Events from the year 1933 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government President: Herbert Hoover (R-California) (until March 4) Franklin D. Roosevelt (D-New York) (starting March 4) Vice President: Charles Curtis (R-Kansas) (until March 4) John Nance Garner (D-Texas) (starting March 4) Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes (New York) Speaker of the House of Representatives: John Nance Garner (D-Texas) (until March 4) Henry Thomas Rainey (D-Illinois) (starting March 9) Senate Majority Leader: James Eli Watson (R-Indiana) (until March 4) Joseph Taylor Robinson (D-Arkansas) (starting March 4) Congress: 72nd (until March 4), 73rd (starting March 4)
State governments Governors and lieutenant governors Governors
Lieutenant governors
Events
January–March
January 5 Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay. Calvin Coolidge, 30th president of the U.S. (1923–1929) dies of coronary thrombosis in Northampton, Massachusetts. January 17 – The U.S. Congress votes favorably for Philippines independence, against the view of President Herbert Hoover. January 23 – The Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, changing Inauguration Day from March 4 to January 20, coming into effect on February 6. January 30 – The Lone Ranger debuts on American radio. February 6–7 – 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 fatally wounds Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wound on March 6. Zangara is executed on March 20 by the electric chair. February 17 Repeal of Prohibition in the United States: The Blaine Act passes the Senate, submitting the proposed Twenty-first Amendment to the Constitution to the states for ratification to end prohibition in the United States. News-Week magazine is published for the first time, in New York City. February 25 – , the first ship of the United States Navy designed as an aircraft carrier, is launched at Newport News, Virginia. March 2 – The original film version of King Kong, starring Fay Wray and directed by Merian C. Cooper, premieres at Radio City Music Hall and the RKO Roxy Theatre in New York City. March 3 – Mount Rushmore National Memorial is dedicated. March 4 Franklin D. Roosevelt is sworn in as the 32nd president of the United States, who in reference to the Great Depression, proclaims "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself" in his inauguration speech. He is sworn in by Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, beginning the first 100 days of Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency. Roosevelt's paralytic illness is never publicly acknowledged during what will be the four terms of his Presidency, during which he rejects socialism and government ownership of industry. This is the last time Inauguration Day in the U.S. occurs on this date. John Nance Garner is sworn in as the 32nd vice president. Frances Perkins becomes United States Secretary of Labor, and the first female member of the United States Cabinet. March 5 – 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). March 7 – The real-estate trading board game Monopoly is developed. March 9 – Great Depression: The U.S. Congress begins its first 100 days of enacting New Deal legislation. March 10 – The 6.4 Long Beach earthquake affects the Greater Los Angeles Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), leaving 115–120 people dead, and causing an estimated $40 million in damage. March 12 – Great Depression: Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses the nation for the first time as President of the United States, in the first of his "Fireside Chats" by radio. 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 to date as the largest 1-day percentage gain for the index. March 22 – President 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,"Roosevelt Authorizes Beer Sale By Signing Bill For 3.2 Brew". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette March 23, 1933, p.1. 8 months before the full repeal of Prohibition in December. March 31 – Civilian Conservation Corps established as an unemployment relief program by voice vote in Congress, followed on April 5 by Executive Order 6101. March – John Andrew Rice and other staff are dismissed (or resign) from Rollins College in a dispute over academic tenure, going on to found Black Mountain College.
April–June
April 4 – The U.S. airship Akron crashes off the coast of New Jersey, leaving 73 dead. April 5 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a national emergency and issues Executive Order 6102, making it illegal for U.S. citizens to own gold. April 15 – The Indiana State Police begins operations. April 19 – The United States officially goes off the gold standard. April 26 – Editors of the Harvard Lampoon steal the Sacred Cod of Massachusetts from the State House (it is returned two days later). May 3 – Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first woman to be named director of the United States Mint. 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. May 12 – Agricultural Adjustment Act is enacted in the U.S. May 18 – New Deal: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority. May 27 New Deal: The Federal Securities Act is signed into law, requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission. The Century of Progress World's Fair opens in Chicago. Walt Disney's classic Silly Symphony cartoon The Three Little Pigs is first released. 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 movie theater is opened in Pennsauken Township, near Camden, New Jersey, by chemical company executive Richard Hollingshead, according to his patent granted May 16. June 15 – National Guard Bureau founded. 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. June 26 The American Totalisator Company unveils its first electronic pari-mutuel betting machine at the Arlington Park Racetrack near Chicago. Founding of Twentieth Century Pictures as a motion picture production company by Joseph Schenck and Darryl F. Zanuck in Hollywood.
