1937 (original) (raw)
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades: 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s - 1930s - 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s
Years: 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 - 1937 - 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942
Events
- January 1 - Anastasio Somoza becomes President of Nicaragua
- January 9 - 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 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 - D�il �ireann 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.
- 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 - D�il �ireann debates and passes the draft new constitution of �ire, to be called Bunreacht na h�ireann. 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 13 - Battle of Nanjing ended as the Japanese took the city and began 3 months of atrocities
- December 28 - New Irish Constitution, Bunreacht na h�ireann comes into force. The Irish Free State becomes �ire. 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 D�il �ireann 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 1937.
- Japan invades Manchuria. (Some consider this the start of World War II. Most historians disagree).
Ongoing events
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
- 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 17 - Rita S�ssmuth, politician
- February 20 - Nancy Wilson, singer
- 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, 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 (+ 1995)
- May 15 - Trini L�pez, musician
- May 17 - Hazel R. O'Leary, United States Secretary of Energy
- May 18 - Brooks Robinson, Baseball Hall of Famer
- May 18 - Jacques Santer
- June 18 - Vitali Zholobov, cosmonaut
- July 6 - Vladimir Ashkenazy, pianist
- 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 28 - Rod Roddy, television announcer (+ 2003)
- October 10 - Bobby Charlton, English footballerer
- November 17 - Peter Cook, comedian, satirist and writer
- November 26 - Boris Yegorov, cosmonaut
- December 3 - Bobby Allison, NASCAR driver
- J. M. Barrie, novelist and dramatist
- Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State
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
- July 9 - Oliver Law, first African American commander of American troops, killed in battle during the Spanish Civil War.
- August 11 - Edith Wharton, writer
- September 26 - Bessie Smith, blues singer
- Guglielmo Marconi, italian inventor, "the father of radio"
Nobel Prizes
- Physics - Clinton Joseph Davisson, George Paget Thomson
- Chemistry - Walter Norman Haworth, Paul Karrer
- Medicine - Albert von Szent-Gy�rgyi Nagyrapolt
- Literature - Roger Martin du Gard
- Peace - Viscount Cecil of Chelwood (Lord Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne Cecil)\n