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Template:C20YearInTopicX Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. Template:C20YearTOCship

Events of 1937

January

• January 1 - Anastasio Somoza becomes President of Nicaragua.
• January 3 - First science fiction convention in Leeds, United Kingdom.
• 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 20 - Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes swears in US. President 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.
• 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 26 - Michigan celebrates its Centennial Anninversary of statehood.
• January 31 - Ohio River floods
• January 31 - 31 people executed in the Soviet Union for "Trotskyism"

February

• February 2 - Airliner VH-UHH, Stinson, goes down over Lamington National Park, Bound for Sydney, killing five.
• 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 8-February 27, Battle of Jarama
• February 11 - A sit-down strike ends when General Motors recognizes 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 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 2007.
• 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.
  • Mother Frances Hospital opens one day early in Tyler, Texas in response to the New London School explosion.
• March 26
  • 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

• 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. 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.
• 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 13 - Canadian writer Roch Carrier is born in Sainte-Justine, Quebec.
• May 21 - 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.
• 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.

June

• June 3 - Wallis Simpson and the former Edward VIII of the United Kingdom marry.
• June 8
  • 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
• 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

• July 1
  • 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.
• 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

• August 5 - Soviet Union commences one of the largest campaigns of Red Terror, to "eliminate anti-Soviet element". Within the following two years, at least 724,000 people were killed on order of troikas, many of them chosen for shooting by their ethnicity.
• August 6 - Falangist artillery bombards Madrid.
• August 7 - The first international PSSI 2 vs 2 Nan Hwa in Semarang
• August 26 - Sino-Japanese War - Japanese aircraft attack the car carrying the ambassador of Great Britain during a raid on Shanghai.

September

• September 2 - The Great Hong Kong Typhoon of 1937 kills an estimated 11,000 persons.
• 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 26 - Street and Smith Publications launches a half-hour radio program featuring the announcer for its "Detective Stories" radio show, The Shadow, with Orson Welles in the title role.
• September 27 - last Bali tiger died.

October

• October 1
  • 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.
• October 3 - Japanese troops advance toward Nanking.
• October 5 - Roosevelt gives his famous "Quarantine Speech" in Chicago.
• October 21
  • The whole Spanish northern seaboard in the Falangists' hands.
  • 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 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.
• November 9 - Japanese troops take Shanghai.

December

• December 4 - The Dandy, the world's longest running comic strip, is first published.
• December 12
  • 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.
• 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.

Undated

• New Irish constitution bans divorce.
• Italy joins Anti-Comintern Pact.
• 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.

Ongoing

• Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).
• Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).
• Harlem Renaissance (1920-1940).

Births

January-February

• 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 13 - George Reisman, American economist
• 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 21 - Prince Max, Duke in Bavaria, heir to Bavarian Royal House
• January 22 - Joseph Wambaugh, American author
• January 27 - John Ogdon, English pianist (d. 1989)
• January 30
  • Vanessa Redgrave, English actress
  • Boris Spassky, Russian chess player
• January 31
  • Suzanne Pleshette, American actress
  • Philip Glass, American composer
• February 1
  • Garrett Morris, American comedian
  • Don Everly, American musician
• February 2
  • Tom Smothers, American musician and comedian
  • Magic Sam, American musician (d. 1969)
• February 8 - Manfred Krug, German actor and singer
• February 9 - Robert "Bilbo" Walker Jr., American blues guitarist
• 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
  • Roger Penske, American race car driver
  • 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
  • Leslie Gelb, American President of the Council on Foreign Relations
  • Yuri Senkevich, Russian cosmonaut (d. 2003)
  • Barney Wilen, French jazz saxophonist (d. 1996)
• 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 27 - Thomas Aquinas Daly, American painter
• March 30 - Warren Beatty, American actor and director
• April 5 - Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State
• April 6
  • Merle Haggard, American musician
  • Billy Dee Williams, American actor
• April 10 - Bella Akhmadulina, Russian poet
• April 16 - Joseph Whipp, American actor
• April 18 - Jan Kaplický, British architect of Czech origin
• April 22 - Jack Nicholson, American actor
• April 27 - Robin Eames, Northern Irish clergyman
• April 28 - Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq (d. 2006)
• April 29 - Jill Paton Walsh, English novelist

