1933 CE

The Enabling Act of 1933 grants Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers following the Reichstag fire, allowing the Nazis to suppress opposition; the USS Akron disaster kills 73 off the New Jersey coast, becoming one of the deadliest airship accidents; the Repeal of Prohibition in the United States ends the nationwide alcohol ban, restoring legal liquor sales after 13 years; the 1933 Long Beach earthquake strikes Southern California, killing 120 and prompting stricter building codes; the Kansas City massacre shocks the nation as gangsters ambush law enforcement, killing four; and the release of King Kong captivates audiences with groundbreaking effects and iconic storytelling.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independence, against the wishes of U.S. President Herbert Hoover.source
January 28 – "Pakistan Declaration": Choudhry Rahmat Ali publishes (in Cambridge, UK) a pamphlet entitled Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever?, in which he calls for the creation of a Muslim state in northwest India that he calls "Pakstan"; this influences the Pakistan Movement.source
January 30 – Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany by President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg.source
January 30 – Édouard Daladier forms a government in France in succession to Joseph Paul-Boncour. He is succeeded on October 26 by Albert Sarraut and on November 26 by Camille Chautemps.source
February 3 – Adolf Hitler gives a secret speech to his military leaders, outlining his plans to rearm Germany in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles and to adopt a policy of Lebensraum in eastern Europe.source
February 9 – The King and Country debate: The Oxford Union student debating society in England passes a resolution stating, "That this House will in no circumstances fight for its King and country."source
February 17 – Repeal of Prohibition in the United States: The Blaine Act passes the United States Senate, submitting the proposed Twenty-first Amendment to the Constitution to the states for ratification. The amendment is ratified on December 5, ending prohibition in the United States.source
March 4 – The Parliament of Austria is suspended because of a quibble over procedure; Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss initiates authoritarian rule by decree, an origin of Austrofascism.source
March 4 – Franklin D. Roosevelt is sworn in as the 32nd president of the United States.source
March 5 – March 1933 German federal election: The Nazi Party gains 43.9% of the votes.source
March 15 – Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss keeps members of the National Council from convening, starting the Austrofascist dictatorship.source
March 23 – Gleichschaltung: The Reichstag passes the Enabling Act, making Adolf Hitler effectively the dictator of Germany.source
May 3 – In the Irish Free State, Dáil Éireann abolishes the oath of allegiance to the British Crown.source
May 17 – Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort form the Nasjonal Samling (the National Gathering Party) of Norway.source
May 18 – New Deal: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.source
July 15 – The Four-Power Pact is signed by Britain, France, Germany and Italy.source
September 12 – Alejandro Lerroux forms a new government in Spain.source
October 14–16 – The new constitution of Estonia is approved only on the third consecutive referendum.source
November 5 – Spanish Basque people vote for autonomy.source
November 16 – The United States and the Soviet Union establish formal diplomatic relations.source
November 19 – Second Spanish Republic: General elections result in a victory by the right-wing parties.source
November 22 – The Fujian People's Government is declared in Fujian Province, China.source
December 5 – The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, repealing Prohibition in the United States, making production and sale of alcohol legal in the U.S.source
December 26 – Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States is signed by participants in the 7th International Conference of American States; it is significant in the development of the declarative theory of statehood.source

