May 27, 1930 The Chrysler Building, at 77 floors the tallest skyscraper in the world up to that time, opens to the publicMay 12, 1930: Adler Planetarium opens in Chicago
As the Great Depression continued, U.S. President Herbert Hoover told a gathering of American businessmen in Washington that "I am convinced that we have now passed the worst and with continued unity of effort, we shall rapidly recover."[2]
New York Police Commissioner Grover Whalen publicized a series of letters which he said were evidence of the Communist International financing riots and strikes in the United States. Amtorg Trading Corporation chairman Peter Bogdanov released a statement saying the letters alleged to have been written by an Amtorg official were forgeries.[3][4]
Canada's Finance Minister introduced the Dunning Tariff as response to the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act passed by the U.S. Congress and awaiting the President's signature. Canada's most drastic tariff revision since 1907, the tariff raised duties on American goods while giving preferential treatment to British goods.[5]
A scandal broke in the art world when it was revealed that many paintings attributed to Jean-François Millet were actually forgeries created under the direction of Millet's own grandson.[12]
The 7.1 magnitude Salmas earthquake struck northwestern Iran and southeastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), killing at least 1,360 people.
Outbursts of rioting around India in reaction to the arrest of Mahatma Gandhi killed about 20 people.[13]
The U.S. Senate rejected President Hoover's Supreme Court Justice nominee, John J. Parker, by a vote of only 39 for, and 41 against his confirmation.[15]
A mob in Sherman, Texas, burned down a courthouse during the trial of African-American man George Hughes, who was accused of assaulting his boss' wife, a white woman. The mob attacked the courthouse vault, retrieved the dead body of Hughes, dragged it behind an automobile and hanged it from a tree. National Guard troops were sent to Sherman to restore order as the mob looted stores in the black business district.[19][20][21]
New York Police Commissioner Whalen issued a report saying that the city's violent crime in 1929 went down 11% from 1928, although the number of murders increased from 339 to 357.[24]
Abbas Tyabji, the acting leader of the Indian civil disobedience movement since the arrest of Gandhi, was himself arrested in Navsari along with all his immediate followers.[25]
Born:Mike Gravel, American politician, former Senator of Alaska (1969-1981) and Presidential candidate (2008 and 2020), in Springfield, Massachusetts (d. 2021)
Sarojini Naidu led a march of volunteers on the Dharasana salt works. When they were blocked by police they sat down and waited the whole day as the police watched.[29]
Rafael Trujillo was elected President of the Dominican Republic for the first time, beginning a control of the nation that would last until his 1961 assassination, as rival candidates boycotted the general elections in protest after charging that members of the body overseeing the election had been appointed illegally.[30]
An interview was published of the questions posed by British journalist George Slocombe to India's Mohandas K. Gandhi, conducted in Yerwada Central Jail. Giving his first interview since his recent re-arrest, Gandhi clarified the conditions to be met before the civil disobedience campaign would be called off, said he was alarmed by the reports of violence and expressed optimism about the movement's future. "In forty years of struggle I have frequently been told that I was attempting the impossible, but invariably I have proved the contrary", he said.[40][41]
The High Commissioner of the Levant introduced a new constitution turning Syria and Latakia into republics with representative government.[5] Latakia would be reincorporated into Syria in 1937.[42]
The Literary Digest, an influential American magazine, published the results of its nationwide poll on Prohibition in which over 4.8 million opinions were recorded. 40% favored outright repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, 29% voted to have the law modified, and 30% wanted the existing law maintained. Prohibition was most strongly favored in the state of Kansas, while Nevada was the "wettest" state.[43]
The German war film Westfront 1918 premiered at the Capitol Theatre in Berlin.[44]
English aviator Amy Johnson landed in Port Darwin, Australia and became the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia.[45]
Muslim leaders in India issued a statement calling on Muslims to join the independence movement, which had been chiefly a Hindu-led campaign up to this point.[46]
Police in Düsseldorf apprehended serial killer Peter Kürten.[47] After his conviction for murder, Kürten would be executed by guillotine on July 2, 1931.
Rioting in various sections of British India left a reported 35 people dead.[48]
An association representing the Nazi Party purchased a new headquarters in Munich that would come to be known as the Der Braunes Haus, the Brown House.[49]
Born:Frank Drake, U.S. astronomer and astrophysicist, known for postulating the Drake equation to estimate the probability of locating civilized life forms outside of Earth's solar system, and pioneer of using radio telescope technology as part of the SETI program to find evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence; in Chicago (d. 2022)
A group of 600 members of the French chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Société pour la prévention de la cruauté envers les animaux, which also abbreviated to SPCA) stormed a bullfightinParis and started a riot by throwing a smoke bomb and other projectiles. Seventeen women were arrested. Bullfighting was illegal in France, but the promoters had promised that there would be no bloodshed.[56]
Italian finance minister Antonio Mosconi announced a budget deficit for the year ending April 30, the country's first deficit since the Fascists came to power. Mosconi maintained that the difficult economic conditions in Italy were the result of general conditions throughout the world.[59]
Joseph Goebbels was fined 800 Reichsmarks for libeling President Paul von Hindenburg in an article published in the December 29, 1929, issue of Der Angriff. Goebbels defended himself confidently in court and wrote in his diary afterward that the whole trial had been "brilliant propaganda for us."[60][61]
Died:Gaspar Milazzo, 43, Italian-born American mobster in Detroit, was killed by two rival gunmen after being lured to a restaurant on the pretext of discussing a truce between the East Side mob, led by Milazzo's boss Angelo Meli, and the West Side mob of "Big Chet" La Mare. Milazzo and his driver Sam Parrino were shot to death by two gunmen, apparently sent by La Mare in hopes of killing Meli.[citation needed]
^"Briand Asks 26 Nations to Join U.S. of Europe". Chicago Daily Tribune. May 18, 1930. p. 1.
^Owen, Bernard; Rodriguez-McKey, Maria (2013). Proportional Western Europe: The Failure of Governance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 206. ISBN978-1-137-37437-0.
^Lane, A.T. (1995). Biographical Dictionary of European Labor Leaders, Volume 1. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 83. ISBN978-0-313-26456-6.
^Dailey, Charles (May 20, 1930). "Servants Join India's Foreign Cloth Boycott". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 5.
^ abcMercer, Derrik (1989). Chronicle of the 20th Century. London: Chronicle Communications Ltd. pp. 392–393. ISBN978-0-582-03919-3.
^Steele, John (May 21, 1930). "British Cabinet Chief Quits Over Unemployment". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 11.
^Slocombe, George (May 21, 1930). "Gandhi Bares 'Peace' Terms in India Cell". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
^Slocombe, George (May 21, 1930). "Gandhi Bares 'Peace' Terms in India Cell". Chicago Daily Tribune. pp. 1, 8.
^Slocombe, George (May 21, 1930). "Gandhi Interviewed in Jail; Asks Full Freedom for India". The New York Times. p. 1.
