1934

Events in 1934 126

• 1847 – 1934 Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934) Died 2 August 1934, aged 86 German field marshal and President of Germany from 1925. He appointed Hitler chancellor in January 1933, and his death let Hitler take absolute power.
• 1848 – 1934 Tōgō Heihachirō (1848-1934) Died 30 May 1934, aged 86 Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy who destroyed the Russian fleet at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905. He was revered in Japan as a national hero.
• 1852 – 1934 Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934) Died 17 October 1934, aged 82 Spanish neuroscientist who showed that the nervous system is made up of individual neurons. He shared the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Camillo Golgi.
• 1854 – 1934 Hubert Lyautey (1854-1934) Died 27 July 1934, aged 79 Marshal of France and first Resident-General of the French protectorate in Morocco. He was briefly minister of war in 1916 and 1917.
• 1855 – 1934 Arthur Wing Pinero (1855-1934) Died 23 November 1934, aged 79 English dramatist whose works include the farce The Magistrate and the drama The Second Mrs Tanqueray. He was one of the leading playwrights of the late Victorian stage.
• 1857 – 1934 Edward Elgar (1857-1934) Died 23 February 1934, aged 76 English composer of the Enigma Variations, The Dream of Gerontius and the Pomp and Circumstance Marches. He was the leading figure of English music around 1900.
• 1859 – 1934 Cass Gilbert (1859-1934) Died 17 May 1934, aged 74 American architect who designed the Woolworth Building in New York and the United States Supreme Court Building. The Woolworth Building was the tallest building in the world when it was completed.
• 1860 – 1934 Raymond Poincaré (1860-1934) Died 15 October 1934, aged 74 President of France during the First World War and prime minister several times. In 1923 he ordered the occupation of the Ruhr, and in 1926 he stabilised the franc.
• 1862 – 1934 Frederick Delius (1862-1934) Died 10 June 1934, aged 72 English composer of works including On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring and A Mass of Life. After he lost his sight, he dictated his late works to his amanuensis Eric Fenby.
• 1862 – 1934 Gustav von Kahr (1862-1934) Died 30 June 1934, aged 71 Bavarian politician who suppressed Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. He was murdered at Dachau during the Night of the Long Knives in revenge.
• 1862 – 1934 Louis Barthou (1862-1934) Died 9 October 1934, aged 72 French foreign minister and former prime minister who worked to build an alliance against Nazi Germany. He was fatally wounded during the assassination of King Alexander I in Marseille.
• 1866 – 1934 Roger Fry (1866-1934) Died 9 September 1934, aged 67 English painter and critic and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. He introduced Post-Impressionism to Britain with his 1910 exhibition and coined the term.
• 1867 – 1934 Marie Curie (1867-1934) Died 4 July 1934, aged 66 Polish-French physicist and chemist who pioneered research on radioactivity and discovered polonium and radium. She was the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two sciences. She died of aplastic anaemia caused by radiation exposure.
• 1868 – 1934 Fritz Haber (1868-1934) Died 29 January 1934, aged 65 German chemist who won the Nobel Prize for synthesising ammonia, the basis of artificial fertiliser. He also directed Germany's chemical weapons programme in the First World War. He died in exile in Basel after leaving Nazi Germany.
• 1868 – 1934 Marie Dressler (1868-1934) Died 28 July 1934, aged 65 Canadian-born actress who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Min and Bill in 1931. She was one of the biggest box-office stars of the early sound era.
• 1874 – 1934 Gustav Holst (1874-1934) Died 25 May 1934, aged 59 English composer best known for the orchestral suite The Planets. He was also an influential music teacher at St Paul's Girls' School and Morley College.
• 1875 – 1934 Albert I of Belgium (1875-1934) Died 17 February 1934, aged 58 King of the Belgians who led his army's resistance to the German invasion during the First World War. He died in a rock-climbing accident at Marche-les-Dames.
• 1878 – 1934 Erich Mühsam (1878-1934) Died 10 July 1934, aged 56 German anarchist poet and playwright who took part in the Bavarian Soviet Republic. SS guards murdered him at Oranienburg concentration camp.
• 1880 – 1934 Andrei Bely (1880-1934) Died 8 January 1934, aged 53 Russian Symbolist poet and novelist. His novel Petersburg is regarded as one of the great works of modernist fiction.
