1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January

• January 1 - Alcatraz becomes a federal prison.
• January 1 - Nazi Germany passes the "Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring."
• January 7 - First Flash Gordon comic strip is published.
• January 10 - Execution of Marinus van der Lubbe
• January 11 - Birth of Jean Chrétien
• January 24 - Einstein visits White House
• January 26 - The Apollo Theater opens in Harlem, New York City.
• January 26 - 10 year German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact

February

• February 6 - February 6, 1934 French political crisis. The French far right leagues rally in front of the Palais Bourbon, an attempted coup against the Third Republic
• February 9 - Gaston Doumergue forms a new government in France
• February 12 - The Export-Import Bank is incorporated.
• February 12 to February 16 - Austrian Civil War
• February 16 - Commission of Government sworn in as form of direct rule for the Dominion of Newfoundland.
• February 23 - Léopold III becomes King of Belgium.

March

• March 1 - Manchuria becomes Manchukuo
• March 3 - John Dillinger escapes from jail in Crown Point, Indiana, using a wooden pistol
• March 8 - Prince Sigvard of Sweden loses his titles because of his marriage
• March 13 - John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and their gang rob the First National Bank in Mason City, Iowa.
• March 20 - All the police forces in Germany come under command of Heinrich Himmler

April

• April 1 - Clyde Barrow and Henry Methvin kill two young highway patrolmen near Grapevine, Texas.
• April 6 - Rudyard Kipling and William Butler Yeats are awarded the Gothenburg Prize for Poetry.
• April 19 - Surgeon R.K. Wilson allegedly takes a photograph of the Loch Ness Monster.
• April 22 - John Dillinger and two others shoot their way out of the FBI ambush in northern Wisconsin

May

• May 7 - Pearl of Lao-Tzu, 24 x 14 cm, is found in a giant clam off Palawan, Philippines
• May 11 - Dust Bowl: A strong two-day dust storm removes massive amounts of Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst dust storms of the Dust Bowl.
• May 15 - The United States Department of Justice offers a $25,000 reward for John Dillinger.
• May 15 - Kārlis Ulmanis establishes an authoritarian government in Latvia.
• May 23 - Near their hide-out in Black Lake, Louisiana, FBI men ambush bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow and fire, killing them.
• May 24 - Tomás Masaryk re-elected president of Czechoslovakia
• May 28 - Near Callander, Ontario, the Dionne quintuplets are born to Olivia and Elzire Dionne later becoming the first quintuplets to survive infancy.

June

• June 6 - New Deal: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
• June 9 - Release of the animated short The Wise Little Hen, directed by Bert Gillett for the Silly Symphonies series, featuring the debut of Donald Duck.
• June 10 - Italy beat Czechoslovakia 2-1 after extra time to win the 1934 World Cup.
• June 12 - Political parties banned in Bulgaria
• June 14 - Max Baer defeats champion Primo Carnera for the world heavyweight boxing title.
• June 27 - Emir of Yemen and ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia conclude a peace treaty
• June 30 - The Nazi SA camp Oranienburg becomes national camp, taken over by the SS.
• June 30 - Night of the Long Knives - Nazis purge the SA

July

• July 10 - German social democrat and author Erich Mühsam killed in Oranienburg concentration camp
• July 17 - Supreme court of North Dakota declares lieutenant governor of the state, Ole Olsen, the legitimate governor and tells William Langer to resign. Langer proceeds to declare North Dakota independent. He revokes the declaration after the Supreme Court justices meet him
• July 19 - Francisco Sá Carneiro, Prime Minister of Portugal (1980; died in office)is born.
• July 22 - Outside Chicago, Illinois's Biograph Theatre, "Public Enemy No. 1" John Dillinger is mortally wounded by FBI agents.
• July 25 - Austrian Nazis assassinate chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss during a failed coup attempt.

August

• August 2 - Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany, becoming head of state as well as Chancellor.
• August 8 - The Wehrmacht is tricked into swearing allegiance to Adolf Hitler personally.
• August 19 - The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio.

