February 1933

February 1, 1933 (Wednesday)

• In his first speech as Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler addressed the Reichstag and was broadcast nationwide on the radio. He declared that "Within four years, the German farmer must be raised from destitution. Within four years, unemployment must be completely overcome." By 1936, full employment would be achieved, at the expense of suppressing all political opposition.
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer gave a radio talk titled, "The Younger Generation’s Altered view of the Concept of the Fuhrer", in which he warned that if a leader does not submit to an ultimate authority, the leader will ultimately become an idol. Bonhoeffer warned, "The fearful danger of the present time... is that... we forget that man stands alone before the ultimate authority and that anyone who lays violent hands on man here is infringing eternal laws and taking upon himself superhuman authority which will eventually crush him."
• Tiburcio Carías Andino took office as President of Honduras.
• Born: Reynolds Price, American author, in Macon, North Carolina

  February 2, 1933 (Thursday)

• A ceasefire agreement was signed in Nicaragua between rebel leader Augusto Sandino and President Juan Bautista Sacasa. The withdrawal of American troops the month before prompted the government to negotiate with the Sandinistas, who were granted amnesty, a tract of land in the Coco River valley, and the right to keep 100 armed men, in return for the demobilization of the other 1,800 rebels and the surrender of weapons.
• Christine and Lea Papin, sisters who worked as servants for the Lancelin family at Le Mans in France, murdered their employer's wife and daughter. Their 1933 trial captured the nation's attention. Christine died in an asylum and Lea was released in 1941.
• After a trial broadcast that had taken place on January 30, The Lone Ranger series began regular radio episodes, delivered 3 days a week until September 3, 1954.
• Born: Tony Jay, British-American stage and voice actor, in London

  February 3, 1933 (Friday)

• In a secret speech with Germany's senior Army and Navy commanders, Adolf Hitler outlined his plans to begin male conscription, to rearm Germany in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, and, eventually, to invade Eastern Europe to increase Germany's territory.
• Seven members of a family in Tomahawk, Kentucky, strangled Mrs. Lucinda Mills, age 72, in what was described as a cult sacrifice ritual.
• The musical comedy film Hallelujah, I'm a Bum starring Al Jolson and Madge Evans was released.
• Born:
• * General Than Shwe, Prime Minister of Burma 1992–2003 and head of state 1992–2011, in Kyaukse
• * Paul Sarbanes, three-term U.S. Representative, and five-term U.S. Senator for Maryland from 1977 to 2007, in Salisbury, Maryland.

  February 4, 1933 (Saturday)

• With the approval of Germany's President Hindenburg, Adolf Hitler decreed the "Ordinance for the Protection of the German People", which allowed the police to ban any publications which were a threat to public order. Violators could be arrested and detained without a warrant for as long as three months.
• Without consulting his minister, Japan's Emperor Hirohito approved Prince Kan'in's request to deploy troops in the Jehol province of China, on the condition that the armies were not to "advance beyond the great wall."

  February 5, 1933 (Sunday)

• After their pay had been cut by 15%, sailors on the Netherlands ship De Zeven Provinciën seized control of it in a mutiny that took place while most of the officers had gone ashore to an officers club at Olehleh in Sumatra. After Captain Henk Eikenboom returned to the port to find that the ship had been hijacked, he pursued in the ship Aldebaran. The next day, the mutineers announced that they would sail the ship to Surabaya and turn it over to the commander before arrival, adding "We do not intend force...We only want to protest against the unjust cutting of wages and the imprisonment of those who have already protested.". The Dutch Navy intercepted the ship on February 10 and sent the mutineers an ultimatum, giving them ten minutes to hoist a white flag of surrender. When the leaders refused, an airstrike was ordered and a bomb was dropped on the ship, killing 22 people on the deck. The ship then surrendered unconditionally.
• Died: James Herman Banning, 32, African-American pilot, as a passenger in a plane crash in San Diego.

  February 6, 1933 (Monday)

• The Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on January 23, was promulgated by the U.S. Secretary of State.
• The coldest temperature for an inhabited area was recorded at the Siberian town of Oymyakon at -68 °C.
• Radio Athlone, a high-power Irish AM radio station that could be heard as far as southern England, went on the air for the first time as Radio Ath Luain.
• "Home Means Nevada" was adopted as the official state song of the American state of Nevada.
• Henry A. Wallace was asked by President-elect Roosevelt to serve as the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. He hesitated for several days before agreeing to join the Cabinet.
• Born:
• * Leslie Crowther, British TV comedian and game show host, in West Bridgford
• * Walter E. Fauntroy, African-American Delegate to Congress from the District of Columbia, 1971–1991; in Washington, D.C.

