What Happened in 1934 — Events, Births & Deaths

The 8.0 Mw Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing an estimated 6,000–10,700 people.

The Apollo Theater reopens in Harlem, New York City.

German–Polish declaration of non-aggression is signed.

The Export-Import Bank of the United States is incorporated.

Far-right leagues rally in front of the Palais Bourbon in an attempted coup against the French Third Republic, creating a political crisis in France.

The Balkan Entente is formed between Greece, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Turkey.

The Austrian Civil War ends with the defeat of the Social Democrats and the Republikanischer Schutzbund.

The Commission of Government is officially sworn in; ending 79 years of responsible government in Newfoundland.

Leopold III becomes King of Belgium.

The landmark Australian Eastern Mission led by John Latham departs on its three-month tour of East and South-East Asia.

The first Masters Tournament is held at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.

The Tydings–McDuffie Act is passed by the United States Congress, allowing the Philippines to become a self-governing commonwealth.

The United Kingdom driving test is introduced.

The strongest surface wind gust in the world at the time of 231 mph, is measured on the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire. It has since been surpassed.

The U.S. Auto-Lite strike begins, culminating in a five-day melee between Ohio National Guard troops and 6,000 strikers and picketers.

The "Surgeon's Photograph", the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, is published in the Daily Mail (in 1994, it is revealed to be a hoax).

A self coup by prime minister Kārlis Ulmanis succeeds in Latvia, suspending its constitution and dissolving its Saeima.

Zveno and the Bulgarian Army engineer a coup d'état and install Kimon Georgiev as the new Prime Minister of Bulgaria.

Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens.

American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by police and killed in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.

The Auto-Lite strike culminates in the "Battle of Toledo", a five-day melée between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers.

Near Callander, Ontario, Canada, the Dionne quintuplets are born to Oliva and Elzire Dionne; they will be the first quintuplets to survive infancy.

New Deal: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The landmark Australian Eastern Mission returns from its three-month tour of East and South-East Asia.

The Communications Act of 1934 establishes the United States' Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Federal Credit Union Act, which establishes credit unions.

The Night of the Long Knives, Adolf Hitler's violent purge of his political rivals in Germany, takes place.

The Night of the Long Knives ends after three days of killings.

"Bloody Thursday": The police open fire on striking longshoremen in San Francisco.

Engelbert Zaschka of Germany flies his large human-powered aircraft, the Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft, about 20 meters at Berlin Tempelhof Airport without assisted take-off.

The rigid airship USS Macon surprises the USS Houston near Clipperton Island with a mail delivery for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, demonstrating its potential for tracking ships at sea.

The Nazis assassinate Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in a failed coup attempt.

Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany following the death of President Paul von Hindenburg.

The first civilian prisoners arrive at the Federal prison on Alcatraz Island.

The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio.

The German referendum of 1934 approves Adolf Hitler's appointment as head of state with the title of Führer.

Bill Woodfull of Australia becomes the only test cricket captain to twice regain The Ashes.

Off the New Jersey coast, a fire aboard the passenger liner SS Morro Castle kills 137 people.

The Soviet Union is admitted to the League of Nations.

A large typhoon hits western Honshū, Japan, killing more than 3,000 people.

The Gresford disaster in Wales kills 266 miners and rescuers.

Revolution of 1934: The President of the autonomous government of Catalonia, Lluís Companys, proclaims the Catalan State with the support of the Worker's Alliance.

A member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, Vlado Chernozemski, kills King Alexander I of Yugoslavia in an assassination organized by the Ustaše, while the French police accidentally kills Louis Barthou, Foreign Minister of France, in Marseille.

Chinese Communists begin the Long March to escape Nationalist encirclement.

In East Liverpool, Ohio, FBI agents shoot and kill the notorious bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd.

The Shrine of Remembrance is opened in Melbourne, Australia.

An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden discovers an Italian garrison at Walwal, well within Ethiopian territory. This leads to the Abyssinia Crisis.

Sergei Kirov is assassinated, paving way for the repressive Great Purge, and Vinnytsia massacre by General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin.

Abyssinia Crisis: Italian troops attack Wal Wal in Abyssinia, taking four days to capture the city.

Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, takes his last drink and enters treatment for the final time.

Lieutenant Kijé, one of Sergei Prokofiev's best-known works, premiered.

Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.