1935 in the United States

Events from the year 1935 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal government

President: Franklin D. Roosevelt
[Vice President of the United States|President of the United States|Vice President]: John Nance Garner
Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes
Speaker of the House of Representatives: Joseph W. Byrns, Sr.
Senate Majority Leader: Joseph Taylor Robinson
Congress: 73rd, 74th

Events

January–March

January 3 - The trial of Richard Hauptmann, accused of the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr., begins in Flemington, New Jersey.
January 4 - Dry Tortugas National Park is established in the Florida Keys, United States.
January 11 - Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.
January 14 - Bibb Graves is sworn in for a second consecutive term as the 38th governor of Alabama replacing Benjamin M. Miller.
January 16 - The FBI kills the Barker Gang, including Ma Barker, in a shootout.
January 19 - Coopers Inc. sells the world's first men's briefs, as "jockeys", in Chicago.
February 7 - First known published use of the term "Ivy League".
February 13 - Richard Hauptmann is convicted and sentenced to death for the Lindbergh kidnapping.
February 22 - Airplanes are banned from flying over the White House.
February 23 - The classic Mickey Mouse cartoon The Band Concert is released by United Artists in the United States.
February 27 - The 7th Academy Awards, hosted by Irvin S. Cobb, are presented at Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, with Frank Capra's It Happened One Night becoming the first film to win all of the top five award categories, including Outstanding Production and Best Director. Victor Schertzinger's One Night of Love receives the most nominations with six.
March 2 – Porky Pig makes his debut in Looney Tunes's I Haven't Got a Hat.
March 19 – Harlem riot of 1935: A race riot breaks out in Harlem, after a rumor circulates that a teenage Puerto Rican shoplifter in the S. H. Kress & Co. department store has been brutally beaten.

April–June

April 1 - The North American NA-16, prototype of the North American T-6 Texan or Harvard flying trainer, flies for the first time.
April 14 - Dust Bowl: The great Black Sunday dust storm hits hardest in eastern New Mexico and Colorado, and western Oklahoma.
April 16 - Fibber McGee and Molly debuts on NBC Radio.
May 6 - New Deal: Executive Order 7034 creates the Works Progress Administration.
May 24 - The first nighttime Major League Baseball game is played, between the Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.
May 27 - Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States : The Supreme Court of the United States declares that the National Industrial Recovery Act, a major component of the New Deal, is unconstitutional.
May 30 - Eventual Baseball Hall of Famer Babe Ruth appears in his last career game, playing for the Boston Braves in Philadelphia against the Phillies.
May 30–June 2 - 1935 Republican River flood
June - National Youth Administration established.
June 10 - Alcoholics Anonymous is founded in Akron, Ohio by Bill W. and Dr. Dr. Bob (Smith).
June 12-13 - Senator Huey Long of Louisiana makes the longest speech on Senate record, taking 15 hours and containing 150,000 words.
June 13 - James J. Braddock defeats Max Baer at Madison Square Garden Bowl in New York City to win the heavyweight boxing championship of the world.

July–September

July 6 - The National Labor Relations Act becomes law.
July 16 - The world's first parking meters are installed in Oklahoma City.
July 24 - The Dust Bowl heat wave reaches its peak, sending temperatures in Chicago to a record-high
July 27 - Federal Writers' Project is established.
August 2 - The is raised from Lake Champlain.
August 5 - The Leo Burnett Advertising Agency opens in Chicago, Illinois.
August 14 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act into law.
August 15 - Humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post are killed when Post's plane crashes shortly after takeoff near Barrow, Alaska.
August 31 - As part of United States non-interventionism in the face of growing tensions in Europe, the first of the Neutrality Acts of 1930s is passed.
September 2 - Labor Day Hurricane of 1935: The strongest hurricane ever to strike the United States makes landfall in the Upper Florida Keys killing 423. It is rated as a Category 5 storm with 185 mph winds.
September 8
*Carl Weiss fatally wounds Huey Long, U.S. Senator from Louisiana, in a shooting at the Louisiana Capitol Building in Baton Rouge.
*Busby Berkeley is involved in three-car accident which kills three people and injures five, leading to charges of second-degree murder.
September 23 - The Cleveland Torso Murderer begins a 3-year series of killings and beheadings around the Kingsbury Run district of Cleveland, Ohio; the perpetrator is never identified.
September 24 - Earl W. Bascom and his brother Weldon produce the first night rodeo held outdoors under electric lights at Columbia, Mississippi.
September 30 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates Hoover Dam.

October–December

October 7 - The Detroit Tigers defeat the Chicago Cubs, 4 games to 2, to win their first World Series Title.
October 18 – The 6.5 Helena earthquake affected the capital of Montana with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII, causing widespread damage and two deaths. A high intensity aftershock claimed an additional two lives on October 31.
November 8 – A dozen labor union leaders come together to announce the creation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, an organization charged with promoting the cause of industrial unionism in North America.
November 15
* Historical Records Survey begins under the Works Progress Administration.
* The then U.S. colony of the Philippines becomes a Commonwealth with Manuel Quezon as its president.
November 22 - The China Clipper takes off from Alameda, California to deliver the first airmail cargo across the Pacific Ocean; the aircraft reaches its destination, Manila, and delivers over 110,000 pieces of mail.
November 30 - The British-made film Scrooge, the first all-talking film version of Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol, opens in the U.S. after its British release. Seymour Hicks plays Scrooge, a role he has played onstage hundreds of times. The film is criticized by some for not showing all of the ghosts physically, and quickly fades into obscurity. Widespread interest does not surface until the film is shown on television in the 1980s, in very shabby-looking prints. It is eventually restored on DVD.
December 5 - Mary McLeod Bethune founds the National Council of Negro Women.
December 9 - Newspaper editor Walter Liggett is killed in a gangland murder plot in Minneapolis.
December 17 - Douglas DST, prototype of the Douglas DC-3 airliner, first flies. More than 16,000 of the model will eventually be produced.
December 26 – Shenandoah National Park is established in Virginia.

Undated

The house Fallingwater in southwestern Pennsylvania, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is completed.
4 million members of trade unions in the U.S.
American Institute of Public Opinion, as predecessor of Gallup Group, a management consulting and worldwide research management institution business, founded in New Jersey, United States.

Ongoing

Births

January

January 2 – Jack Lemley, American architect
January 3 – Millard Fuller, American lawyer, founder of Habitat for Humanity
January 4 – Floyd Patterson, African-American heavyweight boxer
January 5 – Chuck Flores, American drummer
January 6
*Gerald R. Molen, American actor and producer
*Nino Tempo, American singer
January 7
* Kenny Davern, American jazz clarinetist
* Ducky Schofield, baseball player
January 8 – Elvis Presley, American rock & roll singer, guitarist and film actor
January 9
* Bob Denver, American actor
* Dick Enberg, American sportscaster
* Earl G. Graves Sr., African-American publisher
January 10
* Eddy Clearwater, African-American musician
* Ronnie Hawkins, American rockabilly musician
* Sherrill Milnes, American baritone
January 11 – Walter Mears, journalist and author
January 12 – The Amazing Kreskin, mentalist
January 13 – Rip Taylor, American actor and comedian
January 16
* Joyce Crouch, American politician.
* Russ McCubbin, American actor
* A. J. Foyt, American race car driver
January 17 – Ruth Ann Minner, American politician
January 20
* Dorothy Provine, American singer, dancer, actress and comedian
* Joan Weston, American roller derby racer
January 21 – Raye Montague, American naval engineer
January 22
* Seymour Cassel, American actor
* Pete du Pont, American attorney, businessman, and politician, 68th governor of Delaware
January 25
* Conrad Burns, American politician
* Steve Demeter, American baseball player, coach and manager
* Don Maynard, American football player
* Richard M. Pollack, American mathematician
January 26
* Henry Jordan, American football player
* Andrew J. Stofan, American astronautical engineer
January 29 – Roger Payne, American zoologist
January 30 – Richard Brautigan, American writer
January 31 – Hal Lear, American basketball player

