1937

Published on Monday, May 7th 2007. Edited by Moo Jawcuphas, Magna, United States.

Centuries: 19th century – 20th century – 21st century

Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s – 1930s – 1940s 1950s 1960s

Years: 1934 1935 1936 – 1937 – 1938 1939 1940

Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1937

January

19 January: Howard Hughes sets record.

1 January – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua.
3 January – First science fiction convention in Leeds, England.
11 January – The first issue of LOOK magazine goes on sale in the United States.
19 January – Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.
20 January – Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes swears in Franklin D. Roosevelt for a second term. This is the first time Inauguration Day in the United States occurred on that date. It has occurred on January 20 ever since.
23 January – 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.
26 January – Michigan celebrates its Centennial Anniversary of statehood.
31 January – Ohio River floods
31 January – 31 people executed in the Soviet Union for alleged Trotskyism

February

5 February – President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes a plan to enlarge the Supreme Court of the United States.
8 February – Falangist troops take Málaga
8 February-27 February, Battle of Jarama
11 February – A sit-down strike ends when General Motors recognizes the United Automobile Workers Union
16 February – Wallace H. Carothers receives a patent for nylon.
19 February – Airliner VH-UHH, Stinson, goes down over Lamington National Park, Bound for Sydney, killing five.
19 February – 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.
21 February – Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman’s Aerobile; the League of Nations Non-Intervention Committee ban on foreign nationals fighting in the Spanish Civil War.

March

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 2008.
10 March – The Encyclical Mit brennender Sorge of pope Pius XI is published in Nazi Germany
17 March – Atherton Report released. Private investigator Edwin Atherton’s report detailing vice and police corruption in San Francisco.
18 March
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.
Mother Frances Hospital opens one day early in Tyler, Texas in response to the New London School explosion.
26 March
In Crystal City, Texas, spinach growers erect a statue of the cartoon character Popeye.
William Henry Hastie becomes the first African-American appointed to federal judgeship.

April

1 April – Aden becomes a British crown colony.
9 April – The Kamikaze arrives at Croydon Airport in London – it is the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly to Europe.
12 April – The Supreme Court of the United States rules the National Labor Relations Act is constitutional in NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel.
17 April – Release of the animated short Porky’s Duck Hunt, directed by Tex Avery for the Looney Tunes series, featuring the debut of Daffy Duck.
20 April – 17 students die and 50 are injured in Kilingi-Nõmme, Estonia, after a cinefilm takes fire in an elementary school.
26 April – Spanish Civil War: Guernica, Spain is bombed. In his report of the Falangist attack on Guernica, British journalist George Steer reports that he had found German bomb casings, connecting Luftwaffe planes with the attack.

May

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.
1 May – General strike in Paris, France
6 May – In United States, the German airship Hindenburg bursts into flame when mooring to a mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey.
7 May – Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion Fighter Group, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrives in Spain to assist Francisco Franco’s forces.
12 May – Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth takes place at Westminster Abbey, London.
13 May – Canadian writer Roch Carrier is born in Sainte-Justine, Quebec.
21 May – a Soviet station becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
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.
27 May – 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.
28 May – Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

June

3 June – Wallis Simpson and the former Edward VIII of the United Kingdom marry.
8 June
First total solar eclipse to exceed 7 minutes of totality in over 800 years; visible in the Pacific and Peru.
Premiere of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana
14 June – Pennsylvania becomes the first (and only) of the United States to celebrate Flag Day officially as a state holiday.
21 June – 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 July
Gestapo arrests priest Martin Niemöller.
In a referendum the people of the Irish Free State accept the new Constitution by 685,105 votes to 527,945.
2 July – Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear over New Guinea during Earhart’s attempt to become the first woman to fly around the world.
5 July – Highest recorded temperature in Canada, at Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan: 45°C.
7 July – Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Lugou Bridge – Japanese forces invade China. Often seen as the beginning of World War II in Asia
11 July – Composer George Gershwin dies of a brain tumor at age 38.
20 July – The Geibeltbad Pirna is opened.
21 July – Eamon de Valera elected president of Éire (Ireland)
22 July – 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.
24 July – Alabama drops rape charges against the so-called “Scottsboro Boys.”
28 July – IRA attempts bombing assassination against King George VI in Belfast.

