Year
1929 (
MCMXXIX) was a
common year starting on Tuesday in the
Gregorian calendar. By January 1 of this year, every state in the entire world had adopted the Gregorian calendar, having abandoned the
Julian calendar.
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Summary
This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the
Roaring Twenties after the
Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide
Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the
Cristero War, a counter-revolution in
Mexico. The
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, a British high court, ruled that Canadian women are persons in the
Edwards v. Canada (Attorney General) case. The
1st Academy Awards for film were held in Los Angeles, while the
Museum of Modern Art opened in New York City. The
Peruvian Air Force was created.
In Asia, the Republic of China and the Soviet Union engaged in a minor conflict after the Chinese seized full control of the Manchurian Chinese Eastern Railway, which ended with a resumption of joint administration. In the Soviet Union, General Secretary Joseph Stalin expelled Leon Trotsky and adopted a policy of collectivization. The Grand Trunk Express began service in India. In the Middle East, rioting occurred between Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem over access to the Western Wall. Mohammed Nadir Shah became King of Afghanistan. Britain, Australia and New Zealand began a joint Antarctic Research Expedition. The centenary of Western Australia was celebrated.
In international affairs, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, a treaty renouncing war as an instrument of national policy, went into effect. In Europe, the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy signed the Lateran Treaty. The Idionymon law was passed in Greece to outlaw political dissent. Spain hosted the Ibero-American Exposition which featured pavilions from Latin American countries. The BBC broadcasted a television transmission for the first time (see "1929 in television"). The German airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin flew around the world in 21 days.
Middle East, Asia, and Pacific Isles
On
August 16 of this year the
1929 Palestine riots broke out between
Palestinians and
Jews over control of the
Western Wall. The rioting, initiated in part when British police tore down a screen the Jews had constructed in front of the Wall, continued until the end of the month. In total, 133 Jews and 116 Palestinians were killed. Two of the more famous incidents occurring during these riots were the
August 23 and
August 24 1929 Hebron massacre, in which 65–68 Jews were killed by Palestinians and the remaining Jews are forced to leave
Hebron. The Palestinians had been told that Jews were killing Palestinians. Jews would not return to Hebron until after the
Six Day War in 1967. The other major clash was the
1929 Safed massacre, in which 18–20 Jews were killed by Palestinians in
Safed in similar fashion. Elsewhere in the Middle East,
Iraq took a big step toward gaining independence from the British. The Iraqi government had, since the end of World War I and the beginning of the British Mandate in the Middle East, constantly resisted British efforts to control or restrict them. In September, Britain announced that it would support Iraq's inclusion in the
League of Nations, this signaled the beginning of the end of their direct control of the region.
Early in 1929, the Afghani leader King Amanullah lost power through revolution and civil war to Amir Habibullah II. Habibulah's rule, however, only lasted nine months. Nadir Shah replaced him in October, starting a line of monarchs which would last 40 years. In neighboring India, a general strike in Bombay continued throughout the year despite efforts by the British. On December 29, the All India Congress in Lahore declared Indian independence from Britain, something it had threatened to do if Britain did not grant India dominion status. China and Russia engaged in a minor conflict after China seized full control of the Manchurian Chinese Eastern Railway. Russia counterattacked and took the cities of Hailar and Manchouli before issuing an ultimatum demanding joint control of the railway to be reinstated. The Chinese agreed to the terms on November 26. The Japanese would later see this defeat as a sign of Chinese weakness, leading to their taking control of Manchuria. The Far East began to experience economic problems late in the year as the effects of the Great Depression began to spread. Southeast Asia was especially hard hit as its exports (spice, rubber, and other commodities) were more sensitive to economic problems. In the Pacific, on December 28 – "Black Saturday" in Samoa – New Zealand colonial police killed 11 unarmed demonstrators, an event which led the Mau movement to demand independence for Samoa. In that year, the Fascist government took control of the authorization of all textbooks, all secondary school teachers were required to take an oath of loyalty to Fascism, and children began to be taught that they owed the same loyalty to Fascism as they did to God. On July 25, Pope Pius XI emerged from the Vatican and entered St. Peter's square in a huge procession witnessed by about 250,000 persons, thus ending nearly 60 years of papal self-imprisonment within the Vatican. Italy used the diplomatic prestige associated with this successful agreement to adopt a more aggressive foreign policy. Germany experienced a major turning point in this year due to the economic crash. The country had experienced prosperity under the government of the Weimar Republic until foreign investors withdrew their German interests. This began the crumbling of the Republican government in favor of Nazism. In 1929, the number of unemployed reached three million. On July 27, the Geneva Convention, held in Switzerland, addressed the treatment of prisoners of war in response to problems encountered during World War I.
