The following events occurred in June 1933:
June 1, 1933 (Thursday) Germany's Law for the Encouragement of Marriage took effect, providing for the Ehestandsdarlehen (Marriage loan) to all German Aryan newlyweds, with 1000 Reichsmarks to be loaned, interest free, to couples on condition that the wife quit employment or remain unemployed. After encouraging women to vacate jobs in favor of men, the law was amended to encourage the growth of the Aryan population, with the debt to be reduced 25% each time a child was born. In the first four years of the program, 700,000 couples took out the loans.Robert Gellately, Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe (Random House Digital, 2008) p334 The Soviet Communist Party began a purge of party members whom General Secretary Joseph Stalin described as "double-dealers masked as Bolsheviks". Commissions in ten cities, including Moscow and Leningrad, screened one million members, and expelled one out of every six.Robert C. Tucker, Stalin in Power: The Revolution from Above, 1928–1941 (W. W. Norton & Company, 1992) p243 J. P. Morgan Jr. was testifying before the Senate Banking Committee when a man placed a circus midget, Lya Graf, onto his lap. The U.S. Senate warned that any newspapers that printed the photo risked being excluded from future Senate hearings."A Midget, Banker Hearings and Populism Circa 1933", Wall Street Journal Deal Journal Blog, January 12, 2010; "Photo of Morgan With Midget Can't Be Used, Warning", Milwaukee Journal, June 1, 1933, p1 The Soviet Navy activated its new Northern Naval Flotilla as part of its continued growth, the second new fleet created in 15 months. On April 21, 1932, it had created the Naval Forces of the Far East.Jürgen Rohwer and Mikhail S. Monakov, Stalin's Ocean-going Fleet: Soviet Naval Strategy and Shipbuilding Programmes, 1935–1953 (Frank Cass Publishers, 2001) p42 Born: Charles Wilson, U.S. Representative from Texas 1973–1996, whose role in obtaining funding for Afghan resistance to the Soviet invasion was dramatized in the film Charlie Wilson's War; in Trinity, Texas (d. 2010)
June 2, 1933 (Friday) Bernhard Rust, Minister of Science, Art, and Education for Prussia, ordered that Jews be banned from youth, welfare and gymnastic organizations and that they be denied access to athletic facilities. At the start of 1933, there had been 40,000 German Jews in sports clubs, including 250 Jewish sports organizations. By 1935, there were none.Molly Wilkinson Johnson, Training Socialist Citizens: Sports and the State in East Germany (BRILL, 2008) pp22-23 Seven people were killed and another 50 injured in an explosion at the Richfield Oil Company refinery in Long Beach, California."BLAST KILLS 7, INJURES 50", Milwaukee Sentinel, June 3, 1933, p1
June 3, 1933 (Saturday)
Spain's President Niceto Alcalá-Zamora, and other prominent members of the government of Spain, were excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Pius XI, for having signed laws nationalizing Catholic church properties."Anti-Church Laws Bring Spain Under Papal Ban", Milwaukee Journal, June 3, 1933, p1 Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, the 26-year-old son of former German Crown Prince Wilhelm, married Dorothea von Salviati, his college sweetheart, at a ceremony in Bonn. His grandfather, the former Kaiser Wilhelm II, decreed that he had forfeited his rights to reign in the event of the restoration of the monarchy. A cheering crowd of 10,000 greeted the newlyweds as they emerged from church."Wilhelm Weds Commoner, Still Claims Throne Rights", Milwaukee Sentinel, June 4, 1933, p1
June 4, 1933 (Sunday) Radio Luxembourg began broadcasting as an English-language station aimed at listeners in England, where the British Broadcasting Corporation had a monopoly on domestic radio.Andrew Crisell, An Introductory History of British Broadcasting (Routledge, 2002) p51 Within a year, 90 British companies were running commercials on Radio Luxembourg, since the BBC did not permit advertising. In 1931, Radio Normandy had pioneered the concept of broadcasting commercial radio from the European continent to Britain. An express train carrying holiday travelers from Paris to the Brittany coast derailed near Nantes, killing 14 people. The train struck debris that had spilled onto the track from the wreck of a freight train on adjoining track."Wreck in France Takes 14 Lives", Milwaukee Journal, June 5, 1933, p2
June 5, 1933 (Monday) The U.S. Congress passed the Gold Clause Resolution (Pub. Res. 73-10) nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold.Richard H. Timberlake, Monetary Policy in the United States: An Intellectual and Institutional History (University of Chicago Press, 1993) p277
June 6, 1933 (Tuesday) The first drive-in theater, created by Richard Hollingshead, opened outside of Camden, New Jersey, on Admiral Wilson Boulevard in Pennsauken Township. At 8:30 pm, the first film ever shown at the Automobile Movie Theatre was Wife Beware. Kerry Segrave, Drive-in Theaters: A History from Their Inception In 1933 (McFarland, 2006) pp4-7 The first concrete was poured for Hoover Dam, with the last batch poured on May 29, 1935.Saeed Moaveni, Engineering Fundamentals: An Introduction to Engineering (Cengage Learning, 2010) p413 Born: Heinrich Rohrer, Swiss physicist, 1986 Nobel Prize laureate; in St. Gallen (d. 2013) Died: Prince Shirdar Mohammed Aziz Khan, brother of King Nadir Shah of Afghanistan, and the kingdom's ambassador to Germany, was assassinated in Berlin by an Afghan student."Afghan Minister Slain", Sarasota Herald-Tribune, June 7, 1933, p4
June 7, 1933 (Wednesday) Representatives of France, Britain, Germany and Italy initialled the Four-Power Pact in Rome, pledging Europe a decade of peace and pledging to work toward disarmament. The ceremony took place in Italian Premier Benito Mussolini's office at the Palazzo Venezia in Rome."Duce's Peace Treaty Signed by Big Powers", Milwaukee Sentinel, June 8, 1933, p1