August

5 August – Soviet Union commences one of the largest campaigns of the Great Purge, to “eliminate anti-Soviet element”. Within the following year, at least 724,000 people were killed on order of troikas, many of them chosen for shooting by their ethnicity.
6 August – Falangist artillery bombards Madrid.
26 August – Sino-Japanese War – Japanese aircraft attack the car carrying the ambassador of Great Britain during a raid on Shanghai.

September

2 September – The Great Hong Kong Typhoon of 1937 killed an estimated 11,000 persons.
5 September – Spanish Civil War: The fall of Llanes.
7 September – CBS broadcasts a two-and-a-half hour memorial concert nationwide on radio in memory of George Gershwin, live from the Hollywood Bowl. Many celebrities appear, including Oscar Levant, Fred Astaire, Otto Klemperer, Lily Pons, and members of the original cast of Porgy and Bess. The concert is recorded and released complete years later in what is excellent sound for its time, on CD. The Los Angeles Philharmonic is the featured orchestra.
21 September – George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. of London publishes the first edition of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.
25 September – Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Pingxingguan.
26 September – Street and Smith Publications launches a half-hour radio program , The Shadow, with Orson Welles in the title role.
27 September – The last Bali tiger dies.

October

1 October
Marijuana Tax Act in USA.
U.S. Supreme Court associate justice Hugo Black, in a nationwide radio broadcast, refutes allegations of past involvement in the Ku Klux Klan.
3 October – Japanese troops advance toward Nanking.
5 October – Roosevelt gives his famous “Quarantine Speech” in Chicago.
13 October – Germany, in a note to Brussels, guaranteed the inviolability and integrity of Belgium so long as the latter abstained from military action against Germany.
15 October – Ernest Hemingway’s novel To Have and Have Not is first published.
21 October
The whole Spanish northern seaboard in the Falangists' hands.
Roberto Ortiz elected president of Argentina.
27 October – Spanish Civil War – Republican forces in Gijon, Spain, set fire to petrol reserves before they retreat before the advancing Falangists.

November

5 November
Spanish Civil War – Massacre of Republican supporters in Piedrafita de Babia, near León. Possibly 35,000 executed.
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.
6 November – Italy joins Anti-Comintern Pact.
9 November – Japanese troops take Shanghai.
10 November – Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas announces the Estado Novo – New State –, thence becoming dictator of Brazil until 1945.
11 November – Kogushi sulfur mine collapse, western Gunma, Japan, killing at least 245 people.

December

4 December – The Dandy, the world’s longest running comic strip, is first published.
11 December – Italy withdraws from the League of Nations.
12 December
Panay incident.
Mae West makes a risque guest appearance on the NBC Chase and Sanborn Hour that eventually results in her being banned from radio.
13 December – Battle of Nanjing ends and the Nanjing Massacre begins. Japanese troops would slaughter over 300,000 civilians and prisoners over three months.
21 December – Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first feature-length animated cartoon with sound, opens and becomes a smash hit.
25 December – At the age of seventy, legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini conducts the NBC Symphony Orchestra on radio for the first time, beginning his successful 17-year tenure with that orchestra. This first concert consists of music by Vivaldi, Mozart, and Brahms. Millions tune in to listen, including U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
29 December – 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.

Undated

New Irish constitution bans divorce.
The National House Builders Registration Council (now the NHBC) was formed in the United Kingdom.
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.
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is published.

Ongoing

Spanish Civil War (1936–1939).
Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).
Harlem Renaissance (1920–1940).
Great Depression (1929–1940).