Conflict & Security

February 1 – Adolf Hitler gives his "Proclamation to the German People" in Berlin.source
February 5 – A mutiny starts on the Royal Netherlands Navy coastal defence ship De Zeven Provinciën in the Dutch East Indies. After 6 days, it is bombed by a Dutch aircraft, killing 23 men, and the remaining mutineers surrender.source
February 15 – In Miami, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to assassinate President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but instead fatally wounds the Mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak. Zangara is executed on March 20 by the electric chair.source
February 23 – The Imperial Japanese Army invades Rehe province in northern China.source
March 20 – Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp, is completed in Germany (it opens March 22 to hold political prisoners).source
April 1 – The recently elected Nazis (under Julius Streicher) organize a one-day boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses in Germany.source
April 3 – An anti-monarchist rebellion occurs in Siam (Thailand).source
May 10 – Chaco War: Paraguay formally declares war on Bolivia.source
June 17 – Kansas City massacre: At the Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, gangsters kill four law enforcement officers and detained fugitive bank robber Frank Nash.source
June 25 – Wilmersdorfer Tennishallen delegates convene in Berlin to protest against the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany.source
July 1 – Business Plot: Smedley Butler becomes involved in a coup attempt led by Gerald MacGuire against the President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt which fails (according to his testimony in 1934).source
August 7 – Simele massacre: More than 3,000 Assyrian Iraqis are killed by Iraqi government troops.source
August 12 – British politician Winston Churchill makes his first speech publicly warning of the dangers of German rearmament.source
October 1 – Engelbert Dollfuss, leader of the Fatherland's Front in Austria, is seriously injured in a failed assassination attempt.source
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 penitentiary.source
December 29 – Members of the Iron Guard assassinate Ion Gheorghe Duca, prime minister of Romania.source

Exploration & Expansion

January 11 – Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand.source
April 3 – The first flight over Mount Everest is made by the British Houston-Mount Everest Flight Expedition, led by the Marquis of Clydesdale, and funded by Lucy, Lady Houston.source
April 11 – Aviator Bill Lancaster takes off from Lympne in England, in an attempt to make a speed record to the Cape of Good Hope, but vanishes (his body is not found in the Sahara Desert until 1962).source
May 27 – The Century of Progress World's Fair opens in Chicago.source
November 16 – American aviator Jimmie Angel becomes the first foreigner to see the Angel Falls in Venezuela (they are named after him).source

Religion & Belief

July 20 – Reichskonkordat: Vatican state secretary Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) signs an accord with Germany.source
The first dated Inter-School Christian Fellowship group is started in Australia at North Sydney Boys High School, with the group continuing into the 21st century.source

Economy & Finance

March 5 – The Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a "Bank holiday", closing all United States banks and freezing all financial transactions (the 'holiday' ends on March 13).source
March 15 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average rises from 53.84 to 62.10. The day's gain of 15.34%, achieved during the depths of the Great Depression, remains the largest 1-day percentage gain for the index.source
March 27 – Japan announces it will leave the League of Nations (due to a cancellation period of exactly two years, the egression becomes effective March 27, 1935).source
May 2 – Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler prohibits trade unions.source
May 3 – Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first woman to be named director of the United States Mint.source
May 8 – Mohandas Gandhi begins a 3-week hunger strike because of the mistreatment of the lower castes in India.source
May 27 – New Deal in the United States: The Federal Securities Act is signed into law, requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission.source
June 5 – The U.S. Congress abrogates the United States use of the gold standard, by enacting a joint resolution nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold.source
December 26 – The Nissan Motor Company is organized in Tokyo, Japan.source

Technology & Infrastructure

February 10 – The New York City-based Postal Telegraph Company introduces the first singing telegram.source
June 6 – The first drive-in movie theater is opened in Pennsauken Township, near Camden, New Jersey, by Richard Hollingshead, according to his patent granted May 16.source
July 1 – The London Passenger Transport Board begins operation.source
August 2 – The White Sea–Baltic Canal, Stalin's 227 km ship canal constructed using forced labour in the Soviet Union, opens, connecting the White Sea with Lake Onega and the Baltic.source
October 7 – Air France is formed by the merger of five French airline companies, beginning operations with 250 planes.source
November 8 – New Deal: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than 4 million of the unemployed.source
December 26 – FM radio is patented.source

Science & Discovery

May 5 – The detection by Karl Jansky of radio waves from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy is reported in The New York Times. The discovery leads to the birth of radio astronomy.source
July 22 – Wiley Post becomes the first person to fly solo around the world, landing at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, after traveling eastbound 15596 mi km in 7 days 18 hours 45 minutes.source
October 17 – Scientist Albert Einstein arrives from Europe in the United States, where he settles permanently as a refugee from Nazi Germany and takes up a position at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey.source

