1934

Events

January–February

• January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established.
• January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI, killing an estimated 6,000–10,700 people.
• February 6 – French political crisis: The French far-right leagues rally in front of the Palais Bourbon, in an attempted coup d'état against the Third Republic.
• February 9
• * Gaston Doumergue forms a new government in France.
• * Greece, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia form the Balkan Pact.
• February 12–15 – Austrian Civil War: The Fatherland Front consolidates its power in a series of clashes across the country.
• February 16 – The Commission of Government is sworn in, as a form of direct rule for the Dominion of Newfoundland.
• February 21 – Augusto César Sandino is assassinated in Managua, by the National Guard.
• February 23 – King Leopold III of Belgium succeeds to the throne, following the death of his father King Albert I.

  March–April

• March 1 – Manchukuo, the Japanese puppet state in Manchuria established in 1932, proclaimed a monarchy under Puyi.
• March 12 – Prime Minister Konstantin Päts stages a self-coup by declaring a state of emergency in Estonia, with the approval of the parliament, beginning the country's Era of Silence.
• March 13 – John Dillinger and his gang rob the First National Bank in Mason City, Iowa, United States, stealing $52,000.
• March 20 – The Great Hakodate Fire kills at least 2,166 people in southern Hokkaido, Japan.
• March 24 – The Tydings–McDuffie Act is passed, allowing the Philippines a greater degree of self-government from the United States.
• April 21 – The "surgeon's photograph" of the Loch Ness Monster, taken in Scotland by London gynaecologist Robert Kenneth Wilson and in 1994 admitted to be a hoax, is published in the Daily Mail London national newspaper.

  May–June

• May 1 – The May Constitution of 1934 heralds the beginning of the Austrofascist Federal State of Austria.
• May 15 – Kārlis Ulmanis establishes an authoritarian government in Latvia.
• May 19 – Kimon Georgiev stages a coup d'état in Bulgaria.
• May 23 – American outlaws Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed and killed by police in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
• May 28 – Near Callander, Ontario, Canada, the Dionne quintuplets are born to Oliva and Elzire Dionne, becoming the first quintuplets to survive infancy.
• May 31 – The Barmen Declaration, largely drafted by Karl Barth, is signed by Christians in Nazi Germany who are opposed to the pro-Nazi German Christian movement.
• June 9 – Donald Duck makes his film debut in Walt Disney's Silly Symphony cartoon The Wise Little Hen.
• June 10 – Italy beats Czechoslovakia 2–1 after extra time, to win the 1934 World Cup, staged in Italy.
• June 14 – Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet for the first time, at the Venice Biennale.
• June 18 – The Indian Reorganization Act is enacted.
• June 27 – Imam Yahya of Yemen and Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia conclude a peace treaty.
• June 30 – July 2 – Night of the Long Knives in Germany: Nazis purge the Sturmabteilung, the left-wing Strasserist faction of the Nazi Party, and prominent conservative anti-Nazis, in a series of political murders.
• June 30 – The Nazi Party SA camp Oranienburg becomes a national camp, taken over by the Schutzstaffel.

  July–August

• July 1 – The Hays Code begins to be strictly enforced in the Hollywood film industry, lasting until 1968.
• July 13 – Hitler gives a speech to the Reichstag, justifying his purge.
• July 25 – July Putsch: Austrian Nazis assassinate chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, during a failed coup attempt.
• August 2 – Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany, or head of state combined with that of Chancellor, following the death of President Paul von Hindenburg.
• August 8 – The Wehrmacht swears a personal oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler.
• August 15 – The United States Marine Corps leaves Haiti.
• August 19 – 1934 German referendum: In a referendum, 90% of the German population approves of Hitler's assumption of presidential powers, as Führer and Reichskanzler.