• 1882 – 1934 Kurt von Schleicher (1882-1934) Died 30 June 1934, aged 52 German general and the last Chancellor of the Weimar Republic before Hitler. SS men shot him and his wife at their home during the Night of the Long Knives.
• 1886 – 1934 Sergei Kirov (1886-1934) Died 1 December 1934, aged 48 Head of the Communist Party in Leningrad, shot dead at the Smolny Institute by Leonid Nikolaev. Stalin used the assassination as a pretext for the repression that became the Great Purge.
• 1887 – 1934 Ernst Röhm (1887-1934) Died 1 July 1934, aged 46 Co-founder and chief of staff of the Nazi SA stormtroopers. He was arrested and shot on Hitler's orders during the Night of the Long Knives.
• 1888 – 1934 Alexander I of Yugoslavia (1888-1934) Died 9 October 1934, aged 45 King of Yugoslavia who imposed a royal dictatorship in 1929. A Bulgarian gunman working with the Ustaše and IMRO assassinated him in Marseille, and the killing was one of the first filmed on newsreel.
• 1892 – 1934 Engelbert Dollfuss (1892-1934) Died 25 July 1934, aged 41 Chancellor of Austria who suspended parliament and set up the authoritarian Federal State of Austria. Austrian Nazis killed him during the failed July Putsch.
• 1892 – 1934 Gregor Strasser (1892-1934) Died 30 June 1934, aged 42 Leading early Nazi organiser and head of the party's left wing, who broke with Hitler in 1932. He was murdered in a Gestapo cell during the Night of the Long Knives.
• 1895 – 1934 Augusto César Sandino (1895-1934) Died 21 February 1934, aged 38 Nicaraguan revolutionary who led a guerrilla war against the US Marine occupation. Anastasio Somoza García's National Guard murdered him after peace talks, and the Sandinista movement later took his name.
• 1903 – 1934 John Dillinger (1903-1934) Died 22 July 1934, aged 31 American bank robber whom the FBI named Public Enemy Number One. FBI agents shot him dead outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago.
• 1904 – 1934 Pretty Boy Floyd (1904-1934) Died 22 October 1934, aged 30 American bank robber who was named Public Enemy Number One after Dillinger's death. FBI agents and local police shot him dead near East Liverpool, Ohio.
• 1908 – 1934 Baby Face Nelson (1908-1934) Died 27 November 1934, aged 25 American bank robber and associate of John Dillinger. He died of his wounds after a gunfight with FBI agents near Barrington, Illinois, in which he killed two of them.
• 1909 – 1934 Clyde Barrow (1909-1934) Died 23 May 1934, aged 25 American outlaw who led the Barrow Gang during the Depression. He and Bonnie Parker were shot dead in a police ambush in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
• 1909 – 1934 Albert I King during World War I Albert I became a symbol of Belgian resistance during the German invasion of Belgium in World War I.
• 1910 – 1934 Bonnie Parker (1910-1934) Died 23 May 1934, aged 23 American outlaw and partner of Clyde Barrow in a two-year crime spree across the central United States. Texas and Louisiana lawmen killed the pair in an ambush near Gibsland, Louisiana.
• 1934 12-ounce bottle for 5 cents Double the size for the same price — 1934 In 1934 Pepsi began selling its drink in 12-ounce bottles for 5 cents — the same price Coca-Cola charged for 6.5 ounces. This "twice as much for a nickel" value proposition was irresistible to Depression-era Americans and sent sales skyrocketing nationally.
• 1934 – 2026 Abdullah Ibrahim (1934-2026) Died 15 June 2026, aged 91 South African pianist and composer who fused South African traditional music with jazz and classical forms. His Mannenberg became an anthem of the anti-apartheid movement.
• 1934 – 2023 Alan Arkin (1934-2023) Died 29 June 2023, aged 89 American actor of Catch-22 and Little Miss Sunshine, for which he won an Academy Award.
• 1934 Alcatraz becomes federal prison Alcatraz becomes federal prison Alcatraz reopened as a federal penitentiary in August 1934, taking the prisoners other prisons could not hold on an island in San Francisco Bay. Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly and Robert Stroud were among the inmates. No escape was ever confirmed, and the running cost closed it in 1963.
• 1934 – 2025 Annette Dionne (1934-2025) Died 24 December 2025, aged 91 Canadian children's rights activist, the last surviving of the Dionne quintuplets, whose childhood exploitation eventually brought a settlement from the Ontario government.
• 1934 – 2025 Bob Uecker (1934-2025) Died 16 January 2025, aged 90 American baseball player turned Hall of Fame broadcaster, the voice of the Milwaukee Brewers for more than fifty years and a comic actor in Major League.
• 1934 – 2025 Cecile Dionne (1934-2025) Died 28 July 2025, aged 91 Canadian woman, one of the Dionne quintuplets, the first quintuplets known to have survived infancy.
• 1934 – 2024 Dame Maggie Smith (1934–2024) Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (28 December 1934, Ilford, Essex – 27 September 2024, London) was a British actress whose career on stage and screen spanned more than seven decades. She won two Academy Awards -- Best Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and Best Supporting Actress for California Suite (1978) -- four Emmy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globes and a Tony Award, making her one of a handful of performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting. She worked with Laurence Olivier at the National Theatre, played Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, and the Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1990. King Charles III described her as "a national treasure." She died on 27 September 2024 at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, aged 89.
• 1934 – 2026 David Malouf (1934-2026) Died 22 April 2026, aged 92 Australian poet and novelist whose work drew on his Lebanese and English heritage and his Queensland childhood.
• 1934 – 2024 Fleur Adcock (1934-2024) Died 10 October 2024, aged 90 New Zealand-born British poet of tranquil domestic lyrics cut with irony and the macabre.
• 1934 – 2025 Giorgio Armani (1934-2025) Died 4 September 2025, aged 91 Italian fashion designer whose relaxed, luxurious tailoring brought ease and streamlined modernity to late twentieth-century dress.
• 1934 – 2025 Jane Goodall -- the woman who redefined our relationship with animals Dame Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall (3 April 1934 - 1 October 2025) was a British primatologist, ethologist and conservationist whose groundbreaking research on wild chimpanzees in Tanzania transformed scientific understanding of the relationship between humans and animals. Working without formal scientific training, she discovered that chimpanzees use tools, eat meat, and have complex social and emotional lives -- findings that challenged the very definition of what it means to be human. She spent the last three decades of her life as a tireless global advocate for conservation, animal welfare and environmental action. She died of natural causes aged 91 while on a speaking tour in California.
• 1934 – 2021 Joan Didion (1934-2021) Died 23 December 2021, aged 87 American essayist and novelist whose Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The Year of Magical Thinking set the standard for the personal essay.
• 1934 – 2021 Lee Elder (1934-2021) Died 28 November 2021, aged 87 American golfer who in 1975 became the first Black player to compete in the Masters.
• 1934 – 2024 Maryse Conde (1934-2024) Died 2 April 2024, aged 90 Guadeloupean author of epic historical fiction, much of it set in Africa.
• 1934 – 2024 N. Scott Momaday (1934-2024) Died 24 January 2024, aged 89 The first Native American to win a Pulitzer Prize, for House Made of Dawn.
• 1934 – 2022 Raymond Briggs (1934-2022) Died 9 August 2022, aged 88 English illustrator and author of The Snowman and When the Wind Blows.
• 1934 – 2024 Shyam Benegal (1934-2024) Died 23 December 2024, aged 90 Indian director and a founder of parallel cinema, the realist counterweight to mainstream Hindi film.
• 1934 – 1935 The Long March Mao Zedong leads the Communist Party on a 9,000 km retreat Surrounded by Nationalist forces, the Chinese Communist Party's Red Army undertook the Long March — a 9,000 km tactical retreat from Jiangxi to Yan'an in Shaanxi province (1934–35). Of the 86,000 who set out, fewer than 8,000 completed the journey. The march became a founding myth of Communist China and established Mao Zedong as the undisputed party leader.
• 1934 – 2026 Wendell Berry (1934-2026) Died 31 August 2026, aged 92 American poet, novelist and essayist whose writing on farming and ecological responsibility grew from a lifetime working the land in Kentucky.
• 1934 – 1968 Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968) Died 27 March 1968, aged 34 The first human to travel into space, having orbited the Earth aboard Vostok 1 in 1961, died when the MiG-15 jet fighter he was piloting on a routine training flight crashed near Kirzhach, Russia. The exact cause of the crash remains disputed. His death was mourned as a national loss in the Soviet Union.
• 1934 Discovery of artificial radioactivity Irène Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot create radioactive isotopes Irène Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot announced that bombarding light elements such as aluminium with alpha particles produced new radioactive isotopes. The discovery earned them the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake Magnitude 8 quake devastates northern India and Nepal A powerful earthquake struck the border region of Nepal and the Indian province of Bihar. Around 10,000 people were killed, and towns including Munger and Kathmandu suffered severe destruction.
