Timeline 1937
Return to home
1937 Jan 1, The
US Social Security system began levying taxes on workers’ wages.
(Econ, 8/20/05, p.23)(www.ssa.gov/history/1930.html)
1937 Jan 1, At a party at the
Hormel Mansion in Minnesota, a guest won $100 for naming a new canned
meat-Spam.
(HN, 1/1/00)
1937 Jan 4, Grace Bumbry, soprano
(Venus, in "Tannhauser"), was born in St. Louis.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1937 Jan 6, The U.S. banned the
shipment of arms to war-torn Spain.
(HN, 1/6/99)
1937 Jan 8, Nash Motors, a
component of the Dow Jones, changed its name to Nash Kelvinator.
(WSJ, 4/8/04, p.C4)
1937 Jan 9, Italian regime banned
marriages between Italians and Abyssinians.
(MC, 1/9/02)
1937 Jan 13, The United States
barred Americans from serving in the Spanish War.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1937 Jan 19, Millionaire Howard
Hughes set a transcontinental air record by flying his monoplane from
Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., in seven hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.
(AP, 1/19/06)
1937 Jan 19, In the Soviet Union,
the People's Commissars Council was formed under Molotov.
(HN, 1/19/99)
1937 Jan 20, President Franklin
Roosevelt was inaugurated for a 2nd term. He became the first chief
executive to be inaugurated on Jan. 20 instead of March 4.
(AP, 1/20/08)(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1937 Jan 23, 17 people went on
trial in Moscow during Josef Stalin’s "Great Purge."
(AP, 1/23/98)
1937 Jan 30, Mexico's Pres. Lazaro
Cardenas created the AGPN, "Administracion General del Petroleo
Nacional." The AGPN became a public organism that would guide the
Mexican oil industry. The creation of the AGPN constituted the
transformation of Petromex into a publicly driven firm.
(www.trinity.edu/jgonzal1/341f96g1.html)
1937 Jan, Arab riots spread across
Palestine and British forces sought to restrict Jewish immigration. In
the Beit Shean Valley 30 young people set up a defensible tower and
stockade that became the Kibbutz Sde Nahum.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A26)
1937 Feb 1, Don Everly, was born.
(singer: group: The Everly Brothers with brother, Phil: Wake Up Little
Susie, Bye Bye Love, Cathy’s Clown, All I Have To Do Is Dream)
(440 Int'l, 2/1/1999)
1937 Feb 1, Garrett Morris, was
born. (comedian: Saturday Night Live, actor: The Anderson Tapes, Almost
Blue)
(440 Int'l, 2/1/1999)
1937 Feb 1, Ray Sawyer, was born.
(singer: group: Dr. Hook and The Medicine Show: Only Sixteen, Cover of
the Rolling Stone, Sylvia’s Mother)
(440 Int'l, 2/1/1999)
1937 Feb 5, President Roosevelt
proposed increasing the number of Supreme Court justices. Critics
charged that he was attempting to "pack" the court.
(AP, 2/5/97)
1937 Feb 11, In Flint, Mich., a
sit-down strike against General Motors ended after 44 days, with the
company agreeing to recognize the United Automobile Workers Union. The
UAW was victorious in a strike against GM. GM recognized the union and
agreed to a contract.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(AP, 2/11/97)
1937 Feb 14, Austrian leader
Schuschnigg threatened to restore the Hapsburg monarchy.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1937 Feb 16, Wallace H. Carothers,
a research chemist for Du Pont who invented nylon, received a patent
for the synthetic fiber. It would replace silk in a number of products
and reduce costs. [see 1930] In 2000 Susannah Handley authored "Nylon:
The Story of a Fashion Revolution."
(HN, 2/16/98)(AP, 2/16/98)(WSJ, 1/21/00, p.W8)
1937 Feb 22, Samuel Whitbread,
English brewer, multi-millionaire, was born.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1937 Feb 25, Basia Johnson, maid,
was born. She later inherited the Johnson & Johnson fortune.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1937 Feb 25, Bob Schieffer,
newscaster (CBS Weekend News), was born in Austin, Tx.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1937 Feb 26, C. Isherwood and W.H.
Auden's "Ascent of F6" premiered in London.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1937 Mar 1, The 1st US permanent
automobile license plates was issued in Connecticut.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1937 Mar 1, US Steel raises
workers' wages to $5 a day.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1937 Mar 1, Governor Wouters
inaugurated a radio station on the Dutch Antilles.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1937 Mar 6, Jose Pena Gomez
(d.1998 at 61), advocate for the poor and later mayor of Santo Domingo,
was born in Valverde, Dominican Republic, to Haitian immigrants.
According to Jose Pena Gomez, a Dominican massacre of Haitians forced
his parents to flee back to Haiti. Jose was adopted by a Dominican
family.
(SFC, 5/12/98, p.A21)
1937 Mar 6, Valentina
Nikolayeva-Tereshkova, Russian astronaut, was born. In 1963 she became
the first women to orbit the Earth on Vostok 6.
(HN, 3/6/99)(MC, 3/6/02)
1937 Mar 15, The 1st state
contraceptive clinic opened in Raleigh, NC.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1937 Mar 15, H.P. Lovecraft
(b.1890), author of horror tales whose works included "The Color out of
Space," died in Providence, RI.
(HN, 8/20/98)(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.B1)
1937 Mar 17, Amelia Earhart took
off from Oakland, Ca., in an attempt to become the first pilot to fly
around the globe at the equator.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.A8)
1937 Mar 18, Some 300 people,
mostly children, were killed in a gas explosion at a school in New
London, Texas.
(AP, 3/18/08)
1937 Mar 18, In Missouri Jim the
Wonder Dog died at age 12 at the Lake of the Ozarks. The dog had
uncanny abilities that were verified but never explained.
(SFC, 3/29/99, p.A3)
1937 Mar 20, Jerry Reed, singer,
actor (Bat 21, Smokey & the Bandit), was born in Atlanta, GA.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1937 Mar 20, A Franco offensive
took place at Guadalajara, Spain.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1937 Mar 21, Ponce massacre:
police killed 19 at a Puerto Rican Nationalist parade.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1937 Mar 23, Los Angeles Railway
Co. started using PCC streetcars. PCC's are streetcars that were
originally designed under the direction of the Electric Railway
Presidents' Conference Committee, in an attempt by 25 U.S. and Canadian
transit companies to develop a standardized streetcar whose many
improvements would help to reverse the decline in transit use that had
begun in the 1920's. The committee's efforts began in late 1929, and
the first cars were put into service in New York in October 1936.