September

• September 8 - Off the New Jersey coast, a fire aboard the passenger liner Morro Castle kills 134 people.
• September 19 - Soviet Union joins the League of Nations
• September 21 - Typhoon in Honshu, Japan - 4000 dead
• September 22 - A gas explosion took place at Gresford Colliery in Wrexham, north-east Wales which led to the death of 266 miners and rescuers. This was one of the worst tragedies in Welsh mining history.
• September 28 - Afghanistan joins the League of Nations
• September 28 - Trial for the custody of young Gloria Vanderbilt begins - it lasts seven weeks and ends with a compromise
• September 29 - Stanley Matthews makes his England debut, beginning a record 23-year international career

October

• October 2 - Tornado in Osaka and Kyoto and destroys the rice harvest - 1660 dead, 5400 injured
• October 6 - Catalonian separatists rebel
• October 9 - King Alexander of Yugoslavia and French foreign minister Louis Barthou are assassinated during the king's state visit in Marseille
• October 16 - The Long March of Chinese communists begins

November

• November 13 - Italian government decrees that teachers must use a military or party uniform in a class
• November 21 - MCC makes an ultimately controversial decision to alter the lbw rule so a batsman can be lbw to a ball pitching outside off stump. The change is later blamed for many problems developing during the 1950s - primarily negative bowling outside leg stump to a field of short-leg fieldsmen.
• November 23 - An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden discovers an Italian garrison at Walwal, which lay well within Ethiopian territory. This encounter leads to the Abyssinia Crisis.
• November 27 - A running gun battle between FBI agents and bank robber Baby Face Nelson results in the death of one FBI agent and the mortal wounding of special agent Sam Cowley, who is still able to mortally shoot Nelson.

December

• December 1 - In the Soviet Union, Politburo member Sergei Kirov is shot dead at the Communist Party headquarters in Leningrad by Leonid Nikolaev (it is widely thought that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered this murder).
• December 5 - Abyssinia Crisis: Ethiopian and Italian troops exchange gunfire. Reported casualties for the Ethiopians are 150, and for the Italians 50.
• December 14 - Female suffrage in Turkey
• December 18 - Low-key fascist conference in Moreaux
• December 27 - Persia becomes Iran
• December 29 - Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.

Unknown dates

• The sonoluminescence effect is discovered.
• First Jay Gordon record is made.
• The GPU becomes the NKVD.
• The Maginot Line is finished.
• Abidjan becomes the capital of the French colony of Côte d'Ivoire.

Births

January

• January 7 - Charlie Jenkins, American runner
• January 9 - Bart Starr, American football player
• January 11 - Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada
• January 16 - Marilyn Horne, American mezzo-soprano
• January 18 - Raymond Briggs, British writer and illustrator
• January 20 - Tom Baker, British actor
• January 22 - Bill Bixby, American television actor (d. 1993)
• January 24 - Stanisław Grochowiak, Polish poet and dramatist (d. 1976)

February

• February 5 - Hank Aaron, American baseball player
• February 7 - Earl King, American musician (d. 2003)
• February 10 - Fleur Adcock, New Zealand poet
• February 11 - Tina Louise, American actress
• February 11 - Mary Quant, British fashion designer
• February 11 - John Surtees, British race car driver
• February 12 - Bill Russell, American basketball player
• February 13 - George Segal, American actor
• February 14 - Michel Corboz, Swiss conductor
• February 14 - Florence Henderson, American television actress
• February 15 - Niklaus Wirth, Swiss computer scientist
• February 17 - Alan Bates, British actor (d. 2003)
• February 17 - Barry Humphries, Australian actor and comedian
• February 20 - Bobby Unser, American race car driver
• February 21 - Rue McClanahan, American actress
• February 22 - Sparky Anderson, American baseball manager
• February 22 - Van Williams, American actor
• February 24 - Bettino Craxi, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 2000)
• February 24 - Renata Scotto, Italian soprano
• February 27 - Vincent Fourcade, French American interior designer and socialite (d. 1992)
• February 27 - Ralph Nader, American consumer activist

