Directory

1934 CE

The Night of the Long Knives sees Hitler purge SA leaders and rivals, solidifying his dictatorship; the Assassination of Alexander I of Yugoslavia shocks Europe as the king and French Foreign Minister Barthou are killed; the 1934 FIFA World Cup in Italy ends with the hosts defeating Czechoslovakia, boosting Mussolini’s propaganda; the Long March begins as Chinese Communists retreat across thousands of kilometers from Nationalist forces; the Austrian Civil War erupts as Social Democrats clash with the Austrofascist government, ending in authoritarian consolidation; and the Revolution of 1934 sparks uprisings across Spain by workers and leftist factions, foreshadowing wider political conflict.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 9 – Gaston Doumergue forms a new government in France.source
  • February 9 – Greece, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia form the Balkan Pact.source
  • February 16 – The Commission of Government is sworn in, as a form of direct rule for the Dominion of Newfoundland.source
  • March 1 – Manchukuo, the Japanese puppet state in Manchuria established in 1932, proclaimed a monarchy under Puyi.source
  • March 24 – The Tydings–McDuffie Act is passed, allowing the Philippines a greater degree of self-government from the United States.source
  • May 1 – The May Constitution of 1934 heralds the beginning of the Austrofascist Federal State of Austria.source
  • May 15 – Kārlis Ulmanis establishes an authoritarian government in Latvia.source
  • June 14 – Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet for the first time, at the Venice Biennale.source
  • June 18 – The Indian Reorganization Act is enacted.source
  • June 27 – Imam Yahya of Yemen and Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia conclude a peace treaty.source
  • August 19 – 1934 German referendum: In a referendum, 90% of the German population approves of Hitler's assumption of presidential powers, as Führer and Reichskanzler.source
  • September 15 – 1934 Australian federal election: Joseph Lyons' UAP government is re-elected with a decreased majority, defeating the Labor Party, led by former Prime Minister James Scullin. Consequently, Lyons is forced to resume the Coalition with the Country Party, and include them in his government. Scullin steps down from the Labor leadership shortly after; he is replaced by future Prime Minister John Curtin.source
  • September 19 – The Soviet Union joins the League of Nations.source
  • September 28 – Afghanistan joins the League of Nations.source
  • October 6 – Events of October the 6th: the President of Catalonia, Lluís Companys, declares the Catalan State of the Spanish Federal Republic, but Spanish troops swiftly crush the Catalan forces, and arrest him and the members of the Catalan government. The autonomy of Catalonia is suspended until 1936.source
  • November 27 – Daniel Salamanca Urey, President of Bolivia, is deposed in a military coup, and replaced by José Luis Tejada Sorzano.source
  • December 27 – Persia becomes Iran.source
  • December 29 – Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.source
  • The Australian frontier wars end, after 146 years.source
  • Abidjan becomes the capital of the French colony of Ivory Coast.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 6 – French political crisis: The French far-right leagues rally in front of the Palais Bourbon, in an attempted coup d'état against the Third Republic.source
  • February 12–15 – Austrian Civil War: The Fatherland Front consolidates its power in a series of clashes across the country.source
  • February 21 – Augusto César Sandino is assassinated in Managua, by the National Guard.source
  • March 12 – Prime Minister Konstantin Päts stages a self-coup by declaring a state of emergency in Estonia, with the approval of the parliament, beginning the country's Era of Silence.source
  • May 19 – Kimon Georgiev stages a coup d'état in Bulgaria.source
  • June 30 – The Nazi Party SA camp Oranienburg becomes a national camp, taken over by the Schutzstaffel (SS).source
  • July 25 – July Putsch: Austrian Nazis assassinate chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, during a failed coup attempt.source
  • August 8 – The Wehrmacht swears a personal oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler.source
  • September 5–10 – The 6th Nuremberg Rally is staged by the German Nazi Party.source
  • October 9 – King Alexander of Yugoslavia and French foreign minister Louis Barthou are assassinated, during the king's state visit in Marseille.source
  • October 16 – The Long March of the People's Liberation Army of the Chinese Communist Party begins.source
  • November 23 – An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden discovers an Italian garrison at Walwal, which lies well within Ethiopian territory. This encounter leads to the Abyssinia Crisis.source
  • December 5 – Abyssinia Crisis: Ethiopian and Italian troops exchange gunfire. Reported casualties for the Ethiopians are 150, and for the Italians 50.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • August 15 – The United States Marine Corps leaves Haiti.source
  • October 20–November 3 – Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first eastward crossing of the Pacific Ocean, from his native Brisbane, Australia, to San Francisco, in the Lockheed Altair Lady Southern Cross. The November 3 Hawaii–San Francisco leg is the first eastward flight from Hawaii to North America.source

Religion & Belief

  • May 31 – The Barmen Declaration, largely drafted by Karl Barth, is signed by Christians in Nazi Germany who are opposed to the pro-Nazi German Christian movement.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established.source
  • July 1 – The Hays Code begins to be strictly enforced in the Hollywood film industry, lasting until 1968.source

Science & Discovery

  • October 20–November 5 – The MacRobertson Air Race is flown from RAF Mildenhall in England to Melbourne, Australia, to celebrate the centenary of the state of Victoria. The overall winner is the British de Havilland DH.88 Comet G-ACSS Grosvenor House, flown by C. W. A. Scott and Tom Campbell Black.source
  • The sonoluminescence effect is discovered, at the University of Cologne.source