July–September July 1 – Business Plot: Smedley Butler becomes involved in a secret coup attempt led by Gerald MacGuire against President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt which fails (according to his own testimony in 1934). July 6 – The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played at Comiskey Park in Chicago. July 22 "Machine-Gun" Kelly and Albert Bates kidnap Charles Urschel, an Oklahoma oilman, and demand $200,000 ransom. Wiley Post becomes the first person to fly solo around the world, landing at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, after traveling eastbound in 7 days 18 hours 45 minutes. July 24 Several members of the Barrow Gang are injured or captured during a running battle with local police near Dexter, Iowa. In one of his radio Fireside chats, "On the Purposes and Foundations of the Recovery Program", President Roosevelt introduces the term "first 100 days". August 1 – The Blue Eagle emblem of the National Recovery Administration is displayed publicly for the first time. August 10 Division of Investigation founded. Shipping Board Bureau and Emergency Fleet Corporation founded. 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). September 18 – Tennessee Valley Authority is established.
October–December
October 3 – A wildfire at Griffith Park in Los Angeles kills 29 volunteer civilian firefighters. October 7 – The New York Giants (baseball) defeat the Washington Senators, 4 games to 1, to win their 4th World Series title. October 10 – United Air Lines Flight 23: A United Airlines Boeing 247 is destroyed by the mid-air explosion of a bomb on a transcontinental flight near Chesterton, Indiana, killing all 7 on board, in the first proven case of sabotage in civil aviation, although no suspect is ever identified. 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 – Parricides committed by Victor Licata lead to calls for the legal prohibition of cannabis. October 17 – Albert Einstein arrives 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. 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. November 11 – Dust Bowl: In South Dakota, a very strong dust storm strips topsoil from desiccated farmlands (one of a series of disastrous dust storms this year). November 13 – Jasper McLevy becomes mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut, the first Socialist mayor in New England; he serves until 1957. November 16 The United States and the Soviet Union establish formal diplomatic relations. American aviator Jimmie Angel becomes the first foreigner to see the Angel Falls in Venezuela (they are named after him). November 17 – The Marx Brothers' anarchic comedy film Duck Soup is released in the U.S. December 5 – Repeal of Prohibition in the United States: The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, repealing Prohibition, is fully ratified and comes into effect. December 6 – U.S. federal judge John M. Woolsey rules that James Joyce's novel Ulysses is not obscene. December 17 – The first NFL Championship Game in American football is played. The Chicago Bears defeat the New York Giants 23–21.
Undated
15 million unemployed in the U.S. The first doughnut store under the Krispy Kreme name opens on Charlotte Pike in Nashville, Tennessee.
Ongoing Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937) U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915–1934) Prohibition (1920–1933) Great Depression (1929–1933) Dust Bowl (1930–1936) New Deal (1933–1939)
Births
January
January 1 – Ford Konno, American swimmer January 2 Dan Duncan, businessman, oil company executive and billionaire (d. 2010) Richard Riley, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 6th United States Secretary of Education January 5 – Leonard Marsh, American businessman, co-founder of Snapple (d. 2013) January 6 Lenny Green, American baseball player (d. 2019) Fred L. Turner, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 2013) January 7 – Phil Mulkey, American decathlete and coach (d. 2022) January 8 Charles Osgood, American journalist, commentator (d. 2024) Nolan Miller, American fashion and jewelry designer (d. 2012) Willie Tasby, American baseball player (d. 2022) January 9 – Robert García, American politician (d. 2017) January 13 – Tom Gola, American basketball player (d. 2014) January 14 – Stan Brakhage, American filmmaker (d. 2003)