1937
1937 (
MCMXXXVII) was a
common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar).
January
*
January 1 -
Anastasio Somoza becomes
President of Nicaragua*
January 11 - The first issue of
LOOK magazine goes on sale in the United States.
*
January 19 -
Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from
Los Angeles to
New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.
*
January 23 - In
Moscow, 17 leading
Communists go on trial accused of participating in a plot led by
Leon Trotsky to overthrow
Joseph Stalin's regime and assassinate its leaders.
*
January 31 -
Ohio River floods
*
January 31 - 31 people executed in the
Soviet Union for "
Trotskyism"
February
*
February 5 -
President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes a plan to enlarge the
Supreme Court of the United States.
*
February 8 - Falangist troops take
Málaga*
February 11 - A sit-down strike ends when
General Motors recognises the
United Automobile Workers Union*
February 16 -
Wallace H. Carothers receives a
patent for
nylon.
*
February 19 - During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in
Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, two
Eritrean nationalists attempt to kill viceroy
Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades. The Italian security guard fire into the crowd of Ethiopian onlookers, and over the passing weeks indiscriminately slaughter native Ethiopians in reprisal.
*
February 21 - Initial flight of the first successful
flying car,
Waldo Waterman's Arrowbile; the
League of Nations Non-Intervention Committee ban on foreign national "
volunteers" in the
Spanish Civil War.
March-April
* March - The first issue of the
comic book Detective Comics is published in the United States. Twenty-seven issues later,
Detective Comics would introduce
Batman. The comic would go on to become the longest continually-published comic magazine in American history; it is still published as of 2006.
*
March 10 - The Encyclical
Mit Brennender Sorge of pope
Pius XI is published in Nazi Germany
*
March 17 -
Atherton Report released. Private investigator
Edwin Atherton's report detailing vice and police corruption in San Francisco.
*
March 18 - In the worst school disaster in American history in terms of lives lost, the
New London School in
New London, Texas suffers a catastrophic
natural gas explosion, killing in excess of three hundred students and teachers.
*
March 26 - In
Crystal City, Texas spinach growers erect a statue of the
cartoon character Popeye.
*
March 26 -
William Henry Hastie becomes the first African-American appointed to federal judgeship.
*
April 1 -
Aden becomes a British
crown colony.
*
April 9 - The
Kamikaze arrives at
Croydon Airport in
London - it is the first
Japanese-built aircraft to fly to
Europe.
*
April 17 - Release of the animated short
Porky's Duck Hunt, directed by
Tex Avery for the
Merrie Melodies series, featuring the debut of
Daffy Duck.
*
April 26 -
Spanish Civil War:
Guernica,
Spain is bombed by
German Luftwaffe.
*
April 26 - In his report of the
Falangist attack on
Guernica, British journalist
George Steer reports that he had found
German bomb casing; that means that
Luftwaffe planes were connected with the attack
May
*
May 1 -
General strike in
Paris,
France*
May 6 - In United States, the German airship
Hindenburg bursts into flame when mooring to a mast in
Lakehurst, New Jersey.
*
May 7 -
Spanish Civil War: The
German Condor Legion Fighter Group, equipped with
Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrives in
Spain to assist
Francisco Franco's forces.
*
May 12 - Coronation of
King George VI and
Queen Elizabeth takes place at
Westminster Abbey,
London.
*
May 21 - As one of the reprisals for the attempted assassination of
Italian viceroy
Rodolfo Graziani, a detachment of Italian troops massacre the entire community of
Debre Libanos. 297 monks and 23 laymen are killed.
*
May 27 - In
California, the
Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic creating a vital link between
San Francisco and
Marin County. The next day, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt pushes a button in
Washington, DC signaling the start of vehicle traffic over the Golden Gate Bridge.
*
May 28 -
Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain.
