Directory

1935 CE

The Second Italo-Ethiopian War begins as Italy invades Ethiopia, signaling growing tensions in Europe and Africa; the Nuremberg Laws are enacted in Nazi Germany, depriving Jews of citizenship and basic rights and cementing the regime’s racial policies; the 1935 Greek coup attempt unfolds in March but is swiftly suppressed, highlighting political instability in Greece; the 1935 Yangtze flood devastates large parts of China, killing tens of thousands and displacing millions; the Harlem riot of 1935 breaks out in New York City, the city’s first modern race riot, reflecting deep social and racial tensions; and the 1935 Labor Day hurricane strikes the Florida Keys with unprecedented force, becoming one of the most intense hurricanes in U.S. history.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims.source
  • January 13 – A referendum in the Territory of the Saar Basin shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to join Germany.source
  • February 26 – In Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler orders reinstatement of the air force, the Luftwaffe, in violation of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.source
  • March 1 – İsmet İnönü forms the new government in Turkey (the 8th government; during Atatürk's presidency, İnönü has served seven times as a prime minister).source
  • March 2 – King Prajadhipok (Rama VII) of Siam abdicates the throne; he is succeeded by his 9-year-old-nephew Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII).source
  • March 16 – Adolf Hitler announces German re-armament in violation of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.source
  • March 21 – Reza Shah of Iran asks the international community to formally adopt the name "Iran" to refer to the country, in place of the name "Persia".source
  • April 15 – The Roerich Pact, a Pan-American treaty on the protection of cultural artefacts, is signed in Washington, D.C.source
  • May 21 – In Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler announces the reintroduction of conscription to the Wehrmacht, in violation of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.source
  • June 18 – Anglo-German Naval Agreement: Britain agrees to a German navy equal to 35% of her own naval tonnage.source
  • July 25–August 20 – The seventh and last congress of the Comintern is held.source
  • August 2 – The Government of India Act is passed by the British Parliament, making provision for the establishment of a "Federation of India" and a degree of autonomy.source
  • September 17 – Manuel L. Quezon is elected 2nd President of the Philippines.source
  • October 14 – 1935 Canadian federal election: The Liberal Party of William Lyon Mackenzie King wins a majority government, defeating the Conservative Party of Prime Minister R. B. Bennett.source
  • October 22 – The Chinese Communist Party settles in Shaanxi after the Long March.source
  • November 3 – A Greek monarchy referendum is held by self-proclaimed Regent Georgios Kondylis. Almost 98% of the votes favor restoration of the monarchy, although the referendum's integrity is dubious.source
  • November 14 – 1935 United Kingdom general election: Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin returns to office at the head of a National Government led by the Conservative Party, with a large but reduced majority.source
  • November 25 – After 11 years in exile, George II returns to Greek soil as King of Greece at Corfu, from London.source
  • December 18 – The socialist party of Sri Lanka, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, is founded.source
  • December 18 – Samuel Hoare resigns as British foreign secretary, and is replaced by Anthony Eden.source

Conflict & Security

  • March 1 – 1935 Greek coup d'état attempt: Nikolaos Plastiras, Anastasios Papoulas and other Venizelists lead a coup against the People's Party government in Greece. The attempt is suppressed by March 11, and the leaders condemned to death for treason.source
  • March 19 – Harlem riot of 1935: A race riot breaks out in Harlem (New York City), after a rumor circulates that a teenage Puerto Rican shoplifter in the S. H. Kress & Co. department store has been brutally beaten.source
  • April 27 – Sheffield Wednesday beat West Bromwich Albion 4–2 at Wembley Stadium in England to win the FA Cup final.source
  • May 13 – T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") is involved in a motorcycle accident, near his home in Dorset, England, resulting in his death a few days later.source
  • June 9 – He–Umezu Agreement: China's Kuomintang government concedes Japanese military control of north-eastern China.source
  • June 12 – The Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia ends.source
  • August 16 – Representatives of France, Britain and Italy meet in Paris in an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate a solution to the Abyssinia Crisis.source
  • October 2–3 – The Second Italo-Ethiopian War begins, as Italian General Emilio De Bono invades Ethiopia.source
  • December 27 – In China, Mao Zedong issues the Wayaobu Manifesto, On Tactics Against Japanese Imperialism, calling for a National United Front against the Japanese invasion.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • May 29 – The French Compagnie Générale Transatlantique ocean liner sets out on her maiden voyage from Le Havre to New York, which she will reach in 4 days, 3 hours and 14 minutes, taking the Blue Riband; she gains the eastbound record on her return passage.source
  • July 1 – sails from Southampton to Rosyth to be broken up.source
  • October 6 – The wreckage of the RMS Lusitania is discovered.source
  • November 22 – The flying boat China Clipper takes off from Alameda, California, United States, to deliver the first airmail cargo across the Pacific Ocean; on November 29 the aircraft reaches its final destination, Manila, and delivers over 110,000 pieces of mail.source
  • December 12 – The De La Warr Pavilion at Bexhill-on-Sea, designed by Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff, a pioneering example of International Style architecture, opens in England.source