(SS, 3/23/02)(Internet)
1937 Mar 24, A bus blew a tire,
went out of control and 18 people were killed in Salem, Illinois.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1937 Mar 26, a 6-foot-tall
concrete statue of the cartoon character Popeye was unveiled during the
Second Annual Spinach Festival in Crystal City, Texas.
(AP, 3/26/97)
1937 Mar 26, William H. Hastie
became the first black federal judge in the Virgin Islands.
(HN, 3/25/98)(SS, 3/26/02)
1937 Mar 29, Billy Carter, brother
of Pres Carter, was born in Plains, Georgia.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1937 Mar, Jack S. Liebowitz and
Harry Donenfeld published their 1st issue of Detective Comics, later
known as DC Comics. They later added Batman (1939) and Superman along
with other super heroes.
(SFC, 12/14/00, p.C9)
1937 Mar, The encyclical "With
Burning Sorrow" (Mit brennender Sorge) was "smuggled" into Germany.
Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (later Pius XII) helped Pius XI draft the work
which denounced Nazi paganism and racism. The Encyclical was
"published" in Germany and read from the pulpits of every Catholic
church on Palm Sunday.
(WSJ, 4/25/97, p.A18)(WSJ, 5/8/97, p.A23)
1937
Apr 1, Aden became a British colony.
(OTD)
1937 Apr 5, Colin Powell, U.S.
Army general, was born in Bronx New York. He later became the Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Persian Gulf War and first
African American to serve in the position. In 2000 Pres.-elect Bush
appointed him to be Sec. of State.
(HFA, '96, p.28)(HN, 4/5/99)(SSFC, 12/17/00, p.A14)
1937 Apr 6, Merle Haggard,
American country musician, was born.
(HN, 4/6/01)
1937 Apr 8, Seymour Hersh, award
winning investigative reporter (NY Times), was born.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1937 Apr 12, The US Supreme Court
ruled that the 1935 National Labor Relations Act is unconstitutional.
(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1937 Apr 13, Edward Fox, actor
(M-Never Say Never Again, The Day of the Jackal), was born in London,
England.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1937 Apr 13, Lanford Wilson, US
playwright (Hot L Baltimore), was born.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1937 Apr 17, Cartoon characters
Daffy Duck, Elmer J. Fudd and Petunia Pig, debuted.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daffy_Duck)
1937 Apr 18, Leon Trotsky called
for the overthrow of Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
(HN, 4/18/98)
1937 Apr 22, Jack Nicholson, actor
(One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest, Shining), was born in NJ.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1937 Apr 25, Bo Brundin, actress
(Rhinemann Exchange), was born in Stockholm, Sweden.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1937 Apr 25, Clem Sohn (26), air
show performer, died when his chute failed to open.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1937 Apr 26, The radio show
"Lorenzo Jones" began over NBC Radio with Karl Swenson in the lead
role. It ran to 1955.
(440 Int’l. Internet, 4/26/97, p.2)
1937 Apr 26, German planes from
the Condor Legion--sent to Spain by Adolf Hitler to help fascist
General Francisco Franco overthrow the communist Popular Front regime--
attacked the Basque town of Guernica in Spain. Bombs fell for
three hours and escaping villagers were shot down by machine-gun
fire from the air. The attack killed as many as 1,600-1,650 Basque
civilians and injured 900. Although the alleged target was a bridge of
military significance some distance from the town, dazed survivors
described a merciless four-hour bombing and strafing attack by German
pilots directed toward the village and its inhabitants. The Guernica
atrocity became synonymous with the horror of modern warfare and
inspired one of the 20th century's greatest works of art, Guernica, by
Spanish artist Pablo Picasso.
(440 Int’l. internet, 4/26/97, p.2)(WSJ, 4/28/97,
p.A1)(AP, 4/26/98)(HNPD, 4/26/99)
1937 Apr 27, Sandy Dennis, actress
(Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), was born in Nebraska.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1937 Apr 27, The US began
distributing its first Social Security checks.
(AP, 4/27/06)
1937 Apr 28, Saddam Hussein,
future president of Iraq, was born in the village of al-Oja near the
desert town of Tikrit. His invasion of Kuwait prompted the Persian Gulf
War. This became a state holiday under Hussein's rule and was abolished
in 2003. He was executed in Dec 2006.
(SFEC, 3/29/98, p.A12)(HN, 4/28/99)(WSJ, 1/20/02,
p.A13)(AP, 7/13/07)
1937 Apr 28, Jean Redpath,
Scottish folk singer, was born.
(HN, 4/28/01)
1937 Apr 28, The 1st animated
cartoon electric sign was displayed in NYC.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1937 May 1, President Franklin
Roosevelt signed an act of neutrality, keeping the United States out of
World War II.
(HN, 5/1/99)
1937 May 3, Margaret Mitchell won
a Pulitzer Prize for her novel, "Gone with the Wind."
(AP, 5/3/97)
1937 May 6, At
7:25 p.m. the giant German airship (dirigible or zeppelin) Hindenburg
burst into flames and crashed to the ground as it attempted to dock
with a mooring mast at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey.
Carrying 36 passengers and 61 crew, Hindenburg left Frankfurt on May 4
for its first transatlantic voyage of the 1937 season. A total of 36
died when the fire ignited the 16 hydrogen-filled cells and destroyed
the zeppelin in only 34 seconds. It was 803 feet long and had private
rooms for 50 passengers. It had an 11,000 mile range. A newsreel film
of the Hindenburg Disaster was made. The true cause of the disaster
remains a mystery, although crash investigators considered claims that
Hindenburg was lost due to sabotage or an accidental charge of static
electricity.
(TMC, 1994, p.1937)(Hem., 1/96, p.108)(AP,
5/6/97)(SFC,11/21/97, p.C17)(HNPD, 5/6/00)
1937 May 8, Thomas Pynchon,
novelist (Gravity's Rainbow), was born.
(HN, 5/7/02)
1937 May 10, Arthur Kopit,
American playwright, was born.
