape. He vanishes (body is found 1962 in the Sahara Desert).
• April 21 - Nazi Germany outlaws kosher ritual shechita.
• April 26 - Gestapo established.
• April 26 - Editors of Harvard Lampoon steal the Sacred Cod of Massachusetts from the State House. It is returned two days later.
• April 27 - Stahlhelm organizations joins the Nazi party.

May

• May - Detection by Karl Jansky of radio waves from the centre of the Milky Way galaxy reported
• May 2 - First modern sighting of the Loch Ness Monster.
• May 2 - Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler bans trade unions.
• May 8 - Mohandas Gandhi begins a 3-week hunger strike because of the mistreatment of the lower castes
• May 10 - Censorship: In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings.
• May 10 - Paraguay declares war on Bolivia
• May 17 - Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort form Nasjonal Samling - the national-socialist party of Norway.
• May 18 - New Deal: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.
• May 26 - Nazi party in Germany introduces law to legalize eugenic sterilization
• May 27 - New Deal: The Federal Securities Act is signed into law requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission.
• May 27 - The Century of Progress World's Fair opens in Chicago.

June

• June 5 - The U.S. Congress abrogates the United States' use of the gold standard by enacting a joint resolution (48 Stat. 112) nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold.
• June 6 - The first drive-in theater opened in Camden, New Jersey.
• June 17 - In Kansas City, Missouri, Pretty Boy Floyd kills four unarmed FBI agents and captured fugitive Frank Nash in a failed attempt to free Nash. This becomes known as the Union Station Massacre.
• June 21 - All non-Nazi parties forbidden in Germany
• June 26 - American Totalisator Company unveils its first electronic pari-mutuel betting machine at Arlington Park racetrack near Chicago.
• June 25 - Wilmersdorfer Tennishallen delegate convention in Berlin

July

• July 4 - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi sentenced to prison.
• July 14 - Forming new political parties forbidden in Germany.
• July 22 - Wiley Post becomes first person to fly solo around the world, traveling 15,596 miles in 7 days, 18 hours, and 45 minutes.
• July 22 - "Machine-Gun" Kelly and Albert Bates kidnap Charles Urschel, an Oklahoma oilman, and demand $200,000 ransom.

August

• August 14 - Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn. It is extinguished on September 5, after destroying 240,000 acres (971 km²).
• August 30 - Assassination of Theodore Lessing in Marienbad (Mariánské Lázně), Czechoslovakia
• August 30 - Air France begins operations with 250 planes.

September

• September 3 - Alejandro Lerroux forms a new government in Spain.
• September 12 - Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, conceives the idea of the nuclear chain reaction.
• September 26 - Tornado destroys the town of Tampico in Mexico.

October

• October 1 - Failed assassination attempt against Englebert Dolfuss seriously injures him.
• October 10 - A United Airlines Boeing 247 is destroyed near Chesterton, Indiana by a bomb. This was the first proven case of air sabotage in commercial airline history.
• October 12 - The United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz is acquired by the United States Department of Justice, which plans to incorporate the island into its Federal Bureau of Prisons as a federal penitentiary.
• October 16 - Germany announces intention to leave the League of Nations - officially
• October 17 - Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany.

November

• November 4 - In Paris, a burglar tries to rob an antique store wearing an armor suit but is captured.
• November 8 - Great Depression: New Deal - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than 4 million of the unemployed.
• November 11 - Dust Bowl: In South Dakota, a very strong dust storm strips topsoil from desiccated farmlands (this is just one of a series of disastrous dust storms that year).
• November 16 - The United States and the Soviet Union establish formal diplomatic relations.
• November 16 - President of Brazil Getulio Vargas names himself dictator
• November 19 - General Elections in the Spanish Second Republic, victory by the parties of the right-wing.

December

• December 5 - The 21st Amendment, repealing Prohibition in the United States, went into effect.
• December 24 - Train crash in Lagny, France - over 200 dead
• December 26 - The Nissan Motor Company was organized in Tokyo, Japan.
• December 26 - FM radio is patented.
• December 29 - Members of the Iron Guard assassinate Ion Gheorghe Duca, prime minister of Romania

Undated

• British Interplanetary Society founded
• The chocolate chip cookie is invented by Ruth Wakefield.
• The United States Federal Government ends Prohibition and outlaws marijuana.
• Failed coup against Franklin Delano Roosevelt in United States (see Smedley Butler)
• London Passenger Transport Board founded.
• Jimmie Angel becomes the first foreigner to see the Angel Falls, they are named after him.
• Nazi Germany forms the Expert Committee on Questions of Population and Racial Policy under Reich Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick.
• Holodomor took place in Ukraine.
• The "Adelaide Concerto," a spurious work attributed to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was published, as "edited" (actually composed) by Marius Casadesus.