Births

1937 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar 1937 MCMXXXVII

Ab urbe condita 2690

Armenian calendar 1386 ԹՎ ՌՅՁԶ

Bahá'í calendar 93 – 94

Berber calendar 2887

Buddhist calendar 2481

Burmese calendar 1299

Byzantine calendar 7445 – 7446

Chinese calendar 丙子年十一月十九日 (4573/4633-11-19)

— to —

丁丑年十一月廿九日 (4574/4634-11-29)

Coptic calendar 1653 – 1654

Ethiopian calendar 1929 – 1930

Hebrew calendar 5697 – 5698

Hindu calendars

- Vikram Samvat 1992 – 1993

- Shaka Samvat 1859 – 1860

- Kali Yuga 5038 – 5039

Holocene calendar 11937

Iranian calendar 1315 – 1316

Islamic calendar 1355 – 1356

Japanese calendar Shōwa 12 (昭和12年)

Korean calendar 4270

Thai solar calendar 2480

January-February

1 January – Anne Aubrey, British actress
4 January – Dyan Cannon, American actress
6 January – Underwood Dudley, American mathematician
8 January – Shirley Bassey, Welsh singer
13 January – George Reisman, American economist
14 January – Ken Higgs, English cricketer
15 January – Margaret O'Brien, American actress
18 January – John Hume, Northern Irish politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998
21 January – Prince Max, Duke in Bavaria, heir to Bavarian Royal House
22 January – Joseph Wambaugh, American author
27 January – John Ogdon, English pianist (d. 1989)
30 January
Vanessa Redgrave, English actress
Boris Spassky, Russian chess player
31 January
Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (d. 2008)
Philip Glass, American composer
1 February
Garrett Morris, American comedian
Don Everly, American musician
2 February
Tom Smothers, American musician and comedian
Magic Sam, American musician (d. 1969)
Remak Ramsay, American actor
8 February – Manfred Krug, German actor and singer
9 February – Robert “Bilbo” Walker Jr., American blues guitarist
10 February – Roberta Flack, American soul singer
11 February – Bill Lawry, Australian cricketer
12 February – Charles Dumas, American athlete
20 February
Robert Huber, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
Roger Penske, American race car driver
Nancy Wilson, American singer and actress
21 February – King Harald V of Norway
25 February – Tom Courtenay, English actor

March-April

2 March – Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President of Algeria
4 March
Graham Dowling, New Zealand cricketer
Leslie Gelb, American President of the Council on Foreign Relations
Yuri Senkevich, Russian cosmonaut (d. 2003)
Barney Wilen, French jazz saxophonist (d. 1996)
6 March – Valentina Tereshkova, cosmonaut
8 March – Juvénal Habyarimana, President of Rwanda (d. 1994)
17 March – Rudy Ray Moore, American comedian
20 March – Jerry Reed, American musician
22 March – Armin Hary, German athlete
23 March – Craig Breedlove, American race car driver
27 March – Thomas Aquinas Daly, American painter
30 March – Warren Beatty, American actor and director
5 April – Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State
6 April
Merle Haggard, American musician
Billy Dee Williams, American actor
7 April – Louise Faulkner, Missing Australian woman
10 April – Bella Akhmadulina, Russian poet
16 April – Joseph Whipp, American actor
18 April – Jan Kaplický, British architect of Czech origin
22 April – Jack Nicholson, American actor
24 April – Rafi' Daham Al-Tikriti, Directror of the Iraqi Intelligence Service
27 April
Robin Eames, Northern Irish clergyman
Sandy Dennis, American Actress
28 April – Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq (d. 2006)
29 April – Jill Paton Walsh, English novelist