* May -
Dáil Éireann passes the Executive Authority (Consequential Provisions) Act, 1937, which retrospectively abolishes the office of Governor-General of the Irish Free State. The abolition is retrospectively dated to December 1936.May *
Dominion Road School Opens in *
New ZealandJune-August
*
June 8 - First total
solar eclipse to exceed 7 minutes of totality in over 800 years; visible in the Pacific and Peru.
*
June 14 -
Pennsylvania becomes the first (and only) of the
United States to celebrate
Flag Day officially as a
state holiday.
*
June 21 -
Coalition government of
Léon Blum resigns in
France.
*June/July - Dáil Éireann debates and passes the draft new constitution of Éire, to be called
Bunreacht na hÉireann. The new constitution is then submitted for public approval by plebiscite.
*
July 1 -
Gestapo arrests priest
Martin Niemöller.
*
July 1 - In a referendum the people of the
Irish Free State accept the new Constitution by 685,105 votes to 527,945.
*
July 2 -
Amelia Earhart and navigator
Fred Noonan disappear over
New Guinea during Earhart's attempt to become the first woman to fly around the world.
*
July 5 - Highest recorded temperature in
Canada, at
Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan: 45°C.
*
July 7 -
Sino-Japanese War:
Battle of Lugou Bridge -
Japanese forces invade
China.Often seen as the beginning of
World War II in
Asia*
July 21 -
Eamon de Valera elected president of
Eire*
July 22 -
New Deal: The
United States Senate votes down President
Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposal to add more justices to the
Supreme Court of the United States.
*
July 24 -
Alabama drops
rape charges against the so-called "
Scottsboro Boys."
*
July 28 -
IRA attempts bombing assassination against
King George VI in
Belfast.
*
August 6 - Falangist artillery bombards
Madrid.
September-November
*
September 5 -
Spanish Civil War: The fall of
Llanes.
*
September 16 - birth of
Keith Bosley, broadcaster (retired), poet and translator.
*
September 21 - George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. of London published the first edition of
J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.
*
September 25 -
Sino-Japanese War:
Battle of Pingxingguan.
*
September 27 - last
Bali tiger died.
*
October 1 -
Marijuana Tax Act in USA.
*
October 3 - Japanese troops advance toward
Nanking.
*
October 5 -
Roosevelt "Quarantine the Aggressors" speech at
Chicago *
October 21 - The whole Spanish northern seaboard in the Falangists' hands.
*
October 21 -
Roberto Ortiz elected president of
Argentina.
*
October 27 -
Spanish Civil War -
Republican forces in
Gijon,
Spain, set fire to petrol reserves before they retreat before the advancing
Falangists.
*
November 5 Spanish Civil War - Massacre of Republican supporters in
Piedrafita de Babia, near
León. Possibly 35,000 executed.
*
November 5 -
World War II: In the
Reich Chancellery,
Adolf Hitler holds a secret meeting and states his plans for acquiring "living space" for the
German people.
*
November 9 -
Japanese troops take
Shanghai.
December
*
December 3 -
The Dandy, the world's longest running comic, was first published.
*
December 12 -
Panay incident*
December 12 -
Mae West's risque performance on the
NBC Chase & Sanborn Hour results in her being banned from radio.
*
December 13 -
Battle of Nanjing ends and the
Nanjing Massacre begins. Japanese troops would slaughter over 250,000 civilians and prisoners over three months.
*
December 21 -
Walt Disney's
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first feature-length
animated cartoon, opens and becomes a smash hit.
*
December 25 -
Arturo Toscanini conducts the
NBC Symphony Orchestra on
radio for the first time, beginning his successful 17-year tenure with that orchestra. Millions tune in to listen, including U.S. President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
*
December 29 - New Irish Constitution,
Bunreacht na hÉireann comes into force. The
Irish Free State becomes
Éire.
Eamon de Valera becomes the first
Taoiseach (prime minister) of the new state. A
Presidential Commission (made up the Irish Chief Justice, the Speaker of Dáil Éireann and the President of the High Court) assumes the powers of the new presidency of Ireland pending the election of the first president in June 1938.
