1937

Years: 1934 1935 1936 - 1937 - 1938 1939 1940
Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s - 1930s - 1940s 1950s 1960s
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century 1937 in art 1937 in aviation 1937 in film 1937 in literature 1937 in music 1937 in science 1937 in sports 1937 in radio 1937 in television 1937 state leaders 1937 in Canada

Table of contents

1 Events

2 Ongoing events

Events

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.
February 5 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes a plan to enlarge the Supreme Court of the United States.
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 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.
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 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 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.
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 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."
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.
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, also called the Rape of Nanking, 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.
Japan invades Manchuria. (Some consider this the start of World War II. Most historians disagree).

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
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 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

Births

January 4 - Dyan Cannon, actress
January 8 - Shirley Bassey, singer
January 8 - Bob Eubanks, game show host
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 30 - Vanessa Redgrave, actress
January 30 - Boris Spassky, chess grand master
January 31 - Suzanne Pleshette, actress
January 31 - Philip Glass, composer
February 1 - Garrett Morris, comedian
February 1 - Don Everly, musician
February 2 - Tom Smothers, musician, comedian, half of the Smothers Brothers
February 8 - Manfred Krug, actor
February 11 - Bill Lawry, Australian cricket player.
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 12 - Charles Dumas, American high jumper
February 17 - Rita Süssmuth, politician
February 20 - Nancy Wilson (singer), singer and actress
February 20 - Roger Penske, automobile racer
February 21 - Harald V, King of Norway (1991 - )
February 25 - Tom Courtenay, actor
March 6 - Valentina Tereshkova, cosmonaut
March 9 - Mickey Gilly, country music performer
March 20 - Jerry Reed, country musician
March 30 - Warren Beatty, actor/director
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 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 9 - Harald Rosenthal, biologist
June 18 - Vitali Zholobov, cosmonaut
July 6 - Vladimir Ashkenazy, pianist
July 6 - Ned Beatty, actor
July 9 - David Hockney, artist
July 12 - Lionel Jospin, Prime Minister of France
August 4 - David Bedford, musician
August 8 - Dustin Hoffman, American actor
August 18 - Robert Redford, American actor
September 4 - Dawn Fraser, Australian swimmer
September 15 - Fernando de la Rúa, former president of Argentina
September 28 - Rod Roddy, television announcer (d. 2003)
October 5 - Barry Switzer, American football coach
October 10 - Bobby Charlton, English footballer
November 15 - Yaphet Kotto, actor (Homicide: Life on the Street)
November 17 - Peter Cook, comedian, satirist and writer
November 26 - Boris Yegorov, cosmonaut
December 3 - Bobby Allison, NASCAR driver
December 8 - Arne Næss Jr., Norwegian mountaineer, businessman (d. 2004)
December 29 - Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, President of the Maldives

Deaths

January 6 - Brother Andre, Canadian religious figure
January 23 - Marie Prevost, actress
February 11 - Walter Burley Griffin, architect and town planner
March 12 - Charles-Marie Widor, organist and composer
March 15 - H. P. Lovecraft, horror writer
March 29 - Karol Szymanowski, composer
April 19 - William Martin Conway, British art critic and mountaineer
May 23 - John Davison Rockefeller, American industrialist and philanthropist.
May 28 - Alfred Adler, psychologist
June 19 - J. M. Barrie, novelist and dramatist
July 9 - Oliver Law, first African American commander of American troops, killed in battle during the Spanish Civil War.
July 11 - George Gershwin, composer (b. 1898)
August 11 - Edith Wharton, writer
September 2 - Pierre de Coubertin, French founder of the modern Olympic Games
September 26 - Bessie Smith, blues singer
September 29 - Ray Ewry, American athlete
Guglielmo Marconi, italian inventor, "the father of radio"

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