1929: Events and Inventions

January 6, 1929. The Albanian missionary sister Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, later known as Mother Teresa, arrives in Calcutta from Ireland to begin her work among India’s poorest and sickest.

'Mother-Teresa-collage' photo (c) 2009, Peta-de-Aztlan - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

February 14, 1929. St. Valentines Day Massacre. Seven gangsters are gunned down in Chicago in a gangland shooting. Police believe the killing is the work of Al “Scarface” Capone and his gang and is a result of the deadly war for control of the illegal alcohol trade and other illegal activities in and around Chicago.

March, 1929. Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Party wins a rigged election in Italy and forms Italy’s first fascist government. All secondary school teachers are required to take an oath of loyalty to Fascism, and children are taught that they owe the same loyalty to Fascism as they do to God.

May, 1929. Joseph Stalin consolidates his power in the Soviet Union by sending Leon Trotsky into exile. The only country that will grant Trotsky asylum is Turkey, in return for his help in their civil war. Stalin continues to institute communist reforms. Millions of Soviet farmers are removed from their private farms, their property is collected, and they are moved to state-owned farms.

August 16, 1929. In Jerusalem, Arabs and Jews fight over access to the Wailing Wall, a Jewish holy place. The rioting, initiated in part when British police tore down a screen the Jews had constructed in front of the Wall, continues until the end of the month. Over 200 Jews and Arabs are killed in the rioting.

'Zeppelin over St. Paul's' photo (c) 1930, The National Archives UK - license: http://www.flickr.com/commons/usage/August 29, 1929. The German-built airship Graf Zeppelin lands in New Jersey, having circled the world in twenty-one days, seven hours, and twenty-six minutes.

October 3, 1929. The Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes is renamed Yugoslavia to be ruled over by the present King Alexander. King Alexander has abolished the old constitution of the Kingdom, and he is now dictator and sole ruler of the country of Yugoslavia.

October 24, 1929. The New York Stock Exchange collapses, with terrified investors selling more than 13 million shares in one day. Experts say that stocks have been overpriced for a while, and now suddenly investors in the stock market agree. Millions face financial ruin in the U.S. and around the world as stock prices re-adjust.

December 29, 1929. The All India Congress in Lahore, India demands Indian independence from Britain, something it had threatened to do if Britain did not grant India dominion status as a self-governing part of the British Empire.

Late in 1929: The French begin work on the Maginot line, as a defense against a possible German attack. The Maginot Line is a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casemates, machine gun posts, and other defences, which France constructs along its borders with Germany.

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