1935 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Vice President: John Nance Garner
• Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Joseph W. Byrns, Sr.
• Senate Majority Leader: Joseph Taylor Robinson
• Congress: 73rd, 74th

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January–March

• January 3 - The trial of Richard Hauptmann, accused of the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr., begins in Flemington, New Jersey.
• January 11 - Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to New York.
• January 16 - The FBI kills the Barker Gang, including Ma Barker, in a shootout.
• February 7 - First known published use of the term "Ivy League".
• February 13 - Richard Hauptmann is convicted and sentenced to death for the Lindbergh kidnapping.
• February 22 - Airplanes are banned from flying over the White House.
• March 2 – Porky Pig makes his debut in Looney Tunes's I Haven't Got a Hat.

  April–June

• April 14 - Dust Bowl: The great Black Sunday dust storm hits hardest in eastern New Mexico and Colorado, and western Oklahoma.
• April 16 - Fibber McGee and Molly debuts on NBC Radio.
• May 6 - New Deal: Executive Order 7034 creates the Works Progress Administration.
• May 24 - The first nighttime Major League Baseball game is played between the Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.
• May 27 - Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States : The Supreme Court of the United States declares that the National Industrial Recovery Act, a major component of the New Deal, is unconstitutional.
• May 30 - Eventual Baseball Hall of Famer Babe Ruth appears in his last career game, playing for the Boston Braves in Philadelphia against the Phillies.
• June - National Youth Administration established.
• June 10 - Alcoholics Anonymous is founded in Akron, Ohio by Bill W. and Dr. Dr. Bob.
• June 12-13 - Senator Huey Long of Louisiana makes the longest speech on Senate record, taking 15½ hours and containing 150,000 words.
• June 13 - James J. Braddock defeats Max Baer at Madison Square Garden Bowl in New York City to win the heavyweight boxing championship of the world.

  July–September

• July 5 - The National Labor Relations Act becomes law.
• July 16 - The world's first parking meters are installed in Oklahoma City.
• July 16 - Deportivo Saprissa is founded by Roberto Fernández in his shoe store in El Barrio Los Angeles in San José, Costa Rica.
• July 24 - The Dust Bowl heat wave reaches its peak, sending temperatures in Chicago to a record-high
• July 27 - Federal Writers' Project is established.
• August 2 - The is raised from Lake Champlain.
• August 5 - The Leo Burnett Advertising Agency opens in Chicago, Illinois.
• August 14 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act into law.
• August 15 - Humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post are killed when Post's plane crashes shortly after takeoff near Barrow, Alaska.
• August 31 - As part of United States non-interventionism in the face of growing tensions in Europe, the first of the Neutrality Acts of 1930s is passed.
• September 2 - Labor Day Hurricane of 1935: The strongest hurricane ever to strike the United States makes landfall in the Upper Florida Keys killing 423. It is rated as a Category 5 storm with 185 mph winds.
• September 8
• *Carl Weiss fatally wounds Huey Long, U.S. Senator from Louisiana, in a shooting at the Louisiana Capitol Building in Baton Rouge.
• *Busby Berkeley is involved in three-car accident which kills three people and injures five, leading to charges of second-degree murder.
• September 23 - The Cleveland Torso Murderer begins a 3-year series of killings and beheadings around the Kingsbury Run district of Cleveland, Ohio; the perpetrator is never identified.
• September 24 - Earl W. Bascom and his brother Weldon produce the first night rodeo held outdoors under electric lights at Columbia, Mississippi.
• September 30 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates Hoover Dam.

