Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift.

Historical Events in May 1933

Event of Interest

May 2 In Germany, Adolf Hitler bans trade unions

  • May 3 Nellie T. Ross takes office as the first female director of the US Mint

Pulitzer Prize to Macleish

May 4 Pulitzer Prize for poetry awarded to Archibald Macleish for "Conquistador"

  • May 6 59th Kentucky Derby: Don Meade aboard Brokers Tip wins in 2:06.8
  • May 6 Italy and USSR sign trade agreement

Gandhi Begins Fast

May 8 Mahatma Gandhi begins a 21-day fast in protest against British oppression in India

  • May 9 Spanish anarchists call for general strike
  • May 10 Deutsche Arbeitsfront (DAF) forms
  • May 10 Nazis stage public book burnings in Germany
  • May 10 Paraguay declares war on Bolivia
  • May 10 Suriname worker's union leader A de Come banished to Netherlands
  • May 12 Federal Emergency Relief Administration & Agricultural Adjustment Administration form to help the needy & farmers
  • May 13 58th Preakness: Charley Kurtsinger aboard Head Play wins in 2:02
  • May 15 1st voice amplification system to be used in US Senate
  • May 16 Cecil Travis becomes 1st player to get 5 hits in his 1st game

Nasjonal Samling

May 17 Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort form Nasjonal Samling, the national-socialist party of Norway

  • May 18 Around 5,000 forced deportees in the Soviet Union arrive on Nazino Island; within thirteen weeks most of them will be dead due to disease, cannibalism and violence
  • May 18 First MLB All-Star Game announced for July 6 at Comiskey Park; to be played as part of the Chicago World's Fair; fans to pick players

Tennessee Valley Act

May 18 Tennessee Valley Act (TVA) Act signed by FDR, to build dams

  • May 21 Mount Davidson Cross, San Francisco, lit by FDR via telegraph
  • May 22 First modern sighting of the Loch Ness Monster by Aldie and John Mackay saw "something resembling a whale"
  • May 22 World Trade Day/National Maritime Day 1st celebrated

Shostakovich's Preludes

May 24 Dmitri Shostakovich's Preludes premieres in Moscow

  • May 25 Spanish piano virtuoso José Iturbi makes his conducting debut, leading an orchestra at the Teatro Hidalgo in Mexico City, Mexico
  • May 26 2nd emergency Dutch government of Prime Minister Hendrikus Colijn forms

Klein Hits for Cycle

May 26 Phillies Chuck Klein hits for cycle vs St Louis Cards

  • May 27 Austrian communist party banned
  • May 27 Century of Progress Exposition opens in Chicago
  • May 27 Federal Securities Act signed

Heidegger's Address

May 27 Martin Heidegger gives his inaugural rectoral address on “The Self-Assertion of the German University”, taken by some take as supporting the Nazi regime

  • May 27 Trailing 11-3, Yanks score 12 runs in 8th & beat White Sox 15-11
  • May 27 Walt Disney's short film "3 Little Pigs" released (Academy Award Best Animated film 1934)
  • May 30 Indianapolis 500: Louis Meyer wins accompanied by riding mechanic Lawson Harris; Mark Billman killed in a crash on lap 79; Lester Spangler and riding mechanic "Monk" Jordan die in a crash on lap 132
  • May 30 Patent on invisible glass installation