May-June

1 May – Una Stubbs, British actress
3 May
Frankie Valli, American musician
Hans Cieslarczyk, German football player
4 May – Ron Carter, jazz musician
6 May – Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter, American boxer
8 May
Thomas Pynchon, American writer
Carlos Gaviria Díaz, Colombian justice and politician.
12 May – George Carlin, American comedian (d. 2008)
13 May
Roch Carrier, Canadian writer
Roger Zelazny, American writer (d. 1995)
Trevor Baylis, English inventor
15 May
Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State
Trini Lopez, American musician
17 May – Hazel R. O'Leary, U.S. Secretary of Energy
18 May
Jacques Santer, Luxembourg politician, President of the European Council
21 May – Sofiko Chiaureli – Georgian actress (d. 2008)
1 June – Morgan Freeman, American actor
3 June – Solomon P. Ortiz, U.S. Congressman from Texas
4 June – Gorilla Monsoon, American professional wrestler and announcer (d. 1999)
7 June – Neemi Järvi, Estonian conductor
9 June – Harald Rosenthal, German biologist
10 June – Luciana Paluzzi, Italian actress
11 June – Robin Warren, Australian pathologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
15 June
Waylon Jennings, American country singer (d. 2002)
Alan Thornett, British Trotskyist activist
18 June
Wray Carlton, American football player
Vitali Zholobov, cosmonaut
23 June – Martti Ahtisaari, President of Finland
25 June – Keizo Obuchi, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 2000)
26 June – Robert Coleman Richardson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
28 June – Ron Luciano, baseball umpire and writer (d. 1995)

July-August

4 July – Sonja Haraldsen, Queen of Norway and wife to King Harald V of Norway.
6 July
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Russian pianist
Ned Beatty, American actor
7 July – Tung Chee-Hwa, Hong Kong administrator
9 July – David Hockney, English-born artist
12 July
Lionel Jospin, Prime Minister of France
Bill Cosby, American actor and comedian
14 July – Yoshiro Mori, Japanese politician
18 July – Roald Hoffmann, Polish-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
18 July – Hunter S. Thompson, American author and journalist (d. 2005)
20 July – Ken Ogata, Japanese actor
27 July – Don Galloway, American actor
29 July – Daniel McFadden, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
4 August – David Bedford, American musician
5 August – Herb Brooks, American hockey coach (d. 2003)
6 August – Barbara Windsor, English actress
8 August – Dustin Hoffman, American actor
16 August – David Anderson, Canadian politician
18 August
Willie Rushton, English comedian and cartoonist (d. 1996)
Jean Alingué Bawoyeu, Chadian politician and former Prime Minister.
20 August – Jim Bowen, English stand-up comedian and TV personality
21 August
Donald Dewar, First Minister of Scotland (d. 2000)
Robert Stone, American novelist
29 August – James Florio, Governor of New Jersey
31 August – Bobby Parker, American blues musician/guitarist

September-October

4 September
Dawn Fraser, Australian swimmer
Mikk Mikiver, Estonian actor and director (d. 2006)
6 September – Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada (Keith Gordon Ham), Hare Krishna guru
7 September – Cüneyt Arkın, Turkish film actor
11 September – Paola Ruffo di Calabria, Queen of the Belgians
15 September – Robert Lucas, Jr., American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
15 September – Fernando de la Rúa, President of Argentina
16 September – Keith Bosley, broadcaster (retired), poet and translator.
17 September – Ilarion Ionescu-Galati Romanian conductor
19 September – Abner Haynes, American football player
28 September – Rod Roddy, American television announcer (d. 2003)
2 October – Johnnie Cochran, American attorney (d. 2005)
5 October – Barry Switzer, American football coach
7 October – John C. Davis, Oil tycoon and Kris Frey’s true biological father
10 October – Bobby Charlton, English footballer
17 October – Paxton Whitehead, English actor
28 October – Lenny Wilkens, American basketball player and coach

