Events 
 January 1 – Alcatraz becomes a federal prison.
 January 1 – Nazi Germany passes the "Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring."
 January 7 – First Flash Gordon comic strip is published.
 January 10 – Execution of Marinus van der Lubbe
 January 24 – Albert Einstein visits the White House
 January 26 – The Apollo Theater opens in Harlem, New York City.
 February 9 – Gaston Boumerque forms a new government in France
 February 12 – The Export-Import Bank is incorporated.
 February 12 to February 16 – Austrian Civil War
 February 23 – Léopold III becomes King of Belgium.
 March 1 – Manchuria becomes Manchukuo
 March 3 – John Dillinger escapes from jail in Crown Point, Indiana, using a wooden pistol
 March 8 – Prince Sigvard of Sweden loses his titles because of his marriage
 March 20 – All the police forces in Germany come under command of Heinrich Himmler
 April 1 – Clyde Barrow and Henry Methvin kill two young highway patrolmen near Grapevine, Texas.
 April 6 – Rudyard Kipling and William Butler Yeats are awarded the Gothenburg Prize for Poetry.
 April 19 – Surgeon R.K. Wilson allegedly takes a photograph of the Loch Ness Monster.
 April 22 – John Dillinger and two others shoot their way out of the FBI ambush in northern Wisconsin
 May 23 - American outlaws Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed and killed by law officers on a rural road in Bienville Parish, Louisiana

Births 
 January 13 - Nick Clooney, American journalist (father of George Clooney)
 January 20 – Tom Baker
 February 10 – Barrie Ingham, English actor
 May 2 - László-Arsenije Mert
 May 28 – Dionne Quintuplets
 July 1 – Jamie Farr
 September 21 - Leonard Cohen, Canadian folk musician (d. 2016)
 October 19 - William Frates, American war veteran and radiologist
 November 9 – Carl Sagan (d. 1996)
 November 13 – Garry Marshall (d. 2016)

Deaths 
 January 10 – Marinus van der Lubbe, Dutch communist accused of setting fire to the Reichstag (executed) (born 1909)
 January 29 – Fritz Haber, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1868)
 February 17 – Albert I of Belgium (born 1875)
 February 23 – Edward Elgar, English composer (born 1857)
 March 29 – Otto Hermann Kahn, German-born millionaire philanthropist (born 1867)
 May 23 – Clyde Barrow, American outlaw (shot) (born 1909)
 May 23 – Bonnie Parker, American outlaw (shot) (born 1910)
 May 25 – Gustav Holst, English composer (born 1874)
 May 30 – Togo Heihachiro, Japanese admiral (born 1848)
 June 10 – Frederick Delius, English composer (born 1862)
 June 11 – Lev Vygotsky, Russian developmental psychologist (born 1896)
 July 4 – Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Polish-born scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and physics (born 1867)
 July 8 – Benjamin Baillaud, French astronomer (born 1848)
 July 22 – John Dillinger, American criminal (born 1903)
 July 25 – François Coty, French perfume manufacturer (born 1874)
 July 25 – Englebert Dolfuss, Chancellor of Austria (assassinated) (born 1892)
 July 25 – Nestor Makhno, Ukrainian anarchist (born 1889)
 July 26 – Winsor McCay, American comic creator and animator (born 1871)
 July 28 – Marie Dressler, Canadian actress (born 1868)
 August 2 – Paul von Hindenburg, German general and politician (born 1847)
 September 2 – Alcide Nunez, American musician (born 1884)
 October 9 – King Alexander of Yugoslavia (born 1888)
 November 2 – Edmond James de Rothschild, French philanthropist (born 1845)
 November 16 – Alice Liddell, inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (born 1852)
 November 27 – Baby Face Nelson, American gangster (born 1908)
 December 1 – Sergei Kirov, Soviet leader (born 1886)

Nobel Prizes 
 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine won by George Whipple, American doctor, George Minot and William Parry for their discoveries about liver therapy in cases of anaemia.

Hit songs
 "The Continental" – by Herb Magidson and Con Conrad, from the movie Gay Divorce, won the Academy Award for best song.
 "Down Yonder" – by L.Wolfe Gilbert, and recorded by a hillbilly group, Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers, sold more than a million copies.