March

• March 1 - Jean-Michel Folon, Belgian sculptor (d. 2005)
• March 1 - Joan Hackett, American actress (d. 1983)
• March 4 - Janez Strnad, Slovenian physicist
• March 5 - Daniel Kahneman, Israeli economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• March 7 - Willard Scott, American television broadcaster
• March 9 - Yuri Gagarin, Russian cosmonaut (d. 1968)
• March 9 - Del Close, American actor, improviser, writer, and teacher (d. 1999)
• March 11 - Sam Donaldson, American reporter
• March 13 - Barry Hughart, American author
• March 14 - Paul Rader, the 15th General of The Salvation Army
• March 16 - Ray Hnatyshyn, Canadian Governor-General (d. 2002)
• March 20 - Willie Brown, Mayor of San Francisco, California
• March 22 - Orrin Hatch, U.S. Senator from Utah
• March 25 - Gloria Steinem, Feminist Author
• March 26 - Alan Arkin, American actor
• March 31 - Shirley Jones, American singer and actress
• March 31 - Carlo Rubbia, Italian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

April

• April 1 - Rod Kanehl, American baseball player (d. 2004)
• April 2 - Paul Joseph Cohen, American mathematician
• April 2 - Brian Glover, British actor and wrestler (d. 1997)
• April 3 - Jane Goodall, British zoologist
• April 9 - Bill Birch, New Zealand politician
• April 24 - Shirley MacLaine, American actress
• April 24 - Jayakanthan, Tamil writer
• April 25 - Peter McParland, Northern Irish footballer
• April 29 - Otis Rush, American musician

May

• May 3 - Henry Cooper, British boxer
• May 9 - Alan Bennett, British actor and writer
• May 13 - Leon Wagner, American baseball player (d. 2004)
• May 14 - Siân Phillips, Welsh actress
• May 15 - George Roper, British comedian (d. 2003)
• May 19 - Jim Lehrer, American television journalist
• May 21 - Bengt I. Samuelsson, Swedish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• May 22 - Peter Nero, American pianist
• May 23 - Robert Moog, American inventor of the synthesizer
• May 24 - Dr Barry Rose, British choir-trainer and organist
• May 27 - Harlan Ellison, American writer
• May 28 - Dionne quintuplets, world's first surviving quintuplets
• May 30 - Aleksei Leonov, Russian cosmonaut

June

• June 3 - Rolland D. McCune, American theologian
• June 6 - King Albert II of Belgium
• June 16 - William Forsyth Sharpe, American economicst, Nobel Prize laureate
• June 26 - Jeremy Wolfenden, British journalist (d. 1965)
• June 30 - Harry Blackstone Jr., American magician (d. 1997)

July

• July 1 - Jean Marsh, British actress
• July 1 - Sydney Pollack, American film director
• July 11 - Giorgio Armani, Italian fashion designer
• July 12 - Van Cliburn, American pianist
• July 13 - Wole Soyinka, Nigerian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
• July 13 - Aleksei Yeliseyev, cosmonaut
• July 14 - John Tyndall, British politician (d. 2005)
• July 15 - Harrison Birtwistle, British composer

August

• August 2 - Valery Bykovsky, Russian cosmonaut
• August 4 - Dallas Green, American baseball manager and executive
• August 15 - Nino Ferrer, French singer (d. 1998)
• August 18 - Vincent Bugliosi, American prosecutor and author
• August 18 - Roberto Clemente, Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player (d. 1972)
• August 19 - Renee Richards, American transsexual physician and tennis player
• August 22 - Norman Schwarzkopf, American general who led Coalition troops during Operation Desert Storm
• August 23 - Sonny Jurgensen, American football player, quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins
• August 26 - Tom Heinsohn, American baseketball player, coach and broadcaster for the Boston Celtics
• August 30 - Anatoli Solonitsyn, Russian actor (d. 1982)

September

• September 2 - Dominic Chianese, American actor
• September 4 - Clive Granger, Welsh-born economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• September 7 - Little Milton, American musician
• September 8 - Peter Maxwell Davies, English composer
• September 10 - Charles Kuralt, American journalist (d. 1997)
• September 17 - Maureen Connolly, American tennis player (d. 1969)
• September 19 - Brian Epstein, Jewish-English Businessman, Manager of the Beatles (d. 1967)
• September 20 - Sophia Loren, Italian actress
• September 24 - Tommy Anderson, Scottish footballer