Births

January

• January 2 - Morimura Seiichi, Japanese novelist and author
• January 6 - Oleg Makarov, cosmonaut (d. 2003)
• January 6 - Emil Steinberger, Swiss comedian, director, and writer
• January 8 - Charles Osgood, American journalist and commentator
• January 14 - Stan Brakhage, American filmmaker (d. 2003)
• January 16 - Susan Sontag, American author (d. 2004)
• January 17 - Dalida, French singer (d. 1987)
• January 17 - Prince Sadruddhin Aga Khan, French UN High Commissioner for Refugees (d. 2003)
• January 18 - John Boorman, American film director
• January 23 - Chita Rivera, American actress and dancer
• January 25 - Corazon Aquino, President of the Philippines

February

• February 7 - John Anderton, English footballer
• February 8 - Elly Ameling, Dutch soprano
• February 12 - Costa-Gavras, Greek-born director and writer
• February 13 - Kim Novak, American actress
• February 14 - Madhubala, Indian actress
• February 18 - Yoko Ono, Japanese-born singer and artist, wife of John Lennon
• February 21 - Nina Simone, American singer (d. 2003)
• February 22 - Katharine, Duchess of Kent
• February 27 - Raymond Berry, American football player

March

• March 6 - Ted Abernathy, baseball player (d. 2004)
• March 7 - Jackie Blanchflower, Irish footballer (d. 1998)
• March 13 - Mike Stoller, American songwriter
• March 14 - Michael Caine, English actor
• March 14 - Quincy Jones, American music producer and composer
• March 14 - René Felber, Swiss Federal Councilor
• March 15 - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
• March 15 - Roy Clark, American musician
• March 16 - Sandy Weill, American financier and philanthropist
• March 19 - Philip Roth, American author
• March 22 - May Britt, Swedish actress

April

• April 1 - Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• April 5 - Larry Felser, American sports columnist
• April 6 - Roy Goode, British legal academic
• April 12 - Montserrat Caballé, Catalan soprano
• April 12 - Ben Nighthorse Campbell, U.S. Senator
• April 15 - Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress (d. 1995)
• April 16 - Joan Bakewell, British broadcaster
• April 19 - Jayne Mansfield, American actress (d. 1967)
• April 24 - Claire Davenport, British actress (d. 2002)
• April 25 - Jerry Leiber, American composer
• April 26 - Carol Burnett, American actress, singer, and comedienne
• April 26 - Arno Allan Penzias, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• April 29 - Mark Eyskens, Prime Minister of Belgium

May

• May 3 - James Brown, American musician
• May 3 - Steven Weinberg, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• May 7 - Johnny Unitas, American football player (d. 2002)
• May 7 - Nexhmije Pagarusha, Albanian singer and actress
• May 10 - Barbara Taylor Bradford, English writer
• May 11 - Louis Farrakhan, American Black Muslim leader
• May 21 - Maurice André, French trumpeter
• May 22 - Chen Jingrun, Chinese mathematician
• May 23 - Joan Collins, English actress
• May 25 - Ray Spencer, English footballer
• May 26 - Edward Whittemore, American writer and Central Intelligence agent (d. 1995)
• May 29 - Marc Carbonneau, Canadian terrorist
• May 29 - Helmuth Rilling, German conductor

June

• June 1 - Charles Wilson, American politician
• June 6 - Heinrich Rohrer, Swiss physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• June 8 - Joan Rivers, American comedienne
• June 11 - Gene Wilder, American actor
• June 14 - Vladislav Rastorotsky, Soviet gymnastics coach
• June 17 - Harry Browne, American writer and Presidential candidate (d. 2006)
• June 19 - Viktor Patsayev, cosmonaut (d. 1971)
• June 20 - Danny Aiello, American actor
• June 23 - Dave Bristol, baseball manager
• June 26 - Claudio Abbado, Italian conductor
• June 29 - John Bradshaw, American theologian and educator

July

• July 6 - Frank Austin, English footballer
• July 7 - Murray Halberg, New Zealand runner
• July 7 - David McCullough, American historian and author
• July 8 - Marty Feldman, English comedian and actor (d. 1982)
• July 15 - Julian Bream, English guitarist and lutenist
• July 15 - Guido Crepax, Italian comics artist (d. 2003)
• July 20 - Buddy Knox, American singer
• July 21 - John Gardner, American novelist (d. 1982)
• July 23 - Bert Convy, American game show host, actor, and singer (d. 1991)

