1936

Zohra's Year in History

Dear Diary,

WOW!!! It is December 31, 1936; the official last day of 1936. I can't believe how eventful this year has been not only for me personally, but for the world itself. I am so lucky that I have access to a radio and newspapers in order to find out what's happening around the world. Let me start off by saying that the New York Yankees are the World Champions. Whooooo-hoooooo!!! I can't believe it. No one thought that the Yankees would win because Babe Ruth left for the Boston Braves last year. I remember when he left. It felt like the end of the world for me and other Yanks. Like how could Ruth leave us when we needed him the most? Anyways, we were lucky with Joe DiMaggio, or Joe D as we lovingly called him. He was a rookie outfielder who at first was an unlikely replacement for Ruth, but he proved us all wrong. We won against the New York Giants 4 games to 2. I am so proud of my Yankees. And I'm pretty sure, next year, we will be world champions again. I also began reading a new book called "Gone with the Wind." The book takes place in Georgia during the Civil War and Reconstruction Era. It centers upon a spoiled southern belle named Scarlett O'Hara and her many experiences with life, love, and tragedy. I think this could be my favorite book of all time and apparently it was for the rest of America as well. One million copies of this book was sold in just six months. That's pretty impressive considering the book was sold for $3. Now on to more global events, starting with our country, the good, ole' United States of America. This was a big year for Roosevelt. FDR became our President again with a successful term before. He was running against Governor Alf Landon of Kansas. FDR proved to be very popular with the American public, mainly because of his New Deal policies. His social security and unemployment benefits policies really resonated with the American people. This was very apparent because he had received about 61% of the popular vote. As far as electoral votes go, he had got 523 electoral votes, while poor Landon only got 8 votes. Yes, that's right! He only received 8 votes. I feel embarassed just writing down that low number down. Let's hope that during Roosevelt's next four years, he can get us out of this depression we have been enduring for the last seven years. While FDR was enjoying his second term of presidency, Spain was going through its civil war. This war really broke out in Morocco on July 17th because of recent events that occured in Madrid. On July 12, police lieutenant and anti-fascist Jose Castillo was murdered by four fascist gunmen. Then the next day, Calvo Sotelo, the leader of the right-wing monarchist party is murdered by police officers. Four days later, the military uprising in Morocco occurs. By the end of the day, Morocco is under the command of rebels. Soon, one third of Spain is controlled by these rebels under General Franco, the leader of the "Nationalist" party. From these events, Spain became divided into two entities: a "Loyalist"/Republican" Spain and a "Nationalist" Spain. About 50,000 people lost their lives due to this civil war so far. It doesn't look like this war will end anytime soon. I hope that there are as few casualties as possible. A couple of months before the civil war in Spain, Italy was fighting its own war in Africa, specifically Ethiopia. Late last October, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia and officially captured it on May 5, 1936. On May 9, Mussolini created the "New Roman Empire" with King Victor Emmanuel III becoming Emperor of Ethiopia. But this sparked international hostitlity toward Italy because Ethiopia was part of the League of Nations. But America was still quite friendly with Italy because we are not part of the League of Nations. Similar to the Spanish revolt, an uprising occured because of an attack on April 15th. On this day, Arab gunmen killed two Jewish drivers in Palestine, who were traveling from Nablus to Tulkarm. The next day, Jewish gunmen killed two Arab workers who were sleeping in retaliation. The Arab revolt was a nationalist movement against British colonialism and mass Jewish immigration. For the most part, this revolt consisted of strikes and political protests. The Anglo-Egyptian Treaty occured during this time. This treaty was between the United Kingdom and Egypt in which the U.K. had to withdraw all of its troops from Egypt, except for those protecting the Suez Canal. They also were required to help supply and train Egypt's army and help in case of war. Looking at Egypt as an example, Palestinian Arabs thought that a similar political, peaceful movement could happen in Palestine through protests and strikes. Now going back to Europe, we have a little situation with Germany. Germany has broken the Treaty of Versailles. This treaty stated that Germany had to pay compensation to the allies under the war guilt cause. As a result of this treaty, 10% of German lands were lost and all of its overseas colonies were taken away and divdied up by the Allies. They also had to disarm their army. But this year, the remilitarization of the Rhineland by Hitler had broken this treaty. Also in Germany, there was the Summer and Winter Olympics held in Berlin. This was a big deal because many people thought that the Olympics should not be held in Germany due to the Nazi regime and its anti-Semitic policies. There was controversy in America about the Olympics because two American-Jewish sprinters were pulled from the 4x100 relay team, leading some to think that America and Hitler didn't want two Jews to win gold medals. Jesse Owens also sparked some interest in America and Germany. His participation in the Olympics was somewhat controversial due to the fact that he was an African-American man competing on the U.S. Olympic team. Another reason for the added interest in Owens was because of Hitler's Aryan views of superiority. But all of this didn't stop him from getting 4 gold medals. Jesse Owens definitely made America proud! So diary, I must say that this year was very eventful. I didn't even get to cover everything that happened. There still was the take over of Shanghai, China by Japanese marines, the scandalous affair between King Edward VIII and American widower Wallis Simposon, and the invention of sunscreen by French chemist, Eugene Schueller. All in all, I must say that 1936 has exhausted me very much. I am ready for the new year!

Love,

Zohra