1932

The Reconstruction Finance Corporation is created to give financial assistance to failing banks; it later funds self-liquidating state public work projects under the Relief and Reconstruction Act.

The League of Nations hosts the World Disarmament Conference in Geneva, Switzerland; negotiations fail to bring about significant arms reductions before Germany and Japan withdraw.

Comedian Jack Benny begins his radio show; it remains on the air, via radio and, later, television for 23 years.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) issues Black Justice, a report detailing the extent of institutional racism in America.

Pilot Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo from the United States to Europe.

In Powell v. Alabama, the U. S. Supreme Court overturns the conviction of the “Scottsboro Boys,” who were tried and sentenced for rape without the defense of legal counsel.

The Norris-La Guardia Act of 1932 prevents the government from issuing injunctions to restrain strikes, boycotts, or picketing, except where such strikes affect the public safety, or to enforce antiunion “yellow dog” contracts.

The United Conference of Mayors forms to seek federal aid for the urban unemployed.

In Tuskegee, Alabama, the U. S. Public Health Service begins a 40-year study on the effects of untreated syphilis, using approximately 400 African-American men. The men are never informed of their disease, nor are they given treatment.

Approximately 20,000 World War I veterans and their family members set up camp in Washington, D. C., seeking early payment of service bonuses; President Hoover refuses to pay bonuses early and has the military forcibly disperse the “Bonus Army.”

Amid growing dissatisfaction with government efforts to bring the country out of the depression, incumbent president Herbert Hoover is defeated by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt.