Greece failed to deport the American fugitive businessman Samuel Insull by January 31 as pledged, leaving the condition of the case unclear.[1] The United States government had the invalidated passport of Insull, who was reportedly ill, renewed in order to expedite his departure.[2]
100,000 farmers paraded in Vienna in support of Chancellor Dollfuss.[3]
Monarchist organizations were banned in Germany.[4]
In Needham, Massachusetts, Abraham Faber and Murton and Irving Millen, who had committed multiple robberies in Massachusetts during the previous six months, robbed the Needham Trust Company bank and took hostages. While escaping in a vehicle, the robbers shot and killed Patrolman Forbes A. McLeod of the Needham Police Department. The robbers entered Needham Heights, where they saw Patrolman Francis Oliver Haddock speaking with a uniformed firefighter at the fire station. Upon seeing two men in uniform, one of the robbers fired a machine gun, mortally wounding Haddock, the first person ever killed with a machine gun in Massachusetts. Faber and the Millens were subsequently convicted of murder and executed.[5][6][7]
12,000 New York City taxicab drivers went on strike over the distribution of the proceeds from a discontinued five-cent tax on their fares.[10]
North of Sapulpa, Oklahoma, law enforcement officers approached a house where three armed robbers, Aussie Elliott, Eldon Wilson and Dupert Carolin, were hiding out. Sapulpa Chief of Police Thomas Jefferson Brumley was shot and killed as he approached the rear of the house by Carolin, who was hiding in the cellar. Other officers shot and killed Elliott and mortally wounded Wilson as they came out the front door. Carolin tried to escape and engaged in a running gun battle with the police, shooting and killing Sapulpa Officer Charles P. Lloyd and himself being shot to death by Lloyd and other officers.[11][12][13]
Died:
Aussie Elliott, 20, American bank robber (killed in shootout with police)[11]
Rioting broke out in the streets of New York over the cab driver strike as strikers fought with police and burned independent cabs.[10]
In Paris, the Surrealist group led by André Breton put Salvador Dalí on "trial" for his troubling interest in Hitler as well as his painting The Enigma of William Tell. The painting depicted a deformed, semi-nude figure bearing the facial features of Vladimir Lenin, something that failed to amuse the Surrealists as many of them were communists. Dalí made a mockery of the proceedings by showing up with a thermometer in his mouth and seven thick sweaters on, which he proceeded to remove one at a time and put on again while taking his temperature. With one sweater left, Dalí told Breton that if he dreamed that night of the two of them making love to each other, he would not hesitate to paint the scene the next morning in great detail ("I don't advise it, my friend", was all Breton managed to say in response.) Then, stripping to the waist, Dalí knelt on the carpet and swore that he was no enemy of the proletariat, ending the bizarre event.[18][19][20]
The prison terms of 140,000 convicts in Japan were commuted. Death sentences were changed to life imprisonment and life sentences were cut down to 20 years, among other reductions. The birth in December of Crown Prince Akihito was one reason for the amnesty.[25]
The United Kingdom and Yemen signed a treaty of friendship.[26]
The Austrian Civil War, also known as the February Uprising, broke out between socialist and conservative-fascist forces.[21]
Leftists and trade unions in France staged a one-day general strike in protest against the resolution of the February 6 crisis. 2 were killed during rioting.[21][28][29]
The Soviet steamship SS Chelyuskin was crushed by ice and sank near Kolyuchin Island in the Chukchi Sea. The 104 people on board escaped onto the ice and set up a makeshift camp where they would live for two months until their rescue.[30]
The Austrian Civil War ended in victory for government forces, who began issuing and carrying out death sentences against the rebels by hanging. The total dead in four days of fighting was estimated at over 1,000.[36]
Britain, France and Italy released a joint statement guaranteeing Austria's "independence and integrity in accordance with the relevant treaties." A German spokesperson responded, "The prerequisite of independence is that people shall have a government which they themselves desire. It logically follows that independence is in danger if and when attempts are made to prevent people from having a government they want. Austria should have a government which has the nation behind it."[37]
Nazi Germany marked the fourteenth anniversary of the National Socialist Program with a speech by Hitler in the same Munich beer hall where he first proclaimed the 25-point plan. "We won the power in Germany", Hitler declared to the packed hall and to a national audience over the radio. "Now we must win the soul and mind of all Germans. We don't want a nation of half-hearted Nazis."[49]
Reichstag fire defendants Georgi Dimitrov, Vasil Tanev and Blagoy Popov were deported from Berlin to Moscow. The Soviet Union made the three communists Russian citizens after their Bulgarian citizenship had been revoked. Dimitrov claimed that he and his two comrades suffered "moral and physical torture" during their imprisonment.[52]
Hitler announced in a speech that the "Wehrmacht will be the sole bearer of arms in the nation", thus diminishing the importance of the Sturmabteilung. Ernst Röhm was made to sign a pledge acknowledging the superior stature of the military.[54]
References
^Speck, Eugene (February 1, 1934). "Mystery Veils Insulls Case; Still in Athens". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
^Speck, Eugene (February 2, 1934). "U. S. Speeds Up Insull's Exit; O. K.'s Passport". Chicago Daily Tribune: 3.
^Darrah, David (February 3, 1934). "100,000 Farmers Hail Dolfuss; Parade in Vienna". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 4.
^"Train Crash in Pittsburgh; 5 Die; 40 Hurt". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 27, 1934. p. 1.
^"Deported Red Tells of Nazi Prison Torture". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 28, 1934. p. 8.
^Steele, John (March 2, 1934). "House Dumps Dole Marchers Out After 'Riot'". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 11.
^Herspring, Dale Roy (2001). Soldiers, Commissars, and Chaplains: Civil-military Relations Since Cromwell. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 131–132. ISBN978-0-7425-1106-4.
