In 1930 over 1300 American banks failed and unemployment reached over 4 million.

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The world famous Scottsboro affair began in 1931 with nine black men arrested on false charges at a train stop in Paint Rock, Alabama.

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27 year old Salvador Dali painted dripping clocks on his surrealist classic, "The Persistence of Memory" in 1931.

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Chicago mobster Al Capone was convicted of income tax evasion in 1931; he was sentenced to 11 years in jail and given a $50,000 fine.

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Pluto, the ninth planet, was discovered by astronomers in 1930.

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General Motor's Frigidaire replaced ammonia with Freon 12 refrigerant gas in 1931, making refrigerators safe for households around the industrialized world.

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"The Star Spangled Banner," originally written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key, becomes the American national anthem by order of Congress.

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A 23 year old Harvard drop out, Edwin Herbert Land, invented Polaroid film in 1932.

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In 1932, the depression continued to take a heavy toll.  In that year alone, nearly 20,000 businesses went bankrupt, 1,161 banks failed and 21,000 people committed suicide.

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In 1932, son of noted aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped and killed in a world famous affair.

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In 1932, Spam was invented, ushering in a new era of processed food and additives.  TV dinners were discovered soon thereafter.

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Reformed alcoholic Bill Wilson founded Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935 - anonymously.

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Amelia Earhart and her aircraft disappeared mysteriously over the Pacific in 1937,

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was Walt Disney's first full length animated film in 1938.

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Unemployed Americans marched on the White House in 1930, demanding a national program of employment at a minimum wage.  They were turned away.

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Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial hit it's Depression era low of 41.22 in 1931.

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In the film industry Grand Hotel sported a grand cast, starring Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, John and Lionel Barrymore in 1932.

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One of the best female athletes of the century, Babe Didrikson won at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932. 

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Frequency modulations (FM) permit radio reception without static in 1933.  President Franklin Roosevelt began to record his "fireside chats" for weekly radio broadcast soon there after.

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Baseball's Negro National League pitcher Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige broke Dizzy Dean's 30 game winning streak in 1934.

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Crime didn't pay in 1934, as infamous bank robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker died in a shower of police bullets near Shreveport, Louisiana, the F.B.I. nabbed John Dillinger, and Alcatraz became a prison.

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The Social Security Act became a law in 1935.

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The Spanish Civil War began in 1936, marking the growing rift between the Fascist right and Marxist left in Europe.  Hundreds of Americans volunteered for "Lincoln Brigades" to help fight Franco's fascism.

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Hundreds were killed in a massacre in Ponce, Puerto Rico in 1937.

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The first real "Xerox" image is made in Queens, New York in 1938.

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In the radio broadcast "War of the Worlds" in 1938, Orson Welles panicked Americans who believe that Martians were actually invading earth.

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Gone With The Wind, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and The Wizard of Oz all premiered in 1929.

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After the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to let Marian Anderson perform at the Constitution Hall on account of her race, so she performed at the Lincoln Memorial.