Religion & Belief

  • April 17 – Sun Myung Moon, a teenage Presbyterian convert in Korea under Japanese rule, claims to have a revelation from Jesus, telling him to complete his mission from almost 2,000 years ago.source
  • December 27 – In Germany, Regina Jonas becomes the first woman ever to receive semikhah (ordination) as a rabbi within Judaism. She will be killed in Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944 and the next such ordination will be in 1972.source

Economy & Finance

  • January 24 – The first canned beer is sold in Richmond, Virginia, United States, by Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company.source
  • May 27 – Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (the "Sick Chicken Case"): The Supreme Court of the United States declares that the National Industrial Recovery Act, a major component of the New Deal, is unconstitutional.source
  • May 31 – Twentieth Century Pictures and Fox Film Corporation merge to form Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • February 6 – Parker Brothers begins selling the board game Monopoly in the United States.source
  • March 22 – The world's first regular television program (by Fernsehsender Paul Nipkow) is transmitted from the Funkturm in Berlin, Germany.source
  • April 29 – The first edition of the Vuelta a España is raced, and goes on to become one of the 3 Grand Tours of road bicycle racing.source
  • May 15 – Joseph Stalin opens the Moscow Metro to the public.source
  • July 22 – Inauguration of the Brazilian radiophonic program A Voz do Brasil.source
  • August 13 – An estimated 250 people are killed when a dam bursts near Ovada, Italy.source
  • September 3 – English driver Sir Malcolm Campbell becomes the first person to drive an automobile at 300 miles per hour in Blue Bird, establishing a new absolute land speed record of 301.337 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.source
  • September 13 – American aviator Howard Hughes, flying the Hughes H-1 Racer, sets an airspeed record of 352 mph (566 km/h).source
  • September 24 – Earl W. Bascom and his brother Weldon produce the first night rodeo held outdoors under electric lights, at Columbia, Mississippi.source
  • September 29 – The London and North Eastern Railway's first A4 Class streamlined steam locomotive A4 2509 Silver Link makes her inaugural journey, from London King's Cross.source
  • September 30 – The London and North Eastern Railway commences the Silver Jubilee, Britain's first streamline train service.source
  • September 30 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Hoover Dam.source
  • December 17 – The Douglas DST, prototype of the Douglas DC-3 airliner, first flies in the United States. More than 16,000 of the model will eventually be produced.source

Science & Discovery

  • January 12 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to successfully complete a solo flight from Hawaii to California, a distance of 2408 mi.source
  • February 26 – Robert Watson-Watt first demonstrates the use of radar to detect aircraft, at Daventry in the UK.source

Health & Medicine

  • August 14 – United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act into law.source
  • October 14 – The Turkish government had all Masonic lodges in the country abolished on the ground that Masonic principles are incompatible with nationalistic policy and their property transferred to the state.source
  • November 23 – Jacques and Thérèse Tréfouël, Daniel Bovet and Federico Nitti, in the laboratory of Ernest Fourneau at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, discover that sulfanilamide is the active component of Prontosil.source

Crime & Justice

  • February 13 – Richard Hauptmann is convicted and sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr. in the United States.source
  • June 10 – Alcoholics Anonymous is founded in Akron, Ohio, United States, by William G. Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith.source
  • September 15 – The Nuremberg Laws go into effect in Germany, removing citizenship from Jews.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • June 24 – Ten people, including musician Carlos Gardel, are killed in a collision between two Ford Trimotor airplanes at Olaya Herrera Airport in Medellín, Colombia.source

