Friday, April 4, 2008

What Happened in 1934?

Some random events of 1934:

  • Alcatraz became a prison.
  • The German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact was signed. (It was for a 10-year period, and lasted until Germany invaded Poland in 1939.)
  • Manchuria was invaded by the Japanese.
  • Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Baby Face Nelson were all killed by various lawmen.
  • The Dione quintuplets were born in Canada.
  • FDR signed a bill creating the Securities and Exchange Commission.
  • Donald Duck and Lil' Abner made their debuts.
  • The Nazis purge the SS in Night of the Long Knives.
  • The Long March of Chinese Communists begins.
  • Sergie Kirov was shot in Leningrad, giving Stalin an excuse for purges of the Party that terrorized millions and lasted for years.
  • Persia became Iran.
  • Lionel Barrymore started his tradition of annual radio readings of Dicken's A Christmas Carol, which continued until shortly before his death in 1964.
  • Hitler becomes Fuhrer of Germany.
  • Marie Curie and Alice Liddell (the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland) die.

Random notable births:

  • Hank Aaron
  • Ralph Nadar
  • Yuri Gagarin (first man in space)
  • Gloria Steinheim
  • Shirley MacLaine (one of her births, that is)
  • Jane Goodall
  • Bill Moyers
  • Van Cliburn
  • Norman Schwarzkopf
  • Charles Kuralt
  • Carl Sagan
  • Sophia Loren
  • Ahmad Shah Khan

And Oakley Glynn Baker. Happy Birthday, Daddy!