  October–December

• October 7 - The Detroit Tigers defeat the Chicago Cubs, 4 games to 2, to win their first World Series Title.
• October 18 – The 6.5 Helena earthquake affected the capital of Montana with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII, causing widespread damage and two deaths. A high intensity aftershock claimed an additional two lives on October 31.
• November 15 - Historical Records Survey begins under the Works Progress Administration.
• November 22 - The China Clipper takes off from Alameda, California to deliver the first airmail cargo across the Pacific Ocean; the aircraft reaches its destination, Manila, and delivers over 110,000 pieces of mail.
• November 30 - The British-made film Scrooge, the first all-talking film version of Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol, opens in the U.S. after its British release. Seymour Hicks plays Scrooge, a role he has played onstage hundreds of times. The film is criticized by some for not showing all of the ghosts physically, and quickly fades into obscurity. Widespread interest does not surface until the film is shown on television in the 1980s, in very shabby-looking prints. It is eventually restored on DVD.
• December 5 - Mary McLeod Bethune founds the National Council of Negro Women.
• December 9 - Newspaper editor Walter Liggett is killed in a gangland murder plot in Minneapolis.
• December 17 - Douglas DST, prototype of the Douglas DC-3 airliner, first flies. More than 16,000 of the model will eventually be produced.
• December 26 – Shenandoah National Park is established within the Virginia.

  Undated

• The house Fallingwater in southwestern Pennsylvania, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is completed.
• 4 million members of trade unions in the U.S.

  Ongoing

• Lochner era
• Dust Bowl
• New Deal
• Great Depression

  Births

January

• January 3 – Millard Fuller, American lawyer, founder of Habitat for Humanity
• January 4 – Floyd Patterson, African-American heavyweight boxer
• January 5 – Ducky Schofield, baseball player
• January 7 – Kenny Davern, American jazz clarinetist
• January 8 – Elvis Presley, American rock & roll singer, guitarist and film actor
• January 9
• * Bob Denver, American actor
• * Dick Enberg, American sportscaster
• * Earl G. Graves, Sr. African-American publisher
• January 10
• * Eddy Clearwater, African-American musician
• * Ronnie Hawkins, American rockabilly musician
• * Sherrill Milnes, American baritone
• January 12 – The Amazing Kreskin, mentalist
• January 13 – Rip Taylor, American actor and comedian
• January 16
• * Russ McCubbin, American actor
• * A. J. Foyt, American race car driver
• January 17 – Ruth Ann Minner, American politician
• January 20
• * Dorothy Provine, American singer, dancer, actress and comedian
• * Joan Weston, American roller derby racer
• January 21 – Raye Montague, American naval engineer
• January 22 – Seymour Cassel, American actor
• January 25
• * Conrad Burns, American politician
• * Steve Demeter, American baseball player, coach and manager
• * Richard M. Pollack, American mathematician
• January 26 – Henry Jordan, American football player
• January 29 – Roger Payne, American zoologist
• January 30 – Richard Brautigan, American writer
• January 31 – Hal Lear, American basketball player

  February

• February 2 – Raven Wilkinson, American dancer
• February 3
• * Johnny "Guitar" Watson, African-American singer, songwriter and musician
• * Jody Williams, African-American blues musician
• February 4 – Collin Wilcox, American actress
• February 7 – Herb Kohl, American politician
• February 10
• * John Alcorn, American illustrator
• * Eddie Foy III, American actor, film director
• February 11 – Gene Vincent, American guitarist, vocalist
• February 12 – Gene McDaniels, African-American singer, songwriter
• February 13 – Jacob Tanzer, American attorney
• February 14 – Arnold Kopelson, American film producer
• February 15 – Roger B. Chaffee, American astronaut
• February 16 – Sonny Bono, American singer, actor and politician
• February 17
• * Johnny Bush, American country music singer, songwriter and drummer
• * Sara Ruddick, born Sara Loop, American feminist philosopher
• * Lucky Varela, American politician

  March

• March 1 – Robert Conrad, American actor
• March 5 – Paul Sand, American actor and comedian
• March 15
• * Jimmy Swaggart, American televangelist
• * Judd Hirsch, American actor
• March 17 – Bonnie Cooper, American baseball player
• March 19 – Charlie Hennigan, American football player
• March 22 – M. Emmet Walsh, American actor
• March 24 – Walter Moody, American convicted murderer
• March 25 – Jim Miceli, American politician
• March 27 – Stanley Rother, American Roman Catholic priest
• March 28 – Jeanie Descombes, American professional baseball player
• March 30
• * Willie Galimore, American football player
• * J. Willard Thompson, American racehorse trainer
• March 31
• * Herb Alpert, American trumpeter
• * Judith Rossner, American novelist

