July 1933

July 1, 1933 (Saturday)

• The United Kingdom and the Soviet Union resumed trading, after the Soviets agreed to release the last of the British Metro-Vickers engineers who had been arrested and convicted of espionage. L.C. Thornton and William MacDonald arrived back in Britain on July 5.
• After Reverend Ludwig Müller, the head of Germany's new "Reich Church", said that Adolf Hitler was going to join the new organization, Hitler sent word through its news agency that the reports "are a fantasy and lies. Hitler belongs now, as previously, in the Catholic church and has no intention of leaving it."
• Italo Balbo, the Air Minister of Italy, and his "armada" of 25 seaplanes of the Italian Air Force set off from Orbetello at 5:45 am on the first leg of a trip to the World's Fair in Chicago.
• The London Passenger Transport Board was created, bringing all of London's mass transportation and taxicabs under one authority.
• Ethel Waters became the first African-American to have her own network radio show, after being signed to appear twice a week on the NBC Radio Network.
• The Douglas DC-1, the first commercial airline manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company, made its first flight, taking off from Clover Field at Santa Monica, California with Carl Cover and Fred Herman as pilots.
• Retired USMC Major General Smedley Butler was approached for the first time by businessman Gerald C. MacGuire, ostensibly about running for National Commander of the American Legion. General Butler testified before Congress in 1934 that MacGuire would visit frequently, proposing that Butler lead veterans in a coup against the United States government.
• Died: Albert Erskine, 62, President of the Studebaker Corporation, shot himself after being despondent over declining sales for the automaker.

  July 2, 1933 (Sunday)

• Romania's King Carol II was visiting an arms factory near Cluj when a soldier, startled by a shout from a nearby officer, began firing a new model machine gun in the King's direction. Bullets passed within of the monarch, who was unharmed.
• In what has been described as "one of the greatest games in the history of baseball", baseball pitcher Carl Hubbell of the New York Giants pitched 18 innings without walking a single batter on the St. Louis Cardinals, whose Tex Carleton matched Hubbell for the first 16 innings in a 0–0 deadlock. In the 18th inning, New York won the game 1–0 after Carleton was replaced by reliever Jesse Haines.

  July 3, 1933 (Monday)

• U.S. President Roosevelt stunned and angered the rest of the world in a message transmitted to the delegates of the World Economic Conference in London, announcing that the U.S. would remain off of the gold standard in order to pursue long-term price stability at home, rather than immediate international currency stabilization. "This is not the time to dissipate gold reserves", said Roosevelt, adding, "When the world works out concerted policies in the majority of nations to produce balanced budgets and living within their means, then we can properly discuss a better distribution of the world's gold and silver supply... the United States of America seeks the kind of dollar which a generation hence will have the same purchasing and debt-paying power as the dollar value we hope to attain in the near future." On July 8, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Poland made a declaration that they would continue to peg their currencies to the price of gold damaging their economies in the long run.
• The Convention for the Definition of Aggression, first to agree on a legal meaning for the term, was signed by eight nations at the Soviet Union's embassy in London, as the USSR worked out an agreement with its neighbors. "Aggression" had been forbidden by the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact in 1928, but not explained. "Aggression" included attacks on territory, naval vessels or aircraft, a naval blockade, aid to armed bands "formed on the territory of a State", or failing "to deprive the bands of any aid and protection".
• Died: Hipólito Yrigoyen, 82, President of Argentina 1922–30

  July 4, 1933 (Tuesday)

• Howard Moffat, described by a later observer as "the Herbert Hoover of colonial Zimbabwe" resigned as Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia after six years, and was succeeded by George Mitchell.

  July 5, 1933 (Wednesday)

• The remaining opposition political party in Germany, the Catholic Center Party, voted to disband.
• Austria's Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss reached a concordat with the Vatican, giving the Roman Catholic Church greater influence over Austrian schools.
• COMEX, the Commodity Exchange, was formed by the merger of four separate trading forums. COMEX would merge into the New York Mercantile Exchange in 1994.
• Died: Charles N. Haskell, 73, first Governor of Oklahoma

  July 6, 1933 (Thursday)

• The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game was played at Comiskey Park in Chicago, in order to raise money for a fund to assist retired major league players. A home run by Babe Ruth in the 3rd inning drove in 2 runs and gave the American League stars a 4–2 win over the National League. All of the players were selected by a vote from the fans. Originally envisioned as a one-time exhibition coinciding with Chicago's World's Fair, the contest became an annual event.