August

• August 1 - Dom DeLuise, American actor and comedian
• August 10 - Doyle Brunson, American poker player
• August 14 - Richard R. Ernst, Swiss chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• August 16 - Stuart Roosa, astronaut (d. 1994)
• August 21 - Janet Baker, English mezzo-soprano
• August 23 - Robert Curl, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• August 29 - Arnold Koller, Swiss Federal Councilor

September-October

• September 1 - Ann Richards, Governor of Texas (d. 2006)
• September 2 - Mathieu Kérékou, President of Benin
• September 9 - Michael Novak, American philosopher and author
• September 10 - Yevgeny Khrunov, cosmonaut (d. 2000)
• September 17 - Dorothy Loudon, American actress (d. 2003)
• September 15 - Rafael Frübeck de Burgos, Spanish conductor
• September 25 - Hubie Brown, American basketball coach and broadcaster
• September 26 - Donna Douglas, American actress
• October 9 - Peter Mansfield, British physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• October 17 - Jeanine Deckers, Belgian nun and singer (d. 1985)
• October 24 - Reginald Kray, British gangster
• October 24 - Ronald Kray, British gangster
• October 24 - Norman Rush, American writer

November

• November 3 - Michael Dukakis, American politician and Presidential candidate
• November 3 - Amartya Sen, Indian economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• November 19 - Larry King, American talk show host
• November 23 - Krzysztof Penderecki, Polish composer

December

• December 1 - Lou Rawls, American singer (d. 2006)
• December 2 - Michael Larrabee, American athlete (d. 2003)
• December 3 - Paul J. Crutzen, Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• December 6 - Henryk Górecki, Polish composer
• December 9 - Morton Downey, Jr., American television personality (d. 2001)
• December 20 - Jean Carnahan, American politician
• December 23 - Emperor Akihito of Japan
• December 26 - Ugly Dave Gray, Australian television personality
• December 28 - Nichelle Nichols, American actress and singer

Deaths

January-March

• January 1 - Harriet Brooks, Canadian physicist (b. 1876)
• January 3 - Wilhelm Cuno, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1876)
• January 3 - Jack Pickford, Canadian-born actor (b. 1896)
• January 5 - Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States (b. 1872)
• January 7 - Bert Hinkler, Australian pioneer aviator (b. 1892)
• January 31 - John Galsworthy, English writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1867)
• February 12 - Henri Duparc, French composer (b. 1848)
• February 15 - Pat Sullivan, Australian-born director and producer of animated films (b. 1887)
• February 18 - James J. Corbett, American boxer (b. 1866)
• March 6 - Anton Cermak, Mayor of Chicago (assassinated) (b. 1873)
• March 14 - Balto, American sled dog
• March 20 - Giuseppe Zangara, attempted assassin of Franklin D. Roosevelt (b. 1900)
• March 26 - Eddie Lang, American musician (b. 1902)

April-June

• April 3 - William A. Moffett, U.S. admiral (sinking of the USS Akron) (b. 1869)
• April 22 - Henry Royce, English car manufacturer (b. 1863)
• May 24 - Percy C. Mather, missionary
• May 26 - Jimmie Rodgers, American singer (b. 1897)
• June 2 - Frank Jarvis, American athlete (b. 1878)
• June 29 - Fatty Arbuckle, American comedian (b. 1887)

July-December

• July 3 - Hipólito Yrigoyen, President of Argentina (b. 1852)
• July 15 - Irving Babbitt, American literary critic (b. 1865)
• July 15 - Freddie Keppard, American jazz musician (b. 1890)
• October 5 - Renée Adorée, French actress (b. 1898)
• November 30 - Arthur Currie, Canadian military leader (b. 1875)
• December 4 - Stefan George, German poet (b. 1868)
• December 8 - Karl Jatho, German airplane pioneer (b. 1873)
• December 17 - Thubten Gyatso, 13th Dalai Lama (b. 1876)
• December 25 - Francesc Macià, President of the Generalitat (autonomous government of Catalonia) (b. 1859)

Nobel prizes

• Physics - Erwin Schrödinger, Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac
• Chemistry - not awarded
• Physiology or Medicine - Thomas Hunt Morgan
• Literature - Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin
• Peace - Sir Norman Angell (Ralph Lane)

Ship events

• List of ship launches in 1933
• List of ship commissionings in 1933
• List of ship decommissionings in 1933

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