* December - The
Marijuana Tax Act is signed, ending the US
hemp industry just as it was about to benefit from a mechanised brake and compete with
cotton and wood pulp.
Unknown dates
*
Japan invades
Manchuria. (Some consider this the start of
World War II. Most
historians disagree).
* New
Irish constitution bans
divorce.
* First
science fiction convention in
Leeds,
United Kingdom.
*
Italy joins
Anticomintern Pact.
* The
National House Builders Registration Council (now the NHBC) was formed in the
United Kingdom.
*
Donald Goines (1937 -
1973)
*
Jimmie Angel lands his plane on top of Devil's Mountain however the plane gets damaged and he has to trek through the rainforest for help.
*
Spanish Civil War (
1936-
1939)
*
Sino-Japanese War (1937-
1945)
*
Harlem Renaissance (
1920-
1940) [
1]
January
*
January 1 -
Anne Aubrey, British actor
*
January 4 -
Dyan Cannon, American actress
*
January 6 -
Underwood Dudley, American mathematician
*
January 8 -
Shirley Bassey, Welsh singer
*
January 14 -
Ken Higgs, English cricketer
*
January 15 -
Margaret O'Brien, American actress
*
January 18 -
John Hume, Northern Irish politician, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize in
1998*
January 27 -
John Ogdon, English pianist (d.
1989)
*
January 30 -
Vanessa Redgrave, English actress
*
January 30 -
Boris Spassky, Russian chess player
*
January 31 -
Suzanne Pleshette, American actress
*
January 31 -
Philip Glass, American composer
February
*
February 1 -
Garrett Morris, American comedian
*
February 1 -
Don Everly, American musician
*
February 2 -
Tom Smothers, American musician and comedian
*
February 2 -
Magic Sam, American musician (d.
1969)
*
February 8 -
Manfred Krug, German actor and singer
*
February 10 -
Roberta Flack, American soul singer
*
February 11 -
Bill Lawry, Australian cricketer
*
February 12 -
Charles Dumas, American athlete
*
February 20 -
Robert Huber, German chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
February 20 -
Roger Penske, American race car driver
*
February 20 -
Nancy Wilson, American singer and actress
*
February 21 - King
Harald V of Norway*
February 25 -
Tom Courtenay, English actor
March-April
*
March 2 -
Abdelaziz Bouteflika,
President of Algeria*
March 4 -
Graham Dowling, New Zealand cricketer
*
March 4 -
Leslie Gelb, President Emeritus of the
Council on Foreign Relations*
March 4 -
Yuri Senkevich, Russian cosmonaut (d.
2003)
*
March 6 -
Valentina Tereshkova, cosmonaut
*
March 8 -
Juvénal Habyarimana,
President of Rwanda (d.
1994)
*
March 9 -
Mickey Gilly, American musician
*
March 17 -
Rudy Ray Moore, American comedian
*
March 20 -
Jerry Reed, American musician
*
March 22 -
Armin Hary, German athlete
*
March 23 -
Craig Breedlove, American race car driver
*
March 30 -
Warren Beatty, American actor and director
*
April 5 -
Colin Powell,
U.S. Secretary of State*
April 6 -
Merle Haggard, American musician
*
April 6 -
Billy Dee Williams, American actor
*
April 10 -
Bella Akhmadulina, Russian poet
*
April 16 -
Joseph Whipp, American actor
*
April 22 -
Jack Nicholson, American actor
*
April 27 -
Robin Eames, Northern Irish clergyman
*
April 29 -
Jill Paton Walsh, English novelist
May
*
May 1 -
Una Stubbs, British actor
*
May 6 -
Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, American boxer
*
May 8 -
Thomas Pynchon, American writer
* May 8 -
Carlos Gaviria Díaz, Colombian justice and politician.
*
May 12 -
George Carlin, American comedian
*
May 13 -
Roch Carrier, Canadian writer
*
May 13 -
Roger Zelazny, American writer (d.
