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The Great Depression brings poverty across the country. Here a mother cleans her two children in the Oregon wilderness.
 
  Eleanor Roosevelt becomes the nation’s first lady in 1932, forever changing the role of the president’s wife. Here she speaks at a convention in Washington, D.C.     Marian Anderson performs at the Lincoln Memorial. She is refused permission to sing in Constitution Hall because of her race.  

Judy Garland stars as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, one of the first major movies in color.
 
 

 
•  Jane Addams becomes the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the poor in Chicago.
 
•  The Empire State Building opens in New York City, becoming the world’s tallest skyscraper.


•  Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
 
•  Hattie Wyatt Caraway of Arkansas becomes the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate.


•  Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated as president and begins his New Deal programs to alleviate the effects of the Great Depression.
 
•  First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt holds her own press conference, allowing only women reporters to attend.
 
•  The Dust Bowl begins in the Great Plains and the Midwest.
 
•  Frances Perkins is appointed secretary of labor, becoming the first woman U.S. cabinet member.


•  Television makes its formal debut in the United States at the World’s Fair in New York City.
 
•  Pan American Airways begins the first passenger service across the Atlantic.
 
•  Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial.
 
*National and world events in red.
   
   
* Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Pictures: Associated Press (4) |
   
 
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