(HN, 5/10/02)
1937 May 11, Spam, a canned ham by
Hormel, was registered as a trademark.
(WSJ, 4/29/04, p.D10)
1937 May 12, George Carlin
(d.2002), comedian, was born in the Bronx.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Carlin)
1937 May 12, The Duke of York was
crowned Britain's King George VI at Westminster Abbey.
(SFEM, 1/26/97, p.40)(AP, 5/12/97)
1937 May 13, Judith Somogi,
conductor, was born in NYC.
(MC, 5/13/02)
1937 May 13, Roger [Joseph]
Zelazny, sci-fi author (6 Hugos, Chronicles of Amber), was born.
(MC, 5/13/02)
1937 May 15, Trini Lopez, singer,
guitarist (If I Had a Hammer), was born in Trinidad.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1937 May 23, John Davison
Rockefeller (97), industrialist, died in Ormond Beach, Fla. In 1998 Ron
Chernow published this biography: "Titan: The Life of John D,
Rockefeller, Sr." His value in 1999 dollars totaled $190 billion.
(AP, 5/23/97)(WSJ, 5/8/98, p.W1)(SFEC, 5/23/99, Par
p.7)(MC, 5/23/02)
1937 May 24, The US Supreme Court
ruled that the Social Security Act is constitutional.
(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)(www.ssa.gov/history/court.html)
1937 May 25, 1st airmail letter to
circle the globe returned to New York.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1937 May 25, Henry O. Tanner,
artist, died.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1937 May 27, The newly completed
Golden Gate Bridge connecting SF and Marin County, Calif., was opened
to pedestrian traffic. The bridge was designed by Joseph Strauss
(d.1938). Over 200,000 pedestrians walked across on opening day. The
bridge towers stood a record 750 feet. In 2007 Frank Stahl and Daniel
Mohn authored “The Golden Gate Bridge, Report of the Chief Engineer,
Vol II.” They gave credit to engineer Charles Ellis of the Univ. of
Illinois for much of the technical and theoretical work that went into
the bridge. He was fired by Strauss before construction began.
(AP, 5/27/97)(SFEC, 10/5/97, Z1 p.6)(SFC, 10/30/99,
p.C3)(SFC, 5/11/07, p.A1)
1937 May 28, President Roosevelt
pushed a button in Washington signaling that vehicular traffic could
cross the just-opened Golden Gate Bridge in California.
(AP, 5/28/97)
1937 May 28, Neville Chamberlain
became prime minister of Britain.
(AP, 5/28/97)
1937 May 28, Alfred Adler (67),
Austria psychiatrist (Individual Psychology), died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1937 May 29, Peter Kolman,
composer, was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1937 May 30, The Memorial Day
Massacre took place. Ten union demonstrators were killed and 84 wounded
when police opened fire in front of the South Chicago Republic Steel
plant. Earlier in 1937 the Steel Workers’ Organizing Committee had
secured recognition by U.S. Steel as the workers’ bargaining agency and
had won a number of concessions. "Little Steel," under the leadership
of Republic’s Tom Girdler firmly opposed the union demands, leading to
the deadly demonstration. A newsreel film of the Republic Steel strike
riots was made.
(AP, 5/30/97)(SFC,11/21/97, p.C17)(HNQ, 5/25/98)
1937 May 31, German battleships
shelled Almeria, Spain.
(MC, 5/31/02)
1937 Jun 1, Amelia Earhart and
navigator Fred Noonan departed from Miami Municipal airport in a
Lockheed 10E Electra airplane. She was last heard from one month later
trying to find tiny Howland Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
(Hem., 2/96, p.44)(SFC, 10/30/99, p.C3)
1937 Jun 3, The Duke of Windsor,
who had abdicated the British throne, married Wallis Warfield Simpson
in Monts, France. In 2003 secret police records revealed that Simpson
was also having an affair with Guy Marcus Trundle, a used car salesman.
(AP, 6/3/97)(SFC, 1/30/03, p.A10)
1937 Jun 4, Robert Fulghrum,
American author, was born. He wrote "All I Really need to Know I
learned in Kindergarten" and "It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It."
(HN, 6/4/99)
1937 Jun 4, Freddy Fender, singer,
was born as Baldemar Huerta. His songs included: Wasted Days and
Wasted Nights and Before the Next Teardrop Falls.
(www.napster.com/view/artist/index.html?id=11508506)
1937 Jun 5, Henry Ford initiated a
32 hour work week.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1937 Jun 6, Ivan Papanin
(1894-1986) raised the Soviet flag over the North Pole-1 station. For
234 days the 4-man Papanin team carried out a wide range of scientific
observations in the near-polar zone.
(Econ, 8/11/07,
p.43)(www.mvk.ru/eng/about/press/publications/publication_105.shtm)
1937 Jun 7, Actress Jean Harlow
died in Los Angeles at age 26.
(AP, 6/7/07)
1937 Jun 8, Joan Rivers
(comedienne, talk show host: Can We Talk), was born.
(MC, 6/8/02)
1937 Jun 8, In Britain Stanley
Baldwin accepted an earldom and retired from politics.
(www.archontology.org/nations/england/bpm/baldwin.php)
1937 Jun 10, Luciana Paluzzi
(Fiona Volpe), actress (Five Fingers, Thunderball), was born in Rome,
Italy.
(www.jamesbondmm.co.uk/bond-villains/luciana)
1937 Jun 11, Johnny Brown,
comedian (Good Times, Leslie Uggams), was born in St Petersburg, Fla.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1937 Jun 11, Marx Brothers' "A Day
At The Races" was released.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1937 Jun 11, Reginald Joseph
Mitchell (b.1895), British aeronautical engineer and chief designer of
the Spitfire fighter, died of cancer.
(ON, 3/07, p.2)
1937 Jun 12, The Soviet Union
executed eight army leaders as a purge under Josef Stalin continued.
(AP, 6/12/97)(HN, 6/12/98)
1937 Jun 13, Stalin executed
Russian officers Tuchachevski, Jakir, Putna & Uberevitch.
(MC, 6/13/02)
1937 Jun 15, Waylon Jennings
(d.2002), country singer, was born in Littlefield, Texas, where his
father worked on a cotton farm.
(SFC, 2/14/02, p.A2)
1937 Jun 16, August Busch III, CEO
(Anheuser-Busch, St Louis Cards), was born.
