1933

March 2 - The original film version of King Kong, starring Fay Wray, premieres at Radio City Music Hall and the Roxy Theater in New York City.
March 3
- Mount Rushmore National Memorial is dedicated.
- A powerful earthquake and tsunami hit Honshū, Japan killing some 3,000.
March 4
- American President Herbert Hoover is succeeded by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who in reference to the Great Depression, gives his "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself" inauguration speech. FDR is sworn in by Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes. It would also be the last time Inauguration Day in the United States would occur on March 4.
- Frances Perkins becomes United States Secretary of Labor, first female member of the United States Cabinet.
- The Parliament of Austria is suspended because of a quibble over procedure - Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss initiates authoritarian rule by decree (see Austrofascism).
March 5
- Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a "bank holiday", closing all United States banks and freezing all financial transactions (the 'holiday' ended on March 13).
- In German elections, National Socialists gain 43.9% of the votes.
March 9 - Great Depression: The U.S. Congress begins its first 100 days of enacting New Deal legislation.
March 10 - Earthquake in Long Beach, California kills 117 people.
March 12 - Great Depression: Franklin Delano Roosevelt addresses the nation for the first time as President of the United States. This was also the first of his "Fireside Chats".
March 15 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average rises from $53.84 to $62.10. The day's gain of 15.34%, achieved during the depths of the Great Depression, remains to date as the largest one-day percentage gain for the index.
March 20 - Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp, is completed - opened March 22.
March 23 - The Reichstag passes the Enabling Act, making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany.
March 27 - Japan leaves the League of Nations.
March 31 - The Civilian Conservation Corps is established with the mission to relieve rampant unemployment.

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April

April 1 - The recently elected Nazis under Julius Streicher organize a one-day boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses in Germany.
April 3 - Anti-monarchist rebellion in Siam (Thailand).
April 4 - US airship Akron crashes off the coast of New Jersey- leaves 73 dead.
April 5 - International court in the Hague decides that Greenland belongs to Denmark and condemns Norwegian landings on eastern Greenland. Norway submits to the decision.
April 7
- Beer is legalized in the U.S., eight months before the full repeal of Prohibition on December 5, 1933
- Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service passed in Germany
April 11 - Aviator William Lancaster takes off in England in an attempt to make a speed record to Cape. He vanishes (body is found 1962 in the Sahara Desert).
April 21 - Nazi Germany outlaws kosher ritual shechita.
April 26
- Gestapo established.
- Editors of Harvard Lampoon steal the Sacred Cod of Massachusetts from the State House. It is returned two days later.
April 27
- Jessop & Son department store in Nottingham, England acquired by John Lewis Partnership. The partnership's first shop outside London.
- Stahlhelm organizations joins the Nazi party.

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May

May - Detection by Karl Jansky of radio waves from the centre of the Milky Way galaxy reported
May 2
- First modern sighting of the Loch Ness Monster.
- Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler bans trade unions.
May 8 - Mohandas Gandhi begins a 3-week hunger strike because of the mistreatment of the lower castes
May 10
- Censorship: In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings.
- Paraguay declares war on Bolivia
May 17 - Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort form Nasjonal Samling - the national-socialist party of Norway.
May 18 - New Deal: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.
May 26 - Nazi party in Germany introduces law to legalize eugenic sterilization
May 27
- New Deal: The Federal Securities Act is signed into law requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission.
- The Century of Progress World's Fair opens in Chicago.

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June

June 5 - The U.S. Congress abrogates the United States' use of the gold standard by enacting a joint resolution (48 Stat. 112) nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold.
June 6 - The first drive-in theater opens in Camden, New Jersey.
June 13 - German Secret State Police (Gestapo) is established.
June 17 - In Kansas City, Missouri, Pretty Boy Floyd kills four unarmed FBI agents and captured fugitive Frank Nash in a failed attempt to free Nash. This becomes known as the Union Station Massacre.
June 21 - All non-Nazi parties forbidden in Germany
June 25 - Wilmersdorfer Tennishallen delegate convention in Berlin
June 26 - American Totalisator Company unveils its first electronic pari-mutuel betting machine at Arlington Park racetrack near Chicago.

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July

July 4 - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi sentenced to prison.
July 14 - Forming new political parties forbidden in Germany.
July 20 - Vatican state secretary Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) signed an accord with Hitler.
July 22
- Wiley Post becomes first person to fly solo around the world, traveling 15,596 miles in 7 days, 18 hours, and 45 minutes.
- "Machine-Gun" Kelly and Albert Bates kidnap Charles Urschel, an Oklahoma oilman, and demand $200,000 ransom.

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August - September

August - The start of the Simele massacre more than 3,000 killed.
August 14 - Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn. It is extinguished on September 5, after destroying 240,000 acres (971 km²).
August 30 - Assassination of Theodore Lessing in Marienbad (Mariánské Lázně), Czechoslovakia
August 30 - Air France begins operations with 250 planes.
September 3 - Alejandro Lerroux forms a new government in Spain.
September 12 - Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, conceives the idea of the nuclear chain reaction.
September 26
- Tornado destroys the town of Tampico in Mexico.
- The ice cream cone is invented in Brooklyn, NY.

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October

October 1 - Failed assassination attempt against Englebert Dolfuss seriously injures him.
October 10 - A United Airlines Boeing 247 is destroyed near Chesterton, Indiana by a bomb. This was the first proven case of air sabotage in commercial airline history.
October 12 - The United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz is acquired by the United States Department of Justice, which plans to incorporate the island into its Federal Bureau of Prisons as a federal penitentiary.
October 16 - Germany announces intention to leave the League of Nations - officially
October 17 - Albert Einstein arrives in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany.

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November

November 5 - Spanish Basques voted for autonomy.
November 8 - Great Depression: New Deal - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than 4 million of the unemployed.
November 11 - Dust Bowl: In South Dakota, a very strong dust storm strips topsoil from desiccated farmlands (this is just one of a series of disastrous dust storms that year).
November 16
- The United States and the Soviet Union establish formal diplomatic relations.
- President of Brazil Getulio Vargas names himself dictator
November 19 - General Elections in the Spanish Second Republic, victory by the parties of the right-wing.