The 1930s (pronounced “nineteen-thirties” and commonly abbreviated as “the 30s”) was a decade that began on January 1, 1930, and ended on December 31, 1939.
The decade was defined by a global economic and political crisis that culminated in the Second World War. It saw the collapse of the international financial system, beginning with the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the largest stock market crash in American history. The subsequent economic downfall, called the Great Depression, had traumatic social effects worldwide, leading to widespread poverty and unemployment, especially in the economic superpower of the United States and in Germany, which was already struggling with the payment of reparations for the First World War. The Dust Bowl in the United States (which led to the nickname the “Dirty Thirties”) exacerbated the scarcity of wealth. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, elected in 1933, introduced a program of broad-scale social reforms and stimulus plans called the New Deal in response to the crisis.
In the wake of the Depression, the decade also saw the rapid retreat of liberal democracy as authoritarian regimes emerged in countries across Europe and South America, including Italy, Spain, and in particular Nazi Germany. With the rise of Adolf Hitler, Germany undertook a series of annexations and aggressions against neighboring territories in Central Europe, and imposed a series of laws which discriminated against Jews and other ethnic minorities. Weaker states such as Ethiopia, China, and Poland were invaded by expansionist world powers, with the last of these attacks leading to the outbreak of World War II on September 1, 1939, despite calls from the League of Nations for worldwide peace. World War II helped end the Great Depression when governments spent money for the war effort. The 1930s also saw many important developments in science and a proliferation of new technologies, especially in the fields of intercontinental aviation, radio, and film. (Wikipedia)
Dorothy Lamour and her co-star ‘Jiggs’ relax on the set of the film, “Her Jungle Love” in 1938.A pair of Tibetan monks play the dung-chen from atop Jagpori Hill, Lhasa. 1938Fay Wray and Bruce Cabot in a publicity photo for “King Kong”, 1933The Queensway Tunnel, which goes under the Mersey River in Liverpool, opened in 1934.Carole Lombard photographed in 1937.Gypsy boy with his cello, Hongarije, 1931.Harlow with the top down, 1934.End of a long day, Birney, Montana, June 1939.English actress Hermione Baddeley dresses in costume as Minnie Mouse for Film Memories Ball, May 18, 1933.Glamour shot of Carole Lombard in 1933.Thelma Todd, 1930s.Carole Lombard in 1938.A six-year-old Anne Frank off to jump rope with one of her friends, Amsterdam, 1935In 1934, the LEGO company and its products officially became known as LEGO, formed from the Danish words “LEg GOdt” (“play well”).American anti-capitalist poster, 1938.The Phantom Corsair was a sleek prototype automobile built in 1938.Boy riding a ‘rocket scooter’ in 1931.Waiting in line for an opportunity to get a job during the Great Depression, 1930.The Pontiac Plexiglas Deluxe Six Ghost Car at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.The observation deck on top of Rockefeller Center, 850 ft above the streets of NYC. 1930Photo of a giraffe kissing a zoo visitor, London Zoo, 1930’s.Eight week old tiger cubs at Whipsnade zoo find that their keeper makes a good climbing post, 1937.The cover of “Modern Mechanix” magazine shows an illustration of the Giro Car, 1935While attending the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, Civil War veterans shake hands at the Gettysburg Battlefield encampment. 1938Seven future baseball Hall of Famers: Lou Gehrig, Joe Cronin, Bill Dickey, Joe DiMaggio, Charlie Gehringer, Jimmie Foxx and Hank Greenberg at the All Star Game in Washington DC, 1937.Yasutaro Mitsui and his steel humanoid robot in 1932, was the first known Japanese robot.Children doing their telephone lessons in 1934.“I came to hate working on that movie,” the very vocal Marlene Dietrich said of “The Garden of Allah”. “My curls, the bombastic script — everything annoyed me.” 1936Carole Lombard wears protective glasses for skeet shooting at a gun club, 1938A photo taken from the Statue of Liberty’s torch in 1930.The back of the Hoover Dam before it was filled with water in 1936.Building the bleachers at Wrigley Field in Chicago, 1937.Couples cycling down the street, Denmark, 1930s.Young women learning how to charge an enemy with rifles and bayonets at their high school in Tokyo, February 1937.Children read a Sylvan Drew Circus billboard, 1931.Two dancers in costume stand between the columns of Poseidon’s Temple, Greece, 1930.The first successful aerial color photograph—which depicted the Statue of Liberty—used the Finlay process, 1931.Children play in pool they have dug out of the sand on the beach in Le Havre, France, 1936.Girls standing in water holding bunches of American Lotus, Amana, Iowa, November 1938.Seven siblings sit on a wooden fence in Quebec, Canada, May 1939.A New York Central Mercury train is dwarfed by Cleveland’s Union Station, November 1936.This mare won a blue ribbon at a horse show in Wateloo, Iowa, August 1939.A view of Chicago’s historic La Salle Street train station, November 1936.The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge from Yerba Buena Island in 1936.A classroom inside a railway car in Ontario, Canada, August 1932.Free calisthenics lessons are given daily for beach visitors in Long Island, New York, 1939.Native American children at the Garden of the Gods, Colorado, 1930s.Seminole children, 1930s.A CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) stops to confer over a map with a state trooper in New Mexico, 1939.Rue des Ursins, Paris, 1931.
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