  April

• April 4 – Kenneth Mars, American actor
• April 7 – Bobby Bare, American country singer, songwriter
• April 8
• * David DiChiera, American composer
• * Francis D. "Bill" Moran, American admiral, third director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps
• April 10 – Ken Squier, American motorsports broadcaster
• April 13 – Lyle Waggoner, American actor
• April 14 – Katie Horstman, American female professional baseball player
• April 17 – Walt Kowalczyk, American football player
• April 18 – Paul A. Rothchild, American record producer
• April 21
• * Charles Grodin, American actor, comedian, author and cable talk show host
• * Thomas Kean, Governor of New Jersey, 9/11 Commission Chairman
• * Dolores Lee, American female professional baseball player
• April 22
• * Paul Chambers, American jazz musician
• * Jerry Fodor, American philosopher, cognitive scientist
• April 23 – Bunky Green, American jazz musician
• April 25 – Bob Gutowski, American athlete

  May

• May 2 – Lance LeGault, American actor
• May 6 – Edward M. Abroms, American film editor
• May 9 - Nokie Edwards, American musician
• May 11
• * Doug McClure, American actor
• * Dick Leitsch, American LGBT rights activist
• May 12
• * Hoss Ellington, American race car driver
• * Gary Peacock, American bassist and composer
• May 19 – David Hartman, American actor, television journalist
• May 22 – Barry Rogers, American jazz, salsa trombonist
• May 24
• * Joan Micklin Silver, American director
• * Rusty York, American singer
• May 25
• * Cookie Gilchrist, American football player
• * Victoria Shaw, American actress
• May 27
• * Jerry Kindall, American baseball player
• * Lee Meriwether, American actress
• May 28 – Charles J. Hynes, American lawyer and politician
• May 30 – Bill Mallory, American football player, and coach

  June

• June 1 – Reverend Ike, African-American televangelist
• June 2 – Carol Shields, American-born writer
• June 6 – Miriam T. Griffin, American classical scholar
• June 7 – Harry Crews, American novelist, short story writer and essayist
• June 17
• * Peggy Seeger, American folk singer
• * Rudolph G. Wilson, American professor, storyteller, writer and public speaker
• June 20 – Jim Barker, American politician
• June 21
• * Monte Markham, American actor
• * Tom Pratt, American football coach
• June 22
• * Donald A. Bonner, American politician
• * Floyd Norman, American animator
• June 23 – Maurice Ferré, American politician
• June 24
• * Charlie Dees, American professional baseball player
• * Robert Downey Sr., American actor, filmmaker and father of actor Robert Downey Jr.
• * Pete Hamill, American journalist, novelist, essayist, editor and educator
• * Ron Kramer, National Football League tight end
• * Terry Riley, American minimalist composer
• June 25
• * Don Demeter, American outfielder, third baseman and first baseman in Major League Baseball
• * Judy Howe, American artistic gymnast
• * Larry Kramer, American playwright, author, public health advocate and LGBT rights activist
• * Fran Ross, African American satirist
• June 26 – Pete Peterson, American politician and diplomat
• June 27
• * Dan Currie, American football player
• * Larry Krutko, American football player
• June 28 – Bob Blaylock, American professional baseball player