• 1934 Congress of Victors Seventeenth Congress of the Soviet Communist Party The 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party celebrated the successes of collectivisation and industrialisation. Most of its delegates were later killed in the Great Purge.
• 1934 German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact Germany and Poland agree ten years of peace Nazi Germany and Poland signed a declaration renouncing force between them for ten years. The pact weakened the French alliance system in Eastern Europe, and Hitler repudiated it in 1939.
• 1934 6 February crisis in Paris Far-right leagues riot outside the National Assembly Far-right leagues and veterans' groups rioted on the Place de la Concorde after the Stavisky financial scandal. Police fired on the crowd, killing 15 people, and Prime Minister Édouard Daladier resigned the next day.
• 1934 Balkan Pact signed Greece, Turkey, Romania and Yugoslavia guarantee their borders Greece, Turkey, Romania and Yugoslavia signed a treaty in Athens to maintain the territorial status quo in the Balkans. The pact was aimed chiefly at Bulgarian revisionism.
• 1934 – 2017 Manuel Noriega (1934-2017) Died 29 May 2017, aged 83 Panamanian military dictator who ruled the country through the 1980s until he was ousted by a US invasion in 1989 and later convicted on drug trafficking charges. He spent much of his remaining life imprisoned in the United States, France, and Panama. He died following complications from surgery.
• 1934 Austrian Civil War Socialists and the Dollfuss government fight for four days Fighting broke out in Linz and Vienna between the Social Democratic Republican Protection League and government forces. The army shelled workers' housing estates, the Social Democratic Party was banned, and the Dollfuss regime consolidated its Austrofascist state.
• 1934 – 2022 Bill Russell The Secretary of Defense Holds the record for the most NBA championships as a player (11) with the Boston Celtics.
• 1934 – 2024 Niklaus Wirth (1934-2024) Died 1 January 2024, aged 89 Swiss computer scientist who designed Pascal and won the 1984 Turing Award.
• 1934 – 2003 Alan Bates (1934-2003) Died 27 December 2003, aged 69 Alan Bates was an English actor prominent in the 1960s wave of British stage and screen realism, with films including 'Zorba the Greek', 'Women in Love' and 'The Go-Between'. He worked extensively in the theatre and was knighted in 2003.
• 1934 – 2023 Barry Humphries Australian Comedian (Dame Edna) Australian comedian, actor, author and satirist best known for creating and performing the characters Dame Edna Everage, Sir Les Patterson and Sandy Stone. Over a career spanning more than seventy years, he won a Tony Award, was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia, and was made a CBE. He was also a respected painter, author and art collector.
• 1934 New Life Movement launched Chiang Kai-shek promotes a Confucian civic revival Chiang Kai-shek launched the New Life Movement in Nanchang. It promoted Confucian virtues, discipline and hygiene as an alternative to communism.
• 1934 It Happened One Night released Frank Capra's screwball comedy premieres Frank Capra's romantic comedy starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert opened in the United States. It became the first film to win all five major Academy Awards.
• 1934 – 2000 Bettino Craxi (1934-2000) Died 19 January 2000, aged 65 Bettino Craxi led the Italian Socialist Party and was prime minister from 1983 to 1987, one of the longest tenures of the postwar era. He was brought down by the Tangentopoli corruption inquiries of the early 1990s and, facing prison, fled to Tunisia in 1994. He died there in exile, still a convicted fugitive.
• 1934 Puyi enthroned as Emperor of Manchukuo The last Qing emperor becomes a Japanese puppet monarch Puyi, who had abdicated as Emperor of China in 1912, was crowned Kangde Emperor of Manchukuo in Hsinking. The state stayed under Japanese control until 1945.
• 1934 – 2024 Daniel Kahneman (1934-2024) Died 27 March 2024, aged 90 Israeli-American psychologist who shared the 2002 Nobel Prize for Economics and, with Amos Tversky, founded behavioural economics.
• 1934 Estonian self-coup Konstantin Päts suspends parliamentary politics State Elder Konstantin Päts declared a state of emergency to forestall the far-right Vaps movement. Parliament was adjourned, political parties were banned, and Estonia entered its Era of Silence.