May-June

• May 1 - Una Stubbs, British actor
• May 3
  • Frankie Valli, American musician
  • Hans Cieslarczyk, German football player
• May 4 - Ron Carter, jazz musician
• May 6 - Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, American boxer
• May 8
  • Thomas Pynchon, American writer
  • Carlos Gaviria Díaz, Colombian justice and politician.
• May 12 - George Carlin, American comedian
• May 13
  • Roch Carrier, Canadian writer
    • Roger Zelazny, American writer (d. 1995)
  • Trevor Baylis, English inventor
• May 15
  • Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State
  • Trini Lopez, American musician
• May 17 - Hazel R. O'Leary, U.S. Secretary of Energy
• May 18
  • Jacques Santer, Luxembourg politician, President of the European Council
• 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 10 - Luciana Paluzzi, Italian actress
• June 11 - Robin Warren, Australian pathologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• June 15 - Alan Thornett, British Trotskyist activist
• June 18
  • Wray Carlton, American football player
  • 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 4 - Sonja Haraldsen, Queen of Norway and wife to King Harald V of Norway.
• July 6
  • Vladimir Ashkenazy, Russian pianist
  • 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
  • Bill Cosby, American actor and comedian
• July 14 - Yoshiro Mori, Japanese politician
• July 18 - Roald Hoffmann, Polish-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• July 18 - Hunter S. Thompson, American author and journalist (d. 2005)
• July 20 - Ken Ogata, Japanese actor
• July 27 - Don Galloway, American actor
• 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
  • Willie Rushton, English comedian and cartoonist (d. 1996)
  • Jean Alingué Bawoyeu, Chadian politician and former Prime Minister.
• August 20 - Jim Bowen, English stand-up comedian and TV personality
• August 21
  • Donald Dewar, First Minister of Scotland (d. 2000)
  • Robert Stone, American novelist
• August 29 - James Florio, Governor of New Jersey
• August 31 - Bobby Parker, American blues musician/guitarist

September-October

• September 4
  • Dawn Fraser, Australian swimmer
  • Mikk Mikiver, Estonian actor and director (d. 2006)
• September 7 - Cüneyt Arkın, Turkish film actor
• 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-December

• November 1 - "Whisperin" Bill Anderson American Country Music singer/songwriter born James William Anderson III
• November 2 - Earl Carroll, lead vocalist for The Cadillacs
• November 4 - Michael Wilson, Canadian politician and diplomat
• November 6 - Joe Warfield, American actor
• 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 (d. 1995)
• November 26 - Boris Yegorov, cosmonaut
• 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 11 - Jim Harrison, American writer
• December 15 - Donald Goines, original African American novelist (d. 1973)
• 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
• December 30
  • Gordon Banks, English footballer
  • John Hartford, American musician and composer (d. 2001)
  • Jim Marshall, American football player
  • Noel Paul Stookey, American singer
• December 31
  • Avram Hershko, Israeli biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • Anthony Hopkins, Welsh actor

Deaths

January - June

• January 2 - Ross Alexander, American actor (b. 1907)
• 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)
• February 27 - Charles Donnelly, Irish poet (b.1915)
• March 9 - Paul Elmer More, American critic and essayist (b. 1864)
• March 11 - Joseph S. Cullinan, American oil industrialist, founder of Texaco (b. 1860)
• 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 20 - Harry Vardon, English Golf Professional (b. 1870)
• March 22 - Alfred Dyke Acland, British military officer (b. 1858)
• 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 4 - Noel Rosa, Brazilian songwriter (b. 1910)
• 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 - December

• 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 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)

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

See also

• 20th century

Notes

External links

Table of Contents

ru-sib:1937

• 1937