November 16, 1933: Jimmy Angel "discovers" Angel Falls in VenezuelaNovember 11, 1933: Williamson-Balfour Company turns Easter Island over to ChileNovember 11, 1933: "Dust Bowl" storms begin in the United States
The regulations forGermany'sDachau concentration camp were put into effect by its commander,Theodor Eicke, and used as a blueprint for other camps. Under Article 12, people who refused to work, or shouted while on the job, were to be shot immediately.[1]
Home rule inMalta, at the time a British colony, was suspended after the Nationalist Party continued to advocateItalian as an official language to be used in schools and court proceedings, in order to strengthen ties to Fascist Italy. Authority over the islands was returned to the British Governor, GeneralDavid Campbell.[2]
Otto Fischer of Germany became the first person to be launched in a manned rocket, lifting off from the island ofRügen in a liquid oxygen and gasoline fueled missile, rapidly ascending to an altitude of six miles, and then returning to earth by parachute ten minutes later.[5][6]
Sally Rand, who had attained fame doing the suggestive "fan dance", announced that she was giving up her signature routine.[7]
Born:
Charles K. Kao, Chinese-born physicist known as the "Father of Fiber Optic Communications"; inShanghai (d. 2018);
InPortugal, Decree number 23,203 from Prime MinisterAntónio de Oliveira Salazar established the Special Military Court (TME) which could convict people of any action deemed subversive, including the spreading of rumors or the organizing of strikes.[11]
British Prime MinisterRamsay MacDonald said in a speech to his cabinet of ministers and party leaders that the United States was becoming a dictatorship, commenting, "We must always look out for the backwash. It will be interesting to see what the backwash will be in America and Germany by next April.[12]
Mohandas K. Gandhi began a 12,500 mile, nine month tour of India to promote the cause of ending prejudice against theHarijan ("Untouchable") caste.[13]
The United States and Saudi Arabia signed their first treaty; in the initial agreement, they granted each other most favored nation status in trade.[14]
Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Utah all voted in favor of repealing the 18th Amendment in general elections, but North Carolina and South Carolina became the first two states to vote to continue to ban liquor sales. The four new states brought the total number of ratifications to 37, one short of the 38 necessary.[15]
Voters in most Pennsylvania cities approved the repeal of a ban on Sunday sports, paving the way for the new NFL franchises in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia to operate.[16]
Mohammed Nadir Shah, theKing of Afghanistan since 1929, was assassinated byAbdul Khaliq, a 17-year-old student who shot the King at an awards ceremony at theRoyal Palace inKabul.[17] Khaliq was avenging the execution of his adoptive father, Ghulam Nabi Charki, who had been put to death on the King's orders exactly a year earlier.[18] The King was succeeded by his 19-year-old son,Mohammed Zahir Shah, who would rule until 1973.[19]
Brooke Hart, the 22-year-old son of a department store owner inSan Jose, California, was kidnapped by two men as he was leaving work for the day. The men beat Hart to death, dropped his body from a bridge, and then called the Hart family to demand a ransom of $40,000 for his safe return.[21]
The firstsitdown strike in the United States during the depression took place when workers at the Hormel food processing factory inAustin, Minnesota, halted work and occupied the plant for three days.[24]
Thousands of angry farmers marched into the town ofMarshall, Minnesota, seized control of the Swift and Company chicken processing plant as part of a farm strike to protest against mortgage foreclosures on farms as part of the activities of the "Farm Holiday Association".[25]
Born:
Don Clarke, New Zealand rugby union football player and cricketer, nicknamed "The Boot"; inPihama (d. 2002)
The firstdust storm in the "Dust Bowl", an area that experienced a long series of such wind storms, swept throughSouth Dakota and stripped away almost all of the loosetopsoil by the end of the first day, and making the skies black by the second day. The storms would continue throughout the 1930s.[28]
Girl Scout cookies, according to one source, were created when the Girl Scouts of Greater Philadelphia were baking treats on the Armistice Day holiday, as a community project to benefit day care centers. Passers by the kitchen at 1401 Arch Street in Philadelphia asked about buying the cookies, and the money raised inspired the girls to repeat the project the next autumn, with theKeebler Company making a special vanilla shortbread cookie in the shape of the Girl Scout emblem.[29]
InAustria, a decree by dictatorEngelbert Dollfuss provided for prompt judgment and sentencing for people charged with murder, arson or damage of state property.[31]
Born:Miriam Tlali, the first black South African woman to publish a novel, starting withMuriel at Metropolitan in 1979; inDoornfontein,Johannesburg (d. 2017)
Voters in Germany overwhelmingly approved Adolf Hitler's decision to withdraw from theLeague of Nations. Of the 43.5 million who participated in theplebiscite- reported as 97% of those eligible- 42,735,059 voted "yes" on the proposal to leave the League and 737,676 no. The slate of Nazi candidates for the Reichstag also received 92% of the vote, with 39,655,224 voting in favor and 3,398,249 against.[33][34]
TheEastern Turkestan Republic was established byUyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, and Tatars as an Islamic republic, withKhoja Niyaz as the first President andSabit Damolla as the Prime Minister. The Republic lasted until April 16, 1934, when it was overthrown by joint Soviet and Chinese forces.[35]
The Precision Optical Industry, as predecessor forCanon, founded inTokyo, Japan.[page needed]
The first purported photograph of theLoch Ness monster was taken by Hugh Gray, who was able only to snap a picture of Nessie's torso, as its head was underwater at the time.[37]
The first rally of Germany'sProtestant Reich Church was held at the Sports Palace in Berlin, and attracted 20,000 German Christians, but a speech by the keynote speaker, Berlin church leaderReinhold Krause, was so extreme in its anti-Semitism that it discredited the Nazi-supported institution. Dr. Krause advocated the removal of theOld Testament, "with its cheap Jewish morality of exchange and its stories of cattle traders and pimps" from German Bibles[38] as well as "the teachings ofthe 'Rabbi Paul'" from theNew Testament, and de-emphasizing symbols of the crucifixion and of a "meek and suffering" Christ.[39] Krause clarified his remarks days later by saying that "It is true that I reject the Old Testament as having no meaning for the Nordic race and I do not accept efforts to explain Christ in terms of Old Testament prophesies... but I never decried the use of the crucifix. What I actually said on that point was the following: That we must demand a return to the heroic Jesus whose life was an example to us and whose death is a seal upon a life of heroism and struggle. We must be careful, however, not to exaggerate Christ crucified."[40]
Bulgarian CommunistGeorgi Dimitrov was acquitted of charges of plotting theReichstag fire of February, though still detained in jail on other charges. After his release in February, he would return toBulgaria, and become that nation's Prime Minister in 1946.[41]
Franz von Papen, theVice-Chancellor of Nazi Germany, was appointed as the Reich Commissioner for the Saar to administer the League of Nations territory ofSaarland, which was scheduled for a 1935 plebiscite to determine whether it would become part of France or Germany, or remain a League territory.[43]
Eskimo, produced byHunt Stromberg,W. S. Van Dyke andIrving Thalberg as the first feature film with dialogue almost entirely in a Native American language, made its debut, and would win the first Academy Award for Best Film Editing. The movie was filmed at six locations in the U.S. Alaska Territory and the Eskimo actors were heard speaking in their native tongue,Inupiaq.[44]
S. A. Goodman, owner of the Memphis Tigers independent professional football team, announced plans for formation of a new circuit, theAmerican Professional Football League, to begin play in 1934 as a rival to the existingNational Football League. The six-team league would play the 1934 season with teams in Charlotte, Dallas, Louisville, Memphis, St. Louis and Tulsa.[45][46]
Germany's new "Chamber of Culture",Reichskulturkammer, was opened by Propaganda MinisterJoseph Goebbels in a ceremony at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall. Goebbels summed up the Nazi view in the inaugural speech, stating that "Culture is the highest expression of the creative forces of a nation, and the artist is its qualified inspirer", whose "mission" was to further the national interest.[48]
The first elections in the history ofThailand were conducted by local officials who gathered in the governors' offices in their respective provinces to choose candidates. Direct elections were not to take place until more than half of the Thai population completed at least four years of primary education.[49]
The British freighterSaxilby capsized in a storm off of the coast of Ireland. The crew of 27 sent an S.O.S. and abandoned the ship for a lifeboat, but were never found.[50]
TheUnited States and theSoviet Union established formal diplomatic relations. President Roosevelt wrote to Soviet Foreign MinisterMaxim Litvinov, "I am very happy to inform you that as a result of our conversations, the Government of the United States has decided to establish normal diplomatic relations with the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and to exchange Ambassadors."[53] The exchange of letters formalizing the agreement took place at 11:50 pm in Washington D.C. at the White House.