Climate & Environment

  • April 14 – Dust Bowl: "Black Sunday", the great dust storm in the United States hits eastern New Mexico and Colorado, and western Oklahoma the hardest (it will be made famous by Woody Guthrie, in his "dust bowl ballads").source
  • May 31 – 1935 Quetta earthquake: A 7.1 magnitude earthquake destroys Quetta in modern-day Pakistan, killing 40,000.source
  • September 2 – 1935 Labor Day hurricane: The strongest hurricane ever to strike the United States landfalls in the Upper Florida Keys as a Category 5 storm with 185 mph winds, killing 423.source
  • October 10 – A tornado destroys the 160 m ft wooden radio tower in Langenberg, Germany. As a result of this catastrophe, wooden radio towers are phased out.source

Culture & Society

  • February 15 – The discovery and clinical development of Prontosil, the first broadly effective antibiotic, is published in a series of articles by Gerhard Domagk and others in Germany's pre-eminent medical journal, Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift.source
  • April 11 – The 1935 Danish general election is held, resulting in Thorvald Stauning becoming the first Social Democratic Prime Minister of Denmark.source
  • April 24 – William Christian Bullitt Jr., the United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union, hosts the elaborately prepared Spring Ball of the Full Moon, which is said to have surpassed all other embassy parties in Moscow's history.source
  • May 14 – Northamptonshire County Cricket Club gains (over Somerset at Taunton by 48 runs) what proves to be their last victory for 99 matches, easily a record in the County Championship. Their next Championship win is not until May 29, 1939.source
  • June 13 – James J. Braddock defeats Max Baer at Madison Square Garden Bowl, to win the heavyweight boxing championship of the world.source
  • October 21 – Grant v Australian Knitting Mills, a landmark case in consumer law, is decided on appeal in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the U.K.source
  • December 10 – Hanshin Tigers, a well known professional baseball club of Japan, is founded in Osaka.source
  • December 12 – The Lebensborn program in support of Nazi eugenics is founded by Heinrich Himmler in Germany.source
  • December 28 – Pravda publishes a letter from Pavel Postyshev, who revives the New Year tree tradition in the Soviet Union.source

Births

  • January 16 – A. J. Foyt, American race car driversource
  • April 18 – Joanne Brekke, American politician (d. 2017)source
  • April 25 – Jim Peebles, Canadian-born theoretical cosmologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physicssource
  • June 13 – Samak Sundaravej, 25th Prime Minister of Thailand (2008) (d. 2009)source
  • July 13 – Jack Kemp, American football player, U.S. vice presidential candidate (d. 2009)source
  • July 14 – Ei-ichi Negishi, Japanese chemist and Nobel laureate (d. 2021)source
  • August 26 – Geraldine Ferraro, U.S. Congresswoman, vice presidential candidate (d. 2011)source
  • September 9 – Chaim Topol, Israeli actor and singer (Fiddler on the Roof) (d. 2023)source
  • September 29 – Jerry Lee Lewis, American rock & roll musician (d. 2022)source
  • November 8 – Alain Delon, French actor (d. 2024)source
  • November 15 – Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestine National Authoritysource
  • December 4 – Paul H. O'Neill, 72nd US Treasury Secretary (d. 2020)source
  • December 8 – Dharmendra, Indian film actor, producer and politician (d. 2025)source
  • December 11 – Pranab Mukherjee, Indian politician, 13th President of India (d. 2020)source

Deaths

  • February 13 – Ali of Hejaz, former King of Hejaz and Grand Sharif of Mecca (b. 1879)source
  • March 6 – Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1841)source
  • April 14 – Emmy Noether, German mathematician (b. 1882)source
  • May 12 – Józef Piłsudski, Polish politician, 2-time Prime Minister of Poland (b. 1867)source
  • May 14 – Magnus Hirschfeld, German sex researcher, gay rights advocate (b. 1868)source
  • May 15 – Kazimir Malevich, Polish-Russian painter, art theoretician (b. 1879)source
  • May 21 – Jane Addams, American social worker, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1860)source
  • June 6 – Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy, British general, 12th Governor General of Canada (b. 1862)source
  • July 17 – Cudjoe Lewis (Oluale Kossola), the last known surviving male victim of Clotilda, the last ship of the Atlantic slave trade (born c. 1841)source
  • August 17 – Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American feminist and writer (b. 1860)source
  • September 8 – Carl Weiss, American physician and murderer of Huey Long (b. 1906)source
  • September 10 – Huey Long, American politician (assassinated 2 days before) (b. 1893)source
  • September 19 – Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Russian rocket scientist (b. 1857)source
  • October 22 – Edward Carson, Baron Carson, Irish lawyer and politician (b. 1854)source