(MC, 6/16/02)
1937 Jun 16, Marx Brothers' "A Day
At The Races" opened in LA. [see Jun 11]
(MC, 6/16/02)
1937 Jun 18, Gail Godwin, writer
(The Perfectionists, The Southern Family), was born.
(HN, 6/18/01)
1937 Jun 18, John D. Rockefeller
IV, U.S. Senator, was born.
(HN, 6/18/98)
1937 Jun 19, The town of Bilbao,
Spain, fell to the Nationalist forces.
(HN, 6/19/98)
1937 Jun 19, James M. Barrie
(b.1860), Scottish writer (Dear Brutus, Peter Pan), died. In 2004 the
film "Finding Neverland," was based on Barrie’s life.
(www.angus.gov.uk)(AP, 9/5/04)
1937 Jun 20, Immediately upon
their landing in Vancouver, [Wa.?] after their daring 1937 transpolar
flight from Moscow to America, three Soviet airmen were treated to
breakfast in the home of Brigadier General George C. Marshall,
commander of Vancouver Barracks. The record-setting, 5,507-mile,
60-hour flight made the unexpected early-morning landing on June 20 in
Vancouver as the Tupelov ANT-25 ran low on fuel. Marshall, alerted to
the landing, rushed to Pearson Field and escorted the crew of Valery
Chkalov, Georgy Baidukov and Aleksandr Belyakov back to his home where
his wife prepared a hearty breakfast for them. The Soviets were feted
in the U.S. for their accomplishment and each honored as Heroes of the
Soviet Union.
(HNQ, 10/12/98)
1937 Jun 21, Wimbledon was
televised for the first time.
(Camelot, 6/21/99)
1937 Jun 22, Joe Louis began his
reign as world heavyweight boxing champion by knocking out Jim Braddock
in the eighth round of their fight in Chicago.
(AP, 6/22/08)
1937 Jun 27, Joseph P. Allen IV,
PhD, astronaut (STS-5, STS 51A), was born in Crawfordsville, Ind.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1937 Jun 27, Robert Johnson, blues
guitarist, recorded "Traveling Riverside Blues and 10 other songs in
Dallas for the American Record Corp. He also did "Come On in My
Kitchen."
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.D5)(BS, 5/3/98, p.7E)
1937 Jun 29, Joseph-Armand
Bombardier received notification that the Canadian government had
granted his patent request for his snowmobile (une autoneige).
(ON, 4/03, p.6)
1937 Jul 1, Rev. Martin Niemoeller
(Bekennende Kirche) was arrested in Germany.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1937 Jul 1, Spanish bishops
supported Franco & fascists.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1937 Jul 2, Polly Holliday,
actress (Flo-Alice, Flo-Flo), was born in Jasper, Ala.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1937 Jul 2, Richard Petty, auto
race driver (Daytona 500-1979,81), was born.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1937 Jul 2, Amelia Earhart and
navigator Fred Noonan left Lae in Papua, New Guinea and disappeared
over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first
round-the-world flight at the equator. The two had set out in Earhart's
twin-engine Lockheed Electra, taking off from Oakland, Calif., for
Miami on May 21. They flew across the Atlantic from Brazil to Africa,
then reached Calcutta on June 17, having made 15 stops thus far. They
failed to arrive at their scheduled stop at Howland Island. Radio
operators received messages from Earhart saying that they had to be
close and were circling, searching for land, but radio contact was lost
and the two were never heard from again. Noonan was alcoholic and had
been on a binge the night before. Radioman Leo Bellarts was the last
person to communicate with Earhart. Errors from the US Coast Guard
cutter Itasca were later identified as contributing to the
disappearance.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.A8) (SFC, 5/20/97, p.A12) (AP,
7/2/97) (SFEC, 7/6/97, p.B10) (HNPD, 7/2/99)(SFC, 7/1/00, p.A1,11)
1937 Jul 2, C. Jackson discovered
asteroids #1429, Pemba, & #1456, Saldanha.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1937 Jul 3, Tom Stoppard, British
author and dramatist, was born in Czechoslovakia as Tomas Strassler.
His plays include "Rosencrantz and Gilderstern are Dead" and "The Real
Thing." His family soon fled the Nazis to Singapore. In 2002 Ira Nadel
authored the biography "Tom Stoppard: A Life."
(HN, 7/3/99)(MC, 7/3/02)(SSFC, 9/1/02, p.M5)
1937 Jul 5, Joe DiMaggio hit his
1st grand slammer.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1937 Jul 5, There was a Republican
offensive by Brunete in Spain.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1937 Jul 6, Vladimir Ashkenazy,
pianist, conductor (Tchakowsky-1961), was born in Gorki, Russia.
(MC, 7/6/02)
1937 Jul 7, A conflict between
troops of China and Japan came to be known as the Marco Polo Bridge
Incident. The incident occurred near the Marco Polo Bridge outside of
Beijing and eventually escalated into warfare between the two countries
and was the prelude to the Pacific side of World War II.
(HNQ, 9/22/99)
1937 Jul 9, David Hockney,
painter, was born in Bradford, England. He moved to LA in 1978.
(HN, 7/9/01)(SFC, 8/18/01, p.B3)
1937 Jul 11, George Gershwin
(b.1898 as Jacob Gershowitz), composer, died of a brain tumor at age 38
in Beverly Hills, Ca. His work included "Cuban Overture." He
wrote his first hit, "Swanee," in 1918 for the Broadway show, "Sinbad,"
starring Al Jolson. George Gershwin wrote the scores for such Broadway
shows as "Funny Face," "Porgy and Bess" and "Of Thee I Sing" (his first
musical to win a Pulitzer Prize [1932]). Gershwin played the piano at
the premiere of his widely acclaimed "Rhapsody in Blue" in 1924,
accompanied by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. Gershwin’s song hits
included "The Man I Love," "’S Wonderful," "Summertime" and "Love Is
Here to Stay." The lyrics for many of his songs were written by his
brother Ira. He was born September 26, 1898 in Brooklyn, NYC, NY. to
Russian Jewish immigrants.
