As the Great Depression continued worldwide, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. Nazis declared a national boycott of Jewish-owned businesses and opened their first concentration camp, Dachau. In the U.S., after President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt narrowly escaped assassination, he inaugurated his New Deal programs, ended Prohibition and began speaking directly to Americans with radio fireside chats. A “monster” appeared in Scotland’s Loch Ness, King Kong loomed large on movie screens and the first drive-in theater opened in New Jersey.
Jan
05
On January 5, 1933, construction begins on the Golden Gate Bridge, as workers began excavating 3.25 million cubic feet of dirt for the structure’s huge anchorages.
Fishermen on Baker Beach enjoy the view of the Golden Gate Bridge under construction, San Francisco, California, 1930s. (Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images)
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Jan
30
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30
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15
Mar
04
On March 4, 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 32nd president of the United States. In his famous inaugural address, delivered outside the east wing of the U.S. Capitol, Roosevelt outlined his “New Deal”—an expansion of the federal government as an instrument of employment opportunity and welfare—and told Americans that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
379933 22: Franklin D. Roosevelt takes the Oath of Office as President of the United States in January 20, 1933 in Washington D.C. (Photo by National Archive/Getty Images)
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Mar
12
On March 12, 1933, eight days after his inauguration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives his first national radio address—or “fireside chat”—broadcast directly from the White House.
Franklin Roosevelt, president of the United States from 1933-1945, entered the presidency during the Great Depression and presided over the nation's economic recovery, which was accomplished through a program of legislative reform known as the New Deal. Part of Roosevelt's mission was to regain the people's trust in the nation's banks, and here he is shown preparing for his first "fireside chat" in which he explained the measures he was taking to reform the nation's banking system. (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
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Apr
20
On April 20, 1933, the United States went off the gold standard, a monetary system in which currency is backed by gold, when Congress enacted a joint resolution nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold. The United States had been on a gold standard since 1879, except for an embargo on gold exports during World War I, but bank failures during the Great Depression of the 1930s frightened the public into hoarding gold, making the policy untenable.
This Day in History – June 5, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in the Ambassador Hotel by 24-year old Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. He was shot in the head and died early the next morning.
May
02
The modern legend of the Loch Ness Monster is born when a sighting makes local news on May 2, 1933. The newspaper Inverness Courier relates an account of a local couple who claim to have seen “an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface.” The story of the “monster” (a moniker chosen by the Courier editor) becomes a media phenomenon, with London newspapers sending correspondents to Scotland and a circus offering a 20,000 pound sterling reward for capture of the beast.
A possible sighting of the Loch Ness Monster. References to a monster in Loch Ness date back 565 AD, since when more than 1,000 people claim to have seen 'Nessie', making the area a popular tourist attraction.
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May
03
James Joseph Brown, Jr., the revolutionary musical figure who come to be known as “Soul Brother #1,”The Godfather of Soul,” “Mr. Dynamite,” “Sex Machine” and “The Minister of the New New Super Heavy Funk,” is born on May 3, 1933. The story Brown himself would often tell is that he appeared stillborn when he first came into the world, but that an aunt attending his birth managed to breathe life into him.
James Brown performing in 1968.
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