1937 CE
The Second Sino-Japanese War erupts after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, as Japan invades China and commits atrocities including the Nanjing Massacre; the Hindenburg disaster shocks the world when the German airship bursts into flames in New Jersey, killing 36 and ending the airship era; the New London School explosion in Texas kills nearly 300, prompting gas safety reforms; aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan vanish over the Pacific while attempting a global flight; the Ohio River flood of 1937 displaces over a million across multiple states; and Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premieres as the first full-length cel-animated feature film.
Geopolitics & Diplomacy
- January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua.source
- February 19 – The red, white and blue colours of the flag of the Netherlands are confirmed by royal decree.source
- April 1 – Aden becomes a British crown colony.source
- May 28 – Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, following the retirement of Stanley Baldwin.source
- June 8 – The Dáil Éireann passes the Executive Authority (Consequential Provisions) Act, 1937, which abolishes the office of Governor-General of the Irish Free State, retrospectively dated to December 1936.source
- June 21 – The coalition government of Léon Blum resigns in France.source
- June–July – The Dáil Éireann debates and passes the new draft Constitution of Ireland, which is then submitted for public approval by plebiscite.source
- July 1 – In a referendum the people of the Irish Free State accept the new Constitution by 685,105 votes to 527,945.source
- July 7 – The Peel Commission proposes partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states.source
- July 21 – Éamon de Valera is elected President of the Executive Council (prime minister) of the Irish Free State, by the Dáil (parliament).source
- 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.source
- September 5 – Roberto Ortiz is elected president of Argentina.source
- September 10 – Nine nations meet in the Nyon Conference, led by the United Kingdom and France, to address international piracy in the Mediterranean.source
- October 11 – Duke and Duchess of Windsor's 1937 tour of Germany: The Duke and Duchess of Windsor arrive in Berlin to begin a 12-day tour of Nazi Germany, meeting Adolf Hitler on the 22nd.source
- October 13 – Germany, in a note to Brussels, guarantees the inviolability and integrity of Belgium so long as the latter abstains from military action against Germany.source
- October 23 – 1937 Australian federal election: Joseph Lyons' UAP/Country Coalition government is re-elected with a slightly increased majority, defeating the Labor Party led by John Curtin.source
- October 25 – Celâl Bayar forms the new (ninth) government of Turkey.source
- November 6 – Italy joins the Anti-Comintern Pact.source
- November 10 – Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas announces the Estado Novo ("New State"), thence becoming dictator of Brazil until 1945.source
- December 29 – The new Constitution of Ireland (Bunreacht na hÉireann) comes into force. The Irish Free State becomes "Ireland", and Éamon de Valera becomes the first Taoiseach (prime minister) of the new state. A Presidential Commission (made up the Chief Justice, the Speaker of Dáil Éireann, and the President of the High Court) assumes the powers of the new presidency, pending the popular election of the first President of Ireland in June 1938. The new constitution prohibits divorce.source
- Slavery in Bahrain is abolished.source
Conflict & Security
- January 15 – Spanish Civil War: The Second Battle of the Corunna Road ends inconclusively.source
- January 23 – Moscow Trials: Trial of the Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center – In the Soviet Union 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.source
- February 8–27 – Spanish Civil War – Battle of Jarama: Nationalist and Republican troops fight to a stalemate.source
- February 21 – The League of Nations Non-Intervention Committee prohibits foreign nationals from fighting in the Spanish Civil War.source
- March 21 – Ponce massacre: A police squad, acting under orders from Governor of Puerto Rico Blanton Winship, opens fire on peaceful demonstrators protesting at the arrest of Puerto Rican Nationalist Party leader Pedro Albizu Campos, killing 17 people and injuring over 200.source
- April 1 – The Bombing of Jaén is carried out in Spain, by the Condor Legion of the Nazi German Luftwaffe.source
- April 26 – Spanish Civil War: The Bombing of Guernica is carried out in Spain, by the Condor Legion of the Nazi German Luftwaffe, in support of the Francoists. Three-quarters of the town is destroyed and hundreds killed.source
- 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.source
- May 21 – As one of the reprisals for the attempted assassination of Italian viceroy Rodolfo Graziani, a detachment of Italian troops massacres the entire community of Debre Libanos in Ethiopia, killing 297 monks and 23 laymen.source
- May 30 – Memorial Day massacre of 1937: The Chicago Police Department shoot and kill 10 unarmed demonstrators in Chicago.source
- July 25–31 – Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Beiping–Tianjin, a series of actions fought around Beiping and Tianjin, result in Japanese victory.source
- July 29 – Tongzhou Mutiny: Units of the East Hebei Army mutiny and kill Japanese troops and civilians in Tongzhou.source
- August 5 – The Soviet Union commences one of the largest campaigns of the Great Purge, to "eliminate anti-Soviet elements". Within the following year, at least 724,000 people are fired on order of the troikas, directed by Joseph Stalin. This is an offensive that targets social classes (such as the kulaks or nobles) and Stalin's personal opponents from the Communist Party and their sympathizers.source
- August 13 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Shanghai opens.source
