The World of Your Ancestors - Dates - 1930-1949: 4 of 6

BOOK MAP

Front Cover Photo is the Author’s Family

INTRODUCTION

1930

1935

1940

1945

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

INTRODUCTION

With so much documented information available, volume four covers fewer years.  The author presents bits of information on a variety of subjects.  It contains numerous details about your ancestor’s world. This data in no way intends to contain anything but a brief peek into the past.  Information presented opens up opportunities for reader to do further reading within this series or research books or on-line any areas of interest to them.

The author has tried to be as accurate as possible but sources do present conflicting data.  For example, many items are reinvented time after time so some inventions are listed multiple times.

Did you have an ancestor who lived during the Depression?  Did they hop the trains looking for work?  Were they a marine, sailor or solider in World War II?  Do you know what foods were rationed?  Life was very different then.  See what is new.

Step back in time into your ancestor’s shoes.  Here is your chance to see how your great great or great grandparents lived.  Experience life as they knew it.  Find out who celebrities were then, how much things cost, learn out sports, music, movies, books and much more.

1930

1930-1936

The Coconut Grove restaurant in Hollywood, California hosted the annual Academy Award presentations.

1930-1945

Most U.S. artificial Christmas trees are made with brush bristles.

1930-1959

Between 1930 to 1959 Columbia, MGM, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, UA, Universal and Warner made films every year.  The most films made in one year was in 1941 when 497 were made in Hollywood, California. 

Wisconsin laundry service includes mending shirts, darning socks and replacing broken or lost buttons on your underwear without charge.

1930

60 percent of U.S.’s elderly population is self supporting.

Anagrams is a popular game.

Baseball cards are included in gum packages.  Before this, they came in cigarette packages.

Bingo is played.

Cavalcade is a popular game.

Chrysler Building in New York City is completed.

Cigaret smoking is still gaining popularity since World War I.

Coca-Cola bottling nine million a day.

Cub Scouts organized.

Double level cork screw type is patented in U.S.

Emigration from U.S. exceeds immigration to the U.S. for the first time ever.

Federal agents seize 282,000 stills and pieces of distilling equipment from bootleggers.  In 1925 it was 173,000.

First traffic moves between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Canada through tunnel under Detroit River.

Flooding occurs in the state of Vera Cruz, Mexico killing hundreds of people and damaging many towns.

Flooding occurs in River Tarn, France killing 400 and destroying 4,000 homes.

Ford Motor made 1,517,023 cars worldwide.  One in five in U.S. owns a car.

Fortune Magazine is started by Henry Robinson Luce.

French assembly passes a social security bill.

German Junker airplanes and France’s Farnan airplanes both have pressurized chambers for crews.  (In 1937 U.S.’s Lockheed XC-35 has this pressure system as a part of the aircraft).

Maxwell House coffee is being sold.

Nazi’s become second largest party in Germany.

Northern Cheyenne Reservation is last communally owned tract of land to be allotted.

Over 1,000 banks close and many people lose their life savings.

Paved roads and route numbers begin to appear making real road maps possible.

Planet Pluto is discovered in an observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.

South African white women get the right to vote.

Some women in Greece and South Africa get the right to vote.

The T-shirt marketed by Hanes.  It had been used earlier by the U.S. Navy.

The Veterans Administration is established.

There were only 8,900 horse drawn vehicles in Chicago down from 53,000 in 1908.

U.S. has 26,545,281 cars registered.

U.S. has almost seven million hunters.

U.S. National debt is sixteen million dollars.

U.S. Senate survey on Native American Indian policy finds that BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) school officials are kidnapping Navajo children.

U.S. White House gets air conditioning along with the Department of Commerce and the Executive Office Building.

Wheelchair, like modern design, is made.

Women in Turkey voted at local lections but didn’t vote at national level until 1934.

Wonder Bread now owned by Continental Baking Company introduces sliced Wonder Break.

World’s Fair is held in Seville, Spain and Belgium.

Yo-Ho baked snack is being sold.

1930 POPULATION

Life expectancy = 59.7 years (More than 5 ½ year increase since 1920).

Alaska’s population is 59,000.

American Samoa’s population is 10,005.

Bermuda’s population is 29,000.

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Central America’s population is 6,285,500.

British Honduras’ population is 51,000.

Costa Rica’s population is 516,000.

Guatemala’s population is 2,164,000.

Honduras’ population is 860,000.

Nicaragua’s population is 750,000.

Panama’s population is 467,000.

Panama Canal Zone’s population is 39,500.

Salvador’s population is 1,438,000.

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Greenland’s population is 14,355.

Guam’s population is 18,509.

Hawaii’s population is 368,336.

Mexico’s population is 16,404,000.

North American population is 169,000,000.

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Canada’s population is 10,374,200.

Alberta’s population is 731,600.

British Columbia’s population is 694,300.

Manitoba’s population is 700,100.