June 8, 1933 (Thursday) Before a crowd of 56,000 at Yankee Stadium, Max Baer of California, knocked out Germany's Max Schmeling."BAER STOPS SCHMELING IN TENTH", Milwaukee Sentinel, June 9, 1933, p17 The International Olympic Committee awarded the 1936 Winter Olympic Games to the German city of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, ahead of Montreal and St. Moritz.Bill Mallon and Jeroen Heijmans, Historical Dictionary of the Olympic Movement (Scarecrow Press, Aug 16, 2011 p. li Born: Joan Rivers, American comedian; as Joan Molinsky in Brooklyn, New York City (d. 2014)
June 9, 1933 (Friday) In North Arlington, New Jersey, an explosion at the Atlantic Pyroxylin Waste Company killed ten people and injured others. The company manufactured cellophane from highly flammable nitrocellulose."Count 10 Dead, Many Injured in Fire, Blast", Milwaukee Sentinel, June 10, 1933, p1; "Three Arrested As Plotters in Plant Explosion", Milwaukee Sentinel, June 11, 1933, p2 German scientists Rudolf Nebel and Herbert Schaefer did the first test launch of a rocket for the "Magdeburg Project", with the goal of eventually sending a man into space, but the first test flight at Wolmirstedt failed. The project would be abandoned in August.David J. Darling, The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity (John Wiley & Sons, 2003) p252 The romantic comedy film Professional Sweetheart starring Ginger Rogers was released. Born: Georges Abi-Saab, Egyptian specialist in international law; in Heliopolis
June 10, 1933 (Saturday) The Taurus Express passenger train derailed at Eskişehir while on its run between Istanbul and Adana, killing 50 people."Train in Flood; 50 Are Missing", Milwaukee Sentinel, June 11, 1933, p1 As part of Executive Order 6166, the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and the U.S. Bureau of Naturalization were merged to create the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), originally as part of the U.S. Department of Labor, and then in 1940, part of the U.S. Department of Justice.Keith Fitzgerald, The Face of the Nation: Immigration, the State, and the National Identity (Stanford University Press, 1996) p164 Under the same order, all national monuments and national cemeteries were placed under the administration of the National Park Service.Jerome A. Greene, Stricken Field: The Little Bighorn Since 1876 (University of Oklahoma Press, 2008) p73 Less than three weeks after being paroled from prison, John Dillinger robbed the first of many banks with his gang, taking $10,600 from the National Bank of New Carlisle, Ohio.Russell Girardin, et al., Dillinger: The Untold Story (Indiana University Press, 2005) p271; New Carlisle Chamber of Commerce The Barter Theatre was first opened in Abingdon, Virginia.William H. Young and Nancy K. Young, The Great Depression in America: A Cultural Encyclopedia (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007) p519 While driving near Wellington, Texas, Clyde Barrow failed to yield to warning signs at a bridge under construction and the car flipped into a ravine.Jones, W.D. "Riding with Bonnie and Clyde", Playboy, November 1968. Reprinted at Cinetropic.com. Bonnie Parker and fellow Barrow Gang member W.D. Jones were with Barrow at the time. Parker sustained severe third degree burns to her right leg.Parker, Cowan and Fortune, p. 132 Born: F. Lee Bailey, American lawyer, in Waltham, Massachusetts (d. 2021) Died: Winchell Smith, 62, American playwright
June 11, 1933 (Sunday) The first ever qualification matches for the World Cup began as teams from 27 countries played for the 16 available spots for the 1934 FIFA World Cup, which was to be hosted in Italy in May 1934. Sweden defeated Estonia, 6 to 2, in a match at the Olympic Stadium in Stockholm. The 13 teams for the 1930 FIFA World Cup, the inaugural competition, had been selected by invitation from FIFA. Seven unfortunate passengers, who bought tickets for a sightseeing trip over the World's Fair in Chicago, were killed along with the pilot and co-pilot when a wing crumpled. The amphibian plane, Northern Light, plunged 600 feet to the ground in Glenview, Illinois."NINE DIE IN FAIR PLANE CRASH", Milwaukee Sentinel, June 12, 1933, p1 Born: Gene Wilder, American film actor (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory); as Jerome Silberman, in Milwaukee (d. 2016) Died: Eugene James, 19, American jockey who had won the 1932 Kentucky Derby, drowned in Lake Michigan."Eugene James, up on Burgoo King in Kentucky Derby Last Year Drowns", St. Petersburg (FL) Independent, June 12, 1933, p7; Jim Bolus, Derby Magic (Pelican Publishing, 1998) p.186
June 12, 1933 (Monday) The World Economic Conference of 1933 began in London, with representatives from 64 nations, to discuss the reduction of trade barriers, settlement of war debts, stabilizing exchange rates and coordinating monetary policies. The conference would last until July 27, without accomplishing its goals.Warren J. Samuels and Ross B. Emmett, Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology: A Research Annual (Emerald Group Publishing, 2009) p121 Born: Eddie Adams, American photographer and Pulitzer Prize winner; in Kensington, Pennsylvania (d. 2004)
June 13, 1933 (Tuesday) The Home Owners' Loan Corporation was established by law to provide lower interest (5 percent) loans to prevent foreclosures, and the first to be made at a fixed rate. At the time of its creation, 41 percent of home mortgages in the United States had been in default. The HOLC accepted applications until 1936, and effectively refinanced 992,531 homes. After the last of the 15-year loans was collected back, the HOLC ceased operations in 1951.James Stuart Olson, Historical Dictionary of the Great Depression, 1929–1940 (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001) pp146-147
June 14, 1933 (Wednesday)