1935
Nuremberg Laws strip German Jews
At a party rally in Nuremberg, the Nazi regime announced laws defining Jews as a separate race, forbidding marriage and sexual relations with Aryans, and denying citizenship. The definition of a Jew was worked out with a calculator: three Jewish grandparents, or two if you practiced. A legal cage had been built around six hundred thousand people.
Italy invades Ethiopia
To avenge an 1896 humiliation and build his African empire, Mussolini sent four hundred thousand troops, tanks, and mustard gas into the mountain kingdom of Haile Selassie. The Ethiopians fought with old rifles and spears. The League of Nations imposed half-hearted sanctions and watched. The post-war order revealed itself to be paper.
Social Security signed
Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, creating federal pensions for the elderly, unemployment insurance, and aid for dependent children. It was the centerpiece of the New Deal's promise that the government would not let its citizens starve in old age. A new contract between American citizens and their federal government was written. The program would become the political third rail of American politics for the rest of the century.
Nylon invented at DuPont
Wallace Carothers, working at DuPont's central research labs, produced the first fully synthetic fiber from coal, water, and air. It was strong, silky, and cheap. Within four years nylon stockings were on sale and women were lining up. Carothers, a depressive, killed himself before the triumph. Modern materials had arrived.