February

February 2 – Raven Wilkinson, American dancer
February 3
* Johnny "Guitar" Watson, African-American singer, songwriter and musician
* Jody Williams, African-American blues musician
February 4
* Fred Kirschenmann, American agriculturist
* Collin Wilcox, American actress
February 5 – Colin Robert Chase, academic
February 7 – Herb Kohl, American politician
February 10
* John Alcorn, American illustrator
* Eddie Foy III, American actor, film director
February 11 – Gene Vincent, American guitarist, vocalist
February 12 – Gene McDaniels, African-American singer, songwriter
February 13
* Carol Jarecki, American chess organizer and writer
* Jacob Tanzer, American attorney
February 14 – Arnold Kopelson, American film producer
February 15 – Roger B. Chaffee, American astronaut
February 16 – Sonny Bono, American singer, actor and politician
February 17
* Johnny Bush, American country music singer, songwriter and drummer
* Sara Ruddick, American feminist philosopher
* Ruth Seymour, American broadcasting executive
* Lucky Varela, American politician
February 25
* Tony Campolo, American sociologist and Baptist pastor
* Sally Jessy Raphael, American talk show host

March

March 1 – Robert Conrad, American actor
March 6 – Ralph Natale, American mobster
March 11 – Nancy Kovack, American actress
March 13 – Leon Burton, American football player
March 15
* Jimmy Swaggart, American televangelist
* Judd Hirsch, American actor
March 17 – Bonnie Cooper, American baseball player
March 19 – Charlie Hennigan, American football player
March 22 – M. Emmet Walsh, American actor
March 23 – Edgar S. Cahn, American law professor and author
March 24 – Walter Moody, American murderer
March 25 – Jim Miceli, American politician
March 27 – Stanley Rother, American Roman Catholic priest
March 28 – Jeanie Descombes, American professional baseball player
March 30
* Willie Galimore, American football player
* J. Willard Thompson, American racehorse trainer
March 31
* Herb Alpert, American trumpeter
* Judith Rossner, American novelist

April

April 3 – Harold Kushner, American rabbi and author
April 4 – Kenneth Mars, American actor
April 7
* Bobby Bare, American country singer, songwriter
* Hodding Carter III, American journalist and politician
April 8
* David DiChiera, American composer
* Francis D. Moran, American admiral, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps
April 10 – Ken Squier, American motorsports broadcaster
April 11 – Nelson W. Aldrich Jr., author and editor
April 13 – Lyle Waggoner, American actor
April 14 – Katie Horstman, American female professional baseball player
April 15 – Charles Fried, American lawyer
April 17 – Walt Kowalczyk, American football player
April 18 – Paul A. Rothchild, American record producer
April 21
* Charles Grodin, American actor, comedian, author and cable talk show host
* Thomas Kean, Governor of New Jersey, 9/11 Commission Chairman
* Dolores Lee, American female professional baseball player
April 22
* Paul Chambers, American jazz musician
* Jerry Fodor, American philosopher, cognitive scientist
April 23
* Bunky Green, American jazz musician
* Charles Silverstein, American writer and LGBT activist
April 25 – Bob Gutowski, American athlete

May

May 2 – Lance LeGault, American actor
May 3 – Ron Popeil, American inventor and marketing personality
May 4 – Reginald Green, American development economist
May 6 – Edward M. Abroms, American film editor
May 7 – Hank Stackpole, American military officer
May 9 - Nokie Edwards, American musician
May 11
* Doug McClure, American actor
* Dick Leitsch, American LGBT rights activist
May 12
* Hoss Ellington, American race car driver
* Gary Peacock, American bassist and composer
May 15 – Don Bragg, American athlete
May 19 – David Hartman, American actor, television journalist
May 21 – Johnny Majors, American football player and coach
May 22 – Barry Rogers, American jazz, salsa trombonist
May 24
* Paul A. David, American economist
* Joan Micklin Silver, American director
* Rusty York, American singer
May 25
* Cookie Gilchrist, American football player
* Victoria Shaw, American actress
May 26 – Susann McDonald, American harpist
May 27
* Jerry Kindall, American baseball player
* Ramsey Lewis, American jazz pianist and composer
* Lee Meriwether, American actress
May 28 – Charles J. Hynes, American lawyer and politician
May 30 – Bill Mallory, American football player, and coach

June

June 1 – Reverend Ike, African-American televangelist
June 2
* Darrel Aschbacher, American football player
* Carol Shields, American-born writer
June 6 – Miriam T. Griffin, American classical scholar
June 7 – Harry Crews, American novelist, short story writer and essayist
June 16 – John Leo, American writer and journalist
June 17
* Peggy Seeger, American folk singer
* Rudolph G. Wilson, American professor, storyteller, writer and public speaker
June 20
* Jim Barker, American politician
* Len Dawson, American football player
June 21
* John Abbey, American actor
* Monte Markham, American actor
* Tom Pratt, American football coach
June 22
* Donald A. Bonner, American politician
* Floyd Norman, American animator
June 23 – Maurice Ferré, American politician
June 24
* Charlie Dees, American professional baseball player
* Robert Downey Sr., American actor, filmmaker and father of actor Robert Downey Jr.
* Pete Hamill, American journalist, novelist, essayist, editor and educator
* Ron Kramer, National Football League tight end
* Terry Riley, American minimalist composer
June 25
* Don Demeter, American outfielder, third baseman and first baseman in Major League Baseball
* Judy Howe, American artistic gymnast
* Larry Kramer, American playwright, author, public health advocate and LGBT rights activist
* Fran Ross, African American satirist
June 26 – Pete Peterson, American politician and diplomat
June 27
* Dan Currie, American football player
* Larry Krutko, American football player
June 28 – Bob Blaylock, American professional baseball player
June 30 – Stanley Norman Cohen, American geneticist

July

July 1
* Neal Brooks Biggers Jr., American judge
* James Cotton, American blues harmonica player, singer, songwriter
July 2 – Ed Bullins, American playwright
July 3
* Al Primo, American television executive
* Harrison Schmitt, American astronaut and politician
July 4
* Erich Barnes, American football defensive back
* Roy Wilt, American politician
July 5
* Brendan McCann, American basketball player
* Van B. Poole, American politician
July 8 – Steve Lawrence, American singer, actor
July 9 – Robert Pelletreau, American diplomat
July 10 – Margaret McEntee, American Catholic religious sister, educator
July 11 – Darrell Dess, American football offensive lineman
July 12 – Ed Rubinoff, American tennis player
July 13 – Jack Kemp, American football player, U.S. vice presidential candidate
July 15
* Ken Kercheval, American actor
* Andra Martin, American actress
July 16
* Edward J. Nell, American economist
* Gloria Tanner, American politician
* Lynn Wyatt, American socialite and philanthropist
July 17
* Diahann Carroll, African-American actress and singer
* Benjamin Civiletti, United States Attorney General
* Peter Schickele, American composer and classical musical parodist
July 18 – Hall Whitley, American football player
July 19 – George Breen, American competition swimmer
July 21
* Jeanne Arth, American Wimbledon and US Championships doubles tennis title holder
* Larry Hayes, American football player
July 22
* Grover Dale, American actor, dancer, choreographer and theatre director
* Steve Junker, American football player
July 24 – Lowry Mays, American businessman
July 25
* Barbara Harris, American actress
* Larry Sherry, American Major League Baseball player
July 27 – Sarah Jane Sands, American professional baseball player
July 28 – Ernie Bowman, American professional baseball player
July 29 – Friday Hassler, American racing driver
July 30 – Nick Meglin, American magazine editor
July 31
* Richard C. Blum, American investor
* Mort Crim, American television newscaster
* Geoffrey Lewis, American actor