  September–October

• September 5–10 – The 6th Nuremberg Rally is staged by the German Nazi Party.
• September 8 – Off the New Jersey coast, a fire aboard the passenger liner kills 134 people.
• September 15 – 1934 Australian federal election: Joseph Lyons' UAP government is re-elected with a decreased majority, defeating the Labor Party, led by former Prime Minister James Scullin. Consequently, Lyons is forced to resume the Coalition with the Country Party, and include them in his government. Scullin steps down from the Labor leadership shortly after; he is replaced by future Prime Minister John Curtin.
• September 19
• * The Soviet Union joins the League of Nations.
• * Bruno Richard Hauptmann is arrested in connection with the Lindbergh kidnapping case in the U.S.
• September 21 – The Muroto typhoon in Honshū, Japan kills 3,036 people, and destroys the temple, schools, and other buildings in Osaka.
• September 22 – A gas explosion at Gresford Colliery in Wrexham, north-east Wales, kills 266 miners and rescuers.
• September 28 – Afghanistan joins the League of Nations.
• October 2 – A typhoon in Osaka and Kyoto, Japan, kills 1,660, injures 5,400, and destroys the rice harvest.
• October 6 – Events of October the 6th: the President of Catalonia, Lluís Companys, declares the Catalan State of the Spanish Federal Republic, but Spanish troops swiftly crush the Catalan forces, and arrest him and the members of the Catalan government. The autonomy of Catalonia is suspended until 1936.
• October 9 – King Alexander of Yugoslavia and French foreign minister Louis Barthou are assassinated, during the king's state visit in Marseille.
• October 16 – The Long March of the People's Liberation Army of the Chinese Communist Party begins.
• October 20–November 3 – Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first eastward crossing of the Pacific Ocean, from his native Brisbane, Australia, to San Francisco, in the Lockheed Altair Lady Southern Cross. The November 3 Hawaii–San Francisco leg is the first eastward flight from Hawaii to North America.
• October 20–November 5 – The MacRobertson Air Race is flown from RAF Mildenhall in England to Melbourne, Australia, to celebrate the centenary of the state of Victoria. The overall winner is the British de Havilland DH.88 Comet G-ACSS Grosvenor House, flown by C. W. A. Scott and Tom Campbell Black.

  November–December

• November 6 – Attempted exclusion of Egon Kisch from Australia begins.
• November 23 – An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden discovers an Italian garrison at Walwal, which lies well within Ethiopian territory. This encounter leads to the Abyssinia Crisis.
• November 27 – Daniel Salamanca Urey, President of Bolivia, is deposed in a military coup, and replaced by José Luis Tejada Sorzano.
• December 5 – Abyssinia Crisis: Ethiopian and Italian troops exchange gunfire. Reported casualties for the Ethiopians are 150, and for the Italians 50.
• December 27 – Persia becomes Iran.
• December 29 – Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.

  Date unknown

• Winter – Tadj ol-Molouk, Empress consort of Iran, and her daughters appear publicly in Tehran without a veil, leading to its abolition in the country.
• Abidjan becomes the capital of the French colony of Ivory Coast.
• The sonoluminescence effect is discovered, at the University of Cologne.
• The Australian frontier wars end, after 146 years.
• The Yomiuri Giants, a successful professional baseball club in Japan, is founded in Tokyo.

  Births

January

• January 2 – Wael Zwaiter, Palestinian writer
• January 4
• * Rudolf Schuster, 2nd President of Slovakia
• * Zurab Tsereteli, Georgian-Russian painter, sculptor, architect
• January 5 – Eddy Pieters Graafland, Dutch football goalkeeper
• January 7
• * Charles Jenkins, American sprinter
• * Tassos Papadopoulos, Cypriot politician, 5th President of Cyprus
• January 10 – Leonid Kravchuk, President of Ukraine
• January 11 – Jean Chrétien, 20th Prime Minister of Canada
• January 14
• * Richard Briers, English actor
• * Pierre Darmon, French tennis player
• January 16 – Marilyn Horne, American mezzo-soprano
• January 17 – Cedar Walton, American jazz pianist
• January 18 – Raymond Briggs, British writer and illustrator
• January 20 – Tom Baker, British actor
• January 21 – Ann Wedgeworth, American actress
• January 24 – Stanisław Grochowiak, Polish poet and dramatist
• January 27 – Édith Cresson, Prime Minister of France
• January 30 – Tammy Grimes, American actress
• January 31 – Eva Mozes Kor, Romanian Holocaust survivor and author

  February

• February 5 – Hank Aaron, American baseball player
• February 7 – Eddie Fenech Adami, 10th Prime Minister of Malta and 7th President of Malta
• February 10 – Fleur Adcock, New Zealand poet
• February 11
• * Manuel Noriega, Panamanian military dictator
• * John Surtees, British racing driver
• February 12 – Anne Krueger, American economist
• February 13 – George Segal, American actor
• February 14 – Florence Henderson, American actress, singer and television personality
• February 15 – Niklaus Wirth, Swiss computer scientist
• February 17
• * Sir Alan Bates, British actor
• * Barry Humphries, Australian actor, comedian
• February 18
• * Anna Maria Ferrero, Italian actress
• * Paco Rabanne, Spanish fashion designer
• February 21 – Rue McClanahan, American actress
• February 24
• * Bettino Craxi, Prime Minister of Italy
• * Renata Scotto, Italian soprano
• * Bingu wa Mutharika, Malawian President, economist
• February 27 – Ralph Nader, American consumer activist and presidential candidate