Thomas Thurmond and J. M. Holmes, who had kidnapped and murdered Brooke Hart a week earlier, then demanded a ransom from the family, were caught making another phone call to the Hart home. They confessed to the crime, explaining that they killed the 22-year-old man because they didn't want to risk his escape.[21]
Angel Falls inVenezuela, the world's highest waterfall, was "discovered" by American pilotJimmie Angel, who became the first person to fly over the landmark in an airplane and observe its height of nearly 1,000 meters (over 3,200 feet), and for whom the falls were named, rather than for celestialangels. The falls had been known to thePemon tribe asParakupá Vená.[54]
U.S. President Roosevelt announced the recognition of the Soviet Union, and the appointment ofWilliam C. Bullitt as the first American Ambassador to the U.S.S.R.;[55]Alexander Troyanovsky would become the first Soviet Ambassador to the United States.[56]
W. D. Jones, the 17-year-old Texan who had been a gunman for the gang ofBonnie and Clyde before leaving to return home, was arrested after being discovered working on a farm near Houston. Jones provided detailed information about the Barrow Gang's activities between December 1932 and August 1933, and, after spending 15 years in a state prison for being an accessory to murders and kidnappings, provided interviews to biographers. Jones would survive until being killed in a gunfight in 1974 at the age of 58.[57]
The Japanese Army began a 16-day battle with Korean nationalists in theYanji region, on the border betweenChina and what is nowNorth Korea; at the time, Korea and Manchuria were under the control of the Japanese Empire. Over 500 guerillas were killed, as well as 150 Japanese.[58]
Two months after a team from the Soviet Union had taken a balloon to more than 60,000 feet in altitude, Lt. Cdr. Tex Settle of the U.S. Navy and Major Chester Fordney of the U.S. Marines took theCentury of Progress to 61,237 feet. As one author observed, "The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union had begun."[62]
The first report of an experiment inacoustic emission was delivered, when Professor Kishinoue of the Imperial University of Tokyo described his measurement of the vibrations of a wooden beam being cracked under outside stress.[63]
GangstersBonnie and Clyde (Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow) were both wounded in an ambush set up nearSowers, Texas, by theDallas County Sheriff's Office, but escaped. Despite having three tires flattened and the steering wheel damaged, Clyde Barrow stole another car four miles down the road and escaped to Oklahoma, where bullets were removed from their legs.[64]
Captains of 17 of England's 2- first-class countycricket teams met and voted, 14–3, in favor of a resolution banning the controversial "bodyline" pitch that had injured two players inJanuary. The Imperial Cricket Conference would approve a similar resolution on July 25.[65]
Adolf Hitler signed "the world's most comprehensive animal protection legislation"[66] which outlawed various inhumane practices against animals used in industry and medicine. As war crimes prosecutors would note later at theNuremberg Trials, the same regime tolerated and promoted cruelty to human beings interned in concentration camps.[67]
TheLaw Against Dangerous Habitual Criminals (Gewohnheitsverbrechergesetz) was passed inGermany, providing for indefinite confinement of any person deemed by court experts to be a "habitual criminal", even after that person's criminal sentence had been served. A criminal who had been charged at least three times (even if not convicted) could, if declared to be potentially dangerous, be placed in "security confinement" (Sicherungsverwahrte)[68] or castrated or sterilized to prevent the passing on of the disposition toward crime.[69]
GIRD-X, the first Soviet Union rocket to be powered entirely by liquid propellant (a combination of liquid oxygen and gasoline), was launched and reached an altitude of 4,880 meters (slightly more than three miles or 16,000 feet) for a new national record.[70]
Kathryn Crosby, American actress and second wife of Bing Crosby; as Olive Kathryn Grandstaff inHouston (d. 2024)
Died:Hans Otto, 33, German stage actor, nine days after the Nazi SS arrested him at a cafe in Charlottenburg. The official statement from the Nazi Party was that Otto had committed suicide by jumping from a window, but Otto had sustained a double fracture of the skull during torture by his captors.[71]