August

August 2 – Hank Cochran, American country music singer/songwriter
August 4 – Carol Arthur, American actress
August 7
* Ada Deer, American scholar and civil servant
* Dave Ragan, American professional golfer
August 8
* Donald P. Bellisario, American television producer and screenwriter
* Joe Tex, African-American soul singer
August 12 – John Cazale, American actor
August 14 – John Brodie, American football player
August 15
* Vernon Jordan, African-American lawyer, businessman and activist
* Lionel Taylor, American football player and coach
August 16 – Charlie Tyra, American basketball player
August 18
* Gail Fisher, African-American actress
* Rafer Johnson, African-American athlete
August 19 – Bobby Richardson, American baseball player
August 20 – Ron Paul, American author, physician, and politician
August 22 – Annie Proulx, American novelist
August 26 – Geraldine Ferraro, American politician
August 29
* Thomas Stephens, American football player
* William Friedkin, American film director
August 30 – John Phillips, American singer-songwriter
August 31
* Eldridge Cleaver, African-American political activist and writer
* Frank Robinson, African-American baseball player, coach and manager

September

September 1 – Guy Rodgers, American basketball player
September 2
* D. Wayne Lukas, American horse trainer
* Gordon Massa, American baseball player
September 8 – Teddy Mayer, American motor racing entrepreneur
September 10 – Mary Oliver, American poet, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winner
September 12
* Harvey J. Alter, American virologist, Nobel Prize recipient
* Donald Fowler, American politician
* Richard Hunt, African-American sculptor
* Al Swift, American broadcaster, politician
September 15 – Bill Jackson, American television personality
September 16
* Carl Andre, American minimalist artist
* Billy Boy Arnold, African-American blues singer and harmonica player
* Jules Bass, American film director, producer and co-founder of Rankin/Bass Productions
* Bob Kiley, American public transit planner
* Helen Williams, American fashion model
September 17 – Ken Kesey, American author
September 19
* Bob Krueger, American politician
* Benjamin Thurman Hacker, American admiral
September 21 – Sigrid Valdis, American actress
September 20 – Jim Taylor, American football player
September 21 – Henry Gibson, American actor and comedian
September 22 – Milton Moses Ginsberg, American film director and editor
September 23 – Les McCann, African-American jazz musician
September 27
* Junior Rodriguez, American politician
* Dave Wickersham, American baseball pitcher
September 29
* Thomas Lockhart, American politician
* Jerry Lee Lewis, American rock & roll musician
September 30
* Z. Z. Hill, American blues singer
* Johnny Mathis, African-American singer

October

October 1 – Walter De Maria, American minimalist, conceptual artist and land artist
October 2 – Bernard Lee, American civil rights activist
October 3 – Charles Duke, American astronaut
October 4 – Jimmy Orr, American professional football player
October 5 – Peter Brown, American actor
October 10 – W. Jason Morgan, geophysicist
October 11 – Daniel Quinn, American writer
October 12 – Laurence Silberman, American lawyer and public official
October 14 – La Monte Young, American composer
October 15
* Barry McGuire, American musician
* Bobby Morrow, American athlete
October 18 – Peter Boyle, American actor
October 20 – Jerry Orbach, American actor
October 23 – JacSue Kehoe, American neuroscientist
October 25 – Rusty Schweickart, American astronaut
October 26
* Gloria Conyers Hewitt, African-American mathematician
* Ora Mendelsohn Rosen, American biomedical researcher
October 28 – Bob Veale, American baseball player and coach
October 30 – Robert Caro, American biographer
October 31 – Ronald Graham, American mathematician

November

November 1 – Charles Koch, American businessman, political donor and philanthropist
November 5 – Frank DeCicco, American mobster
November 9
* Jerry Hopkins, American journalist, author
* Bob Gibson, African-American baseball player
November 13 – Michael Getler, American journalist
November 15 – Elizabeth Drew, American journalist and author
November 19 – Jack Welch, American businessman
November 23 – Jean Havlish, American professional baseball, bowling player
November 24
* Pervis Atkins, American football player
* Ron Dellums, African-American politician
November 27 – Pat Fordice, American politician
November 29
* Diane Ladd, American actress
* Thomas J. O'Brien, Roman Catholic bishop, convicted of felony
November 30 – Woody Allen, American actor, comedian, and film director