New Brunswick’s population is 408,200.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s population is 272,000.

NW Territories’ population is 7,100.

Nova Scotia’s population is 512,800.

Ontario’s population is 3,431,700.

Prince Edward Islands’ population is 88,000.

Quebec’s population is 2,874,200.

Saskatchewan’s population is 921,800.

Yukon Territory’s population is 4,200.

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U.S. population is 122,775,046 or 23,202,624.

Chicago, Illinois population is 3.4 million (doubled in thirty years).

Connecticut’s population is 67,130 (9.0 percent French).

Maine’s population is 99,765 (13.4 percent French).

Massachusetts’ population is 336,871 (45.3 percent French).

New Hampshire’s population is 101,324 (13.6 percent French).

Rhode Island’s population is 91, 173 (12.3 percent French).

Vermont’s population is 46,956 (6.4 percent French).

Philippine Islands’ population is 12,000,000.

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South America’s population is 83,000,000.

Argentina’s population is 11,471,000.

Bolivia’s population is 2,973,000.

Brazil’s population is 40,273,000.

Chile’s population is 4,287,000.

Columbia’s population is 7,851,000.

Ecuador’s population is 2,533,000.

Falkland Islands’ population is 3,286.

Guiana, British populations is 310,000.

Guiana, French population is 47,000.

Paraguay’s population is 844,000.

Peru’s population is 6,237,000.

Surinam/Netherland Guiana’s population is 153,000.

Uruguay’s population is 1,903,000.

Venezuela’s population is 3,250,000.

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West Indies’ population is 11,600,000.  Countries include Bahamas, Cuba, Dominion Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Porto Rico, Virgin Islands, British West Indies, French West Indies and Netherland West Indies.

1930 FAMOUS PEOPLE

Alvin A. Kelly, pole sitter sits on a flagpole on Steel Pier at Atlantic City for 1,177 hours (more than 49 days).

Charles Curtis is Vice President of U.S.

Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto, the ninth planet of our solar system.

Ernest Orlando Lawrence, physicist invents his first cyclotron (atom smasher).

Fulton John Sheen, religious leader, first appears on NBC radio show The Catholic Hour.

George Washington’s head is dedicated on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

Glenn Curtis, aviation pioneer, dies at age 52.

Gutzon Borglum unveils the first of four heads on Mt. Rushmore.

Herbert Hoover is U.S. President.

Ho Chi Minh and his followers start the Indochinese Communist Party.

John Breck develops a shampoo for normal hair.  (In 1933 he adds oily and dry versions).

Karl Landsteiner, Austrian, wins Nobel Prize for medicine for identifying blood groups (A,B,O) in 1901 and 1902.

Lars Olof Nathan Soderblom wins Nobel Peace Prize.

Mahatma/Mohandos Karamchard Gandhi leads the civil disobedience movement  in India against Great Britain.

Marie-Louise (Maryse) Hilsz buys a Gipsy Moth airplane, flies 15,000 miles from Paris, France to Saigon, French Indochina, and becomes first woman ever to make the round trip.

Nicholas Longworth, a Republican is Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Otto Rohwedder invents sliced bread machine that cuts and wraps.

Richard Drew develops Scotch tape (cellophane).

Richard E. Byrd has a ticker paper parade in New York after returning from a year in Antarctica.

Robert Stroud, criminal, is recognized as authority on canaries and other birds.

Vannevar Bush at MIT in Boston invents the differential analyzer or analog computer.

Warren Buffett, successful investor, is born.

Wiley Post in his plane Winnie Mae wins Los Angeles-Chicago Bendix Trophy race.

Yuko Hamaguchi, Japanese Prime Minister, is shot.

1930 PRICES

Average Income = $1,973 per year

New Home = $7,146

New Car = $610

Buick = over $1,200

Chevrolet = $500

Ford Four door sedan = $625

Jordan Motor Company Speedway 114 horsepower race car going 100 miles per  hour = $5,000 and up.

Peerless four passenger eight cylinder Coupe = $1,495 to $1,995.  Peerless making vehicles with inside visors for sun glare protection.  The last car built on 11/4/1931.

Peerless five passenger eight cylinder sedan = 41,495 to $2,320

Peerless seven passenger Limousine = $3,045

Plymouth = $500

Pontiac Big 6 = $745 and up

Whippet = $500

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Average Rent = $15 per month (same as 1920)

Tuition to Harvard University = $400 per year (double 1920 amount)

Movie Ticket = 25 cents

Gasoline = 10 cents per gallon (up 3 cents from 1920)

U.S. stamp = 2 cents (same as 1920)

Granulated Sugar = 65 cents/10 lbs. (same as 1920)

Vitamin D Milk = 56 cents per gallon

Bacon = 25 cents per lb.

Eggs = 15 cents per dozen

Fresh Ground Hamburger = 13 cents per lb.