1995)
*
May 13 -
Trevor Baylis, English inventor of the
wind-up radio*
May 15 -
Madeleine Albright,
U.S. Secretary of State*
May 15 -
Trini López, American musician
*
May 17 -
Hazel R. O'Leary,
U.S. Secretary of Energy*
May 18 -
Brooks Robinson, baseball player
*
May 18 -
Jacques Santer, Luxembourg politician,
President of the European CouncilJune
*
June 1 -
Morgan Freeman, American actor
*
June 3 -
Solomon P. Ortiz, U.S. Congressman from Texas
*
June 4 -
Gorilla Monsoon, American professional wrestler and announcer
*
June 7 -
Neemi Järvi, Estonian conductor
*
June 9 -
Harald Rosenthal, German biologist
*
June 11 -
Robin Warren, Australian pathologist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine*
June 18 -
Wray Carlton, American football player
*
June 18 -
Vitali Zholobov, cosmonaut
*
June 23 -
Martti Ahtisaari,
President of Finland*
June 25 -
Keizo Obuchi,
Prime Minister of Japan (d.
2000)
*
June 26 -
Robert Coleman Richardson, American physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
June 28 -
Ron Luciano, baseball umpire and writer (d.
1995)
July-August
*
July 6 -
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Russian pianist
*
July 6 -
Ned Beatty, American actor
*
July 7 -
Tung Chee-Hwa, Hong Kong administrator
*
July 9 -
David Hockney, English-born artist
*
July 12 -
Lionel Jospin,
Prime Minister of France*
July 12 -
Bill Cosby, American actor and comedian
*
July 14 -
Yoshiro Mori, Japanese politician
*
July 18 -
Roald Hoffmann, Polish-born chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
July 29 -
Daniel McFadden, American economist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
August 4 -
David Bedford, American musician
*
August 5 -
Herb Brooks, American hockey coach (d.
2003)
*
August 6 -
Barbara Windsor, English actress
*
August 8 -
Dustin Hoffman, American actor
*
August 16 -
David Anderson, Canadian politician
*
August 18 -
Robert Redford, American actor
*August 18 -
Willie Rushton, English comedian and cartoonist (d.
1996)
*
August 21 -
Donald Dewar,
First Minister of Scotland (d.
2000)
*
August 29 -
James Florio, Governor of New Jersey
September-November
*
September 4 -
Dawn Fraser, Australian swimmer
* September 4 -
Mikk Mikiver, Estonian actor, director (d.
2006)
*
September 15 -
Robert Lucas, Jr., American economist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
September 15 -
Fernando de la Rúa,
President of Argentina*
September 19 -
Abner Haynes, American football player
*
September 28 -
Rod Roddy, American television announcer (d.
2003)
*
October 2 -
Johnnie Cochran, American attorney (d.
2005)
*
October 5 -
Barry Switzer, American football coach
*
October 10 -
Bobby Charlton, English footballer
*
November 4 -
Michael Wilson, Canadian politician and diplomat
*
November 8 -
Paul Mackintosh Foot, British journalist
*
November 11 -
Stephen Lewis, Canadian politician and diplomat
*
November 15 -
Yaphet Kotto, American actor
*
November 17 -
Peter Cook, English comedian and writer
*
November 26 -
Boris Yegorov, cosmonaut
December
*
December 1 -
Chuck Low, American actor
*
December 3 -
Bobby Allison, American race car driver
*
December 8 -
Arne Næss Jr., Norwegian mountaineer and businessman (d.
2004)
*
December 9 -
Darwin Joston, American actor (d.
1998)
*
December 17 -
Kerry Packer, Australian businessman (d.
2005)
*
December 21 -
Jane Fonda, American actress and social activist
*
December 26 -
Gnassingbe Eyadema,
President of Togo (d.