October

• October 1 - Chuck Hiller, American baseball player (d. 2004)
• October 2 - Earl Wilson, American baseball player (d. 2005)
• October 4 - Sam Huff, Pro Football Hall of Famer
• October 13 - Nana Mouskouri, Greek singer
• October 17 - Rico Rodriguez, Jamaican trombonist
• October 18 - Chuck Swindoll, American evangelist
• October 30 - Frans Brüggen, Dutch flutist, recorder player, and conductor

November

• November 1 - Umberto Agnelli, Swiss-born automobile executive (d. 2004)
• November 9 - Carl Sagan, American astronomer (d. 1996)
• November 12 - Charles Manson, American serial killer
• November 13 - John Gowans, the 16th General of The Salvation Army
• November 24 - Alfred Schnittke, Volga German composer (d. 1998)

December

• December 2 - Andre Rodgers, American baseball player (d. 2004)
• December 3 - Viktor Gorbatko, Russian cosmonaut
• December 4 - Wink Martindale, American game show host and disc jockey
• December 9 - Judi Dench, British actress
• December 9 - Junior Wells, American harmonica player (d. 1998)
• December 10 - Howard Martin Temin, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1994)
• December 16 - Elgin Baylor, American basketball player
• December 18 - Boris Volynov, Russian cosmonaut
• December 19 - Al Kaline, American baseball player
• December 27 - Larissa Latynina, Russian gymnast
• December 28 - Maggie Smith, British actress
• December 28 - Yujiro Ishihara, Japanese actor (d. 1987)
• December 30 - Joseph P. Hoar, U.S. Marine commander
• December 30 - John Norris Bahcall, American astrophysicist (d. 2005)
• December 30 - Del Shannon, American singer (d. 1990)

Deaths

• January 6 - Herbert Chapman, English football (soccer) manager (b. 1878)
• January 10 - Marinus van der Lubbe, Dutch communist accused of setting fire to the Reichstag (executed) (b. 1909)
• January 29 - Fritz Haber, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
• February 17 - Albert I of Belgium (b. 1875)
• February 23 - Edward Elgar, English composer (b. 1857)
• March 15 - Davidson Black, Canadian-born paleoanthropologist (b.1884)
• March 29 - Otto Hermann Kahn, German-born philanthropist (b. 1867)
• May 23 - Clyde Barrow, American outlaw (shot) (b. 1909)
• May 23 - Bonnie Parker, American outlaw (shot) (b. 1910)
• May 25 - Gustav Holst, English composer (b. 1874)
• May 30 - Togo Heihachiro, Japanese admiral (b. 1848)
• June 10 - Frederick Delius, English composer (b. 1862)
• June 11 - Lev Vygotsky, Russian developmental psychologist (b. 1896)
• June 30 - Kurt von Schleicher, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1882)
• July 4 - Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Polish-born scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and physics (b. 1867)
• July 8 - Benjamin Baillaud, French astronomer (b. 1848)
• July 22 - John Dillinger, American criminal (b. 1903)
• July 25 - François Coty, French perfume manufacturer (b. 1874)
• July 25 - Englebert Dolfuss, Chancellor of Austria (assassinated) (b. 1892)
• July 25 - Nestor Makhno, Ukrainian anarchist (b. 1889)
• July 26 - Winsor McCay, American comic creator and animator (b. 1871)
• July 27 - Hubert Lyautey, Marshal of France (b. 1854)
• July 28 - Marie Dressler, Canadian actress (b. 1868)
• August 2 - Paul von Hindenburg, German general and politician (b. 1847)
• September 2 - Alcide Nunez, American musician (b. 1884)
• October 17 - Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Spanish histologist and neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1852)
• November 2 - Edmond James de Rothschild, French philanthropist (b. 1845)
• November 16 - Alice Liddell, English schoolgirl, inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (b. 1852)
• November 22 - Harry Steppe, Jewish Vaudeville performer, coined term "Top Banana", wrote comedic material for The Three Stooges and Abbott and Costello (b. 1888)
• December 1 - Sergei Kirov, Soviet leader (b. 1886)

Nobel prizes

• Physics - not awarded
• Chemistry - Harold Clayton Urey
• Physiology or Medicine - George Hoyt Whipple, George Richards Minot, William Parry Murphy
• Literature - Luigi Pirandello
• Peace - Arthur Henderson

1934

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