  July

• July 1
• * Neal Brooks Biggers Jr., American judge
• * James Cotton, American blues harmonica player, singer, songwriter
• July 3 – Harrison Schmitt, American astronaut and politician
• July 4
• * Erich Barnes, American football defensive back
• * Roy Wilt, American politician
• July 5
• * Brendan McCann, American basketball player
• * Van B. Poole, American politician
• July 8 – Steve Lawrence, American singer, actor
• July 9 – Robert Pelletreau, American diplomat
• July 10 – Margaret McEntee, American Catholic religious sister, educator
• July 11 – Darrell Dess, American football offensive lineman
• July 12 – Ed Rubinoff, American tennis player
• July 13 – Jack Kemp, American football player, U.S. Vice Presidential candidate
• July 15
• * Ken Kercheval, American actor
• * Andra Martin, American actress
• July 16
• * Gloria Tanner, American politician
• * Lynn Wyatt, American socialite, philanthropist
• July 17
• * Diahann Carroll, African-American actress and singer
• * Benjamin Civiletti, United States Attorney General
• * Peter Schickele, American composer and classical musical parodist
• * Edward J. Nell, American economist
• July 18 – Hall Whitley, American football player
• July 19 – George Breen, American competition swimmer
• July 21
• * Jeanne Arth, American Wimbledon and US Championships doubles tennis title holder
• * Larry Hayes, American football player
• July 22
• * Grover Dale, American actor, dancer, choreographer and theatre director
• * Steve Junker, American football player
• July 25
• * Larry Sherry, American right-handed relief pitcher in Major League Baseball
• * Barbara Harris, American actress
• July 27 – Sarah Jane Sands, American professional baseball player
• July 28 – Ernie Bowman, American professional baseball player
• July 29 – Friday Hassler, American racing driver
• July 30 – Nick Meglin, American magazine editor
• July 31
• * Mort Crim, American television newscaster
• * Geoffrey Lewis, American actor

  August

• August 2 – Hank Cochran, American country music singer/songwriter
• August 4 – Carol Arthur, American actress
• August 7 – Dave Ragan, American professional golfer
• August 12 – John Cazale, American actor
• August 15
• * Vernon Jordan, African-American lawyer, businessman and activist
• * Lionel Taylor, American football player and coach
• August 16 – Charlie Tyra, American basketball player
• August 18
• * Gail Fisher, African-American actress
• * Rafer Johnson, African-American athlete
• August 19 – Bobby Richardson, American baseball player
• August 20 – Ron Paul, American author, physician, and politician
• August 22 – E. Annie Proulx, American novelist
• August 26 – Geraldine Ferraro, American politician
• August 29
• * Thomas Stephens, American football player
• * William Friedkin, American film director
• August 30 – John Phillips, American singer-songwriter
• August 31
• * Eldridge Cleaver, African-American political activist and writer
• * Frank Robinson, African-American baseball player, coach and manager

  September

• September 1 – Guy Rodgers, American basketball player
• September 2 – D. Wayne Lukas, American horse trainer
• September 8 – Teddy Mayer, American motor racing entrepreneur
• September 10 – Mary Oliver, American poet, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winner
• September 12 – Al Swift, American broadcaster, politician
• September 16
• * Carl Andre, American minimalist artist
• * Billy Boy Arnold, African-American singer and harmonica player
• * Jules Bass, American film director, producer and co-founder of Rankin/Bass Productions
• * Bob Kiley, American public transit planner
• September 17 – Ken Kesey, American author
• September 19 – Bob Krueger, American politician
• September 20 – Jim Taylor, American football player
• September 21 – Henry Gibson, American actor and comedian
• September 27 – Junior Rodriguez, American politician
• September 29
• * Thomas Lockhart, American politician
• * Jerry Lee Lewis, American rock & roll musician
• September 30
• * Z. Z. Hill, American blues singer
• * Johnny Mathis, African-American singer

  October

• October 1 – Walter De Maria, American minimalist, conceptual artist and land artist
• October 2 – Bernard Lee, American civil rights activist
• October 3 – Charles Duke, American astronaut
• October 5 – Peter Brown, American actor
• October 8 – Billy Brewer, American football player, head coach
• October 11 – Daniel Quinn, American writer
• October 14 – La Monte Young, American composer
• October 15
• * Barry McGuire, American musician
• * Bobby Morrow, American athlete
• October 18 – Peter Boyle, American actor
• October 20 – Jerry Orbach, American actor
• October 23 – JacSue Kehoe, American neuroscientist
• October 25 – Rusty Schweickart, American astronaut
• October 26
• * Gloria Conyers Hewitt, African-American mathematician
• * Ora Mendelsohn Rosen, American biomedical researcher
• October 30 – Robert Caro, American biographer
• October 31 – Ronald Graham, American mathematician