2005)
*
December 28 -
Ratan Tata, Indian industrialist
*
December 29 -
Maumoon Abdul Gayoom,
President of the Maldives*
30 December -
Gordon Banks, England goalkeeper
*
December 30 -
John Hartford, American musician and composer (d.
2001)
*
December 30 -
Jim Marshall, American football player
*
December 30 -
Noel Paul Stookey, American singer
*
December 31 -
Avram Hershko, Israeli biologist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry*
December 31 - Sir
Anthony Hopkins, Welsh actor
January-April
*
January 5 -
Marie Booth, the third daughter of
William and
Catherine Booth (b.
1864)
*
January 6 -
André Besette, Canadian religious leader (b.
1845)
*
January 23 -
Marie Prevost, Canadian actress (b.
1898)
*
February 5 -
Lou Andreas-Salome, Russian-born writer (b.
1861)
*
February 7 -
Elihu Root, American statesman and diplomat, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize (b.
1845)
*
February 11 -
Walter Burley Griffin, American architect and town planner (b.
1876)
*
March 9 -
Paul Elmer More, American critic and essayist (b.
1864)
*
March 12 -
Charles-Marie Widor, French organist and composer (b.
1840)
*
March 15 -
H. P. Lovecraft, American writer (b.
1890)
*
March 17 -
Austen Chamberlain, English statesman, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize (b.
1863)
*
March 29 -
Karol Szymanowski, Polish composer (b.
1882)
*
April 19 -
William Martin Conway, British art critic and mountaineer (b.
1856)
*
April 21 -
Saima Harmaja, Finnish poet (b.
1913)
*
April 25 -
Michał Drzymała, Polish rebel (b.
1857)
May-August
*
May 23 -
John D. Rockefeller, American industrialist and philanthropist (b.
1839)
*
May 28 -
Alfred Adler, Austrian psychologist (b.
1870)
*
June 7 -
Jean Harlow, American film actress (b.
1911)
*
June 10 -
Robert Laird Borden, eighth
Prime Minister of Canada (b.
1854)
*
June 19 -
J. M. Barrie, Scottish novelist and dramatist (b.
1860)
*
July 9 -
Oliver Law, American labor organizer and Army officer (killed in battle) (b.
1899)
*
July 11 -
George Gershwin, American composer (b.
1898)
*
July 20 -
Guglielmo Marconi, Italian inventor (b.
1874)
*
July 21 -
Louis Vierne, French composer (b.
1870)
*
August 11 -
Edith Wharton, American writer (b.
1862)
September-December
*
September 2 -
Pierre de Coubertin, French founder of the modern Olympic Games (b.
1863)
*
September 26 -
Bessie Smith, American singer (b.
1894)
*
September 29 -
Ray Ewry, American athlete (b.
1873)
*
October 16 -
Jean de Brunhoff, French writer (b.
1899)
*
October 19 -
Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, New Zealand physicist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b.
1871)
*
October 26 -
Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki, Polish general (b.
1867)
*
November 9 -
Ramsay MacDonald,
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b.
1866)
*
November 17 -
Jack Worrall, Australian cricketer and coach (b.
1860)
*
November 23 -
Jagdish Chandra Bose, Indian Physicist (b.
1858)
* November 23 -
George Albert Boulenger, Belgian naturalist (b.
1858)
*
December 9 -
Gustaf Dalén, Swedish physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1869)
*
December 20 -
Erich Ludendorff, German general (b.
1865)
*
December 21 -
Frank B. Kellogg,
United States Secretary of State, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize (b.
1856)
*
December 28 -
Maurice Ravel, French composer (b.
1875)
Unknown dates
*
Charles Donnelly, Northern Irish poet (b.
1914)
*
Physics -
Clinton Joseph Davisson,
George Paget Thomson*
Chemistry -
Walter Haworth,
Paul Karrer*
Physiology or Medicine -
Albert von Szent-Györgyi Nagyrapolt*
Literature -
Roger Martin du Gard*
Peace -
Robert Cecil