• 1934 – 2020 Charley Pride (1934-2020) Died 12 December 2020, aged 86 Charley Pride was one of the first Black country music stars, scoring dozens of hits including "Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'" and becoming a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. He died of complications from COVID-19 on 12 December 2020.
• 1934 1934 World Snooker Championship Joe Davis Title 8 Winner: Joe Davis; Runner-up: Tom Newman. Score: 25–22.
• 1934 Surgeon's photograph of Loch Ness The famous image of the monster is published The Daily Mail published a photograph said to show the head and neck of the Loch Ness Monster. It remained the most famous image of the creature until it was revealed as a hoax in 1994.
• 1934 Great Dust Bowl storm Dust from the Great Plains reaches the East Coast A massive dust storm carried millions of tons of topsoil from the drought-stricken Great Plains as far as Chicago, New York and Washington. It brought national attention to the Dust Bowl.
• 1934 – 2025 Alvin Poussaint (1934-2025) Died 24 February 2025, aged 90 American child psychiatrist who wrote on racial identity and health among African Americans and advised The Cosby Show.
• 1934 Latvian coup d'état Kārlis Ulmanis establishes authoritarian rule Prime Minister Kārlis Ulmanis dissolved the Saeima and banned political parties with the support of the army and the Aizsargi militia. He ruled Latvia as an authoritarian leader until the Soviet occupation of 1940.
• 1934 Bulgarian coup d'état The Zveno group seizes power in Sofia Officers of the Military League and the Zveno political circle overthrew the government and installed Kimon Georgiev as prime minister. Political parties were dissolved.
• 1934 Treaty of Taif Ends the Saudi–Yemeni War Saudi Arabia and the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen signed a peace treaty after a brief war that Saudi forces won. The treaty set their border and gave Asir, Najran and Jizan to Saudi Arabia.
• 1934 – 2005 Robert Moog (1934-2005) Died 21 August 2005, aged 71 Robert Moog, the engineer who invented the Moog synthesizer, died on 21 August 2005 of a brain tumor. His electronic instruments transformed popular music from the 1960s onward, used across genres from rock to electronic dance music. Moog founded Moog Music, which continued producing synthesizers after his death.
• 1934 1934 FIFA World Cup First European Host The first tournament to feature a qualification stage. Winner: Italy.
• 1934 Securities and Exchange Commission created Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Securities Exchange Act, which created the SEC to regulate stock markets after the 1929 crash. Joseph P. Kennedy became its first chairman.
• 1934 Donald Duck debuts Disney's duck first appears in The Wise Little Hen Donald Duck made his first screen appearance in the Silly Symphony cartoon The Wise Little Hen, voiced by Clarence Nash. He became one of Disney's most popular characters.
• 1934 Hitler and Mussolini meet in Venice First meeting of the two dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met for the first time at Stra and Venice. The talks went badly, mainly over Austria, and relations stayed cool until 1936.
• 1934 Great Smoky Mountains National Park established Congress authorises full development of the park The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina. It later became the most visited national park in the United States.
• 1934 Indian Reorganization Act The Indian New Deal reverses allotment policy The Wheeler–Howard Act ended the allotment of Native American tribal lands and encouraged tribal self-government. It was the centrepiece of the Indian New Deal led by Commissioner John Collier.
• 1934 Communications Act creates the FCC Federal regulation of radio, telephone and telegraph The Communications Act of 1934 replaced the Federal Radio Commission with the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC took over regulation of interstate wire and radio communications.
• 1934 Turkish Surname Law All Turkish citizens required to adopt surnames The Grand National Assembly required every Turkish citizen to take a fixed family name and abolished honorifics such as pasha and bey. In November the assembly gave Mustafa Kemal the surname Atatürk.
• 1934 Night of the Long Knives Hitler purges the SA leadership and political rivals Hitler ordered the SS and Gestapo to kill Ernst Röhm and the SA leadership along with conservative opponents, including former chancellor Kurt von Schleicher. At least 85 people were killed. The purge secured the support of the army for the Nazi regime.
• 1934 Wimbledon 1934 Men: Fred Perry · Women: Dorothy Round Fred Perry won the first of three consecutive titles — last British men's champion until Andy Murray 2013.
• 1934 Hollywood Production Code enforced Films require a certificate of approval The Production Code Administration under Joseph Breen began requiring films to receive a seal of approval before release. This ended the Pre-Code era, and the rules on film content stayed in force until the late 1960s.