Fresh Baked Bread = 9 cents per load (8 cents less than 1920)

Ground Coffee = 46 cents per lb. (almost 4 times 1920)

Hostess Cake Lemon Loaf = 20 cents

Burma Shave - ½ lb. = 50 cents (price stayed same until at least 1948), l lb. = 85 cents (price stayed same until at least 1948), jar = 50 cents

Chaps = $13.50 to $45.50 in Colorado

Magic Chef Stove = $195

Wilson Tennis Balls = $1.50 at Sears & Roebuck catalog

Women’s shoes = $10 and up

1930 INVENTIONS AND INTRODUCTIONS

Bob-Label Lithiated Lemmon-Lime Soda, (later changed to 7-Up) is introduced.

Canada Dry Club Soda, created by Canadian pharmacists, J.J. McLaughlin in 1904, is renamed and introduced.

Frozen foods are sold commercially for the first time.

Philly Steak Sandwich is introduced in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

PVC is introduced in U.S.

Snickers candy bars named after a racehorse are invented.

Twinkies are invented.  Other sources are 1931 and 1933.

Wonder Bread with sliced loaf is introduced by Continental Baking Company.

1930 SPORTS

Alabama and Notre Dame win College Football Championship.

Babe Ruth, New York Yankee baseball player earns salary of $80.000.  (He earns the same amount in 1931).

Billy Arnold going 100.448 miles per hour wins Indianapolis 500.

Bobby Jones wins U.S. Open Golf and three other major golf tournaments, retires.  Between 1923 and 1930 when he retired, he won 13 major championships.

E. Sande on Gallant Fox wins Kentucky Derby.

First soccer World Cup is held in Uruguay and Uruguay beats Argentina 4 to 2.

Green Bay Packers win Pro Football Championship.

Montreal Canadians win hockey’s Stanley Cup.

Philadelphia Athletics beat St. Louis Cardinals in baseball’s World Series.

Pittsburgh wins N.C.A.A. Basketball Championship.

William (Big Bill) Tatem Tilden, Jr. wins his third Wimbledon tennis championship.

Yankees signed Babe Ruth to a two-year contract worth $160,000, prompting General Manager, Ed Barrow to predict, No one will ever be paid more.

1930 MUSIC

Bidin’ My Time

Body and Soul by Paul Whiteman

But Not for Me

Can This be Love?

Dancing on the Ceiling

Embraceable You by Red Nichols

Happy Days Are Here Again by Benny Meroff

I Can Dream, Can’t I by Tommy Dorsey

I Got Rhythm

I’m Confessin’ by Guy Lombardo

Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries by Rudy Vallee

Love For Sale

My Baby Just Cares For Me by Ted Weems

On the Sunny Side of the Street by Ted Lewis

Puttin’ On the Ritz by Harry Richman

So Beats My Heart For You by Earl Burtnett

Strike Up the Band by Red Nichols

Three Little Words by Duke Ellington

13,750,000 families owned radios in U.S.  (Up from 60,000 in 1922).

Let’s Pretend is a popular radio show.

Lone Ranger Radio Show airs over WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan.

Robert LeRoy Ripley’s Believe It or Not radio show debuts from remote faraway places.

1930 MOVIES

A Lady to Love starring Vilma Banky

All Quiet on the Western Front starring Lew Ayres and Louis Wolheim is an Academy Award winner.  Germany bans the film.

Animals Crackers starring the Marx Brothers

Anna Christie starring Greta Garbo

Billy the Kid starring Wallace Beery

Bulldog Drummond

Charley’s Aunt starring Charles Ruggles

Common Clay starring Lew Ayres

Dangerous Paradise starring Richard Arlen.  The French version is called Don a Desert Island.

Disraeli

East is West starring Lupe Velez

Follow the Fleet taken from Broadway’s Hit the Deck stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Randolph Scott and Harriet Hilliard

Follow the Leader staring Ed Wynn

Follow Thru

Heads Up

Hell’s Angels produced and directed by Howard Hughes starring Ben Lyon, James Hall and Jean Harlow

Hit the Deck starring Jack Oakie

Hold Everything

Holiday starring Mary Astor

Kathleen Mavoureen starring Sally O’Neil

King of Jazz

Kiss Me Kate starring Walter Pidgeon and Bernice Claire

Leathernecking

Lightnin’ starring Will Rogers

Liliom starring Charles Farrell

Little Caesar starring Edward G. Robinson

Manslaughter starring Fredric March and Claudette Colbert

Men Are Like That starring Hal Skelly

Min and Bill starring Marie Dressler (talkie)

