1937 Lost Films

Events

January

* January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua.
* January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into February, leaving 1 million people homeless and 385 people dead.
* January 15 – Spanish Civil War: Second Battle of the Corunna Road ends inconclusively.
* January 20 – Second inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt: Franklin D. Roosevelt is sworn in for a second term as President of the United States. This is the first time that the United States presidential inauguration occurs on this date; the change is due to the ratification in 1933 of the Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
* 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.

February

* February 8 – Spanish Civil War: Falangist troops take Málaga.
* February 8 – February 27 – Spanish Civil War – Battle of Jarama: Nationalist and Republican troops fight to a stalemate.
* February 16 – Wallace H. Carothers receives a patent for nylon in the United States.
* February 19
** Airliner VH-UHH (''Stinson'') goes down over Lamington National Park, bound for Sydney, killing 5 people.
** 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.
** The flag of the Netherlands is officially adopted.
* February 20 – Roberto Ortiz is elected president of Argentina.
* February 21 – The League of Nations Non-Intervention Committee prohibits foreign nationals from fighting in the Spanish Civil War.
* 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.

March

* 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.
* 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.
* March 19 – The encyclical '' Divini Redemptoris'' of Pope Pius XI, critical of communism, is published.
* 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.

April

* April 1
** Aden becomes a British crown colony.
** The Bombing of Jaén is carried out in Spain, by the Condor Legion of the Nazi German Luftwaffe.
* April 9 – The ''Kamikaze'' arrives at Croydon Airport in London; it is the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly to Europe.
* April 12 – Frank Whittle ground-tests the world's first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby, England.
* April 20 – A fire in an elementary school in Kilingi-Nõmme, Estonia, kills 17 students and injures 50.
* 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.

May

* 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.
* 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 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.
* May 12 – The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor and Empress of India at Westminster Abbey, London.
* May 21
** A Soviet station becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
** 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, killing 297 monks and 23 laymen.
* May 28
** Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, following the retirement of Stanley Baldwin.
* May 30
** Spanish Civil War: Spanish ship ''Ciudad de Barcelona'' is torpedoed.
** Memorial Day massacre of 1937: The Chicago Police Department shoot and kill 10 unarmed demonstrators in Chicago.

June

* June – Picasso completes his painting '' Guernica''.
* June – July – The Dáil Éireann debates and passes the new draft Constitution of Ireland, which is then submitted for public approval by plebiscite.
* June 3 – Wallis Simpson marries the Duke of Windsor, the former Edward VIII, in France.
* 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.
** The first total solar eclipse to exceed 7 minutes of totality, in over 800 years, is visible in the Pacific and Peru.
* June 21 – The coalition government of Léon Blum resigns in France.

July

* July 1
** The Gestapo arrests pastor Martin Niemöller in Germany.
** 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 after taking off from New Guinea, during Earhart's attempt to become the first woman to fly around the world.
* July 7
** In the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Japanese and Chinese forces exchange fire near Beijing, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War.
** The Peel Commission proposes partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states.
* July 9 – 1937 Fox vault fire: The silent film archives of Fox Film Corporation are destroyed
* July 20 – The Geibeltbad Pirna is opened in Dresden, Germany.
* July 21 – Éamon de Valera is elected President of the Executive Council (prime minister) of the Irish Free State, by the Dáil (parliament).
* 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 25– 31 – Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Beiping–Tianjin, a series of actions fought around Beiping and Tianjin, result in Japanese victory.
* July 29 – Tungchow Mutiny: Units of the East Hopei Army mutiny and kill Japanese troops and civilians in Tongzhou.
* July 31 – NKVD Operative Order 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 Politburo 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.