  February 7, 1933 (Tuesday)

• Officers on the USS Ramapo measured a 112 foot high sea-wave in the Pacific Ocean, a record that has not been topped.
• A claim upon Antarctica was made by Australia as part of an Order in Council. The government asserted dominion over most of the Antarctic continent between 45°E and 160°E, directly south of Australia.
• The United States Senate voted 53–17 to fire its long-time sergeant at arms, David S. Barry, after he had written a magazine article that suggested that some of the Senators had taken bribes.
• Died: Count Albert Apponyi, Hungary's chief delegate to the League of Nations, died at age 87 during a session of the body in Geneva.

  February 8, 1933 (Wednesday)

• The prototype of the Boeing 247, a twin-engine, all-aluminum airplane designed to be the first modern airliner, made its initial flight, piloted by Les Tower and copilot Louis Goldsmith.
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt was formally declared the President-elect of the United States, and John Nance Garner the Vice-President elect, as the electoral college results were announced by Vice-President Charles Curtis at a joint session of Congress. As expected, the vote was 472 to 59 in favor of Roosevelt and Garner over President Hoover and Vice-President Curtis.
• Adolf Hitler announced to his cabinet that he would pursue the goal of complete rearmament of the German people within five years, with every publicly sponsored employment program to be judged by whether it contributed to the Wehrmacht.
• The coldest recorded temperature in Texas was logged at Seminole at -23 °F.
• Born: Elly Ameling, Dutch soprano, in Rotterdam

  February 9, 1933 (Thursday)

• Record cold temperatures were set in the states of Montana, Oregon, and Wyoming. The Montana reading was the lowest recorded temperature in United States history to that time. The record for the 48 U.S. states would remain unbroken until January 20, 1954 in Montana, and, after the admission of Alaska, on January 23, 1971.
• The "Oxford Pledge" was approved by a 275–153 vote of England's foremost debating society at the University of Oxford, a resolution stating "this House will in no circumstances fight for its King and Country." Coinciding with the ascendance of Adolf Hitler to the leadership of Germany, the pacifist resolution attracted worldwide publicity and outraged many Britons. Winston Churchill described the resolution as "an abject, squalid, shameless avowal". As one observer would later note, "Most of those who took part in this debate certainly fought for King and Country seven years later", after war began in 1939.

  February 10, 1933 (Friday)

• The New York City-based Postal Telegraph Company introduced the first singing telegram.
• A gas storage tank at the German town of Neunkirchen, Saarland, exploded, killing 62 people and hospitalizing 160.
• Primo Carnera knocked out Ernie Schaaf in the 13th round of a heavyweight boxing bout at New York's Madison Square Garden. Schaaf suffered an intracranial hemorrhage, developed a blood clot on his brain, and died during surgery four days later at age 24.
• Ronald Reagan, age 22, began his first full-time job in radio, for station WOC in Davenport, Iowa. Four months later, Reagan was hired as a full-time sports announcer for WHO, a clear-channel station in Des Moines, where he became a local celebrity, and in 1937, his job took him to California where he became a movie star with Warner Brothers, followed by his entry into politics in 1966, and his election as President of the United States in 1980.

  February 11, 1933 (Saturday)

• What is now the Death Valley National Park was created by proclamation of outgoing U.S. President Herbert Hoover, who set aside the desert in southern California and a U.S. national monument. President Bill Clinton would sign legislation in 1994 making Death Valley the largest national park in the continental United States.

  February 12, 1933 (Sunday)

• The first offense to fall under the new U.S. Federal Kidnapping Act took place in Denver, when wealthy stockbroker Charles Boettcher II was abducted from his home and held hostage by Verne Sankey and Gordon Alcorn. Boettcher was released after payment of a $60,000 ransom. His captors became the subject of a nationwide manhunt and were captured in 1934. Sankey committed suicide while waiting to be arraigned, and Alcorn was sentenced to life in prison.
• Born:
• * Costa-Gavras, Greek-born film director and writer, in Loutra Iraias.
• * Ivan Anikeyev, one of the original Soviet cosmonauts in 1960, who was dismissed from the program on April 17, 1963, before completing any space flights.
• Died:
• * Henri Duparc, 85, French composer
• * Sir William Robertson, 73, British Chief of the Imperial General Staff during the First World War, and the only British Army soldier to rise from the rank of private to field marshal.