- August 24 – Spanish Civil War: The government of the autonomous Basque Country agrees to surrender to the nationalists.source
- September 5 – Spanish Civil War: The city of Llanes falls to the Falangists.source
- September 25 – Second Sino-Japanese War - Battle of Pingxingguan: The Communist Chinese Eighth Route Army defeats the Japanese.source
- September 30 – Hedy Lamarr, an Austrian-born actress of Jewish descent, arrives in New York City to flee from her possessive husband, Friedrich Mandl, who made arms agreements with the Nazis, and to begin her Hollywood career.source
- October 2–8 – Parsley Massacre: Under the orders of President Rafael Trujillo, Dominican troops kill thousands of Haitians living in the Dominican Republic.source
- October 3 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Japanese troops advance toward Nanjing, capital of the Republic of China.source
- October 18–21 – Spanish Civil War: The whole Spanish northern seaboard falls into the Falangists' hands; Republican forces in Gijón, Spain, set fire to petrol reserves prior to retreating before the advancing Falangists.source
- 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 (recorded in the Hossbach Memorandum).source
- December 1 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Nanjing begins.source
- December 13 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Nanjing ends with the Japanese occupying the city. In the Nanjing Massacre which follows, Japanese soldiers kill over 200,000 Chinese in 3 months. A few days previously, the Nationalist government of China had moved its capital to the southwestern city Chongqing.source
Exploration & Expansion
- May 21 – A Russian manned ice station becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.source
- July 2 – Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear after taking off from New Guinea, during Earhart's attempt to become the first woman to fly around the world.source
Religion & Belief
- February 19 – Yekatit 12: 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. Italian security guards fire into the crowd of Ethiopian onlookers. Authorities exact further reprisals, which include indiscriminately slaughtering native Ethiopians over the next 3 days, detaining thousands of Ethiopians at Danan and slaughtering almost 300 monks at the Debre Libanos Monastery.source
- March 10 (dated March 14 (Passion Sunday)) – The encyclical Mit brennender Sorge ("With burning concern") of Pope Pius XI is published in Germany in the German language. Largely the work of Cardinals von Faulhaber and Pacelli, it condemns breaches of the 1933 Reichskonkordat agreement signed between the Nazi government and the Catholic Church, and criticises Nazism's views on race and other matters incompatible with Catholicism.source
- March 19 – The encyclical Divini Redemptoris of Pope Pius XI, critical of communism, is published.source
- May 12 – George VI and Elizabeth are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor and Empress of India at Westminster Abbey, London.source
- September 17 – Abraham Lincoln's head is dedicated at Mount Rushmore.source
Economy & Finance
- August 2 – The Marijuana Tax Act in the United States is a significant bill on the path that will lead to the criminalization of cannabis. It was introduced to the U.S. Congress by Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics Harry Anslinger.source
- August 28 – Toyota was incorporated and founded on this day.source
- December 11 – Italy withdraws from the League of Nations.source
- The Vibora Luviminda sugar plantation trade unions strike on Maui island, Hawaii.source
Technology & Infrastructure
- February 16 – Wallace H. Carothers receives a patent for nylon in the United States.source
- April 9 – The Kamikaze arrives at Croydon Airport in London; it is the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly to Europe.source
- April 12 – Frank Whittle ground-tests the world's first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby, England.source
- July 7 – In the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Japanese and Chinese forces exchange fire near Beijing, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War.source
- July 20 – The Geibeltbad Pirna water sports facility is opened in Dresden, Germany.source
- September 7 – 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.source
- December 12 – Mae West makes a risqué guest appearance on NBC's Chase and Sanborn Hour, which eventually results in her being banned from radio.source
- The Allen Organ Company, builder of church, home and theatre organs, is founded in Macungie, Pennsylvania.source
- Switzerland begins construction of its Border Line defences.source
- Soviet industry produces about four times as much as it had in 1928.source
Science & Discovery
Health & Medicine
- March 18 – New London School explosion: 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 295 students and teachers. Mother Frances Hospital opens in Tyler, Texas, a day ahead of schedule, in response to the explosion.source
- October 5 – Roosevelt gives his famous Quarantine Speech in Chicago.source
- Italian psychiatrist Amarro Fiamberti is the first to document a transorbital approach to the brain, which becomes the basis for the controversial medical procedure of transorbital lobotomy.source
Crime & Justice
- January 30 – The Moscow Trial initiated on January 23 is concluded. Thirteen of the defendants are sentenced to death (including Georgy Pyatakov, Nikolay Muralov and Leonid Serebryakov), while the rest, including Karl Radek and Grigory Sokolnikov are sent to labor camps and later murdered. They were initially spared for implicating others, including Rykov, Bukharin and Tukhachevsky, setting the stage for further trialssource
- July 1 – The Gestapo arrests pastor Martin Niemöller in Germany.source