Moby Dick starring John Barrymore, Walter Long and Nobel Johnson

Morocco starring Marlene Dietrich

Murder directed by Alfred Hitchcock

New Moon starring Grace Moore

No, No Nanette starring Alexander Gray

One Romanic Night starring Lillian Gish

Outward Bound starring Leslie Howard

Paramount on Parade

Raffles starring Ronald Colman

River’s End starring Charles Bickford

Romance starring Greta Garbo

So This is London starring Will Rogers

Song of the West starring Vivienne Segal and John Boles

Spring is Here

Sunny starring Marilyn Miller

The Bad Man starring Walter Huston

The Big House starring Wallace Beery

The Blue Angel starring Marlene Dietrich and Emil Jannings

The Dawn Patrol starring James Finlayson and Richard Barthelmess

The Divorcee starring Norma Shearer, Chester Morris and Conrad Nagel

The Last of the Duanes starring George O’Brien

The Light of the Western Stars starring Richard Arlen

The Lone Star Ranger starring George O’Brien

The Love Parade

The Rogue Song

The School for Scandal starring Basil Gill (British)

The Sea Wolf starring Jane Keith, Milton Sills and Raymond Hackett

The Spoilers starring Betty Compson, Gary Cooper and William Boyd

The Storm starring Lupe Velez

The Vagabond King starring Dennis King

Those Who Dance starring Lila Lee

Three Faces East starring Constance Bennett

Tol’able David starring Richard Cromwell

Tom Sawyer starring Jackie Coogan

Trader Horn, a West African movie based on the 1927 novel Ethelreda Lewis.

Up the River starring Spencer Tracy

Whoopie starring Eddie Cantor

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A total of 355 movies were made in Hollywood, California.  Warner’s made 86, MGM and 20th Century Fox each made 47, Universal made 36, RKO made 29, Columbia made 31 and UA made 15.  (Through 1934 these movie studios dominated the industry).

Donald Duck, Walt Disney cartoon character, makes his screen debut.

Mickey Mouse comic strip first appears.

Paramount made 64 movies.

Warner made 86 movies.

1930 BOOKS

Angel Pavement by J.B. Priestly

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Byron by Andre Maurois (NF)

Chances by A. Hamilton Gibbs

Cimarron by Edna Ferber

Early Moon by Carl Sandburg

Exile by Warwick Deeping

Great Moments in Freedom by Marion Lansing

Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Lyman Field and illustrated by Dorothy P. Lathrop received Newbery medal.

Laughing Boy by Oliver Lafarge wins Pulitzer Prize.

Lincoln by Emil Ludwig (NF)

Lone Cowboy by Will James (NF)

Mostly Mary, (Mary Plain) bear character created by British author Giwynedd Rae.  (Thirteen other books follow including Mary Plain Goes to America in 1957). 

Rogue Herries by Hugh Walpole

Stars To-night; Verses New and Old for Boys and Girls by Sara Teasdale

The Adams Family by James Truslow Adams (NF)

The Bold Dragoon, and Other ghostly Tales by Washington Irving and edited by A.C. Moore.

The Bridge by Hart Craine

The Door by Mary Roberts Rinehart

The Earth for Sam; the Story of Mountains, Rivers, Dinosaurs, and Men by William Karl Reed.

The Gold-Ring and Other Tales by Edgar Allan Poe and illustrated by Carlos Sanchez and part of Children’s Classics.

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

The Outline of History by H.G. Wells (NF)

The Rise of American Civilization by Charles and Mary Beard (NF)

The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant (NF)

The Story of San Michele by Axel Munthe (NF)

The Strange Death of President Harding by Gaston B. Means and May Dixon Thacker (NF)

The Woman of Andros by Thornton Wilder

Twenty-Four Hours by Louis Bromfield

Wild Animals of North America by Edward Nelson

Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes

Young Man of Manhattan by Katharine Brush

1930 THEATER

An Affair of State

Bad Girl

Brown Buddies (all Negro cast)

Girl Crazy by the Gershwins ran for 272 performances

Fine and Dandy (musical)

Flying High starring Bert Lahr and Kate Smith and ran for 357 performances.

Girl Crazy by Ira and George Gershwins and starring Ethel Merman (21 years old) and Ginger Rogers (19 years old).

Green Pastures

Lysistrata

Man in Possession

Once in a Lifetime

Scarlet Sister Mary starring Ethel Barrymore

Smiles starring the Astaires

Steeping Sisters

Strictly Dishonorable

Strike Up the Band ran for 191 performances.

That’s Gratitude (comedy)

The Love of Don Perlimpin by Garcia Locca

Three’s a Crowd

Tonight or Never

1/1930

The first radio broadcast of The Lone Range at WXYZ-Detroit.

1/20/1930

Edwin Buzz Aldrin, U.S. Air Force astronaut, is born in Montclair, New Jersey.

1/30/1930

Gene Hackman, actor, is born in San Bernardino, California.

2/1930

Lillian Frances Smith, sharp shooting performer from 1886 to about 1925, dies.  She first started with William Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show.  She was buried in your performing outfit of a buckskin dress.

The first red and green traffic lights are installed in New York City, New York.

2/8/1930

John Williams, American composer and conductor is born.

2/10/1930

Robert Wagner, actor, is born.

