The following events occurred in January 1933: January 1, 1933 (Sunday) The Soviet Union began its second Five-Year Plan with the goal of more than doubling the gross national product, from 43 billion rubles to 93 billion, by December 31, 1937. Capital punishment was abolished in Denmark by amendment of the 1866 Criminal Code. After the passage of the Code, 70 convicted criminals received death sentences, but only four were actually executed. Juan Bautista Sacasa was sworn in as President of Nicaragua, bringing an end to the American occupation there. General Mathews, the U.S. commander of the Nicaraguan National Guard, turned over his authority to Nicaraguan General Anastasio Somoza García, and President Sacasa began immediate negotiations to end the war with the Sandinista rebels. Archaeologists and fortune hunters Jerry van Graan and Ernst van Graan began excavations of the ancestral graveyard of the Kings of Mapungubwe in South Africa, undisturbed since the 13th Century, after being tipped off by a local resident. January 2, 1933 (Monday) After a seven-year occupation of Nicaragua, the last 910 U.S. Marines and sailors withdrew, departing from the port of Corinto. American forces sustained 47 killed in combat, and 66 wounded during the campaign. Two days earlier, 8 Marines had been killed in an ambush. Franklin D. Roosevelt completed his term as the 44th Governor of New York, two months before he would take office as the 32nd President of the United States on March 4. Herbert H. Lehman became the new Governor. The USC Trojans (9-0-0) and the Pittsburgh Panthers (8-0-2), both unbeaten during the 1932 college football season, met in the Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena, with USC winning 35–0. Born: Morimura Seiichi, Japanese novelist and author, in Kumagaya (d. 2014) Richard W. Riley, U.S. Secretary of Education 1993–2001, in Greenville, South Carolina Died: Kid Gleason, 66, former baseball manager of the Chicago White Sox during the "Black Sox scandal" of 1919 Belle Moskowitz, 55, political adviser to American politician Al Smith Sutton Griggs, 60, African-America poet Irving O'Dunn, 34, American vaudeville actor. January 3, 1933 (Tuesday) Striking from the puppet state of Manchukuo, Japan launched Operation Nekka, its takeover of China's Jehol Province, attacking the port town of Shanhaiguan (through a gap in the Great Wall of China), killing hundreds of Chinese soldiers and civilians. On February 24, Japan would begin its takeover of the rest of the province with 31,000 troops,