Timeline of United States history (1930–49)

1930s

1930 - The Motion Picture Production Code becomes set of industry censorship guidelines governing production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures released by major studios; is effective for 38 years

1930 - Frozen vegetables, packaged by Clarence Birdseye, become the first frozen food to go on sale

1931 - Empire State Building opens in New York City.

1931 - Japanese invasion of Manchuria

1931 - The Whitney Museum of American Art opens to the public in New York City.

1932 - Stimson Doctrine

1932 - Norris-La Guardia Act

1932 - Hans Hofmann - influential artist and teacher emigrated to the United States from Germany.

1932 - Bonus Army marches on DC

1932 - Reconstruction Finance Corporation

1932 - Ford introduces the Model B, the first low-priced car to have a V-8 engine

1933 - 20th Amendment, establishing the beginning and ending of the terms of the elected federal offices on January 20.

1933 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt sworn in as President; he is the last president to be inaugurated on March 4.

1933 - President Roosevelt establishes the New Deal, a response to the Great Depression, and focusing on what historians call the "3 Rs": relief, recovery and reform

1933 - Sweeping new programs proposed under President Roosevelt take effect: the Agricultural Adjustment Act, Civil Works Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps, Farm Credit Administration the Home Owners Loan Corporation, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Public Works Administration, the National Industrial Recovery Act

1933 - Giuseppe Zangara assassinates Chicago mayor Anton Cermak; the intended target was President-elect Roosevelt, who was not wounded.

1933 - Frances Perkins appointed United States Secretary of Labor

1933 - 21st Amendment, ending Prohibition

1934 - Glass–Steagall Act

1934 - U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission established

1934 - Dust Bowl begins, causing major ecological and agricultural damage to the Great Plains states; severe drought, heat waves and other factors were contributors.

1934 - Federal Housing Administration

1934 - Johnson Act

1934 - Philippine Commonwealth established

1934 - Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act

1934 - Tydings–McDuffie Act

1934 - John Dillinger killed

1934 - Indian Reorganization Act

1934 - Share the Wealth society founded by Huey Long

1935 - Works Progress Administration

1935 - The F.B.I. is established with J. Edgar Hoover as its first director.

1935 - Neutrality Act

1935 - Motor Carrier Act

1935 - Social Security Act

1935 - Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States

1935 - National Labor Relations Act

1935 - Huey Long assassinated

1935 - Congress of Industrial Organizations formed

1935 - Alcoholics Anonymous founded

1935 - Revenue Act of 1935

1936 - Robinson-Patman Act

1936 - Life magazine publishes first issue

1936 - United States v. Butler, which ruled that the processing taxes instituted under the 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act were unconstitutional

1936 - Second London Naval Treaty

1937 - Look magazine publishes first issue

1937 - Neutrality Acts

1937 - Hindenburg disaster, killing 35 people and marking an end to airship travel

1937 - Panay incident, a Japanese attack on the United States Navy gunboat USS Panay while anchored in the Yangtze River outside of Nanjing

1937 - Golden Gate Bridge completed in San Francisco

1938 - Wheeler-Lea Act

1938 - Fair Labor Standards Act

1939 - Hatch Act, aimed at corrupt political practices and prevented federal civil servants from campaigning

1938 - Orson Welles' The War of the Worlds broadcast

1939 - Nazi Germany invades Poland; World War II begins

1939 - Cash and carry proposed to replace the Neutrality Acts

1939 - President Roosevelt, appearing at the opening of the 1939 New York World's Fair, becomes the first President to give a speech that is broadcast on television. Semi-regular broadcasts air during the next two years

1940s

1940 - Selective Service Act, establishing the first peacetime draft in U.S. history

1940 - Alien Registration (Smith) Act

1940 - Oldsmobile becomes the first car maker to offer a fully automatic transmission

1940 - Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry make their cartoon debuts

1940 - Billboard magazine publishes its first music popularity chart, the predecessor to today's Hot 100

1940 - U.S. presidential election, 1940: Franklin D. Roosevelt wins reelection to a record third term

1941 - Regular commercial television broadcasting begins; NBC television launched.