August

* 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.
* 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 killed on order of the troikas, directed by Joseph Stalin. This is an offensive that targets social classes (such as the kulaks), ethnic or racial backgrounds which are seen as non-Russian, and Stalin's personal opponents from the Communist Party and their sympathizers.
* August 6 – Spanish Civil War: Falangist artillery bombards Madrid.
* August 8 – Japan occupies Beijing.
* August 9 – The Polish Operation of the NKVD (1937–38) is signed by Nikolai Yezhov, as a continuation of the Great Purge.
* August 13 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Shanghai opens.
* August 26 – Second 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 kills an estimated 11,000 persons.
* September 5 – Spanish Civil War: The city of Llanes falls to the Falangists.
* 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.
* September 10 – Nine nations meet in the Nyon Conference, led by the United Kingdom and France, to address international piracy in the Mediterranean.
* September 17 – Abraham Lincoln's head is dedicated at Mount Rushmore.
* September 19 – Swiss professional ice hockey club HC Ambrì-Piotta is founded.
* September 21 – George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. of London publishes the first edition of J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Hobbit''.
* September 25 – Second Sino-Japanese War - Battle of Pingxingguan: The Communist Chinese Eighth Route Army defeats the Japanese.
* September 27 – The last Bali tiger dies.
* September 30 – Austrian born actress of Jewish descent, Hedy Lamarr 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.

October

* October 1
** The Marihuana Tax Act becomes law in the United States.
* October 2– 8 – Parsley Massacre: Under the orders of President Rafael Trujillo, Dominican troops kill thousands of Haitians living in the Dominican Republic.
* October 3 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Japanese troops advance toward Nanking, capital of the Republic of China.
* October 5 – Roosevelt gives his famous '' Quarantine Speech'' in Chicago.
* October 9 – 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* October 15 – Ernest Hemingway's novel '' To Have and Have Not'' is first published, in the United States.
* October 18– October 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.
* 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.
* October 25 – Celâl Bayar forms the new (ninth) government of Turkey.

November

* 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).
* November 6 – Italy joins the Anti-Comintern Pact.
* November 9 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Japanese troops take Shanghai.
* November 10 – Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas announces the Estado Novo ("New State"), thence becoming dictator of Brazil until 1945.
* November 11 – The Kogushi Sulfur Mine collapse, in western Gunma, Japan, kills at least 245 people.

December

* December 1 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Nanking begins.
* December 4 – ''The Dandy'' comic is first published in Scotland; it continued until 2012 as a physical publication, then online until 2013.
* December 11 – Italy withdraws from the League of Nations.
* December 12
** USS ''Panay'' incident: Japanese bombers sink the American gunboat .
** Mae West makes a risqué guest appearance on NBC's '' Chase and Sanborn Hour'', which eventually results in her being banned from radio.
* December 13 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Nanking ends with the Japanese occupying the city. In the Nanking Massacre which follows, Japanese soldiers kill over 300,000 Chinese in 3 months. A few days previously, the Nationalist government of China had moved its capital to the southwestern city Chungking (Chongqing).
* 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.
* December 21 – Walt Disney's '' Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'', the world's first feature-length animated film, premieres at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles.
* 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.
* 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.

Date unknown

* Switzerland begins construction of its Border Line defences.
* The Vibora Luviminda sugar plantation trade unions strike on Maui island, Hawaii.
* 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.
* Soviet industry produces about four times as much as it had in 1928.
* The Allen Organ Company, builder of church, home and theatre organs, is founded in Macungie, Pennsylvania.

Births

January

* January 1 – Philip Akot Akok Kiir, South Sudanese pastor, former educator and politician
* January 4
** Grace Bumbry, American opera singer
** Dyan Cannon, American actress, film director and screenwriter
* January 6
** Paolo Conte, Italian singer, pianist and composer
** Harri Holkeri, 36th Prime Minister of Finland (d. 2011)
* January 8 – Dame Shirley Bassey, Welsh singer
* January 13 – Ati George Sokomanu, President of Vanuatu
* January 15 – Margaret O'Brien, American child actress
* January 16 – Francis George, American cardinal (d. 2015)
* January 18
** Yukio Endō, Japanese gymnast (d. 2009)
** John Hume, Northern Irish politician, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (d. 2020)
* January 19 – Princess Birgitta of Sweden
* January 21 – Prince Max, Duke in Bavaria, heir to the Bavarian Royal House
* January 22 – Joseph Wambaugh, American author
* January 25 – Ange-Félix Patassé, 5th President of Central African Republic (d. 2011)
* January 30
** Vanessa Redgrave, British actress
** Boris Spassky, Russian chess grandmaster
* January 31
** Philip Glass, American composer
** Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (d. 2008)

