istoryworld
Events relating to north america
Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan star as Tarzan and Jane in Tarzan the Ape Man, the first of countless Tarzan talkies
US author Damon Runyon publishes his first collection of stories about low-life New York, under the title Guys and Dolls
The incumbent president, Republican Herbert Hoover, suffers a heavy defeat by Democrat F.D. Roosevelt in the US election
Prohibition is lifted in the USA when the Twenty-First Amendment repeals the Eighteenth, which has been in force for 13 years
President Roosevelt gives the first of his many 'fireside chats' to the US nation on radio
In My Life and Hard Times James Thurber's publishes an affectionate account of his family, including the night the bed fell on his father
Lloyd Bacon directs 42nd Street, a classic backstage movie about putting a musical comedy on Broadway
US actress Katherine Hepburn wins the first of four Oscars in only her second film, Morning Glory
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is the largest project launched in the first hundred days of Roosevelt's New Deal
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance together for the first time on film, in Flying Down to Rio
Unknown American blues singer Huddie Ledbetter, or Leadbelly, is first recorded singing in the Louisiana State Penitentiary
Gertrude Stein publishes a best-selling account of her own life under the title The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
King Kong, an enduringly successful horror film, is based on a story by Edgar Wallace
Erskine Caldwell publishes a novel, God's Little Acre, about a farmer obsessed with finding gold on his farm
The Marx Brothers make their last film as a foursome, Duck Soup, with Zeppo still in the team
Mae West gives Cary Grant his big break, choosing him as her co-star in She Done Him Wrong
25% of workers in Canada are unemployed as the Depression continues to deepen
Arnold Schoenberg leaves his teaching post in Germany, now under Nazi control, and in 1934 settles in Los Angeles
US author Scott FitzGerald publishes his novel Tender Is the Night
US author Henry Miller publishes in Paris a largely sexual autobiography, Tropic of Cancer, about his life as an expatriate
Five girls are born as quintuplets in the Dionne family of French Catholic farmers in Corbeil, Ontario
Erich Korngold, one of Austria's most admired composers, moves to Hollywood
Elijah Muhammad takes control of the Nation of Islam, or Black Muslims, and leads the movement for more than 40 years
In Lillian Hellman's play The Children's Hour two teachers are maliciously accused of lesbianism by one of their pupils
6-year-old Shirley Temple wins instant fame after starring in Stand up and Cheer
