Events from the year 1934 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government
President: Franklin D. Roosevelt (D-New York) Vice President: John Nance Garner (D-Texas) Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes (New York) Speaker of the House of Representatives: Henry Thomas Rainey (D-Illinois) (until August 19) Senate Majority Leader: Joseph Taylor Robinson (D-Arkansas) Congress: 73rd
Events
January
January 26 – The Apollo Theater opens in Harlem, New York City. January 27 – Albert Einstein visits the White House. January 30 – Gold Reserve Act: All gold held in the Federal Reserve to be surrendered to the Department of the Treasury; immediately following, President Roosevelt raises the statutory gold price from $20.67 per ounce to $35.
February
February 22 – Frank Capra's It Happened One Night, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, is released. It becomes a smash hit and the first of Capra's great screen classics. It becomes the first film to win all 5 of the major Academy Awards – Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture. Gable and Colbert receive their only Oscars for this film.
March
March 3 – John Dillinger escapes from jail in Crown Point, Indiana, using a wooden pistol. March 12 – The 6.5 Hansel Valley earthquake affects a sparsely populated area of northern Utah with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), causing light damage and two deaths. March 13 – John Dillinger and his gang rob the First National Bank in Mason City, Iowa. March 16 – The 6th Academy Awards, hosted by Will Rogers, are presented at Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, with Frank Lloyd's Cavalcade winning the Academy Award for Best Picture. It also receives the most awards with three, including Best Director for Lloyd, and is among three films (the others being Frank Borzage's A Farewell to Arms and Frank Capra's Lady for a Day) to each receive the most nominations with four. It is the final awards season until 2021 to accommodate two calendar years. March 24 – The Tydings–McDuffie Act comes into effect, establishing the Philippine Commonwealth which allows greater self-government of the Philippines, and scheduling full independence from the U.S. for 1944. Sugar imports are reduced and immigration is limited to 50 Filipino people per year.
April
April 1 – Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker kill 2 young highway patrolmen near Grapevine, Texas. April 12 U.S. publication of the novel Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald The world's highest ever recorded surface wind speed of was recorded on the summit of Mount Washington (New Hampshire). April 22 – John Dillinger and two others shoot their way out of an FBI ambush in northern Wisconsin.
May
May 5 – The first Three Stooges short, Woman Haters, is released. May 9 – 1934 West Coast waterfront strike: A general strike is engaged in San Francisco. May 11 – Dust Bowl: A strong 2-day dust storm removes massive amounts of Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst dust storms of the Dust Bowl. May 15 The United States Department of Justice offers a $25,000 reward for John Dillinger. Nantucket Lightship LV-117 sinks after colliding with RMS Olympic. May 16 – Teamsters in Minneapolis begin a strike that lasts until a settlement proposal is accepted on August 21. May 23 A team of police officers, led by Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, ambush bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow near their hide-out in Black Lake, Louisiana, killing them both. The "Battle of Toledo" begins during the Auto-Lite strike in Toledo, Ohio, continuing until May 27. May 30 – Everglades National Park is established.
June
June 4 – USS Ranger is commissioned. June 6 – New Deal: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. June 15 – Great Smoky Mountains National Park is established. June 18 – expands the crime of making false statements to remove the requirement of an intent to defraud and expands the coverage to "any matter within the jurisdiction" of the federal government.