February

* February 1 – Don Everly, American rock and roll singer and musician (d. 2021)
* February 2
** Tom Smothers, American musician, comedian ( The Smothers Brothers)
** Eric Arturo Delvalle, Panamanian lawyer (d. 2015)
* February 4 – Magnar Solberg, Norwegian biathlete
* February 5 – Gaston Roelants, Belgian Olympic athlete
* February 8 – Harry Wu, Chinese human rights activist (d. 2016)
* February 10 – Roberta Flack, African-American singer
* February 11 – Bill Lawry, Australian cricketer
* February 12 – Charles Dumas, American athlete (d. 2004)
* February 13 – Rupiah Banda, 4th President of Zambia (d. 2022)
* February 20
** Robert Huber, German chemist and Nobel laureate
** Nancy Wilson, African-American singer and actress (d. 2018)
* February 21
** Ron Clarke, Australian runner (d. 2015)
** King Harald V of Norway
** Jilly Cooper, English writer
* February 25 – Sir Tom Courtenay, English actor

March

* March 2 – Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President of Algeria (d. 2021)
* March 3 – Bobby Driscoll, American child actor and voice actor (d. 1968)
* March 4
** Graham Dowling, New Zealand cricketer
** Yuri Senkevich, Russian cosmonaut (d. 2003)
* March 5 – Olusegun Obasanjo, President of Nigeria
* March 6 – Valentina Tereshkova, Russian cosmonaut, first woman in space
* March 8 – Juvénal Habyarimana, 3rd President of Rwanda (d. 1994)
* March 14 – Benny Paret, Cuban welterweight boxer (d. 1962)
* March 15 – Valentin Rasputin, Russian writer (d. 2015)
* March 18
** Aleksei Zasukhin, Soviet boxer (d. 1996)
** Rudi Altig, German road racing cyclist (d. 2016)
* March 22
** Armin Hary, German athlete
** Foo Foo Lammar, British drag queen (d. 2003)
** Peter Vogel, German film actor (d. 1978)
* March 23 – Tony Burton, American actor (d. 2016)
* March 24 – Lloyd Erskine Sandiford, 4th Prime Minister of Barbados
* March 29
** Billy Carter, American farmer, businessman, brewer, and politician (d. 1988)
** Smarck Michel, 6th Prime Minister of Haiti (d. 2012)
* March 30 – Warren Beatty, American actor and director

April

* April 1 – Mohammad Hamid Ansari, Indian politician, 12th Vice President of India
* April 4 – Obed Dlamini, 6th Prime Minister of Swaziland (d. 2017)
* April 5
** Colin Powell, American politician (d. 2021)
** Guido Vildoso, 59th President of Bolivia
* April 6
** Merle Haggard, American country musician (d. 2016)
** Billy Dee Williams, African-American actor
* April 10 – Bella Akhmadulina, Russian poet (d. 2010)
* April 17 – Ferdinand Piëch, Austrian engineer, business magnate (d. 2019)
* April 19
** Antonio Carluccio, Italian-born restaurateur (d. 2017)
** Joseph Estrada, Filipino actor and politician, 13th President of the Philippines
* April 20 – George Takei, Japanese-American actor, director and author (''Star Trek'')
* April 22 – Jack Nicholson, American film actor and director
* April 24
** Viktor Zubkov, Russian basketball player (d. 2016)
** Joe Henderson, American jazz tenor saxophonist (d. 2001)
* April 26 – Jean-Pierre Beltoise, French racing driver (d. 2015)
* April 27 – Sandy Dennis, American actress (d. 1992)
* April 28 – Saddam Hussein, 5th President of Iraq (d. 2006)

