Arts and Culture
In June Margaret Mitchell publishes the iconic work Gone With the Wind. The coming-of-age story features Scarlett O’Hara, a wealthy plantation owner’s daughter, who suddenly finds herself in poverty after Sherman’s march. Soon after initial publication it became the quintessential American text on Southern life during the civil war and reconstruction eras. The novel reached immediate fame and quickly became absorbed into American culture. She ultimately won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award. Today scholars study the book for its views on race and color symbolism.
Science, Technology, and Ideas
The first rocket air mail was launched during this year. “Gloria” only covered a few hundred feet but it proved that rocket motors could propel a loaded airplane fifty times its own weight. It was also revolutionary in the fact that it combination of liquid fuels, where previously explosive powder was used. It was also the first time that energy and power through the direct heat of combustion. These inventions lead to the formulation of spaceship powers and military projectiles.
Social Change
Beryl Markham is known today for her memoir West with the Night. The 
book chronicles her journey as a famous aviator. Inspired by Hubert Broad, her co-conspirator in an affair, she took to flying planes. In 1936 she became the first woman to pilot an airplane solo across the Atlantic from Europe to New York. Her flight marked one of the first achievements in a male-dominated career.
War, Politics, and Nature
The Moscow Trials were pseudo-investigations by Joseph Stalin to determine if the defendants were guilty of treason against the Soviet Union. The defendants, old Bolsheviks and former leaders, were charged with ‘crimes’ consisting of conspiring with western powers for assassinations, breaking up the Soviet Union, and trying to restore capitalism. It was later discovered that the confessions and the crimes themselves are now deemed as untrue. It was determined the Stalin authorized torture and psychological warfare against the defendants. The trials are now seen as part of the Great Purge and has inspired authors like Orwell to write about the domination of communism.