On May 31, the British general election returned a hung parliament yet again, with the Liberals in position to determine who would have power. These elections were known as the "Flapper" elections due to the fact that it was the first British election in which women under 30 could vote. A week after the vote, on June 7 the Conservatives conceded power rather than ally with the Liberals. Ramsay MacDonald founded a new Labour government the next day. 1929 is regarded as a turning point by French historians, who point out that it was last year in which prosperity was felt before the effects of the Great Depression. The Third Republic had been in power since before World War I. On July 24 French prime minister Raymond Poincaré resigned for medical reasons; he was succeeded by Aristide Briand. Briand adopted a foreign policy of both peace and defensive fortification. The Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy, went into effect in this year (it was first signed in Paris in 1928 by most leading world powers). The French began work on the Maginot line in this year, as a defense against a possible German attack, and on September 5 Briand presented a plan for the United States of Europe. On October 22 Briand was replaced as Prime Minister by Andre Tardieu. Primo de Rivera's dictatorship in Spain experienced growing dissatisfaction among students and academics, as well as businessmen who blamed the government for recent economic woes. Many called for a fascist regime, like that in Italy.
Eastern
In May,
Joseph Stalin consolidated his power in the
Soviet Union by sending
Leon Trotsky into exile. The only country that would grant Trotsky asylum was Turkey, in return for his help in their civil war. He and his family left the USSR aboard ship on February 12. Stalin then turned on his former political ally,
Nikolai Bukharin, who was the last real threat to his power. By the end of the year Bukharin had been defeated. Once Stalin was in power, he turned his former support for Lenin's
New Economic Policy into opposition. In November, Stalin declared that it "The Year of the Great Breakthrough" and stated that the country would focus on industrial programs as well as on collectivizing the grain supply. He hoped to surpass the West not only in agriculture, but in industry. Millions of Soviet farmers were removed from their private farms, their property was collected, and they were moved to state-owned farms. Stalin also emphasized in 1929 a campaign demonizing
Kulaks as a plague on society. Kulak property was taken and they were deported by cattle train to areas of frozen tundra.
The timber market in Finland began to decline in 1929 due to the Great Depression, as well as the Soviet Union's entrance into the market. Financial and political problems culminated in the birth of the fascist Lapua Movement on November 23 in a demonstration in Lapua. The movement's stated aim was Finnish democracy and anti-communism. The Finnish legislature received heavy pressure to remove basic rights from Communist groups. Politics in Lithuania was also very heated, as President Voldemaras was unpopular in some quarters, and survived an assassination attempt in Kaunas. Later, while attending a meeting of the League of Nations, he was ousted in a coup by President Smetona, who made himself dictator. Upon Voldemaras' removal from office, Geležinis Vilkas went underground and received aid and encouragement in its activities from Germany. The state's new Monarchy replaced the old parliament, which had been dominated by Serbs.