December

December 2 – David Hackett Fischer, American historian, author and academic
December 4 – Paul H. O'Neill, American politician
December 5 – Calvin Trillin, American writer
December 6 – Edward Jay Epstein, American journalist and political scientist
December 11 – Ron Carey, American actor
December 13
* Ken Hall, American football player
* Ed Koren, American cartoonist
December 14
* Lewis Arquette, American film actor, writer and producer
* Lee Remick, American actress
December 15 – John Taylor Gatto, American author and school teacher
December 17 – Cal Ripken, Sr., American baseball player, manager
December 19 – Bobby Timmons, American jazz pianist
December 20 – William Julius Wilson, American sociologist and academic
December 21 – Phil Donahue, American TV personality, writer and film producer
December 23
* Paul Hornung, American football player
* Alvin Kass, American rabbi
December 25
* Stephen Barnett, American legal scholar
* James F. Hoge Jr., American journalist
* Anne Roiphe, American author and feminist
December 26
* Duke Fakir, American singer
* Al Jackson, American baseball pitcher
December 30 – Sandy Koufax, American baseball player
December 31 – Bette Nash, American flight attendant

Deaths

January 15 - Marion Howard Brazier, journalist
January 16
*Ma Barker, criminal, leader of the Barker gang
*Fred Barker, son of Ma Barker and a member of the Barker-Karpis gang
January 19 - Lloyd Hamilton, silent film comedian
February 15 - Harry Todd, actor
March 6 - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., U.S. Supreme Court Justice
March 12 - Mihajlo Pupin, physicist
March 23 - Florence Moore, vaudeville and silent film actress
April 2 - Bennie Moten, jazz pianist
April 6 - Edwin Arlington Robinson, poet
April 8 - Adolph Ochs, newspaper publisher
April 11 - Anna Katharine Green, crime fiction writer
May 3 - Jessie Willcox Smith, illustrator
May 4 - automobile accident
* Junior Durkin, actor
* Robert J. Horner, film producer and director
May 11 - Edward Herbert Thompson, archaeologist of the Maya civilization
May 13 - John S. Cohen, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1932 to 1933
May 19 - Charles Martin Loeffler, violinist and composer
May 21 - Jane Addams, social worker, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
July 7 - George Keller, architect
July 17 - Cudjoe Lewis, the last known surviving male victim of Clotilda, the last ship of the Atlantic slave trade
August 5 - David Townsend, art director
August 14 - Harriet Mabel Spalding, litterateur and poet
August 15 - aviation accident
* Wiley Post, aviator
* Will Rogers, humorist and actor
August 20 - Edith Roberts, silent film actress
August 25 - Mack Swain, vaudeville actor
August 27 - Childe Hassam, impressionist painter
September 10 - Huey Long, politician
September 11 - Charles Norris, medical examiner
September 18 - Alice Dunbar Nelson, born Alice Moore, African-American writer and activist
September 23 - DeWolf Hopper, actor and comedian
October 7 - Francis Wilson, stage actor and comedian
October 12 - Loretta C. Van Hook, Presbyterian missionary and educator
October 18 - Gaston Lachaise, sculptor
October 22 - Tommy Tucker, baseball pioneer
October 23
* Charles Demuth, painter
* Dutch Schultz, gangster
November 6
* Henry Fairfield Osborn, paleontologist
* Billy Sunday, baseball player, evangelist and prohibitionist
November 8 - Mary Alice Quinn, died at the age of 14 from a chronic heart condition
November 27 - Charlie Green, jazz trombonist
December 2
* James Henry Breasted, Egyptologist
* M. Carey Thomas, educator
December 9 - Walter Liggett, newspaper editor
December 14 - Stanley G. Weinbaum, science-fiction author
December 16 - Thelma Todd, comedy film actress
December 17 - Lizette Woodworth Reese, poet
December 28 - Clarence Day, writer
December 30 - Hunter Liggett, general

Date unknown

Lillian Resler Keister Harford, church organizer, editor