Health & Medicine

March 22 – President Franklin Roosevelt signs the Cullen–Harrison Act, an amendment to the Volstead Act, allowing the manufacture and sale from April 7 of "3.2 beer" (3.2% alcohol by weight, approximately 4% alcohol by volume) and light wines, 8 months before the full repeal of Prohibition in the United States in December.source
April 2 – As a member of the English cricket team touring New Zealand, 1933, batsman Wally Hammond scores a record 336 runs in a test match at Eden Park, Auckland.source
April 5 – United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a national emergency and issues Executive Order 6102, making it illegal for U.S. citizens to own substantial amounts of monetary gold or bullion.source
April 7 – In Germany, the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service is passed, the first law of the new regime directed against Jews (as well as political opponents).source
April 21 – Nazi Germany outlaws the kosher ritual shechita.source
Jewish physicians are excluded from official insurance schemes, forcing many to give up their practices.source
May 26 – The Nazi Party in Germany introduces a law to legalize eugenic sterilization.source
The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring is enacted, allowing compulsory sterilization of citizens suffering from a list of alleged genetic disorders.source

Crime & Justice

April 13 – The Children and Young Persons Act is passed in the United Kingdom. This raises the age of criminal responsibility from 7 to 8, raises the minimum age for capital punishment to 18, places restrictions on the identification in the press of persons under 18 appearing in court, sets a minimum full-time working age of 14 and makes it illegal to sell tobacco products to under-16s.source
April 26 – The Gestapo secret police is established in Nazi Germany by Hermann Göring.source
April 27 – The Stahlhelm veterans' organization joins the Nazi party in Germany.source
Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses begins with the seizure of the Bible Students' office in Magdeburg.source
July 4 – Gandhi is sentenced to prison in India.source
August 30 – German-Jewish philosopher Theodor Lessing is shot in Marienbad (Mariánské Lázně), Czechoslovakia, dying the following day.source
September 12 – Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury (London), conceives the idea of the nuclear chain reaction.source
October 16 – Parricides committed in the United States by Victor Licata lead to calls for the legal prohibition of cannabis.source

Disasters & Accidents

February 25 – Arminda de Jesus is burned for witchcraft in Soalhães, Portugal.source
February 27 – Reichstag fire: Germany's parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag building, is set on fire under controversial circumstances. The following day, the Reichstag Fire Decree is passed in response to the Reichstag fire, nullifying many German civil liberties.source
April 4 – American airship Akron crashes off the coast of New Jersey, killing 73 of its 76 crewmen. It is the worst aviation accident in history up to this date (and until 1950).source
April 5 – The International Court of Justice in The Hague decides that Greenland belongs to Denmark, and condemns Norwegian landings on eastern Greenland. Norway submits to the decision.source
June 22 – Nazi Germany outlaws the Social-Democratic Party (SPD).source
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 acre km2.source
October 10 – 1933 United Airlines Boeing 247 mid-air explosion: A bomb destroys a United Airlines Boeing 247 on a transcontinental flight in mid-air near Chesterton, Indiana, killing all 7 on board, in the first proven case of sabotage in civil aviation, although no suspect is ever identified.source
December 23 – Lagny-Pomponne rail accident: A train collision near Lagny-sur-Marne in France kills 204.source