J. M. Holmes and Thomas M. Thurmond, in jail in San Jose, California, and awaiting trial for the November 9 kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart, were seized by alynch mob, taken to a city park, and hanged. Hart's body washed ashore later that day.[21]
TheSeventh-day Adventist Church was banned in Germany and the property of the German SDA organization (theSiebenten-Tags-Adventisten) was confiscated. Although a Protestant Christian denomination, Adventist church adhered to Old Testament rules also used in Jewish worship, including the observance of the Sabbath on Saturday, and the avoidance of pork. The ban would be lifted on appeal, but Adventists who were conscientious objectors were persecuted.[72]
A break in theLindbergh kidnapping case was realized when a teller at a New York City bank came across one of thegold certificates that had been part of the ransom money delivered to the kidnapper. The bill was part of the cash in the night deposit box at the Corn Exchange Bank and Trust, in Greenwich Village, from the Sheridan movie theater, two blocks away. The cashier recalled the man who had bought a ticket toBroadway Through A Keyhole the night before, because he had paid with a five dollar gold note rather than a regular bill, had folded the bill four times, and thrown it through the opening of the booth. The cashier, Miss Cecile Barr, would later be a witness againstBruno Hauptmann when he was put on trial for the Lindbergh baby's kidnapping and murder.[73]
The first nationally publicized backlash against theNational Recovery Act, and its "Blue Eagle" emblem, took place inGreensburg, Pennsylvania, when the vast majority of restaurant operators surrendered their NRA cards, protesting that the restaurant competition code was causing them financial ruin. Although the NRA had initially been popular on its introduction in August, enthusiasm for its provisions (as measured by the number of newspaper advertisements displaying the Blue Eagle emblem) began to drop considerably,[74]
The Code of Fair Competition for the Motion Picture Industry was issued by the National Industrial Recovery Administration for the film industry in Hollywood.[75]
Henri Charrière,André Maturette and Joanes Clousiot escaped from the French penal colony onDevil's Island nearFrench Guiana. The trio would reach a leper colony on Pigeon Island, where they were given a boat and sailed toColombia, where they were recaptured. After several other escape attempts, they would be extradited back to French Guiana. Charrière eventually escaped to freedom in 1941 and write about his experience in the bestselling bookPapillon.[77]
Died:Vernon C. Miller, 37, American gangster who had led the "Kansas City massacre" on June 17, was found murdered near Detroit. Miller, whose nude body was found in a ditch, had been killed with 13 blows to the head and strangulation with a garotte, and could be identified only by fingerprints.[78]
Thanksgiving Day was celebrated on November 30, as a national holiday, for the last time in American history. Historically, the U.S. President proclaimed the last Thursday of November as the holiday, after which department stores would begin the Christmas season. In 1939, President Roosevelt would move the date to the fourth Thursday of November at the request of business leaders, making the holiday on November 23 for the first time. For that year only, the holiday was observed on the 23rd by the federal government, but on the 30th in some U.S. states.[79]
German Propaganda Minister Goebbels announced that the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra was to come under government control effective January 15, with each of the members becoming an employee of the Reich.[80]
Hermann Göring announced that the GermanGestapo was to come under his personal control, after having been an agency of the Interior Ministry.[81]
Died: GeneralArthur Currie, 57, who commanded the Canadian Corps during World War One, died from pneumonia and complications of a stroke
^"Haiti", inEncyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements: G to M, Edmund Jan Osmańczyk and Anthony Mango, eds., (Taylor & Francis, 2003), p. 868.
^"American Pro Grid Loop Seems Likely— S. A. Goodman of Memphis Aids in Organization",The Commercial Appeal (Memphis TN), November 15, 1933, p.16
^Haise, Fred; Moore, Bill (2022).Never Panic Early: An Apollo 13 Astronaut's Journey. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books.ISBN9781588347138.