2/28/1930

Gavin MacLeod, television actor best known for his roles on the Mary Tyler Show and the Loveboat2014, is born.

3/1930

In Washington, the Republican Club votes for a dry law repeal.

3/6/1930

Clarence Birdseye begins selling prepackaged frozen food in Springfield, Massachusetts.

3/8/1930

William Howard Taft, 27th U.S. President, dies in Washington, D.C.

3/9/1930

Emma Fahning, bowls 300 game in Buffalo, New York becoming the first woman to do so in a sanctioned game.

3/24/1930-1980

Steve McQueen, actor’s lifetime.  He was born in Beech Grove, Indiana and dies of a stomach tumor.

3/28/1930

Two Turk towns change names when Constantinople becomes Istanbul and Angara becomes Ankara.

3/30/1930

Frank Hawks in Eaglet starts first cross-country flight in San Diego, California.   It ends 4/7/1930 in New York.

John Astin, actor best know for his television role on Adams Family, is born.

4/1930

The U.S., Britain and Japan agree to reduce their naval forces.

4/20/1930

Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Charles Lindbergh set record flying non-stop from  California to New York in 14 hours and 45 minutes.

5/1930

About four million U.S. people are out of work during Depression.

Jack Frye, Vice President and Central Officer Manager of TWA, flies non-stop from Los Angeles, California to Newark, New Jersey in 11 hours and 31 minutes.

The Supreme Court rules that buying liquor does not violate the Constitution.

5/1/1930

Joseph Crater, New York Supreme Court Justice, vanishes, never to be found.

5/5/1930

Amy Johnson became the first woman to make a solo flight between England and Australia.  She left from Croydon, near London and arrived in Darwin 19 days later.  (She later made records on other long distance flights).

5/15/1930

Ellen Church departs from Oakland / San Francisco, California and becomes the first airline stewardess to actually fly.

5/19/1930

Lorraine Hansberry, playwright best known for A Raisin in the Sun, is born in Chicago, Illinois.

5/31/1930

Clint Eastwood, actor and director, is born in San Francisco, California.

6/1930

The first radar detection of planes is made in Anacostia, D.C.

7/1930

In Chicago, a heat wave kills 72 people.

7/7/1930

Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Homes author, dies in England at age 71.

7/21/1930

U.S. President Herbert Hoover signs creation of the Veterans Administration.

7/31/1930

The Shadow debuts as a part of Detective Story Hour on CBS Radio.

8/5/1930

Neil Allen Armstrong, U.S. astronaut and first to walk on the moon, is born in Wapakeneta, Ohio.

Frank Gifford, ABC sportscaster, is born.

8/9/1930

Betty Boop debuts in Max Fleischer’s animated cartoon Dizzy Dishes.  Grim Natwick (1890-1990) designed her.

8/23/1930

Vera Miles, movie and TV actress, is born.

8/25/1930

Sean Connery, actor best known for playing James Bond, is born in Edinburgh, Scotland.

9/1930

Al Smith nominated Franklin Delano Roosevelt for a second term as governor of  New York.

The Detroit Lions (as Portsmouth Spartans) play their first NFL game and win 13-6.

9/2/1930

First nonstop airplane flight from Europe to U.S.  It took 37 hours.

9/8/1930

Scotch brand cellophane tape invented by Richard Drew of 3M (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company) is introduced in Chicago, Illinois for bakery goods.

The Blondie (Blondie Boopadoop) comic strip by Murat Bernard ‘Chic’ Young begins publication.  (Movies and radio programs will start in the 1930’s.  Dagwood Bumstead added in 1933, Baby Dumpling Alexander) is added in 1934 and Cookie in 1941).

9/21-10/5/1930

First National Glider Contest is held in Elmira, New York.

9/23/1930

Ray Charles, blind singer, is born.

9/30/1930

Regal Twins in Manchester, English opens two 800 seat auditorium with one projection booth.

10/1930

Charles Kingsford-Smith leaves London, England in a Avro Avain biplane and lands in Australia in 9 days and 22 hours for new record (beating old   record by 5 ½ days).

The first schedule transcontinental air service begins.

10/1/1930

British Imperial Conference opened in London, England.

Twenty-one of Detroit, Michigan’s millionaires (Walter P. Chrysler, Lawrence P. Fisher and Henry Ford) agree to a program to create 25,000 new jobs for the unemployed.

10/9/1930

A bad day in the stock market when all industrial shares fall below the level of panic of 11/1929.

10/13/1930

107 followers of Adolf Hitler (leader) wearing full Fascist uniforms of black military boots, brown shirts and trousers, take their seats in the Reichstag defiling parliamental rule.

10/21/1930

British Prime Minister MacDonald’s statement that although Palestine will remain the Jewish homeland that no more Jews could settle there due to over population angers Jews in Britain and U.S.