Climate & Environment

February 6–7 – Officers on the USS Ramapo record a 34-meter high sea wave in the Pacific Ocean.source
March 3 – 1933 Sanriku earthquake: A powerful earthquake and tsunami hit Honshū, Japan, killing approximately 3,000 people.source
March 10 – The 6.4 Long Beach earthquake shakes Southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing 115 people.source
March 29 – Welsh journalist Gareth Jones makes the first report in the West of the Holodomor famine genocide in Ukraine.source
June – The Holodomor famine-genocide in Ukraine reaches its peak, with 30,000 deaths from human-made starvation each day. The average life expectancy for a Ukrainian male born this year is 7.3 years.source
August 25 – The Diexi earthquake shakes Mao County, Sichuan, China and kills 9,000 people.source
September 26 – 1933 Tampico hurricane: A hurricane destroys the town of Tampico, Mexico.source
November 11 – Dust Bowl: In South Dakota, a very strong dust storm ("the great black blizzard") strips topsoil from desiccated farmlands (one of a series of disastrous dust storms this year).source

Culture & Society

February 28 – English cricket team in Australia in 1932–33: The England cricket team wins The Ashes using the controversial bodyline tactic.source
March 2 – King Kong: The original King Kong film, starring Fay Wray and directed by Merian C. Cooper, debuts in New York City.source
March 31 – The Civilian Conservation Corps is established in the United States as an unemployment relief program.source
June 12 – The London Economic Conference is held.source
July 6 – The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played at Comiskey Park in Chicago.source
July 8 – The first rugby union test match is played between the Wallabies of Australia and the Springboks of South Africa, at Newlands in Cape Town.source
July 15 – The International Left Opposition (ILO) is renamed the International Communist League (ICL).source
December 17 – The first NFL Championship game in American football is played. The Chicago Bears defeat the New York Giants 23–21.source

Births

January 25 – Corazon Aquino, 11th President of the Philippines (d. 2009)source
February 18 – Yoko Ono, Japanese-born artist and musician, widow of John Lennonsource
February 18 – Sir Bobby Robson, English soccer player, manager (d. 2009)source
March 15 – Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 2020)source
April 29 – Willie Nelson, American singer, songwriter, musician, actor, producer, author, poet and activistsource
May 3 – Steven Weinberg, American physicist and Nobel laureate (d. 2021)source
June 8 – Joan Rivers, American actress, comedian, and television host (d. 2014)source
June 22 – Dianne Feinstein, American politician, Senator and mayor of San Francisco (d. 2023)source
July 20 – Cormac McCarthy, American Pulitzer Prize-winning author (d. 2023)source
September 10 – Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer, artist (d. 2019)source
September 11 – William Luther Pierce, American Neo-Nazi and far-right activist (d. 2002)source
November 3 – Michael Dukakis, American politician, former governor of Massachusetts, and 1988 presidential candidatesource
November 4 – Charles K. Kao, Chinese electrical engineer, physicist and Nobel laureate (d. 2018)source
December 3 – Paul J. Crutzen, Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2021)source

Deaths

January 17 – Louis Comfort Tiffany, American stained glass artist, jewellery designer, son of Charles Lewis Tiffany (b. 1848)source
January 31 – John Galsworthy, British writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1867)source
February 15 – Pat Sullivan, Australian-born American director, producer of animated films (b. 1885)source
March 10 – Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi, Chief of the Senussi order in Libya (b. 1873)source
March 20 – Giuseppe Zangara, American attempted assassin of Franklin D. Roosevelt (b. 1900)source
April 2 – Ranjitsinhji, Indian cricketer and ruler of Nawanagar. (b. 1872)source
May 26 – Horatio Bottomley, British politician and businessman (b. 1860)source
June 15 – Hildegard Burjan, German Roman Catholic nun and blessed (b. 1883)source
June 29 – Roscoe Arbuckle, American actor, comedian, film director and screenwriter (b. 1887)source
September 7 – Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, British statesman (b. 1862)source
September 21 – Kenji Miyazawa, Japanese novelist and poet of children's literature (b. 1896)source
October 16 – Ismael Montes, Bolivian general and political figure, 26th President of Bolivia (b. 1861)source
October 29 – Paul Painlevé, French mathematician and statesman, 62nd Prime Minister of France (b. 1863)source
December 8 – Yamamoto Gonnohyoe, Imperial Japanese army officer, 8th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1852)source