1934

**1934** (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar.

## 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, British actor
- February 10 – Barrie Ingham, English actor
- May 2 - László-Arsenije Mert
- May 11 – Sarah Chester Beatty, English socialite and former fashion model
- 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)
- December 9 - Judi Dench, English actress
- December 28 - Maggie Smith, British actress (d. 2024)

## 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.