This Year in History:
1935
Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
In the first flight of its kind, American aviatrix Amelia Earhart departs Wheeler Field in Honolulu, Hawaii, on a solo flight to North America. Hawaiian commercial interests offered a $10,000…
Canned beer makes its debut on January 24, 1935. In partnership with the American Can Company, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company delivered 2,000 cans of Krueger’s Finest Beer and Krueger’s…
On February 26, 1935, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler signs a secret decree authorizing the founding of the Reich Luftwaffe as a third German military service to join the Reich army…
On April 8, 1935, Congress votes to approve the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a central part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. In November 1932, at the height of…
President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorizes almost $5 million to implement work‑relief programs on this day in 1935. Hoping to lift the country out of the crippling Great Depression, Congress allowed…
In what came to be known as “Black Sunday,” one of the most devastating storms of the 1930s Dust Bowl era sweeps across the region on April 14, 1935. High…
On May 6, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order creating the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA was just one of many Great Depression relief programs created…
T.E. Lawrence, known to the world as Lawrence of Arabia, dies as a retired Royal Air Force mechanic living under an assumed name. The legendary war hero, author and archaeological…
The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2‑1 on May 24, 1935 in Major League Baseball’s first‑ever night game, played courtesy of recently installed lights at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.…
On May 25, 1935, at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Babe Ruth hits his 714th home run, a record for career home runs that would stand for almost 40 years.…
John Steinbeck’s first successful novel, Tortilla Flat, is published on May 28, 1935. Steinbeck, a native Californian, had studied writing intermittently at Stanford between 1920 and 1925, but never graduated.…
On June 2, 1935, Babe Ruth, one of the greatest players in the history of baseball, ends his Major League playing career after 22 seasons, 10 World Series and 714…
In Akron, Ohio, Bill Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith, two recovering alcoholics, found Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.), a 12‑step rehabilitation program that eventually helps countless people cope with alcoholism. Based on…
On July 6, an infant named Tenzin Gyatso, future leader of Tibet, is born to a peasant family in Takster, Tibet. At age two, he will be declared the Dalai Lama. …
The world’s first parking meter, known as Park‑O‑Meter No. 1, is installed on the southeast corner of what was then First Street and Robinson Avenue in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on…
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs into law the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935. Press photographers snapped pictures as FDR, flanked by ranking members of Congress, signed into law the…
Annie Proulx, author of celebrated books and stories including The Shipping News and “Brokeback Mountain,” is born on August 22, 1935 in Norwich, Connecticut. Her mother was a painter and her…
On August 31, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Neutrality Act, or Senate Joint Resolution No. 173, which he calls an “expression of the desire…to avoid any action which…
Senator Huey Long is shot in the Louisiana state capitol building. He died about 30 hours later. Called a demagogue by critics, the populist leader was a larger‑than‑life figure who…
On September 15, 1935, German Jews are stripped of their citizenship, reducing them to mere “subjects” of the state. After Hitler’s accession to the offices of president and chancellor of…
