President Paul von Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler Chancellor; the Nazis rapidly dismantle Weimar democracy and establish a dictatorship.
Nationalists led by Francisco Franco fight the Republicans; Franco's victory leads to a dictatorship lasting until 1975.
Pablo Picasso completes Guernica in response to the bombing of the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War; it becomes an enduring anti-war icon.
German and Italian aircraft supporting the Nationalists bomb the Basque town of Guernica, an event depicted in Picasso's famous painting.
Alexander Fleming notices Penicillium mould killing bacteria, paving the way for the antibiotic era.
Britain, France, Italy and Germany agree to Germany's annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland, the high point of the appeasement of Hitler.
An organised pogrom against Jews across Germany and Austria destroys thousands of shops and synagogues, with about 30,000 people arrested.