North America
In October 1929, the British
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council overturned a ruling by the
Supreme Court of Canada that women could not be members of the legislature. This case, which came to be known as the
Persons Case, had important ramifications not just for women's rights but also because in overturning the case, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council engendered a radical change in the Canadian judicial approach to the Canadian constitution, an approach that has come to be known as the "
living tree doctrine". The five women who initiated the case are known in Canada as the
Famous Five. In November, the
1929 Grand Banks earthquake occurred off the south coast of
Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean. It registered as a
Richter magnitude 7.2 submarine
earthquake centered on
Grand Banks, broke 12 submarine
transatlantic telegraph cables and triggered a
tsunami that destroyed many south coast communities in the
Burin Peninsula area, killing 28 (as of
1997, Canada's most lethal earthquake). The last group of rebels was defeated on June 4, and in the same month US Ambassador
Dwight Morrow initiated talks between parties. On
June 21 an agreement was brokered ending the Cristero War. On
June 27, church bells rang and mass was held publicly for the first time in three years. However, the agreement favored the government heavily, as Priests were required to register with the government and religion was banned from schools.
The major event of the year for the United states was the stock market crash on Wall Street, which was to have international effects. On September 3, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) peaked at 381.17, a height it would not reach again until November 1954. Then, from October 24 – October 29, stock prices suffered three multi-digit percentage drops, wiping out more than $30 billion from the New York Stock Exchange (10 times greater than the annual budget of the federal government). On December 3 U.S. President Herbert Hoover announced to the U.S. Congress that the worst effects of the recent stock market crash were behind the nation, and that the American people had regained faith in the economy.
Literature, arts, and entertainment
Literature of the time reflected the memories many harbored of the horrors of World War I. A major seller was
All Quiet on the Western Front by
Erich Maria Remarque. Remarque was a German who had fought in the war at age eighteen and been wounded in the
Third Battle of Ypres. He stated that he intended the book to tell the story "of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war." Another 1929 book reflecting on World War I was
Ernest Hemingway's
A Farewell to Arms, as well as
Goodbye to All That by
Robert Graves. In lighter media, a few stars of the comic industry made their debut, including
Tintin, a
comic book character created by
Hergé, who would appear in over 200 million comic books in 60 languages.
Popeye, another
comic strip character created by
Elzie Crisler Segar, also appeared in this year. Within the film industry on
May 16 the
1st Academy Awards were presented at the
Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in
Hollywood, California, with
Wings winning
Best Picture. Also in this year
Hallelujah! became the first Hollywood film to contain an entirely black cast, and
Atlantic, a German film about the Titanic, was the first sound-on-film movie, signaling the beginning of the end for silent films.
The arts were in the midst of the Modernist movement, as Pablo Picasso painted two cubist works, Woman in a Garden and Nude in an Armchair, during this year. The surrealist painters Salvador Dalí and René Magritte completed several works, including The First Days of Spring and The Treachery of Images. On November 7 in New York City, the Museum of Modern Art opened to the public. The latest in modern architecture was also represented by the likes of the Barcelona Pavilion in Spain and the Royal York Hotel in Toronto, at its completion the tallest building in the British Empire.
Science and technology
The year saw several advances in technology and exploration. On June 27 the first public demonstration of color TV was held by H. E. Ives and his colleagues at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York. The first images were a bouquet of roses and an American flag. A mechanical system was used to transmit 50-line color television images between New York and Washington. By November, Vladimir Zworykin had taken out the first patent for color television. On November 29, Bernt Balchen, U.S. Admiral Richard Byrd, Captain Ashley McKinley, and Harold June, became the first to fly over the South Pole. Within the year, Britain, Australia and New Zealand began a joint Antarctic Research Expedition, and the German airship Graf Zeppelin began a round-the-world flight (ended August 29). This year Ernst Schwarz describes Bonobo (Pan paniscus) as a different species from chimpanzee (Pan troglodites), both very closely phylogenetically related to human beings.
Events
January
January 1 – The former municipalities of Point Grey, British Columbia and South Vancouver, British Columbia, are amalgamated into Vancouver.