  July 7, 1933 (Friday)

• Jimmie Mattern, the American flyer who had disappeared on June 14 while trying to complete the first solo airplane flight around the world, was able to get out word that he had survived. Mattern, missing for more than three weeks, was able to send a telegram from the Siberian city of Bocharova with the words "Safe at Anadyr, Chukotka, Siberia. Jimmie Mattern."
• U.S. Attorney General Homer S. Cummings said that about $2,000,000 worth of gold had been returned, but that 211 other persons were hoarding $1,297,057 in gold.
• With the United States off of the gold standard, the value of the American dollar against the British pound dropped by 30 percent, while average prices on the New York Stock Exchange went up.
• "Old Jack Quinn" pitched his last Major League Baseball game, six days after his 50th birthday, with one inning for the Cincinnati Reds in an 8–5 win over the Boston Braves.
• The Securities Act of 1933 took effect in the United States, with 41 firms registering with the FTC in order to do business on Wall Street.
• Born:
• *Murray Halberg, New Zealand runner in 5000 meter race, 1960 Olympic gold medalist; in Eketāhuna
• *David McCullough, American historian and author; in Pittsburgh
• *Bruce Wells, English boxer/actor who won 385 fights and lost 3 as an amateur; in Harlesden
• Died:
• *Neal "Mickey" Finn, 29, American baseball player and second baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies up until June 17, died of complications following a June 25 surgery for an ulcer.
• *Mykola Skrypnyk, 61, former Ukrainian SSR Commissar of Education, shot himself to death after being fired during a purge of Ukrainian officials on orders of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

  July 8, 1933 (Saturday)

• Amelia Earhart, officially Amelia Earhart Putnam and referred to in the press as "Mrs. Putnam", arrived at Newark at 9:19 pm after crossing the United States in 17 hours and 7 minutes for a new airplane speed record.
• The first rugby union test match between the two countries was played between the Wallabies of Australia and the Springboks of South Africa at Newlands in Cape Town.
• After Pennsylvania's long-time ban against Sunday sports was lifted, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles were awarded franchises by the National Football League at its annual owners' meeting in Chicago.
• Born:
• *Antonio Lamer, 16th Chief Justice of Canada from 1990 to 2000; in Montreal
• *Peter Orlovsky, American poet and partner of Allen Ginsberg; in New York City

  July 9, 1933 (Sunday)

• The Convention for Limiting the Manufacture and Regulating the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs, which had been signed in 1931 by 39 nations came into effect. The United States ratified it the next day.
• The results of the 1933 Finnish parliamentary election were announced, showing that the Social Democrats had gained 12 seats, while the conservative and Agrarian parties all lost seats. No party had a majority in the 200 seat Parliament, and a coalition was formed by incumbent Prime Minister Toivo Mikael Kivimäki.;
• Seventy people, on an excursion up the Volga River, drowned when an overcrowded boat overturned at Yaroslavl. The accident was not disclosed by the Soviet press until five days later.
• Born: Hedrick Smith, Scottish-born reporter for the New York Times and correspondent for the PBS show Frontline, Pulitzer Prize and Emmy Award winner; in Kilmacolm

  July 10, 1933 (Monday)

• A day before a right-wing group called the "Divine Soldiers" was planning to overthrow the government of Japan, police in Tokyo foiled the plot by arresting the conspirators. The plan had been to bomb the office of Prime Minister Saitō Makoto during a cabinet meeting, then to set up a new government headed by the Emperor Hirohito's uncle, Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni, or the Emperor's younger brother, Prince Chichibu; details were suppressed for several years, and the conspirators received light sentences.
• Born:
• *C. K. Yang, Taiwanese decathlete, silver medalist in the 1960 Summer Olympics; in Taitung
• *Richard G. Hatcher, African-American politician, Mayor of Gary, Indiana 1968–88; in Michigan City, Indiana
• *Kevin Gilbert, Australian author; in Condobolin, New South Wales
• Died:
• *Joseph Urban, 61, Austrian stage designer and illustrator
• *John Markle, 74, American philanthropist and co-founder of the Markle Foundation
• *Sir Reginald Beatty Wolseley, 61, nicknamed "The Elevator Boy Baronet". Wolseley had left England in 1897 at the age of 25 and become an elevator operator at a hotel in Waterloo, Iowa. Known as Dick Wolseley in the U.S., he was elevated to the baronetcy after his cousin, Sir Capel Charles Wolseley, died in 1923.