November-December

1 November – “Whisperin” Bill Anderson American country music singer-songwriter
2 November – Earl Carroll, lead vocalist for The Cadillacs
4 November – Michael Wilson, Canadian politician and diplomat
6 November – Joe Warfield, American actor
8 November – Paul Mackintosh Foot, British journalist
11 November – Stephen Lewis, Canadian politician and diplomat
17 November – Peter Cook, English comedian and writer (d. 1995)
26 November – Boris Yegorov, cosmonaut
1 December – Chuck Low, American actor
3 December – Bobby Allison, American race car driver
8 December – Arne Næss Jr., Norwegian mountaineer and businessman (d. 2004)
9 December – Darwin Joston, American actor (d. 1998)
11 December – Jim Harrison, American writer
15 December – Donald Goines, original African American novelist (d. 1973)
17 December – Kerry Packer, Australian businessman (d. 2005)
21 December – Jane Fonda, American actress and social activist
26 December – Gnassingbe Eyadema, President of Togo (d. 2005)
28 December – Ratan Tata, Indian industrialist
29 December – Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, President of the Maldives
30 December
Gordon Banks, English footballer
John Hartford, American musician and composer (d. 2001)
Jim Marshall, American football player
Noel Paul Stookey, American singer
31 December
Avram Hershko, Israeli biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Anthony Hopkins, Welsh actor

Deaths

January – June

2 January – Ross Alexander, American actor (b. 1907)
6 January – André Besette, Canadian religious leader (b. 1845)
23 January – Marie Prevost, Canadian actress (b. 1898)
5 February – Lou Andreas-Salome, Russian-born writer (b. 1861)
7 February – Elihu Root, American statesman and diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1845)
11 February – Walter Burley Griffin, American architect and town planner (b. 1876)
27 February – Charles Donnelly, Irish poet (b.1915)
9 March – Paul Elmer More, American critic and essayist (b. 1864)
11 March – Joseph S. Cullinan, American oil industrialist, founder of Texaco (b. 1860)
12 March – Charles-Marie Widor, French organist and composer (b. 1840)
15 March – H. P. Lovecraft, American writer (b. 1890)
17 March – Austen Chamberlain, English statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1863)
20 March – Harry Vardon, English Golf Professional (b. 1870)
22 March – Alfred Dyke Acland, British military officer (b. 1858)
29 March – Karol Szymanowski, Polish composer (b. 1882)
19 April – William Martin Conway, British art critic and mountaineer (b. 1856)
21 April – Saima Harmaja, Finnish poet (b. 1913)
25 April – Michał Drzymała, Polish rebel (b. 1857)
27 April – Antonio Gramsci, Italian Communist writer and politician (b. 1891)
4 May – Noel Rosa, Brazilian songwriter (b. 1910)
23 May – John D. Rockefeller, American industrialist and philanthropist (b. 1839)
28 May – Alfred Adler, Austrian psychologist (b. 1870)
7 June – Jean Harlow, American film actress (b. 1911)
10 June – Robert Laird Borden, eighth Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1854)
19 June – J. M. Barrie, Scottish novelist and dramatist (b. 1860)

July – December

9 July – Oliver Law, American labor organizer and Army officer (killed in battle) (b. 1899)
11 July – George Gershwin, American composer (b. 1898)
20 July – Guglielmo Marconi, Italian-born inventor (b. 1874)
21 July – Louis Vierne, French composer (b. 1870)
11 August – Edith Wharton, American writer (b. 1862)
2 September – Pierre de Coubertin, French founder of the modern Olympic Games (b. 1863)
26 September – Bessie Smith, American singer (b. 1894)
29 September – Ray Ewry, American athlete (b. 1873)
16 October – Jean de Brunhoff, French writer (b. 1899)
19 October – Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, New Zealand physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1871)
26 October – Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki, Polish general (b. 1867)
9 November – Ramsay MacDonald, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1866)
17 November – Jack Worrall, Australian cricketer and coach (b. 1860)
23 November – Jagdish Chandra Bose, Indian physicist (b. 1858)
23 November – George Albert Boulenger, Belgian naturalist (b. 1858)
9 December – Gustaf Dalén, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1869)
20 December – Erich Ludendorff, German general (b. 1865)
21 December – Frank B. Kellogg, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1856)
25 December – Newton D. Baker, United States Secretary of War (b. 1871)
28 December – Maurice Ravel, French composer (b. 1875)

Nobel prizes

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

Ship events

List of ship launches in 1937
List of ship commissionings in 1937

Other events

In 1937 was founded the HC Ambrì-Piotta
The Vibora Luviminda trades union’s shuger plantation strike on Maui island, Hawaii.

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1937”