January 6 – King Alexander of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovene's suspends his country's constitution (The January 6th Dictatorship)
January 6 – Mother Teresa arrives in Calcutta to begin her work among India's poorest and sickest people.
January 29, –
All Quiet on the Western Front, by
Erich Maria Remarque, was published.
February
February 9 – The
Litvinov Protocol is signed in
Moscow among the
USSR,
Poland,
Estonia,
Romania and
Latvia.
February 11 – Italy and the Vatican sign the Lateran Treaty.
February 14 – St. Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven gangsters, rivals of Al Capone, are murdered in Chicago.
February 26 – The Grand Teton National Park is established by Congress.
:
Grand Teton National Park.]]
March
March 2 – The longest bridge in the world, the San Francisco Bay Toll-Bridge, opens.
March 3 – A revolt by Generals José Gonzalo Escobar and Jesús María Aguirre fails in Mexico.
March 4 – Herbert Hoover is inaugurated as the 31st President of the United States, succeeding Calvin Coolidge. His Vice President, Charles Curtis, became the first person with non-European ancestry to reach such a high office.
March 28 – Japanese forces withdraw from Shandong province to their garrison in Tsingtao bringing an end to the Jinan Incident.
April
April 3 –
Persia signs the
Litvinov Protocol.
November 7 – In New York City, the Museum of Modern Art opens to the public.
November 18 –
1929 Grand Banks earthquake
November 29 – Bernt Balchen, U.S. Admiral Richard Byrd, Captain Ashley McKinley, and Harold June, become the first to fly over the South Pole.
December
December 28 – "
Black Saturday" in
Samoa: New Zealand colonial police kill 11 unarmed demonstrators, an event which leads the
Mau movement to demand independence for Samoa.
December 29 – The All India Congress in Lahore demands Indian independence.
Births
January–April
January 1
* Raymond Chow, Hong Kong film producer
* Joseph Lombardo, American mafioso
* Haruo Nakajima, Japanese actor
January 3
* Sergio Leone, Italian director
* Ernst Mahle, Brazilian composer
January 5 – Wilbert Harrison, American singer
January 7 – Terry Moore, American actress
January 8 – Saeed Jaffrey, Indian actor
January 9 – Brian Friel, Irish dramatist
January 12 – Alasdair MacIntyre, Scottish-born American philosopher
January 15 – Martin Luther King Jr., American civil rights leader, Nobel laureate (d. 1968)
January 17
* Eilaine Roth, American female professional baseball player
* Elaine Roth, American female professional baseball player (d. 2007)
January 23 – John Charles Polanyi, Canadian chemist, Nobel laureate
January 25 – Benny Golson, American jazz musician
January 31
* Rudolf Mössbauer, German physicist, Nobel laureate
* Jean Simmons, English actress (d. 2010)
February 2 – Věra Chytilová, Czech director
February 4 – Jerry Adler, American actor
February 6 – Sixten Jernberg, Swedish cross-country skier
February 10 – Hallgeir Brenden, Norwegian cross-country skier (d. 2007)
February 15
* Graham Hill, English race car driver (d. 1975)
* James Schlesinger, American politician
February 17 – Patricia Routledge, English actress
February 18 – Len Deighton, British author
February 24 – Zdzislaw Beksinski, Polish surrealist painter (d. 2005)
March 1 – Georgi Markov, Bulgarian dissident (d. 1978)
March 8 – Hebe Camargo, Brazilian television presenter, actress and singer
March 13 – Peter Breck, American actor and former drama teacher
March 19 – Miquel Martí i Pol, Catalan poet (d. 2003)
March 23 – Sir Roger Bannister, British athlete
March 27 – Rita Briggs, American female professional baseball player (d. 1994)
March 29 – Lennart Meri, former President of Estonia (d. 2006)
