1937 - Definition and Overview

Events

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 Malaga
• 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.

March

• March 10 - The Encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge of pope Pius XI is published in Nazi Germany
• March 18 - A natural gas explosion at a school in New London, Texas kills 298 (most are children).
• 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

• April 1 - Aden becomes a British crown colony.
• 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.

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.
• May 7 - Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion Fighter Group, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes arrive in Spain to assist Francisco Franco's forces.
• May - Dáil Éireann passes the Executive Authority (Consequential Provisions) Act, 1937 which retrospectively abolished the office of Governor-General of the Irish Free State. The abolition was retrospectively dated back to December 1936.
• May 12 - Coronation of King George VI.
• 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 Bridge.

June

• 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 Leon Blum resigns in France.

July

• 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 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.
• 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 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 bombing against the king of England in Belfast

August

• August 6 - Falangist artillery bombards Madrid.

September

• 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.

October

• October 1 - Marijuana Tax Act in USA.
• October 3 - Japanese troops advance toward Nanking.
• 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

• November 5 Spanish Civil War - Massacre of Republican supporters in Piedrafita de Babia, near Leon. 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 - The Marijuana Tax Act is signed, killing the US hemp industry just as it was about to benefit from a mechanised brake and compete with cotton and wood pulp.
• December 3 - The Dandy, the world's longest running comic, was first published.
• December 12 - Panay incident
• 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 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.

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 Antikomintern Pact.
• The National House Builders Registration Council (now the NHBC) was formed in the United Kingdom.
• Donald Goines (1937 - 1973)

Ongoing events

• Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
• Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)

Year in topic

• 1937 in film
  • The Life of Emile Zola
  • A Star Is Born
  • Snow White, first feature-length animated movie, and Disney created it.
• 1937 in literature
  • Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
  • Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer
  • U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos
  • Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
  • And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street! by Dr. Seuss
• 1937 in music
• 1937 in rail transport
• 1937 in sports
  • January 1 - The first Cotton Bowl game is played in Dallas, Texas.
• 1937 in television
  • May - Gilbert Seldes becomes the first television critic, with his Atlantic Monthly article, the "Errors of Television".
  • May 15 - RCA demonstrates projection television, with images enlarged to 8 by 10 feet, at the Institute of Radio Engineers convention.
  • CBS announces their efforts to develop television broadcasts.
• 1937 in theatre
  • Orson Welles draws loud comment with his 'Fascist' production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

Births

January

• January 4 - Dyan Cannon, actress
• January 8 - Shirley Bassey, singer
• January 15 - Margaret O'Brien, actress
• January 17 - Troy Donahue, actor
• January 18 - John Hume, politician, winner 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 grand master
• January 31 - Suzanne Pleshette, actress
• January 31 - Philip Glass, American composer

February

• February 1 - Garrett Morris, comedian
• February 1 - Don Everly, musician
• February 2 - Tom Smothers, musician, comedian, half of the Smothers Brothers
• February 2 - Magic Sam, Blues musician and guitarist
• February 8 - Manfred Krug, actor
• February 11 - Lodewijk Boer, Dutch violinist/playwright
• February 11 - Marilyn Butler, Rector of Exeter College, Oxford University
• February 11 - Peter Lashley, West Indies cricket player
• February 11 - Bill Lawry, Australian cricket player
• February 12 - Charles Dumas, American high jumper
• February 17 - Rita Süssmuth, politician
• February 20 - Roger Penske, automobile racer
• February 20 - Nancy Wilson, singer and actress
• February 21 - Harald V, King of Norway (1991 - )
• February 25 - Tom Courtenay, actor

March

• March 6 - Valentina Tereshkova, cosmonaut
• March 9 - Mickey Gilly, country music performer
• March 17 - Rudy Ray Moore, comedian
• March 20 - Jerry Reed, country musician
• March 22 - Armin Hary, German athlete
• March 23 - Craig Breedlove, former land speed record holder
• March 30 - Warren Beatty, actor/director

April

• April 5 - Colin Powell, US Secretary of State
• April 6 - Merle Haggard, country musician
• April 6 - Billy Dee Williams, actor
• April 22 - Jack Nicholson, actor
• April 28 - Saddam Hussein, former President of Iraq