(SFC, 12/4/96, p.E1)(WSJ, 9/24/97, p.A20)(SFEC,
8/16/98, DB p.38)(www.gershwin.com/)
1937 Jul 12, Bill Cosby, comedian,
actor, was born.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1937 Jul 15, Japanese attacked the
Marco Polo Bridge and invaded China.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1937 Jul 18, Hunter S. Thompson
(d.2005), journalist, was born in Louisville, Ky.
(SFC, 2/21/05,
p.A8)(www.nndb.com/people/312/000022246/)
1937 Jul 20, Don Budge (22),
American tennis player, defeated Baron Gottfried von Cram (28) of
Germany at Wimbledon in a semi-final round to see who would face
England. James Thurber later described the Budge-Cramm five-set
marathon as “the greatest match in the history of the world.”
(WSJ, 4/25/09, p.W8)
1937 Jul 20, Guglielmo Marconi
(b.1874), Italian engineer, inventor of wireless telegraphy, marquis
(radio, Nobel 1909), died in Rome.
(ON, 11/99, p.10)(MC, 7/20/02)
1937 Jul 22, The Senate rejected
President Roosevelt’s proposal to add more justices to the Supreme
Court.
(AP, 7/22/97)
1937 Jul 22, Irish premier Eamon
de Valera won elections. Valera served as prime minister of Ireland
until 1948. he served again from 1951-1954, and again from 1957-1959.
(MC, 7/22/02)(ON, 9/04, p.7)
1937 Jul 23, Isolation of
pituitary hormone was announced by Yale University.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1937 Jul 24, The state of Alabama
dropped charges against 4 black men accused of raping two white women
in the so-called Scottsboro case.
(AP,
7/24/97)(www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/scottsboro/SB_chron.html)
1937 Jul 28, Peter Duchin,
pianist, bandleader (Peter Duchin Orch), was born in NYC.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1937 Jul 28, Joseph Lee, father of
Playgrounds movement, died.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1937 Jul 29, Japanese troops
occupied Peking and Tientsin. [see Aug 8]
(MC, 7/29/02)
1937 Jul 31, The Russian Politburo
enabled Operative Order 00447. This led to the execution of some
193,000 people.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1937 Aug 1, The Buchenwald
concentration camp, near Weimar, Germany, became operational. The hill
on which it stood was called "Ettersberg," a place where Goethe often
wrote and sketched, and that was the initial name for the camp, which
the people of Weimar protested. The name was then changed to
Buchenwald, Beech Forest.
(HN, 8/1/98)(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A10)
1937 Aug 5, In Russia Stalin
signed NKVD order no 00447 that mandated all prison camps across the
Soviet Union to be emptied.
(SFC, 7/17/97, p.A10)
1937 Aug 6, Franco's artillery
opened fire on Madrid.
(MC, 8/6/02)
1937 Aug 8, Dustin Hoffman,
American actor, was born.
(HN, 8//00)
1937 Aug 8, The Japanese Army
occupied Beijing, China.
(HN, 8/8/98)
1937 Aug 11, Edith Wharton
(b.1862), American author, died in France. Her books included “The
House of Mirth” (1905) and “Ethan Frome” (1911). In 1975 R.W.B. Lewis
(d. 2002) authored the Pulitzer prize-winning "Edith Wharton: A
Biography." In 2007 Hermione Lee authored “Edith Wharton.”
(SFC, 6/17/02, p.B5)(Econ, 1/27/07,
p.85)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/wharton.htm)
1937 Aug 13, Japanese attacked
Shanghai.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1937 Aug 14, The Appalachian Trail
was dedicated. The 1990s book "A Walk in the Woods" described a writers
journey on the trail.
(BoT)
1937 Aug 14, China declared war on
Japan.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1937 Aug 18, Robert Redford, actor
(Sting, Candidate, Natural, Great Gatsby), was born in Calif.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1937 Aug 19, Hugo Black
(1886-1971), US Senator from Alabama, was sworn in as associate US
Supreme Court Justice.
(AP,
10/21/97)(www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/76/)
1937 Aug 23, Albert Charles Paul
Marie Roussel (68), French composer, died.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1937 Aug 24, There was a
Republican offensive near Belchite, Spain.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1937 Aug 25, Pullman signed a
contract with the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, one of the first
substantive victories for black workers. [see Oct 1]
(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A3)
1937 Aug 25, Japanese fleet
blockaded the Chinese coast.
(MC, 8/25/02)
1937 Aug 26, President Roosevelt
signed the Judicial Procedure Reform Act, a compromise on his judicial
reorganization plan.
(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1937 Aug 26, Pumping to build
Treasure Island in SF Bay was finished.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1937 Aug 27, Andrew Mellon
(b.1855), equity-fund capitalist and former US Treasury Secretary
(1921-1932), died. In 2006 David Canadine authored the biography
“Mellon.”
(www.ustreas.gov/education/history/secretaries/awmellon.shtml)(WSJ,
10/6/06, p.W4)
1937 Aug, Joseph Mitchell, writer
for the New Yorker, placed third in a clam-eating tournament at Block
Island after consuming 84 cherrystones.
(SFC, 5/25/96, p.A19)
1937 Aug, A supernova flared up in
the galaxy IC-4182 and stayed visible for 5 years.
(SCTS, p.186)
1937 Sep 1, Ron O'Neal, actor
(Superfly), was born in Utica, NY.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1937 Sep 2, Peter Ueberroth,
baseball commissioner, was born. He organized the 1984 LA Olympics.
(MC, 9/2/01)
1937 Sep 2, Pierre de Coubertin
(b.1863), French Baron and the major force behind the revival of the
modern Olympics, died.
(ON, 8/07,
p.5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_de_Coubertin)
1937 Sep 6, The Soviet Union
accused Italy of torpedoing two Russian ships in the Mediterranean.
(HN, 9/6/98)
1937 Sep 8, The Pan Arab
conference about Palestine opened.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1937 Sep 14, TG Masaryk (b.1886),
the first president of Czechoslovakia, died in Bohemia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T.G._Masaryk)(http://tinyurl.com/856hg)
1937 Sep 15, Prime Minister of
England Neville Chamberlain flew to Germany to discuss the future of
Czechoslovakia with Adolf Hitler.
(HN, 9/15/99)
1937 Sep 21, "The Hobbit," by
J.R.R. Tolkien (b.1892), was first published.
(WSJ,2/11/97, p.A18)(AP, 9/21/97)
1937 Sep 21, The women’s airspeed
record was set at 292 mph by American pilot Jacqueline Cochran.