April 1 – Jane Powell, American actress
April 3 – Poul Schlüter, Danish politician
April 5 – Ivar Giaever, Norwegian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
April 10 – Max von Sydow, Swedish actor
April 14 – Chadli Bendjedid, former President of Algeria
April 22 – Michael Atiyah, British-Lebanese mathematician
May–August
May 1 – Ralf Dahrendorf, Anglo-German sociologist (d. 2009)
May 2 – Édouard Balladur, French Prime Minister
May 4
* Audrey Hepburn, British actress (d. 1993)
* Ronald Golias, Brazilian comedian and actor (d. 2005)
May 5 – Ilene Woods, American singer and actress (d. 2010)
May 6 – Paul Lauterbur, American chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 2007)
May 8 – Miyoshi Umeki, Japanese singer and actress (The Courtship of Eddie's Father) (d. 2007)
May 10 – Betty Foss, American female professional baseball player (d. 1998)
May 12 – Sam Nujoma, first President of Namibia
May 20 – Ahmed Hamdi, Egyptian soldier, that fought in Yom Kippur (d. 1973)
May 21 – Alice Drummond, American actress
June 3 – Werner Arber, Swiss microbiologist, Nobel laureate
June 6 – Milton Glaser, American graphic designer, illustrator and teacher.
June 4 – Karolos Papoulias, President of Greece
June 12 – Anne Frank, German-born diarist and Holocaust victim (d. 1945)
June 23 – João Cordeiro Filho, Brazilian mechanic born in Bela Vista (Goiás), currently living in Anápolis
July 1 – Gerald Edelman, American biologist, Nobel laureate
July 2 – Imelda Marcos, First Lady of the Philippines
July 9 – King Hassan II of Morocco (d. 1999)
July 11 – David Kelly (actor), Irish actor
July 19 – Alice Pollitt, American female professional baseball player
July 22 – U. A. Fanthorpe, British poet (d. 2009)
July 26 – Joseph Jackson, Father of the Jackson Family
July 28 – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, American First Lady (d. 1994)
August 8 – Ronnie Biggs, British robber
August 24 – Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader, Nobel laureate (d. 2004)
August 27 – Ralph T. Coe, American art historian of Native American art
September–December
September 5 – Bob Newhart, American comedian and actor
September 10 – Arnold Palmer, American golfer
September 15 – Murray Gell-Mann, American physicist, Nobel laureate
September 16 – Maxine Kline, American female professional baseball player
September 19 – Mel Stewart, African-American actor (d. 2002)
September 21 – Sandor Kocsis, Hungarian football player (d. 1979)
September 22 – Hédi Váradi, Hungarian actress (d. 1987)
September 25 – Barbara Walters, American journalist
September 28 – Lata Mangeshkar, Indian singer
October 2 – Moses Gunn, African-American actor (d. 1993)
October 13 – Walasse Ting, Chinese-American painter (d. 2010)
October 22 – Lev Yashin, Russian footballer (d. 1990)
November 2 – Richard E. Taylor, American physicist, Nobel laureate
November 7 – Eric R. Kandel, Austrian-born neuroscientist, Nobel laureate
November 9 – Imre Kertesz, Hungarian writer, Nobel laureate
November 12 – Grace Patricia Kelly, American actress and Princess of Monaco (d. 1982)
November 13– Fred Phelps, American Pastor (Westboro Baptist Church)
November 24 – Franciszek Kokot, nephrologist
November 30 – Dick Clark, American television entertainer
December 9 – Bob Hawke, twenty-third Prime Minister of Australia
December 16 – Nicholas Courtney, British actor (d. 2011)
Deaths
January–June
January 5
* Marc McDermott, Australian-American actor (b. 1881)
* Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov, Grand Duke of Russia (b. 1856)
January 13 – Wyatt Earp, American gunfighter (b. 1848)
January 30 – La Goulue, French dancer (b. 1866)
February 6 – Maria Christina of Austria, Queen Regent of Spain (b. 1858)