• 1934 – 2008 Sydney Pollack (1934-2008) Died 26 May 2008, aged 73 American film director and actor whose credits included Tootsie and Out of Africa, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director. He also had a prolific career as a producer and character actor.
• 1934 – 1981 Marty Feldman (1934-1981) Died 2 December 1981, aged 47 British comedian and actor Marty Feldman, known for his bulging eyes and for films including Young Frankenstein, died of a heart attack in Mexico City on 2 December 1981 while filming Yellowbeard. He had earlier made his name as a writer and performer on British television comedy. He co-wrote for shows including The Frost Report and At Last the 1948 Show.
• 1934 NKVD takes over Soviet state security OGPU absorbed into the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs The OGPU secret police was merged into a reorganised all-Union NKVD under Genrikh Yagoda. The NKVD went on to carry out the Great Purge.
• 1934 – 2013 Van Cliburn (1934-2013) Died 27 February 2013, aged 78 Van Cliburn was an American pianist who won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958 during the Cold War, becoming a celebrated cultural figure in both the US and Soviet Union. He died at his home in Texas of bone cancer.
• 1934 San Francisco general strike Citywide walkout supports striking longshoremen After police killed two strikers on Bloody Thursday, San Francisco unions called a general strike in support of the West Coast waterfront strike. The strike led to the unionisation of every West Coast port.
• 1934 July Putsch in Austria Austrian Nazis assassinate Chancellor Dollfuss Austrian Nazis stormed the Chancellery in Vienna and fatally shot Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, but the coup failed. Mussolini moved troops to the Brenner Pass to deter German intervention, and Kurt Schuschnigg became chancellor.
• 1934 Hitler becomes Führer Offices of president and chancellor merged On the death of President Hindenburg, Hitler combined the presidency with the chancellorship and took the title Führer und Reichskanzler. The armed forces swore a personal oath to him, and a referendum on 19 August approved the change with about 90 percent of the vote.
• 1934 – 2002 Jonas Savimbi (1934-2002) Died 22 February 2002, aged 67 Jonas Savimbi founded UNITA and led it through nearly three decades of civil war against Angola's MPLA government. Backed at various times by the United States and apartheid South Africa, he rejected election results in 1992 and returned to war. He was killed in a firefight with government troops, and a ceasefire followed within weeks.
• 1934 First Congress of Soviet Writers Socialist realism proclaimed the official method The founding congress of the Union of Soviet Writers met in Moscow with Maxim Gorky presiding. It made socialist realism the official doctrine for Soviet literature and art.
• 1934 – present Armi Kuusela First Miss Universe Won the first Miss Universe pageant in 1952, becoming a symbol of Finnish hope and beauty post-war.
• 1934 – 2016 Kenny Baker (1934-2016) Died 13 August 2016, aged 81 Baker was an English actor best known for physically portraying the droid R2-D2 in the original Star Wars film trilogy. He also performed in numerous other film and television roles despite his small stature, which he used in his craft. He reprised the role in several Star Wars sequels and prequels.
• 1934 Textile workers' strike Largest strike in US history to that date About 400,000 textile workers walked out from New England to the South. Several strikers were killed in clashes, and the strike collapsed without winning its demands.
• 1934 Nuremberg Rally filmed for Triumph of the Will Leni Riefenstahl records the Nazi Party congress The sixth Nazi Party rally drew about 700,000 people to Nuremberg. Leni Riefenstahl filmed it for Triumph of the Will, one of the best-known propaganda films ever made.
• 1934 SS Morro Castle fire Liner burns off the New Jersey coast The passenger liner Morro Castle caught fire on her way from Havana to New York. 137 passengers and crew died, and the disaster led to major improvements in shipboard fire safety.
• 1934 – 2021 Elgin Baylor Rabbit Lakers legend known for his acrobatic scoring; an 11-time All-Star.
• 1934 Soviet Union joins the League of Nations USSR admitted with a permanent Council seat The Soviet Union was admitted to the League of Nations and given a permanent seat on its Council. The move reflected Foreign Commissar Maxim Litvinov's policy of collective security against Nazi Germany.
• 1934 Bruno Hauptmann arrested Suspect seized in the Lindbergh kidnapping Bruno Richard Hauptmann was arrested in the Bronx after spending a gold certificate from the Lindbergh ransom. He was convicted in 1935 and executed in 1936.