(HN, 9/21/98)
1937 Sep 25, In China Lin Biao
masterminded the ambush and annihilation of more than 1,000 Japanese
troops, at Pingxiangguan pass in Shanxi province.
(AP, 7/16/07)
1937 Sep 25, German Chancellor
Adolf Hitler met with Italian Premier Benito Mussolini in Munich.
(HN, 9/25/98)
1937 Sep 26, Bessie Smith, known
as the ‘Empress of the Blues,’ died in a car crash on Highway 61 near
Clarksdale, Mississippi.
(HN, 9/26/00)(HT, 5/97, p.40)
1937 Sep 27, The 1st Santa Claus
Training School opened in Albion, NY.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1937 Sep 28, Pres. Roosevelt
dedicated Timberline Lodge at the foot of Palmer snowfield in Mt. Hood
National Forest. It was constructed with public funds and WPA workers
and did not open until Feb. 1938.
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.40)
1937 Sep 28, FDR dedicated
Bonneville Dam on Columbia River in Oregon.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1937 Oct 1, The US House of
Representatives passed the "Marijuana Tax Act" after a debate of 90
seconds. It stipulated that pot could not be sold without a license. No
licenses were ever issued, thus making the sale illegal. In 1970
Congress outlawed marijuana more precisely. The act included hemp in
the ban.
(SFEC, 10/18/98, Z1 p.8)(SFC, 5/28/99, p.A1)
1937 Oct 1, Pullman Co. formally
recognized Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. [see Aug 25]
(MC, 10/1/01)
1937 Oct 5, Saying, "the epidemic
of world lawlessness is spreading," President Roosevelt called for a
"quarantine" of aggressor nations.
(AP, 10/5/97)
1937 Oct 7, Igor Moiseyev
(b.1906), founder of the Moiseyev folk-dance troupe, offered the
troupe’s first public performance in Moscow.
(WSJ, 1/12/98,
p.A20)(www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-141047738.html)
1937 Oct 9, Brian Blessed, English
actor (King Arthur, High Road to China, Hamlet, Henry V), was born.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1937 Oct 15, The Ernest Hemingway
novel "To Have and Have Not" was first published.
(AP, 10/15/97)
1937 Oct 18, The DJIA dropped 7.8%
(SFC,10/17/97, p.B2)
1937 Oct 19, Peter Max,
psychedelic artist (Dynamite Chicken), was born.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1937 Oct 21, Dmitri
Shostakovitch's 5th Symphony premiered.
(MC, 10/21/01)
1937 Oct 31, Michael Landon, actor
(Bonanza, Highway to Heaven), was born in Forest Hills, NY.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1937 Oct 31, Tom Paxton, folk
singer and songwriter (Forest Lawn), was born in Chicago.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1937 Oct 31, Spanish government
moved from Valencia to Barcelona.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1937 Oct, Amin al-Husseini, the
Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, was exiled from Palestine. He sought fled to
Iraq and in 1941 sought refuge in Iran.
(www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si/dec02/middleEast.asp)
1937 Oct-Nov, A 3-man panel, the
"Osobaya Troika," signed death sentences that were sent to thousands of
gulags across Russia and led to the massacre of 9,000 victims in the
Karelia Forest at Medvezhyegorsk. The grave site was opened in Jul,
1997, and a monument was planned.
(SFC, 7/17/97, p.A10)
1937 Nov 5, Hitler told his
military advisors of his intentions of going to war.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1937 Nov 7, Mary Travers, folk
singer (Peter, Paul and Mary), was born in Louisville, Ky.
(SSFC, 2/15/04, Par p.18)
1937 Nov 11, Messerschmidt
ME-109V13 flew to a world record 610.4 kph.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1937 Nov 13, NBC formed the first
full-sized symphony orchestra exclusively for radio broadcasting for
Arturo Toscanini.
(AP, 11/13/98)(MC, 11/13/01)
1937 Nov 15, The 1st US
congressional session in air-conditioned chambers took place.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1937 Nov 15, Eighteen lawsuits
were bought against the Tennessee Valley Authority, calling for its
dissolution.
(HN, 11/15/98)
1937 Nov 17, Peter Edward Cook,
actor, comedian (Beyond the Fringe, Bedazzled), was born in Torquay,
England.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1937 Nov 17, Britain's Lord
Halifax visited Germany and marked the beginning of appeasement.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1937 Nov 21, Marlo Thomas, film
and TV actress, was born in Detroit, Mich. In 1980 she married Phil
Donohue.
(SSFC, 11/21/04, Par p.28)
1937 Nov 23, Clifford Odets'
"Golden Boy," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1937 Nov 23, John Steinbeck's "Of
Mice & Men," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1937 Nov 28, Franco blockaded the
Spanish coast.
(HN, 11/28/98)
1937 Nov 30, Paul Stookey, singer
(Peter, Paul & Mary), was born in Baltimore, Md.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1937 Dec 1, Japan recognized
Spain’s Franco govt.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1937 Dec 3, Stephen Rubin, English
attorney and shoe manufacturer (Reebok, Adidas), was born.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1937 Dec 5, The Lindberghs arrived
in New York on a holiday visit after a two-year voluntary exile.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1937 Dec 11, Jim Harrison,
novelist and poet (Legends of the Fall), was born.
(HN, 12/11/00)
1937 Dec 11, Italy withdrew from
the League of Nations.
(AP, 12/11/97)
1937 Dec 12, Japanese aircraft
sank the U.S. gunboat Panay on China's Yangtze River, during the battle
for Nanking in the Sino-Japanese War. Japan later apologized and paid
$2.2 million dollars in reparations.
(AP, 12/12/97)(MC, 12/12/01)
1937 Dec 13, The Japanese army
occupied Nanking, China. A group of Japanese soldiers forced their way
into the family home of Xia Shuqin (8) in Nanjing, and killed seven of
her family members. Xia and her 4-year-old sister were seriously
injured but escaped. According to Chinese media, a US missionary then
serving as the chairman of the International Commission of the Red
Cross in Nanjing filmed the killings of Xia's family members. In 2006 a
Chinese court has awarded Xia Shuqin $200,000 in compensation after
ruling in her favor against two Japanese historians, who claimed she
fabricated her account of the atrocity.