  November

• November 1 – Charles Koch, American businessman, political donor and philanthropist
• November 5 – Frank DeCicco, American mobster
• November 9
• * Jerry Hopkins, American journalist, author
• * Bob Gibson, African-American baseball player
• November 13 – Michael Getler, American journalist
• November 15 – Elizabeth Drew, American journalist and author
• November 19 – Jack Welch, American businessman
• November 23 – Jean Havlish, American professional baseball, bowling player
• November 24
• * Pervis Atkins, American football player
• * Ron Dellums, African-American politician
• November 27 – Pat Fordice, American politician
• November 29
• * Diane Ladd, American actress
• * Thomas J. O'Brien, Roman Catholic bishop, convicted of felony

  December

• December 1 – Woody Allen, American actor, comedian, and film director
• December 2 – David Hackett Fischer, American historian, author and academic
• December 3 – Eddie Bernice Johnson, African-American politician
• December 5 – Calvin Trillin, American writer
• December 11 – Ron Carey, American actor
• December 13 – Ken Hall, American football player
• December 14
• * Sarah Daniels, American pornographic actress, author of How to please yourself
• * Lee Remick, American actress
• December 15 – John Taylor Gatto, American author and school teacher
• December 17 – Cal Ripken, Sr., American baseball player, manager
• December 19 – Bobby Timmons, American jazz pianist
• December 20 – William Julius Wilson, American sociologist and academic
• December 23 – Paul Hornung, American football player
• December 25
• * Stephen Barnett, American legal scholar
• * Anne Roiphe, American author, feminist
• December 26 – Al Jackson, American baseball pitcher
• December 30 – Sandy Koufax, American baseball player

  Deaths

• January 8 - Jesse Garon Presley, twin of Elvis Presley
• January 16
• *Ma Barker, criminal, leader of the Barker gang
• *Fred Barker, son of Ma Barker and a member of the Barker-Karpis gang
• January 19 - Lloyd Hamilton, silent film comedian
• March 6 - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., U.S. Supreme Court Justice
• March 12 - Mihajlo Pupin, physicist
• March 23 - Florence Moore, vaudeville and silent film actress
• April 2 - Bennie Moten, jazz pianist
• April 6 - Edwin Arlington Robinson, poet
• April 8 - Adolph Ochs, newspaper publisher
• April 11 - Anna Katharine Green, crime fiction writer
• May 3 - Jessie Willcox Smith, illustrator
• May 4 - automobile accident
• * Junior Durkin, actor
• * Robert J. Horner, film producer and director
• May 11 - Edward Herbert Thompson, archaeologist of the Maya civilization
• May 13 - John S. Cohen, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1932 to 1933
• May 19 - Charles Martin Loeffler, violinist and composer
• May 21 - Jane Addams, social worker, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• July 7 - George Keller, architect
• August 5 - David Townsend, art director
• August 15 - aviation accident
• * Wiley Post, aviator
• * Will Rogers, humorist and actor
• August 20 - Edith Roberts, silent film actress
• August 25 - Mack Swain, vaudeville actor
• August 27 - Childe Hassam, impressionist painter
• September 10 - Huey Long, politician
• September 11 - Charles Norris, medical examiner
• September 18 - Alice Dunbar Nelson, born Alice Moore, African-American writer and activist
• September 23 - DeWolf Hopper, actor and comedian
• October 7 - Francis Wilson, stage actor and comedian
• October 18 - Gaston Lachaise, sculptor
• October 22 - Tommy Tucker, baseball pioneer
• October 23
• * Charles Demuth, painter
• * Dutch Schultz, gangster
• November 6 - Henry Fairfield Osborn, paleontologist
• November 27 - Charlie Green, jazz trombonist
• December 2 - James Henry Breasted, Egyptologist
• December 9 - Walter Liggett, newspaper editor
• December 14 - Stanley G. Weinbaum, science-fiction author
• December 16 - Thelma Todd, comedy film actress
• December 17 - Lizette Woodworth Reese, poet
• December 28 - Clarence Day, writer
• December 30 - Hunter Liggett, general

  Date unknown

• Lillian Resler Keister Harford, church organizer, editor