February 11 – Johann II, Prince of Liechtenstein (b. 1840)
February 12 – Lillie Langtry, British singer and actress (b. 1853)
February 14 – Thomas Burke, American sprinter (b. 1875)
February 18 – William Russell, American actor (b. 1884)
February 24 – Frank Keenan, American actor (b. 1858)
February 27 – Briton Hadden, co-founder of Time Magazine. (b. 1898)
March 1 – Royal H. Weller, American politician (b. 1881)
March 5 – David Dunbar Buick, Scottish-American inventor
March 12 – Asa Griggs Candler, American businessman and politician (b. 1851)
March 15 – Pinetop Smith, American blues pianist (b. 1904)
March 18 – William P. Cronan, Naval Governor of Guam (b. 1879)
March 20 – Ferdinand Foch, French commander of Allied forces in World War I (b. 1851)
April 4
* Karl Benz, German automotive pioneer (b. 1844)
* William Michael Crose, United States Navy Commander and the seventh Naval Governor of American Samoa (b. 1867)
April 22 – Henry Lerolle, French painter (b. 1848)
April 24 – Caroline Rémy, French feminist (b. 1855)
May 21 – Archibald Primrose, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1847)
June 8 – Bliss Carman, Canadian poet (b. 1861)
June 11 – William Dickson Boyce, American entrepreneur and founder of the Boy Scouts of America (b. 1858)
June 16 – Bramwell Booth, General of The Salvation Army (b. 1856)
June 26 – Amandus Adamson, Estonian sculptor (b. 1855)
June 28 – Edward Carpenter, English poet (b. 1844)
July–December
July 2 – Gladys Brockwell, American actress (b. 1893)
July 3 – Dustin Farnum, American actor (b. 1874)
July 12 – Robert Henri, American painter (b. 1865)
July 15 – Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Austrian writer (b. 1874)
August – Mary MacLane, Canadian feminist writer (b. 1881)
August 3
* Thorstein Veblen, Norwegian-American economist (b. 1857)
* Emil Berliner, German-born inventor (b. 1851)
August 5 – Millicent Fawcett, British suffragist and feminist (b. 1847)
August 19 – Sergei Diaghilev, Russian ballet impresario (b. 1872)
August 26 – Sir Ernest Satow, British diplomat and scholar (b. 1843)
August 27 – Herman Potočnik Noordung, Slovenian rocket engineer (b. 1892)
September 2 – Paul Leni, German filmmaker (b. 1885)
September 12 – Rainis, Latvian poet and playwright (b. 1865)
September 23 – Richard Adolf Zsigmondy, Austrian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
September 24 – Mahidol Adulyadej, Thai doctor (b. 1892)
September 29 – Tanaka Giichi, 26th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1863)
October 1 – Antoine Bourdelle, French sculptor (b. 1861)
October 3
* Jeanne Eagels, American actress (b. 1890)
* Gustav Stresemann, Chancellor of Germany, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1878)
October 28 – Bernhard von Bülow, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1849)
October 29 – Emily Robin, English Madame
November 6 – Prince Maximilian of Baden, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1867)
November 17 – Herman Hollerith, American businessman and inventor (b. 1860)
November 24
* Georges Clemenceau, Premier of France (b. 1841)
* Raymond Hitchcock, British actor (b. 1865)
December 10 – Harry Crosby, American publisher and poet (b. 1898)
December 20 – Émile Loubet, 8th President of France (b. 1838)
December 29 – Wilhelm Maybach, German automobile designer (b. 1846)
Physics – Prince Louis-Victor Pierre Raymond de Broglie
Chemistry – Arthur Harden, Hans Karl August Simon von Euler-Chelpin
Physiology or Medicine – Christiaan Eijkman, Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins
Literature – Thomas Mann
Peace – Frank Billings Kellogg
References
The 1930s Timeline: 1929 — from American Studies Programs at The University of Virginia
