Germany - Allied troops liberate
Nazi death camps at
Auschwitz-Birkenau (January 26),
Buchenwald (April 11), and
Dachau (April 24), providing the world with the first photographic evidence of the horrific atrocities committed there
Berlin, Germany - Hitler Commits Suicide
Germany - Germans Surrender
Berlin, Germany - Hitler Escapes Assassination Attempt
USA - Synthetic
cortisone invented by Percy Lavon Julian.
Italy - Italy Joins the Allies
USA - Richard James invents the
slinky.
UK - Karl Pabst invents the
jeep.
UK - First Commercial Flight Over the
Atlantic Austria - Hitler annexes
Austria;
Neville Chamberlain decides not to help
Czechoslovakia or French, who have treaty obligations to Czechs, Hitler tells Chamberlain if he can have Czechoslovakia he will not annex other countries, Chamberlain falls for it
Guernica, Spain - German planes, aiding insurgents in the
Spanish Civil War, bomb the historic
Basque town of
Guernica in Northern Spain, killing women and children and inflaming world opinion against facism.
UK - BBC starts regular
TV broadcasts
UK - Arabs attack
Jews and British troops and police, riots, strikes, outbursts of great violence, Jews attack Arabs and British, disorder continues through beginning of World War II
USA - First successful three-color roll film available to amateur photographers as
Kodachrome, for slides, this year, and as
Kodacolor (for prints) in 1942.
USA - The first canned
beer made.
UK - Parker Brothers Sells the Game
Monopoly UK - Charles Darrow claims he invented the game
Monopoly UK - Special Areas Act passes, designed to encourage workers to move to more prosperous
Midlands or expanding light industries of South, not very effective
UK - 6-7 million living on '
dole', worse in
Tyne and
Tees and Welsh valleys
USA - Zippo Lighters Introduced
UK - Unemployment falls from 3 million to below 2 million in July 1935; production rises, but imports steady, exports decline; new industries booming - chemicals,
rayon, cars, radio, cost of living falls
UK - Census shows British
professional workers now number .75 million (8 per cent); up from 80,000 in 1921 Census: population: England/Wales - 39,952, Scotland - 4,842, N. Ireland - 1,243
UK - Sliced
Bread Available
USSR - Stalin Begins Collectivizing Agriculture
USA - Yo-Yo re-invented as an American
fad.
UK - Great Depression (to 1932), British segment hits worst in 1931, when
unemployment surges quickly to more than 3.25 million in 1931, then more slowly to a high of 3.75 million in September 1932
UK - Jacob Schick patented the electric
shaver.
UK - Long, critical illness of
George V this year and the next
London, UK - Trade Disputes and
Trade Union Act makes sympathetic striking illegal and prohibits political use of Union funds
UK - Erik Rotheim patents an
aerosol can.
UK - General Strike paralyses transport, mining and many other areas of the economy
Wolverhampton, UK - The first automatic
traffic light was installed. It remained in service until 1968
UK - Houdini Dies After Being Punched
UK - Infants' Custody Act, women finally secure same rights as men with regard to custody of children
UK - Housing Act to produce 2.5 million houses by 1939 becomes law
UK - The dynamic
loudspeaker invented by Rice and Kellogg.
Ruhr, Germany - Ruhr Occupied by French and Belgian Forces
USA - The first
3-D movie (spectacles with one red and one green lens) is released.
Washington, DC, USA - Calvin Coolidge president 1921-1929. Vice president under
Warren Harding, he was sworn in as president the day after Harding dies.
UK - The first
robot is built.
Palestine - Serious clashes between
Jews and
Arabs UK - Lloyd George sells honours in return for party contributions, partly responsible for downfall of Coalition government
UK - Radio and
cinema begin growth (by 1929, 3,000 cinemas in Britain)
UK - Convictions for
drunkenness fall from 189,000 in 1913 to 53,000 in 1930
UK - The
tommy gun patented by John T Thompson.
USA - The
Band-Aid invented by Earle Dickson
UK - Population of Great Britain has grown by 5 per cent,
emigration overseas declines from 256,000 in 1923 (post-war peak) to 92,000 in 1930 and many return to offset those leaving; British population gravitates to south and away from depressed areas of South
Wales and northern England,
Greater London is now over 8 million
UK - Post-war boom collapses, unemployment problem, 1920 Act provides small payment under National Insurance Scheme
UK - One-week railway
strike -
Emergency Powers Act passed to give government war-time powers to deal with threats from 'Triple Alliance' of miners, railwaymen and dockers, re high prices, shortage of housing
UK - The pop-up
toaster invented by Charles Strite.
UK - Summer:
Great Influenza Epidemic begins, reaches height end of year, new outbreak first quarter of 1919: England and Wales lose 150,000 (15,000 in London alone)
UK - Final casualties for
World War I - almost 1 million
British Empire men killed, about 3 million maimed (744,000 killed are from UK)
UK - Women over 30 given the
vote (complete voting equality with men comes in 1928), all men over 21 (except peers, lunatics and felons) given vote
UK - Consumer purchasing power now about 1/3 of what it was in 1914
USA - Coca-Cola adopts a distinctive bottle which identifies the company internationally
UK - Radio tuners invented that received different stations.
New York, NY, USA - Eugene Sullivan and William Taylor co-invent
Pyrex France - Stunning British casualty figures come from
Loos -60,000; in on
the Somme, 60,000 in one day; total for 5-month offensive - 400,000; Germans use
poison gas at
Ypres France - Passchendaele, British advance of 5 miles costs 400,000 casualties
UK - King
George V adopts
Windsor as
Royal Family's English surname in place of family's German name
USA - Garrett A. Morgan invents the Morgan
gas mask New York, NY, USA - The
Armory Show, an international display of some 1600 works of
modern art, and one of the more important U.S. art exhibitions ever held, opens at the 69th-regiment armory. It arouses public curiosity, generates sensational news coverage, and helps change the direction of American art
USA - Mary Phelps Jacob invents the
bra USA - Gideon Sundback invents the modern
zipper.
1913 - 1945 (32 years)