Health & Medicine

  • May 28 – Near Callander, Ontario, Canada, the Dionne quintuplets are born to Oliva and Elzire Dionne, becoming the first quintuplets to survive infancy.source
  • July 13 – Hitler gives a speech to the Reichstag, justifying his purge.source
  • November 6 – Attempted exclusion of Egon Kisch from Australia begins.source

Crime & Justice

  • March 13 – John Dillinger and his gang rob the First National Bank in Mason City, Iowa, United States, stealing $52,000.source
  • May 23 – American outlaws Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed and killed by police in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.source
  • June 30 – July 2 – Night of the Long Knives in Germany: Nazis purge the Sturmabteilung (SA), the left-wing Strasserist faction of the Nazi Party, and prominent conservative anti-Nazis, in a series of political murders.source
  • September 19 – Bruno Richard Hauptmann is arrested in connection with the Lindbergh kidnapping case in the U.S.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • March 20 – The Great Hakodate Fire kills at least 2,166 people in southern Hokkaido, Japan.source
  • September 8 – Off the New Jersey coast, a fire aboard the passenger liner kills 134 people.source
  • September 22 – A gas explosion at Gresford Colliery in Wrexham, north-east Wales, kills 266 miners and rescuers.source

Climate & Environment

  • January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing an estimated 6,000–10,700 people.source
  • September 21 – The Muroto typhoon in Honshū, Japan kills 3,036 people, and destroys the temple, schools, and other buildings in Osaka.source
  • October 2 – A typhoon in Osaka and Kyoto, Japan, kills 1,660, injures 5,400, and destroys the rice harvest.source

Culture & Society

  • February 23 – King Leopold III of Belgium succeeds to the throne, following the death (February 17) of his father King Albert I.source
  • March 22 – The first Masters Tournament in golf opens at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia (United States).source
  • April 21 – The "surgeon's photograph" of the Loch Ness Monster, taken in Scotland by London gynaecologist Robert Kenneth Wilson and in 1994 admitted to be a hoax, is published in the Daily Mail London national newspaper.source
  • June 9 – Donald Duck makes his film debut in Walt Disney's Silly Symphony cartoon The Wise Little Hen.source
  • June 10 – Italy beats Czechoslovakia 2–1 after extra time, to win the 1934 World Cup, staged in Italy.source
  • Winter – Tadj ol-Molouk, Empress consort of Iran, and her daughters appear publicly in Tehran without a veil, leading to its abolition in the country.source
  • The Yomiuri Giants, a successful professional baseball club in Japan, is founded in Tokyo.source

Births

  • January 11 – Jean Chrétien, 20th Prime Minister of Canadasource
  • February 27 – Ralph Nader, American consumer activist and presidential candidatesource
  • March 5 – Daniel Kahneman, Israeli economist and Nobel laureate (d. 2024)source
  • March 9 – Yuri Gagarin, Russian cosmonaut, first human in space (d. 1968)source
  • March 16 – Ray Hnatyshyn, Canadian statesman, 24th Governor General of Canada (d. 2002)source
  • July 13 – Wole Soyinka, Nigerian writer and Nobel laureatesource
  • August 18 – Roberto Clemente, Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player (d. 1972)source
  • August 25 – Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, 4th President of Iran (d. 2017)source
  • September 15 – Fob James, American politician and Governor of Alabama from 1979 to 1983, and from 1995 to 1999source
  • September 19 – Brian Epstein, British manager of the Beatles, co-founder of Northern Songs (d. 1967)source
  • September 21 – Leonard Cohen, Canadian poet, novelist, singer and songwriter (d. 2016)source
  • September 28 – Brigitte Bardot, French actress, animal rights activist (d. 2025)source
  • November 9 – Carl Sagan, American astronomer, writer, and TV presenter (d. 1996)source
  • December 30 – Tony Serra, American criminal defense and civil rights attorney, political activist and tax resistersource

Deaths

  • January 29 – Fritz Haber, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)source
  • February 19 – Caleb Bradham, American pharmacist, inventor of Pepsi (b. 1867)source
  • March 1 – Charles Webster Leadbeater, British author and Theosophist (b. 1854)source
  • March 27 – Francis William Reitz, 5th president of the Orange Free State (b. 1844)source
  • May 23 – Clyde Barrow, American outlaw, member of Barrow Gang (b. 1909)source
  • May 23 – Bonnie Parker, American outlaw, member of Barrow Gang (b. 1910)source
  • Kurt von Schleicher, 23rd Chancellor of Germany (b. 1882)source
  • July 1 – Ernst Röhm, German politician, Nazi SA Leader (assassinated) (b. 1887)source
  • July 4 – Marie Curie, Polish-born scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and physics (b. 1867)source
  • July 25 – Engelbert Dollfuss, Austrian statesman and 10th Chancellor of Austria (assassinated) (b. 1892)source
  • August 8 – Wilbert Robinson, American baseball manager and MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1863)source
  • October 9 – King Alexander I of Yugoslavia (b. 1888) (assassinated)source
  • October 17 – Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Spanish histologist and neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1852)source
  • November 16 – Alice Liddell, English inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (b. 1852)source