10/23/1930

General Chiang Kai-shek, war lord and president of China, is baptized a Methodist.  His wife was already a Christian being educated in U.S.

10/25/1930

President Herbert Hoover authorized the Post Office to hire 250,000 additional employers to work the two weeks before Christmas.

11/1930

The first nonstop airplane flight from New York to Panama occurs.

11/2/1930

Haile Selassie is crowned emperor of Ethiopia.

11/5/1930

Sinclair Lewis, author of Babbitt and Main Streets and becomes the first American to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.

11/7/1930

Soviet Russia celebrates its 30th birthday.

11/11/1930

Russia releases information about an international plot to overthrow the Bolsheviks saying that Russian professors, engineers, and Lawrence of Arabia are involved.

11/14/1930

Fighting continues in Russia as peasants fight to have keep their land rather than to have it seized, owned, and used by the government.

11/17/1930

Major General Douglas MacArthur becomes the youngest Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army since World War I.

Robert Bruce Mathias, record breaking decathlons champion and winner of gold in two Olympic Games, was born in Tulare, California.

11/20/1930

Mahatma Gandhi, Indian leader resisting British rule, is jailed.

12/1930

Bette Davis, actress, arrives in Hollywood under contract to Universal Studios.

12/15/1930

Marshall law in Spain is declared this afternoon when rebels demand a republic instead of a King.

12/22/1930

U.S. President, Herbert Hoovers gets his unemployment relief bills passed in both Houses.

1931-1936

Frederick A. Victor (Steinway & Sons) invents accelerated action for pianos.

1931

Allstate Insurance Company is formed.

Britain’s First All-Woman’s Flying Meeting is held at Sywell Aerodrome.

Chevrolet introduces the pickup truck.

Electric can opener in use.

Experimental television broadcasts occurs from the Empire State Building in New York City, New York.

Flooding occurs in Central China killing 200,000 and causing 440 million in property damages.

Floyd Bennett Field, Long Island has world’s longest concrete runway.

Jigsaw puzzles are given away as advertising promotions when toothbrushes are bought.

Over 800 U.S. banks close.

Paris Exposition.

Peerless automobile company made an almost all aluminum V16 vehicle.

Pennsylvania takes over maintenance of more than 20,167 miles of rural dirt roads that become paves with a bituminous macadam material.

Ringling / Barnum & Bailey Circus has 18 zebras wearing muzzles to prevent bites.

S-40, American Clipper, first of series of 4 engine amphibian aircraft by Igor Ivan Sikorsky is unveiled.

Santa Claus depiction by Haddon Sundblom for Coca Cola.

Tootsie roll pops candy is made.

U.S. has 20,000 suicides.

U.S. has 33,700 road fatalities.

Vinyl coated waterproof fabrics used commercially.

Wisconsin is producing 76 million pounds of tobacco on 38,386 acres in 22 counties.

Women in Sri Lanka (was Ceylon) get the right to vote.

Wooden nickel used.

1931 FAMOUS PEOPLE

Al Capone, mobster, is found guilty of tax invasion and is given a prison sentence.

Auguste Piccard, Swiss physicist, is first person to fly in a pressurized capsule.

Auguste Piccard, Swiss physicist, makes record of ten miles in a stratospheric balloon.

Brequet and Renne Dorand, his technical director, fly 600 feet at 61 miles per hour for over one hour in a helicopter.

Charles W. A. Scott flew a Moth both directions between England and Australia and reduced the westbound flight by two days.

Charles Lindbergh and his wife survey Alaska for possible air route to Japan and China.

Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon make first nonstop transpacific flight.

Edgar Waldo Ingram, now sole owner of White Castle restaurants develops a paper that is heat resistant for carry-out orders.

G.J.M. Darrius invents vertical axis egg beater type wind turbine.

Harold Edgerton invents electronic flash for cameras.

King Alfonso XII leaves Spain after Republican and Socialist candidates win elections.

Knute Rockne, football player and coach, dies in airplane crash in Kansas.

Max Knott and Ernst Ruska, Germans, invent electron microscope.

Vladimir Kosma Zworykin invents the first iconoscope, high efficiency scanning camera  tube (for television).

Wiley Post in his plane Winnie Mae becomes the first person to fly around the world.  It took 8 days, 15 hours and 51 minutes.  (Two years later, he beat earlier record by completing in 7 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes).

1931 PRICES

New Car

Hup mobile Model S two passenger roadster = $995.  Company made 17,000 total cars.

Hub mobile Model S five passenger = $1,250

Jordan Motor Company five passenger Coupe = $2,295.  Company stopped making cars in 9/1932.

Jordan Motor Company five passenger sedan = $2,295

Jordan Motor Company seven passenger sedan = $2,595

Jordan Motor Company seven passenger Limousine = $2,695

Jordan Motor Company seven passenger Touring = $2,49

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Airline ticket from New York City, New York to Chicago, Illinois average = $119.00

Steinway piano = $875.00

1931 INVENTIONS AND INTRODUCTIONS

Alka-Seltzer is first sold.  (Another source has 1930).

