istoryworld
Events relating to america
Lewis Milestone makes a powerful film of Erich Maria Remarque's anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front, published in the previous year
Edward G. Robinson gives a chilling portrayal of a gangster loosely based on Al Capone in the film Little Caesar
The steel-band tradition begins to develop in Trinidad, with adapted metal objects taking the place of traditional skin drums
'Garbo talks' and breaks box office records in her first sound film, Anna Christie, directed by Clarence Brown
In his novel As I Lay Dying William Faulkner follows the journey of a coffin in a mule-drawn wagon
The Rastafarian cult evolves in Jamaica, viewing Ras Tafari, the emperor of Ethiopia, as the black Messiah
US inventor Richard Drew develops Scotch Brand Cellulose Tape, the world's first transparent tape
Wallace D. Fard founds the Nation of Islam as a black separatist movement in the USA
US author John Dos Passos publishes the first novel of his trilogy The 42nd Parallel
US choreographer Busby Berkeley moves to Hollywood to provide the first of his famous dance spectaculars, in Whoopee
The Statute of Westminster defines and formalizes the concept of the British Commonwealth
US gangster Al Capone, never convicted of murder, begins an 8-year-spell in jail for tax evasion
US actress Bette Davis moves to Hollywood and appears in her first film, The Bad Sister
US critic Edmund Wilson publishes Axel's Castle, a collection of essays about writers in the symbolist tradition
US film star James Cagney has a great success in the first of his many gangster roles, in The Public Enemy
Nine black teenagers, known as the Scottsboro Boys, are wrongly convicted of gang rape in a notorious US race-relations case
President Hoover switches on the lights to inaugurate the world's new tallest skyscraper, the Empire State Building in New York
The US poet Ogden Nash has an immediate success with his first volume of poems, Hard Lines
The Star-Spangled Banner is made the official US national anthem
Charlie Chaplin makes City Lights, in which the tramp befriends and helps a blind flower girl
The trilogy Mourning becomes Electra, Eugene O'Neill's transposition to New England of the Oresteia story, is performed in New York
The George Washington Bridge links New York with New Jersey, and is the world's longest suspension bridge with a main span of 3500 feet (1066m)
Harold Clurman and Lee Strasberg's Group Theatre present their first professional production, The House of Connelly by Paul Green
Boris Karloff gives a touching portrayal of the monster created by Dr Frankenstein, in the first of several screen performances in the role
The French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson has his first exhibition, in the Julien Levy Gallery in New York