May

* May 2 – Lorenzo Music, American actor, voice actor, writer, producer and musician (d. 2001)
* May 4 – Dick Dale, American guitarist (d. 2019)
* May 6 – Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, African-American boxer (d. 2014)
* May 8
** Carlos Gaviria Díaz, Colombian justice, politician
** Thomas Pynchon, American writer
* May 9 – Rafael Moneo, Spanish architect
* May 11 – Ildikó Újlaky-Rejtő, Hungarian Olympic and world champion foil fencer
* May 12 – George Carlin, American stand-up comedian (d. 2008)
* May 13 – Roger Zelazny, American writer (d. 1995)
* May 15
** Madeleine Albright, Czechoslovakian-born American politician and diplomat (d. 2022)
** Trini Lopez, American singer, guitarist, and actor (d. 2020)
* May 16
** Yvonne Craig, American actress (''Batman'') (d. 2015)
** Robert B. Wilson, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
* May 18 – Jacques Santer, Luxembourg politician, 20th Prime Minister of Luxembourg
* May 21
** Ricardo Alarcón, Cuban politician (d. 2022)
** Sofiko Chiaureli, Georgian actress (d. 2008)
** Mengistu Haile Mariam, President of Ethiopia
* May 22 – Facundo Cabral, Argentine singer (d. 2011)

June

* June 1
** Morgan Freeman, African-American actor
** Colleen McCullough, Australian author (d. 2015)
** Ezio Pascutti, Italian footballer (d. 2017)
* June 7 – Neeme Järvi, Estonian conductor
* June 8 – Bruce McCandless II, American astronaut (d. 2017)
* June 11 – Robin Warren, Australian pathologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
* June 12 – Vladimir Arnold, Soviet-Russian mathematician (d. 2010)
* June 13 – Raj Reddy, Indian computer scientist
* June 15 – Waylon Jennings, American country singer (d. 2002)
* June 16
** Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Tsar of Bulgaria (1943-1946), 48th Prime Minister of Bulgaria (2001-2005)
** Erich Segal, American author, screenwriter, and educator (d. 2010)
* June 18
** Ronald Venetiaan, 6th and 8th President of Suriname
** Vitaly Zholobov, Soviet cosmonaut
* June 19 – André Glucksmann, French philosopher, author (d. 2015)
* June 23 – Martti Ahtisaari, 10th President of Finland
* June 25
** Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait
** Keizō Obuchi, 54th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 2000)
* June 26 – Robert Coleman Richardson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)

July

* July 2 – Richard Petty, American stock car racer, 7-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion
* July 3 – Tom Stoppard, Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter
* July 4 – Queen Sonja of Norway
* July 5 – Jo de Roo, Dutch road racing cyclist
* July 6
** Vladimir Ashkenazy, Russian pianist
** Ned Beatty, American actor (d. 2021)
** Michael Sata, 5th President of Zambia (d. 2014)
* July 7
** Lars-Erik Larsson, Swedish rowing coxswain
** Nanami Shiono, Japanese author, novelist
** Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong businessman and politician
** Giovanni Arrighi, Italian economist, sociologist and world-systems analyst (d. 2009)
* July 9 – David Hockney, English-born artist
* July 12
** Bill Cosby, African-American actor, comedian, educator and convicted sex offender
** Lionel Jospin, Prime Minister of France
* July 14 – Yoshirō Mori, 55th Prime Minister of Japan
* July 17 – Jaberi Bidandi Ssali, Ugandan politician, businessman
* July 18
** Roald Hoffmann, Polish-born chemist and Nobel laureate
** Hunter S. Thompson, American author and journalist (d. 2005)
* July 24 – Manoj Kumar, Indian actor and director
* July 27 – Mirko Marjanović, 63rd Prime Minister of Serbia (d. 2006)
* July 29
** Ryutaro Hashimoto, 53rd Prime Minister of Japan (d. 2006)
** Daniel McFadden, American economist and Nobel laureate

August

* August 2 – María Duval, Mexican actress and singer
* August 3 – Andrés Gimeno, Spanish tennis player (d. 2019)
* August 5 – Manuel Pinto da Costa, Santoméan politician, 1st President of São Tomé and Príncipe
* August 6 – Charlie Haden, American jazz bassist (d. 2014)
* August 8 – Dustin Hoffman, American actor, director ('' The Graduate'')
* August 11 – Dieter Kemper

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