The following events occurred in April 1935:
April 1, 1935 (Monday) The U.S. Supreme Court decided Grovey v. Townsend and Patterson v. Alabama. Pope Pius XI told a gathering of 20 cardinals that it would be an "enormous crime" if another war occurred. "We cannot persuade ourselves that those who should have at heart the prosperity and well-being of the people wish to push to suicide, ruin and extermination not only their own nation but a great part of humanity", he said. The Reserve Bank of India was founded.
April 2, 1935 (Tuesday) Nazi Germany first revealed that it possessed anti-aircraft guns by naming Hermann Göring as the Commander of the Anti-Aircraft Force. It was forbidden in the Treaty of Versailles for Germany to have anti-aircraft artillery. Robert Watson-Watt of Great Britain patented the first practical radar system. Died: Bennie Moten, 40, American jazz pianist and band leader
April 3, 1935 (Wednesday) Austria broke the Treaty of Saint-Germain with the announcement it was increasing its armed forces beyond the treaty's limit of 30,000 soldiers. Born: Harold Kushner, American rabbi and author, in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2023) Died: Henry Augustus Lukeman, 63, American sculptor
April 4, 1935 (Thursday) Anthony Eden ended his European peace tour in Prague with the statement, "In the world today no nation can prosper on another's ruin. We are too intimately connected for that. We stand and fall together." Hermann Göring visited the Free City of Danzig in an attempt to influence Sunday's parliamentary elections in favour of Nazi candidates. Born: Kenneth Mars, actor, in Chicago, Illinois (d. 2011)
April 5, 1935 (Friday) In response to the Patterson v. Alabama decision, Alabama Governor Bibb Graves ordered that the names of colored persons be put on the jury rolls in all 67 state counties. A very rare occurrence of a Japanese emperor leaving the imperial palace took place when Hirohito rode to the Tokyo railway station to greet Kang-de of Manchukuo. Died: Basil Champneys, 92, British architect and author
April 6, 1935 (Saturday) A Dutch airliner en route from Prague to Amsterdam crashed and killed all seven aboard. Cambridge won the 87th Boat Race. Harold "Bunny" Levitt of Chicago made 499 consecutive basketball free throws, a world record that stood until 1975. Died: Edwin Arlington Robinson, 65, American poet and sonnet writer
April 7, 1935 (Sunday) Parliamentary elections were held in the Free City of Danzig. Although the Nazis won 59% of the vote, this was short of the two-thirds majority needed to set up a dictatorship. A German Nazi and a Pole were shot during an outbreak of violence in Brentau. Tornadoes in the Deep South killed at least 26 people.
April 8, 1935 (Monday) President Roosevelt signed the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act into law, creating the Works Progress Administration. The Soviet Union reduced the minimum age of eligibility for the death penalty to twelve years. Gene Sarazen won the second Masters Tournament. Died: Adolph Ochs, 77, American newspaper publisher
April 9, 1935 (Tuesday) The Montreal Maroons defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-1 to win the Stanley Cup in a three-game sweep. Tributes to Erich Ludendorff were held all over Germany on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Laudatory articles were published in newspapers and Hitler ordered that all public buildings display flags. Catholic and Protestant Confessional synod organizations refused to obey the flag order because of Ludendorff's professed anti-Christian beliefs. Four theatrical men running the British stage revue Stop Press (a retitled version of the American production As Thousands Cheer) were fined in court over a scene showing a man and a woman in bed together and another in which actors impersonating George Bernard Shaw and Jacob Epstein blow a raspberry. The prosecutor called the latter "a very unpleasant noise, even more unpleasant when put in the mouths of two very respectable persons." Born: Aulis Sallinen, classical music composer, in Salmi, Finland
April 10, 1935 (Wednesday) Hermann Göring married his second wife, the actress Emmy Sonnemann. The sale of English newspapers was restricted in Germany. Born: Ken Squier, motorsports broadcaster, in Waterbury, Vermont
April 11, 1935 (Thursday) The Stresa Conference began in Stresa, Italy. Representatives of Britain, France and Italy met to discuss how to respond to Germany's rearmament and safeguard Austrian independence. An earthquake in northern Iran killed 500–600 people. A train collided with a school bus in Rockville, Maryland and killed 14 students.