World Happenings: 1936
Feb. 26-The first Volkswagen, which means "people's car" in German, is built by Ferdinand Porsche.March 7-Nazis cross into the Rhineland, declaring they're no longer bound by old treaties.
May 9-Mussolini annexes Ethiopia, proclaiming himself emperor.
July 31-The Spanish Civil War engulfs the entire country.
Nov. 3-FDR wins re-election over Alfred Landon by 523 electoral votes to eight.
Dec. 10-Eugene O'Neill wins his third Nobel Prize for literature.
World Happenings: 1937
Jan. 27-Nearly one million people are homeless following the worst flooding in the history of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.Feb. 16-E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. receives a patent for nylon.
March 18-A Texas school fire kills 500 children.
May 6-The dirigible Hindenburg is destroyed by fire as it lands in New Jersey.
June 5-War Admiral becomes the fourth winner of racing's Triple Crown.
Culture, 1937-Dos Passos finishes U.S.A Trilogy, Heming-way's To Have and Have Not, Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, the Marx Brothers in "A Day at the Races," Walt Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"
World Happenings: 1938
Jan. 1-The government's first unemployment census indicates that up to one of five American workers are unemployed.March 14-Hitler takes control of Austria.
March 18-Mexico seizes 17 U.S. and British oil companies after they are unable to comply with a decree requiring them to pay $40 million in wages and compensation.
April 14-Japan loses 40,000 soldiers in a major defeat in China.
July 29-Jenny Kammersgaad is the first to swim the Baltic Sea-37 miles in 40 hours.
Aug. 27-George Eyston sets an auto record at 345 mph.
Sept. 1-Italy expels all Jews who had entered the country since 1919.
Sept. 30-An accord is signed allowing Germany to take the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia.
Oct. 9-Yanks beat the Cubs for the third Series in a row.
Oct. 30-Fictitious aliens from Mars cause havoc throughout the nation during a radio broadcast of H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds," by Orson Welles, despite several announcements that the broadcast was fictional.
World Happenings: 1939
Jan. 30-Basketball inventor James Naismith criticizes modern play, saying zone defense is a violation of the sport's fundamental principles and a stalling tactic conducive to roughness.March 15-Hitler enters Prague, Czechoslovakia, eight hours after his troops enter the city.
March 28-The Spanish Civil War ends as 40,000 Loyalist troops surrender in Madrid, Toledo and Cordoba.
April 8-Italy invades Albania.
May 23-Britain approves of the independence of Palestine in 10 years, with power divided between Arabs and Jews.
Aug. 7-An oil concession covering the entire kingdom of Saudi Arabia is granted to the Standard Oil Co. of California. Italy, France, Japan and England had also tried for the concession.
Aug. 18-"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" premieres.
Sept. 1-German troops invade Poland. By the end of the month, the country is divided between Germany and Russia.
Sept. 3-Britain and France declare war on Germany.
Dec. 15-"Gone With the Wind" opens to cheers in Atlanta.
World Happenings: 1940
March 13-Finland surrenders to Russia.March 30-Japan sets up a puppet government in China.
May 28-Holland and Belgium surrender to the Nazis.
June 14-Nazis occupy Paris.
July 21-Soviets annex Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
Oct. 28-Italy invades Greece.
Culture, 1940-Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald dies, John Ford directs "The Grapes of Wrath," Chaplin stars in "The Great Dictator," Disney's "Fantasia"
World Happenings: 1941
Feb. 10-Iceland is attacked by German planes.April 6-Germans invade Yugoslavia and Greece.
April 18-GM now produces half of all U.S. cars.
May 23-Joe Louis wins his 17th straight title match.
June 30-Germans begin a massive assault on Russia.
July 7-U.S. troops take charge of Iceland to prevent a German invasion.
Aug. 4-U.S. commits to supplying Soviets with arms.
Sept. 4-Nazis encircle Leningrad, planning to starve the city to death.
Oct. 30-A German submarine torpedoes and sinks a U.S. warship on patrol near Iceland.
Dec. 5-Snow, cold and Soviet determination turn the tide in their battles with the Germans.Dec. 7-Some 360 Japanese war planes attack Pearl Harbor, killing and wounding thousands. War is immediately declared on Japan, followed by war on Germany and Italy on Dec. 11.