Bisquick is introduced.

Electric mixer is introduced.

Electric shaver is first marketed in New York and gained popularity by 1937.

First pinball machine called Ballyhoo is invented.  Tilt mechanism added in 1934 to prevent players from shaking machines.  In 1947 flippers were added.  Later bumpers, drop targets and lights were all added to game.

Paper Towel Roll is introduced by Scott Paper Company.

Television camera tube, Iconoscope, is created and improved.

1931 FIRST MADE AND FIRST USED

Toll House cookies are first made.

1931 SPORTS

Helen Newington Wills wins U.S. tennis championship.

St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Athletics in baseball’s World Series.

William (Big Bill) Tatem Tilden, Jr. champion tennis player, turns professional. He is singles champion in 1931 and 1935.

1931 MUSIC

By the River St. Marie by Guy Lombardo

I Found a Million Dollar Baby (In a Five and Ten Cent Store)

Of Thee I Sing

When Your Lover Has Gone

Where the Blue of the Night Meets the Gold of the Day

You’re my Everything

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Stereo developed.

The Star Spangled Banner becomes official anthem of U.S.  Land of the free and the home of the brave.  The tune was from an old English drinking song.

1931 MOVIES

A Connecticut Yankee starring Will Rogers

A Free Soul starring Norma Shearer

A Holy Terror starring George O’Brien

Alice in Wonderland starring Ruth Gilbert

Arrowsmith

Bad Girl starring Sally Eilers and James Dunn

Captain Applejack starring Mary Brian

Charlie Chan Carries On starring Warner Oland

Cimarron starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne is first western to ever win Academy Award.

City Lights starring Charlie Chaplin and Virginia Cherrill

Daddy Long Legs starring Janet Gaynor

Dishonored starring Marlene Dietrich

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring Holmes Herbert, Fredric March and Halliwell Hobbes

Dracula starring Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye.  Bela had flashlights shone into his eyes for effect during filming and he was later buried in the cloak worn in the movie.

Fifty Million Frenchmen starring William Gaxton and Helen Broderick

Five Star Final starring Edward G. Robinson

Flowers and Tress by Walt Disney wins 1932 Academy Award for Cartoon Short Subject.

Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Mae Clarke and John Boles

Happy Landing plays in England.

His Woman starring Gary Cooper

June Moon starring Jack Oakie

Kiki starring Mary Pickford

Kismet starring Otis Skinner

M starring Peter Lorre (French)

Monkey Business starring the Marx Brothers

New Moon

No, No, Nanette

Once a Lady starring Ruth Chatterton

Penrod and Sam starring Leon Janney

Public Enemy

Resurrection starring Lupe Velez

Riders of the Purple Sage starring George O’Brien

Secret Service starring Richard Dix

Six-Cylinder Love starring Spencer Tracy

Skippy

Skyline starring Myrna Loy

Swengali starring John Barrymore

Tabu

Ten Nights in a Barroom starring William Farnum

The Champ starring Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper

The Gay Divorce starring Ginger Rogers and Betty Grable

The Iron Man starring Lew Ayres

The Maltese Falcon starring Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels

The Millionaire starring George Arliss

The Public Enemy starring James Cagney, Jean Harlow and Joan Blondell

The Sin of Madelon Claudet starring Helen Hayes, Jean Hersholt and Robert Young

The Smiling Lieutenant starring Maurice Chevalier, Claudette Colbert and Charles Ruggles

The Squaw Man starred Warner Baxter was Cecil B. Deville’s third directing of this movie.

Trader Horn starring Harry Carey

Waterloo Bridge starring Mae Clarke

Within the Law starring Joan Crawford

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85 percent of all U.S. theaters wired for sound.

Double feature movies start to become popular.

Paramount made 62 movies.

Warner made 54 movies.

1931 BOOKS

A White Bird Flying by Bess Streeter Aldrich

Black Street by Fannie Hurst

Boners: Being a Collection of Schoolboy Wisdom, or Knowledge as It is Sometimes Written compiled by Alexander Abingdon and illustrated by Dr. Seuss (NF)

Child and the Universe by Bertha E. Stevens

Contract Bridge Blue Book by Ely Culbertson (NF)

Culbertson’s Summary by Ely Culbertson (NF)

Education of a Princess by Grand Duchess Marie (NF)

Fatal Interview by Edna St. Vincent Millay (NF)

Finch’s Fortune by Mazo de la Roche

Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum

Heroes of Civilization by Joseph Cottler and Haym Jaffe

Maid in Waiting by John Galsworthy

Mexico by Stuart Chase (NF)

My Experiences in the World War by John Joseph Pershing was a Pulitzer Prize winner.  (NF)

National Parks Portfolio by the U.S. National Park Service

New Russia’s Primer by Mikhail Ilin (NF)

Sanctuary by William Faulkner

Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather

The Bridge of Desire by Warwick Deeping

The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth and illustrated by Lynd Ward receives Newbery medal.

The Christ Child

The Epic of America by James Truslow Adams (NF)

The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett

The Good Earth by Pearl S, Buck (Pulitzer Prize winner)

The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman and illustrated by James Daugherty

The Road Back by Erich Maria Remarque

The Secret at Shadow Ranch (Nancy Drew) is published and it introduces the characters of George Fayne and Bess Marvin.

The Story of San Michele by Axel Munthe (NF)

The World We Live In, and How it Came to Be by Gertrude Hartman.

Washington Merry-Go-Round by anonymous (Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen)

Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes

1931 THEATER

Of Thee I Sing, Pulitzer Prize for Drama winner written by George Simon Kaufman, Ira Gershwin and Morris Ryskind.

The Band Wagon starring Fed and Adele Astaire, Frank Morgan

The Cat and the Fiddle ran for 305 performances.

1/3/1931

Marshal Joffre hero of the Marne in France during World War I dies.

1/5/1931

The House of Representatives passes a bill authorizing the U.S. President Herbert Hoover to distribute $45 million dollars to farmers suffering from drought.  The President signs bill on 1/15/1931.

1/7/1931

60,000 U.S. workers regain employment during the first week of the new year.  There is talk of creating unemployment insurance.

1/10/1931

Eastern Air Transport Line introduces flying hostess when five girls are on duty flying in big planes between New York and Washington.

1/22/1931

The British Government is considering a general amnesty for political prisoners in India after over 50,000 arrests during non-violent rebellions.

1/23/1931

American engineers help with the building of the world’s largest steel mills near Magnet Mountain in remote Siberia.

Germany refuses to pay its World War I debt - reparations bill.  On 5/2/1931 U.S. confirms all debts must be paid.

1/24/1931

Joseph Stalin, Russia’s leader, signs another statement taking more steps to eliminate private land ownership.

1/26/1931

American Legion want the government to immediate reimburse former military men cash payment in regards to bonuses due them.  Despite the President’s veto, the bill passes 2/27/1931.

Engineers and technicians from many countries especially Germany and U.S. are  finding jobs in Russia.

Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Nationalist movement in India, is released from jail.

1/27/1931

Senator Laval became the new Premier of France’s new government today.

1/31/1931-1/23/2015

Ernie Banks, Baseball Hall of Fame infielder’s lifetime.  He was born in Dallas, Texas.

2/7/1931

U.S. President Herbert Hoover adds another $20 million for drought relief.  Long needed rain reaches part of the Mid West and Southwest today.

2/8/1931-9/30/1955

James Dean, Indiana born actor’s lifetime.  When he dies in a car crash in California, fans go crazy.

2/9/1931

Soviet government degrees the 100’s of thousands of women must work in factories and their children placed in care of government nurses.

2/10/1931

Nazi deputies walked out and seceded from Reichstag.

2/13/1931

Dracula starring Bela Lugosi, first shown.

2/17/1931

King Alfonso in Spain agrees to step down from his throne and leave Spain if it was best for his country.  A new cabinet government is formed the next day.  U.S. recognized the Republic of Spain on 4/22/1931.

Lord Irwin, Viceroy of India and Mahatma Gandhi, meet and on 3/4/1931 an agreement is signed.

2/25/1931

Chicago people gather to look at Al Capone (Scarface) held by the authorities.

3/3/1931

Star Spangled Banner officially becomes U.S. national anthem after Robert LeRoy Ripley’s column draws attention to it.

3/7/1931

Five German Catholic Church bishops forbid Catholics from join Hitler.

3/11/1931

New York Mayor Walker and his administration are questioned and some ask for removal and investigation.  Formal charges are made 3/18/1931.

3/13/1931

Poggensee, a German, flew a rocket 1,500 feet that took photographs.

3/15/1931

Tarzan color comic strip debuts as Sunday syndication.

3/18/1931

Schick, Inc. marketed the first electric shaver.

3/19/1931

Las Vegas, Nevada legalizes gambling.

3/22/1931

William Shatner, actor best known for his roles in Star Trek and T.J. Hooker, is born.

SPRING OF 1931

Sir George Milne, British Field Marshall warns Committee of Imperial Defence of Rome-Berlin Axis.

3/27/1931

Charlie Chaplin received the Legion of Honor in Paris, France.

3/31/1931

Knute Rockne, Notre Dame football coach, dies in a airplane crash.  His teams won 105 games and lost only 12 games  between 1919 and 1931.

4/14/1931

Spain declares end of monarch and replaces it with the Second Republic.  A new constitution is adopted 12/9/1931.

4/15/1931

Tarzan, the Ape Man by MGM is released.  It stars Johnny Weissmuller winner of five gold metals in 1924 and 1928.  He retired undefeated and won 67 world