1941 - Lend-Lease, which supplies the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, France and other Allied nations with vast amounts of war material during World War II

1941 - Attack on Pearl Harbor; U.S. enters World War II by declaring war on Japan the next day on December 8; and three days later against Germany and Italy.

1941 - Atlantic Charter, drafted by the UK and U.S., to serve as the blueprint for the postwar world after World War II

1942 - Japanese American internment begins, per executive order by President Roosevelt; the order also authorizes the seizure of their property.

1942–1945 - Automobile production in the United States for private consumers halted.

1942 - Casablanca released

1942 - Operation Barbarossa

1942 - Office of Price Administration

1942 - Cocoanut Grove fire kills 492 people, leads to vast reforms in fire codes and safety standards

1942 - Congress of Racial Equality

1942 - Battle of Stalingrad begins

1942 - Revenue Act of 1942

1942 - Operation Torch

1942 - U.S.-controlled Commonwealth of the Philippines conquered by Japanese forces

1943 - Office of Price Administration established

1943 - Oklahoma! the first musical written by the team of composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II opens on Broadway

1943 - Detroit, Michigan race riots

1943 - Cairo Conference

1943 - Casablanca Conference

1943 - Tehran Conference(meeting between the leaders of USSR, UK, and US to discuss D-day)

1944 - Dumbarton Oaks Conference

1944 - G.I. Bill

1944 - D-Day(also known as operation overlord)

1944 - Bretton Woods Conference

1944 - Battle of the Bulge

1944 - U.S. presidential election, 1944: Franklin D. Roosevelt wins reelection, becomes the only U.S. president elected to a fourth term

1945 - Yalta Conference

1945 - Battle of Okinawa

1945 - Nationwide labor strikes due to inflation; OPA disbanded

1945 - Franklin D. Roosevelt dies; Harry S. Truman becomes President

1945 - Germany surrenders, end of World War II in Europe

1945 - Carousel opens on Broadway

1945 - Potsdam Conference

1945 - Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Days later, Japan surrenders, ending World War II

1945 - United Nations Conference on International Organization; United Nations established

1945 - United Nations Charter signed in San Francisco, establishing the United Nations; it replaces the League of Nations

1945–1949 - Nuremberg Trials and Subsequent Nuremberg Trials

1946 - Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech

1946 - Benjamin Spock's The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care published

1946 - Employment Act

1946 - United States Atomic Energy Act of 1946

1946 - President's Committee on Civil Rights

1946 - Philippines regain independence from the U.S.

1947 - Presidential Succession Act

1947 - Taft Hartley Act

1947 - U.F.O. crash at Roswell, New Mexico

1947 - National Security Act of 1947

1947 - General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

1947 - The Marshall Plan

1947 - Polaroid camera invented

1947 - Truman Doctrine establishes "the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures"

1947 - Federal Employee Loyalty Program

1947 - Jackie Robinson breaks color barrier in baseball

1947 - Studebaker becomes the first automobile manufacturer to introduce a "post-war" model; most automakers wait until 1948 or 1949

1947 - Jackson Pollock begins painting his most famous series of paintings called the drip paintings in Easthampton, New York

1947 - First broadcast of Meet the Press; the World Series is broadcast live for the first time

1948 - The Texaco Star Theater, starring Milton Berle, becomes the first major successful U.S. television program; The Toast of the Town also debuts

1948 - Berlin Blockade

1948 - U.S. presidential election, 1948: President Truman re-elected

1948 - Truman desegregates armed forces

1948 - Selective Service Act of 1948: Passed after first such act expired

1948 - Organization of American States: Alliance of North America and South America

1948 - Alger Hiss Case

1949 - North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) formed

1949 - In China, Communists under Mao Zedong force Chiang Kai-shek's KMT government to retreat to Taiwan

1949 - Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb

1949 - Department of War becomes Department of Defense

1949 - Germany divided into East and West

1949 - Truman attempts to continue FDR's legacy with his Fair Deal, but most acts don't pass