Here are a few items of historical interest as a backdrop for A Night at Club Ivory:
| 1929 | February 14: Gang wars trigger the St. Valentine's Day massacre in Chicago. Seven members of "Bugs" Moran's North Side Gang are murdered by four killers from Al Capone's gang. Two of the killers are dressed as Chicago policemen. |
| Former Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall is found guilty of accepting bribes from oil companies in the Teapot Dome scandal. The bribes totaled more than $500,000, the equivalent of $6.76 million dollars in 2017. | |
| October 29: Black Friday. The stock market crashes. | |
| President Hoover insists that business confidence is intact. | |
| 1930 | Banks fail across the country. Millions of savings accounts are wiped out. Gold is hoarded privately. |
| A major Chicago bootlegging organization is broken up. Its value is estimated at $50 million. This would be well over $400 million in 2017 dollars. | |
| Hawley-Smoot Tariff raises protectionist barriers, reducing world trade and worsening the Depression. | |
| Hoover Dam construction begins. | |
| Pluto discovered. | |
| 1931 | More than 8.7% of the U.S. working population is jobless at the start of the year. This is more than 4 million workers. By the end of the year that number has risen to over 23%. |
| Pope Pius XI denounces trial marriages, birth control and divorce. | |
| Bela Lugosi stars in Dracula. | |
| World War I vets offered Bonus Loans as assistance. | |
| Star Spangled Banner becomes national anthem. | |
| Empire State building opens in New York. It is the world's tallest building. | |
| President Hoover declares a moratorium on international debts. | |
| German banks close after bank failure. | |
| Al Capone goes to prison for tax evasion. | |
| 1932 | March 1: The 20 month old son of Charles Lindbergh is kidnapped. Lindbergh is the world famous aviator who made the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight in the Spirit of St. Louis. The child's body is found in May. |
| Johnny Weismuller stars in Tarzan. | |
| The United States condemns the Japanese invasion of China. | |
| Norris-LaGuardia Act restricts the use of injunctions against labor strikes. | |
| Congress passes the Lindbergh Law, giving wide powers and authority to the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover in kidnapping cases. | |
| Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) is elected as the 32nd President. He promises a New Deal. | |
| Stock market drops to 10% of its 1929 value. | |
| Poor veterans, assembled into the Bonus Army, march on Washington DC. | |
| Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles. | |
| Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. | |
| The Santa Anita racetrack is sold to a local consortium of Los Angeles businessmen. | |
| "Pretty Boy" Floyd's spree of robberies in Oklahoma alone force bank insurance rates to double in that state. | |
| 1933 | Adolf Hitler is named as the German Chancellor. |
| Franklin Delano Roosevelt is inaugurated as the President for the first of his four terms in office. In his speech, he says "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." | |
| Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak is killed by an assassin. The assassin narrowly misses President Roosevelt. | |
| March 5: Banks closed for four days on Presidential order. | |
| March 22: Beer and wine are legalized. It is the beginning of the end of Prohibition. | |
| The Hundred Days: FDR pushes a lot of New Deal legislation through Congress in his first hundred days in office. | |
| United States is taken off gold standard. The US dollar is no longer tied to a fixed value of gold. | |
| Congress passes the National Industrial Recovery Act. | |
| United States diplomatically recognizes the Soviet Union. | |
| December: Prohibition repealed. | |
| 1934 | FDR devalues the dollar to be worth 60 cents. |
| John Dillinger escapes capture by blasting out of a police trap with his machine gun. | |
| The notorious bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are killed in a police ambush. | |
| Shirley Temple, age 5, sings and dances in Stand Up and Cheer. | |
| Dust storms drive the "Okies" and the "Arkies" to California. | |
| Roman Catholic Legion of Decency begins censoring movies. | |
| Fire burns down barns at Santa Anita racetrack, killing several horses. |