^Sherree Owens Zalampas,Adolf Hitler: A Psychological Interpretation of His Views on Architecture, Art, and Music (Popular Press, 1990) p68
^"Constitutional (Bloodless) Revolution (1932) (Thailand)", inSoutheast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor, Volume 1 (ABC-CLIO, 2004) p.379
^"27 Adrift at Sea Given up for Lost",Pittsburgh Press, November 16, 1933, p1
^"W. K. Vanderbilt, 3rd, Is Killed in Auto Accident— Car Hits Truck Trailer Near Ridgeland, S. C., When Going 75 Miles an Hour",St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 15, 1933, p. 1
^"Text Of Notes Exchanged By Litvinoff, Roosevelt, Laying Down U.S. Terms For Soviet Recognition,Pittsburgh Press, November 18, 1933, p3
^Craig Glenday,Guinness World Records 2010 (Random House Digital, 2010) p34
^"Russian Pact Opens Way to Vast Trade",Pittsburgh Press, November 18, 1933, p1
^David Mayers,The Ambassadors and America's Soviet Policy (Oxford University Press, 1997) p111
^Laurence J. Yadon and Dan Anderson,200 Texas Outlaws and Lawmen 1835-1935 (Pelican Publishing, 2008) pp141-142
^Charles K. Armstrong,The North Korean Revolution, 1945-1950 (Cornell University Press, 2004) pp35-36
^Francis Graham Wilson, et al., Order and Legitimacy: Political Thought in National Spain (Transaction Publishers, 2004) p80
^Angus M. Gunn,Encyclopedia of Disasters: Environmental Catastrophes and Human Tragedies (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008) p335
^Pak-Wah Leung,Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Civil War (Scarecrow Press, 2002)
^Association of Naval Aviation (Turner Publishing Company, 2003) p31
^Christian U. Grosse and Masayasu Ohtsu,Acoustic Emission Testing (Springer, 2008) pp11-12
^John Neal Phillips,Running With Bonnie and Clyde: The Ten Fast Years of Ralph Fults (University of Oklahoma Press, 2002) p162-167
^Steven Lynch,Wisden on the Ashes: The Authoritative Story of Cricket's Greatest Rivalry (A&C Black, 2009) p224
^Hal Herzog,Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals (HarperCollins, 2010) p58
^Vivien Spitz,Doctors From Hell: The Horrific Account Of Nazi Experiments On Humans (Sentient Publications, 2005) p62
^Richard J. Evans,The Third Reich in Power (Penguin, 2006) p166
^Dick Geary,Hitler and Nazism (Routledge, 2000) p60
^Tim Furniss, et al.,Space and Astronomy: An Illustrated Guide to Science (Infobase Publishing, 2006) p98
^Jessica T.F. Goldring,The Devil, Politics, and Innovation: Intersections of Goethe's Faust and Weimar Cabaret in the Theatre Du Soleil's Production of Mephisto (ProQuest, 2007) pp44-46
^Timothy Miller,America's Alternative Religions (SUNY Press, 1995) p38
^Jim Fisher,The Lindbergh Case (Rutgers University Press, 1994) pp180-182
^Alexander J. Field, et al.,Research in Economic History (Volume 26) (Emerald Group Publishing, 2008) pp253-254
^Tino Balio,The American Film Industry (University of Wisconsin Press, 1985) p257
^Herman D. Suit and Jay S. Loeffler,Evolution of Radiation Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital (Springer, 2011) pp21-22
^Henri Charriere,Papillon (Hart-Davis MacGibbon, 1970); Charlie Norton,The Bumper Book of Bravery (Random House, 2012)
^Paul Maccabee,John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crooks' Tour Of Crime And Corruption in St Paul, 1920-1936 (Minnesota Historical Society, 1995) p178
^Bruce David Forbes,Christmas: A Candid History (University of California Press, 2008) p127
^Glenn R. Cuomo,National Socialist Cultural Policy (Palgrave Macmillan, 1995) p51
^Jacques Delarue,The Gestapo: A History of Horror (Skyhorse Publishing, 2008) p42