- July 31 – NKVD Order No. 00447 "Об операции по репрессированию бывших кулаков, уголовников и других антисоветских элементов" ("The operation for repression of former kulaks, criminals and other anti-Soviet elements") is approved by the decision of the Politbureau of the CC of the VKP(b) of the Soviet Union, initially as a 4-month plan for 75,950 people to be executed and an additional 193,000 to be sent to the Gulag.source
- August 9 – The Polish Operation of the NKVD (1937–38) is signed by Nikolai Yezhov as a continuation of the Great Purge.source
- October 1 – The Marihuana Tax Act becomes law in the United States.source
Disasters & Accidents
- February 19 – Airliner VH-UHH (Stinson) goes down over Lamington National Park, bound for Sydney, killing 5 people.source
- April 20 – A fire in an elementary school in Kilingi-Nõmme, Estonia, kills 17 students and injures 50.source
- May 6 – Hindenburg disaster: In the United States, the German airship Hindenburg bursts into flame when mooring to a mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Of the 36 passengers and 61 crew on board, 13 passengers and 22 crew die, as well as one member of the ground crew.source
- July 9 – 1937 Fox vault fire: The silent film archives of Fox Film Corporation are destroyedsource
- November 11 – The Kogushi Sulfur Mine collapse, in western Gunma, Japan, kills at least 245 people.source
- December 12 – USS Panay incident: Japanese bombers sink the American gunboat on the Yangtze in China; the United States accepts the Japanese statement that this was unintentional.source
Climate & Environment
Culture & Society
- February 25 – Hergé's Tintin adventure The Broken Ear (L'Oreille cassée) concludes serialization in the Belgian weekly newspaper supplement Le Petit Vingtième, and soon afterwards is published as a book in black and white.source
- May 8 – Wydad Athletic Club (WAC)(Arabic: نادي الوداد الرياضي; Berber: Wydad Dar al-Beida; commonly: Wydad al ouma) is established in Casablanca, Morocco; it will be best known for its Casablanca Association football team.source
- June 3 – Wallis Simpson marries the Duke of Windsor, the former Edward VIII, in France.source
- June – Picasso completes his painting Guernica.source
- September 19 – Swiss professional ice hockey club HC Ambrì-Piotta is founded.source
- September 21 – George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. of London publishes the first edition of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.source
- October 15 – Ernest Hemingway's novel To Have and Have Not is first published, in the United States.source
- December 16 – The original production of the musical Me and My Girl opens at the Victoria Palace Theatre, in London's West End. A later revival will win an award.source
- December 21 – Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world's first feature-length cel animated film, premieres at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles.source
- December 25 – At the age of 70, 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 (at a time when he is seldom played), Mozart, and Brahms. Millions tune in to listen, including U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.source
Births
- January 18 – John Hume, Northern Irish politician, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (d. 2020)source
- March 6 – Valentina Tereshkova, Russian cosmonaut, first woman in spacesource
- April 19 – Joseph Estrada, Filipino actor and politician, 13th President of the Philippinessource
- April 20 – George Takei, Japanese-American actor, director and author (Star Trek)source
- May 15 – Madeleine Albright, Czech-born American politician and diplomat (d. 2022)source
- June 16 – Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Tsar of Bulgaria (1943–1946), 48th Prime Minister of Bulgaria (2001–2005)source
- June 23 – Martti Ahtisaari, 10th President of Finland, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 2023)source
- July 2 – Richard Petty, American stock car racer, 7-time NASCAR Winston Cup championsource
- July 12 – Bill Cosby, African-American actor, comedian, educator and convicted sex offendersource
- July 18 – Hunter S. Thompson, American author and journalist (d. 2005)source
- July 22 – Adrienne Hill, British actress appeared in 199 Park Lane and Doctor Who (d. 1997)source
- September 15 – Fernando de la Rúa, Argentine politician, 43rd President of Argentina (d. 2019)source
- October 20 – Wanda Jackson, American singer, songwriter, pianist and guitaristsource
- December 29 – Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, President of the Maldives (1978–2008)source
Deaths
- February 7 – Elihu Root, American statesman, diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize recipient (b. 1845)source
- March 15 – H. P. Lovecraft, American writer (b. 1890)source
- March 16 – Sir Austen Chamberlain, British statesman, Nobel Peace Prize recipient (b. 1863)source
- April 14 – Ned Hanlon, American baseball manager, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1857)source
- April 27 – Antonio Gramsci, Italian Communist writer, politician (b. 1891)source
- June 4 – Keke Geladze, mother of Joseph Stalin, Leader of the Soviet Union (b. 1858)source
- June 10 – Sir Robert Borden, Canadian lawyer, politician and 8th Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1854)source
- June 18 – Gaston Doumergue, 60th Prime Minister of France, 13th President of France (b. 1863)source
- August 26 – Andrew Mellon, American banker, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (b. 1855)source
- September 26 – Edward Filene, American businessman, philanthropist (b. 1860)source
- October 19 – Ernest Rutherford, New Zealand physicist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry recipient (b. 1871)source
- November 16 – Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, wife of Hereditary Grand Duke Georg Donatus of Hesse, and sister of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (b. 1911)source
- November 20 – Metropolitan Joseph (Petrovykh) of the Soviet Union (b. 1872)source
- December 21 – Frank B. Kellogg, United States Secretary of State, Nobel Peace Prize recipient (b. 1856)source