Timeline December 1934

Events in December 1934 6

• 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.
• 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 – 1952 Maggie Smith born in Ilford Margaret Natalie Smith is born on 28 December 1934 in Ilford, Essex. Her mother, Margaret Hutton, is a Scottish secretary from Glasgow; her father, Nathaniel Smith, is a public-health pathologist from Newcastle upon Tyne who works at the University of Oxford. The family moves to Oxford when Maggie is four. She has older twin brothers. She is educated at Oxford High School until the age of 16, when she leaves to study acting at the Oxford Playhouse. The seed of her career is planted in the city of dreaming spires, not at its university but at its theatre.
• 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.