(HN, 12/13/98)(AP, 8/23/06)
1937 Dec 14, Japanese troops
conquered and plundered Nanjing. Japan established a puppet Chinese
government at Peking, now called Beijing. In 1997 Iris Chang
(1968-2004) authored "The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of
WW II."
(AP, 12/14/02)(SFC, 11/11/04, p.A1)
1937 Dec 20, Erich Ludendorff
(72), German general (WW I), died.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1937 Dec 21, Jane Fonda, actress
(Barbarella, Klute), physical fitness fanatic, Vietnam Protestor, was
born in NYC.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1937 Dec 21, Walt Disney’s "Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs" premiered as the 1st feature-length color
& sound cartoon.
(www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/swfilms.html)
1937 Dec 21, Frank Kellog (80), US
foreign minister (Nobel 1929), died.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1937 Dec 22, The NYC Lincoln
Tunnel opened to traffic.
(MC, 12/22/01)
1937 Dec 23, London warned Rome to
stop the anti-British propaganda in Palestine.
(HN, 12/23/98)
1937 Dec 27, Mae West performed an
Adam and Eve skit that got her banned from NBC radio.
(MC, 12/27/01)
1937 Dec 28, Composer Maurice
Ravel (62) died in Paris.
(AP, 12/28/97)(MC, 12/28/01)
1937 Dec 29, Mary Tyler Moore,
actress (Mary Tyler Moore, Ordinary People), was born in Brooklyn.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1937 Dec 29, Ireland adopted a
constitution. The Irish Free State became Eire.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1937 Dec 30, John Robb, actor, was
born in Los Angeles.
(Dylan's, 1/31/99)
1937 Dec 30, Paul Stookey, singer
and musician (Peter, Paul, & Mary), was born.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1937 Dec 31, Anthony Hopkins,
actor (Elephant Man, QB VII, Magic, Bounty, Silence of the Lambs), was
born in Wales.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1937 Dec-Jan, John Rabe
(1882-1950), a German businessman for Siemens living in China, recorded
the 2-month terror of the Japanese "Rape of Nanking" in his diary. The
Japanese sacked and pillaged the city. They raped at least 20,000 women
and killed at least 50,000 people. Rabe established a neutral safe zone
for hundreds of thousands of Chinese refugees. Noncombatant deaths may
have reached 300,000. Reporter Tillman Durdin (d.1998 at 91) filed
reports for the New York times. Later Iris Chang wrote "The Rape of
Nanking." Rabe’s collected notes and diaries were published in 1998 as:
"The Good Man of Nanking," translated by John. E. Woods and edited by
Erwin Wickert.
(SFC, 12/13/96, p.B1)(SFEC, 2/22/98, Z1 p.6)(SFC,
7/10/98, p.D3)(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.W6)
1937 Dec-Feb, In the Japanese
"Rape of Nanjing" more than 200,000 people were killed. Japanese
soldiers raped and killed tens of thousands of Chinese women during
their invasion of China. [photo from Nanjing] In 1997 Iris Chang (29)
published "The Rape of Nanking: the Forgotten Holocaust of world War
II." The largest execution of prisoners took place north of Nanking
near Mufu Mountain where 57,000 civilians and soldiers were gunned down.
(WSJ,2/6/97,p.A14)(SFEC, 12/1/96, p.C4)(WSJ,
12/29/97, p.A9)(SFEC, 7/26/98, Z1 p.1,4)
1937 Merle Haggard was born in
Oklahoma. He later became a popular country Western singer and was
inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1994.
(SSFC, 12/10/00, Par p.7)
1937 John Steuart Curry, American
painter, began his work "Wisconsin Landscape," and completed it in 1938.
(SFC, 6/13/98, p.E1)
1937 William Gropper painted "The
Hunt." He used a setting by Breughel to depict a white posse’s pursuit
of a black mother and child.
(SFC, 2/5/97, p.E3)
1937 Rene Magritte painted "Not to
be Reproduced," "The Black Flag," and La Reproduction Interdite," which
pictured a gentleman gazing into a mirror in which he sees his back.
(SFC, 8/14/97, p.E4)(SFC, 5/4/00, p.B5)(WSJ, 2/7/00,
p.A24)
1937 Henri Matisse created his
painting “L’Odalisque, Harmonie Bleue.” In 2007 it was auctioned by
Christie’s in NYC for a record $33.6 million.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.E3)
c1937 The painting "Dangers of the
Mail" was created by Frank Albert Mechau of Colorado for the display in
the Ariel Rios building of the Federal Triangle complex. The painting
depicted the slaughter of Western settlers by native Indians and was
later claimed as racist.
(SFC, 12/4/00, p.A3)
1937 Pablo Picasso painted the
black-and-white "Guernica" mural for the 1937 International Exposition
in Paris. The Republican government commissioned the mural painting as
part of the Spanish pavilion at the 1937 World`s Fair in Paris. Picasso
managed to complete the huge work (11.5 by 25.5 feet) in just over
three weeks, with the assistance of Dora Maar. Picasso never returned
to his native Spain (he had last been there in 1934). Before his death
in 1973, he directed that "Guernica" not be returned to Spain until the
restoration of democracy there. Francisco Franco, leader of the
Nationalist forces that overthrew the Republican government in the
Spanish Civil War, remained the head of the Spanish government until
1973, dying in 1975. Economic initiatives and other reforms begun in
the 1960s helped transform Spain into a democratic constitutional
monarchy in the three years following his death. The painting
"Guernica" was returned from New York City in 1981 and is now on
exhibit, along with other 19th and 20th century works, at the Buen
Retiro Palace in Madrid.
(SFC, 4/26/00, p.C5)(HNQ, 7/18/01)
1937 Picasso painted his "Weeping
Woman With Handkerchief."
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.E8)
1937 Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
(1895-1946), renowned photographer, was recruited to be the founding
head of the New Bauhaus in Chicago. The design school reconstituted
itself as the School of Design and then the Institute of Design.
(SFC, 7/20/02, p.D10)
1937 Hal Foster began the Prince
Valiant cartoon saga. He passed it on to John Cullen Murphy (d.2004) in
1970. Murphy passed it on to Gary Gianni in 2004.
(SFC, 7/9/04, p.B7)
1937 Dale Carnegie (1888-1955)
authored "How to win Friends and Influence People."
