FDR's First Fireside Chat, March 12, 1933
On the evening of March 12, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt went on the radio to explain the banking crisis in plain words — and invented a new kind of presidential leadership.
Tagged: 1930s
The Bridge They Said Couldn't Be Built
On January 5, 1933, with America deep in the Great Depression, workers broke ground on the Golden Gate Bridge — a single 4,200-foot leap across a strait engineers had called unspannable.
The Ambush That Ended Bonnie and Clyde
On May 23, 1934, a six-man posse led by Texas Ranger Frank Hamer ambushed and killed outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow on a Louisiana road.
Frankly, She Won: Gone with the Wind Takes the Pulitzer, 1937
On May 3, 1937, Margaret Mitchell's Civil War epic Gone with the Wind won the Pulitzer Prize — the only novel she ever published.
The Empty State Building: Empire State Building Opens, 1931
On May 1, 1931, the Empire State Building officially opened as the world's tallest building, lighting up Depression-era New York.
The One-Eyed Pilot Who Flew Solo Around the World
On July 22, 1933, one-eyed aviator Wiley Post landed his Lockheed Vega, the Winnie Mae, in New York — completing the first solo flight around the world in 7 days, 18 hours, 49 minutes.