• 1934 – present Sophia Loren Film Icon Academy Award-winning actress and a global symbol of Italian beauty and cinema.
• 1934 – 2016 Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) Died 7 November 2016, aged 82 Cohen was a Canadian singer-songwriter and poet known for songs including "Hallelujah" and "Suzanne." His work blended poetry, spirituality, and melancholy across a five-decade recording career. He released his final album, You Want It Darker, weeks before his death.
• 1934 RMS Queen Mary launched Cunard liner launched at Clydebank Queen Mary launched the Cunard ocean liner that bore her name at the John Brown shipyard on the Clyde. The ship entered transatlantic service in 1936 and won the Blue Riband.
• 1934 – 2025 Brigitte Bardot Cinema Icon Actress and fashion model who became a world-renowned sex symbol and later an animal rights activist.
• 1934 Revolution of 1934 in Spain Asturian miners' uprising and Catalan revolt A general strike against the entry of CEDA into the government became an armed uprising of miners in Asturias, and Catalonia declared a Catalan State. Troops under General Franco's direction crushed the Asturian revolt, killing well over 1,000 people.
• 1934 – 1976 Ulrike Meinhof (1934-1976) Died 9 May 1976, aged 41 Ulrike Meinhof, a founding member of the West German militant group the Red Army Faction, was found hanged in her cell at Stammheim Prison. Her death was ruled a suicide, though it was disputed by supporters who alleged foul play. She had been on trial for a series of bombings and other attacks.
• 1934 MacRobertson Air Race England to Melbourne air race won in under three days The race from RAF Mildenhall to Melbourne marked the centenary of Melbourne. It was won by the de Havilland DH.88 Comet Grosvenor House, flown by C. W. A. Scott and Tom Campbell Black, in about 71 hours.
• 1934 Fermi discovers the effect of slow neutrons Slowed neutrons greatly increase nuclear reactions Enrico Fermi's team in Rome found that neutrons slowed by paraffin were far more effective at inducing radioactivity. The discovery was essential to later nuclear reactors and won Fermi the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics.
• 1934 – present Ken Rosewall Muscles Won eight majors; his career spanned from the 1950s to the late 1970s.
• 1934 – 1996 Carl Sagan (1934-1996) Died 20 December 1996, aged 62 Carl Sagan was an American astronomer and science communicator best known for the television series "Cosmos" and his efforts to popularize planetary science and the search for extraterrestrial life. He advised NASA on numerous missions and authored bestselling books including "Contact" and "The Demon-Haunted World." He died of pneumonia following a long battle with myelodysplasia.
• 1934 – 2017 Charles Manson (1934-2017) Died 19 November 2017, aged 83 American cult leader whose followers, known as the Manson Family, committed a series of murders in 1969, including the killing of actress Sharon Tate. He was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and spent the rest of his life in prison. His case remains one of the most notorious in American criminal history.
• 1934 – 2016 Garry Marshall (1934-2016) Died 19 July 2016, aged 81 Marshall was an American director and producer behind films including Pretty Woman and television series such as Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley. His five-decade career spanned both comedy writing and directing. He continued directing films into his final years.
• 1934 – 2024 Jim Inhofe (1934-2024) Died 9 July 2024, aged 89 American Republican senator for Oklahoma from 1994 to 2023, and Congress's most prominent climate sceptic.
• 1934 Prince George marries Princess Marina Royal wedding at Westminster Abbey Prince George, Duke of Kent, married Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark at Westminster Abbey. It was the first royal wedding broadcast on radio worldwide.
• 1934 Lázaro Cárdenas becomes President of Mexico Start of a reforming presidency Lázaro Cárdenas took office as President of Mexico. His government carried out large land reforms and nationalised the oil industry in 1938.
• 1934 Turkish women gain the vote in national elections Constitutional amendment grants full suffrage The Turkish Grand National Assembly gave women the right to vote and stand in national elections. Eighteen women were elected to parliament in 1935.
• 1934 Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty Japan announces its withdrawal from naval limits Japan formally gave notice that it was renouncing the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, with effect from the end of 1936. This opened the way to unrestricted naval rearmament in the Pacific.
• 1934 – 1990 Del Shannon (1934-1990) Died 8 February 1990, aged 55 Del Shannon was an American singer-songwriter best known for the 1961 hit "Runaway." His falsetto vocal style influenced a generation of rock musicians. He died by suicide at his home in California on 8 February 1990.