May

• May 8 - Thomas Pynchon, novelist
• May 6 - Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, boxer
• May 12 - George Carlin, comedian
• May 13 - Roch Carrier, Canadian author of fiction
• May 13 - Roger Zelazny, science fiction author (d. 1995)
• May 15 - Trini López, musician
• May 15 - Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State
• May 17 - Hazel R. O'Leary, United States Secretary of Energy
• May 18 - Brooks Robinson, Baseball Hall of Famer
• May 18 - Jacques Santer, politician

June

• June 1 - Morgan Freeman, actor
• June 3 - Solomon P. Ortiz, American politician
• June 7 - Neemi Järvi, Estonian conductor
• June 9 - Harald Rosenthal, biologist
• June 18 - Wray Carlton, American football player
• June 18 - Vitali Zholobov, cosmonaut
• June 23 - Martti Ahtisaari, former President of Finland

July

• July 6 - Vladimir Ashkenazy, Russian pianist
• July 6 - Ned Beatty, actor
• July 7 - Tung Chee-Hwa, first Chief executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China
• July 9 - David Hockney, artist
• July 12 - Lionel Jospin, Prime Minister of France
• July 12 - Bill Cosby, actor, comedian

August

• August 4 - David Bedford, musician
• August 8 - Dustin Hoffman, American actor
• August 18 - Robert Redford, American actor

September

• September 4 - Dawn Fraser, Australian swimmer
• September 15 - Fernando de la Rúa, former president of Argentina
• September 19 - Abner Haynes, American football player
• September 28 - Rod Roddy, television announcer (d. 2003)

October

• October 5 - Barry Switzer, American football coach
• October 10 - Bobby Charlton, English footballer

November

• November 8 - Paul Mackintosh Foot, British radical investigative journalist, political campaigner, and long time member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP).
• November 15 - Yaphet Kotto, actor (Homicide: Life on the Street)
• November 17 - Peter Cook, comedian, satirist and writer
• November 26 - Boris Yegorov, cosmonaut

December

• December 3 - Bobby Allison, NASCAR driver
• December 8 - Arne Næss Jr., Norwegian mountaineer, businessman (d. 2004)
• December 26 - Katharine Dickson Dukakis, wife of Michael Dukakis (or 1936).
• December 26 - Gnassingbe Eyadema, former President of Togo (d. 2005)
• December 29 - Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, President of the Maldives
• December 30 - Jim Marshall, American football player

Deaths

January

• January 6 - Brother Andre, Canadian religious figure
• January 23 - Marie Prevost, actress

February

• February 11 - Walter Burley Griffin, architect and town planner

March

• March 12 - Charles-Marie Widor, organist and composer
• March 15 - H. P. Lovecraft, horror writer
• March 29 - Karol Szymanowski, composer

April

• April 19 - William Martin Conway, British art critic and mountaineer
• April 21 - Saima Harmaja, Finnish poet (b. 1913)
• April 25 - Michał Drzymała, famous Polish peasant fighting with German bureaucracy (b.1857)

May

• May 23 - John Davison Rockefeller, American industrialist and philanthropist.
• May 28 - Alfred Adler, psychologist

June

• June 19 - J. M. Barrie, novelist and dramatist

July

• July 9 - Oliver Law, first African American commander of American troops, killed in battle during the Spanish Civil War.
• July 11 - George Gershwin, American composer (b. 1898)
• July 20 - Guglielmo Marconi, Italian inventor of the telegraph (b. 1874)

August

• August 11 - Edith Wharton, American writer (b. 1862)

September

• September 2 - Pierre de Coubertin, French founder of the modern Olympic Games
• September 26 - Bessie Smith, blues singer
• September 29 - Ray Ewry, American athlete

October

• October 26 - Józef Dowbór-Muśnicki, Polish general, commander of Greater Poland Uprising in 1919 (b.1867)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Clinton Joseph Davisson, George Paget Thomson
• Chemistry - Walter Haworth, Paul Karrer
• Medicine - Albert von Szent-Györgyi Nagyrapolt
• Literature - Roger Martin du Gard
• Peace - Robert Cecil