Franklin D. Roosevelt took his second oath of office, the first U.S. presidential inauguration held on January 20 under the 20th Amendment.

German and Italian planes supporting Franco's forces bombed the Basque town of Guernica, killing hundreds of civilians and shocking the world.

Saddam Hussein, who would rule Iraq for over two decades as an authoritarian president, was born in the village of Al-Awja near Tikrit.

Workers completed the final structural touches on the Golden Gate Bridge in the days before its May 27, 1937 opening, with painters finishing the iconic International Orange coat around this time.

The German airship Hindenburg burst into flames while docking in New Jersey, killing 36 people and ending the age of passenger airships.

San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge opened to pedestrians, the longest and tallest suspension bridge in the world at the time.

Pablo Picasso's mural Guernica, protesting the bombing of a Basque town, went on public display at the Paris International Exposition.

Soviet aviator team completes preparations for the historic Moscow-to-Vancouver transpolar flight route, advancing Arctic aviation science.

Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean while attempting to fly around the world, never to be found.

One day after Amelia Earhart's plane vanished over the Pacific, the U.S. Navy launched a massive air and sea search that would ultimately find no trace of her.

Hormel Foods introduced Spam, the canned precooked meat product, launching a food that would feed armies and become a cultural touchstone across the Pacific.

A skirmish between Japanese and Chinese troops near Beijing's Marco Polo Bridge escalated into full-scale war, marking the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Pablo Picasso's mural Guernica was unveiled at the Paris International Exposition, a searing black-and-white response to the bombing of a Basque town months earlier.

The U.S. Navy officially abandoned its search for Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan after their plane vanished over the Pacific, ending one of aviation's enduring mysteries.

J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' hit British bookshops, introducing Bilbo Baggins and Middle-earth to the world.

Pablo Picasso's mural-sized painting Guernica, depicting the bombing of a Basque town, opens for exhibition in London after its Paris debut months earlier.

Japanese forces pressed their assault on the Chinese city of Taiyuan in Shanxi province, part of a brutal campaign in the opening months of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Exiled in Mexico, Leon Trotsky gave testimony to the Dewey Commission refuting Stalinist charges against him from the Moscow show trials.

Imperial Japanese troops captured Nanjing, China's capital, beginning six weeks of mass killing and atrocity that claimed an estimated 200,000 lives.