(TMC, 1994, p.1937)(HN, 11/24/00)
1937 Eric Ambler authored his spy
novel "A Coffin for Dimitrios.
(NW, 8/20/01, p.56)
1937 Sir Gavin de Beer, zoologist,
published "The Development of the Vertebrate Skull."
(NH, 10/96, p.39)
1937 E.T. Bell authored “Men of
Mathematics.”
(WSJ, 11/11/06, p.P10)
1937 Stephen Vincent Benet
authored his short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster."
(SFC, 10/23/00, p.F3)
1937 George Bernanos, French
writer, authored “The Diary of a Country Priest.”
(WSJ, 3/18/06, p.P8)
1937 James M. Cain published
"Seranade."
(iUniv. 7/1/00)
1937 Walter Chrysler (d.1940), the
founder of Chrysler Corporation, published his autobiography, "Life of
an American Workman." Born in Kansas in 1875, Chrysler was an
apprentice in a Union Pacific Railroad machine shop and later became a
plant manager for the American Locomotive Company. He left there to
become works manager for the Buick Motor Company, became Buick
president in 1916. In 1919 he took over the Willys-Overland Company and
Maxwell Motor Company, which became the Chrysler Corporation in 1925.
Chrysler purchased the Dodge Brothers manufacturing Company in 1928.
(HNQ, 8/21/99)
1937 Carl Crow, journalist,
publisher and executive in Shanghai, authored “Four Hundred Million
Customers.” The bestseller described how to sell to the Chinese.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.92)
1937 Theodore Geisel, Dr. Seuss,
published his 1st book "To think I Saw it on Mulberry Street.
(SFC, 5/27/02, p.A2)(SSFC, 2/15/04, Par p.5)
1937 Harriet Lane Levy published
her memoir "920 O’Farrell Street." She had spent time in Paris and
London with writers and artists and had introduced Gertrude Stein to
Alice B. Toklas.
(SFEC, 4/20/97, BR p.10)
1937 Hiram Percy Maxim, automotive
engineer, authored "Horseless Carriage Days."
(ON, 7/00, p.8)
1937 Able Meeropol authored the
poem "Bitter Fruit," an anti-lynching anthem, under the pen name Lewis
Allan. He later added music. Billie Holiday 1st sang it as "Strange
Fruit" at the Café society nightclub in Greenwich Village.
(SFC, 1/8/03, p.D1)
1937 Alexander du Toit, geologist,
published his careful studies of South Africa and South America in "Our
Wandering Continents" and gave support to the work of Alfred Wegener.
(DD-EVTT, p.190)
1937 Leo Rosten (1908-1997) wrote
"The Education of HYMAN KAPLAN" under the pseudonym Leonard Q. Ross.
There were two sequels, one in 1959 and one in 1976. The original was
turned into a Broadway production in 1968.
(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A26)
1937 M.F.K. Fisher wrote "Serve It
Forth," her first book on cooking. Her letters were published in 1997:
"M.F.K. Fisher: A Life in Letters."
(SFEC,12/21/97, BR p.4)
1937 C.S. Forester wrote "Captain
Horatio Hornblower." Hornblower was loosely based on the life of Adm.
Lord Nelson. Forester wrote 11 Hornblower books and also wrote "The
African Queen." Hornblower was made into a 4-part A&E TV miniseries
in 1999. The early Hornblower novels included "Beat to Quarters," "Ship
of the Line," and "Flying Colours."
(WSJ, 7/10/98, p.W10)(WSJ, 4/5/99, p.A20)
1937 Theodore Geisel (aka Dr.
Seuss) published his book: "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry
Street."
(Hem., 2/97, p.13)
1937 Zora Neale Hurston
(1903-1960) wrote her novel: "Their Eyes were Watching God." It is
about a young black woman from Florida who survives a bad marriage and
finds true love with a younger man named Tea Cake. Cassette recordings
were made in 1991. She also wrote her collected folktales "Mules and
Men." She made some films during research trips on life in the South in
1928 and 1929.
(SFC, 4/5/96, p.D-1)(SFC, 12/13/96, p.C8)
1937 Somerset Maughan authored his
novel “Theater.” In 2004 it was adopted as the comedy film “Being
Julia.”
(WSJ, 10/15/04, p.W1)
1937 George Orwell authored "The
Road to Wigan Pier." It marked his 1st disagreement with mainstream
Socialists.
(SFEC, 10/1/00, BR p.5)
1937 "The Yearling" by Marjorie
Kinnan Rawlings (1896-1953) was published. It was illustrated by Edward
Shenton.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.12)
1937 Jerome Weidman (24) published
"I Can Get It for You Wholesale." It was transformed into a musical in
1962. He wrote 22 novels, and many short stories and screenplays before
he died in 1998.
(SFC, 10/8/98, p.C4)
1937 The Partisan Review quarterly
journal of culture and politics began publishing under co-founder
William Phillips (d.2003). The last issue was published in 2003.
(SFC, 4/18/03, p.I7)
1937 The Rodgers and Hart
Broadway musical comedy “Babes in Arms” was choreographed by George
Balanchine and featured the Nicholas Brothers tap dancing duo.
(SFC, 8/19/97, p.A1)(SSFC, 1/29/06, p.B7)
1937 "Arms of Venus" was the first
Broadway production by Randolph Carter. It was based on the "Satyricon"
by Petronius.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A22)
1937 The Clifford Odets play
"Golden Boy" was staged in New York.
(WSJ, 12/6/95, p.A-18)
1937 Eugene O'Neill, playwright,
built his Tao House in Danville, Ca., following his 1936 winning of the
Nobel Prize in Literature.
(SFC, 5/16/03, p.E8)
1937 Tenessee Williams wrote his
play "Fugitive Kind" for the Mummers company in St. Louis.
(SFC, 1/16/03, p.E3)
1937 Bronislava Nijinska created
her legendary "Chopin Concerto Ballet" for the Paris Int’l. Expo.
(SFC, 7/30/97, p.E5)
1937 Orson Welles (22) condensed
"Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo into seven half-hour episodes for radio.
(WSJ, 4/30/98, p.A17)
1937 The song "Blue Moon" was
written by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart.
(SI-WPC, 1997)
1937 The Rogers & Hart song
"My Funny Valentine" was a hit song from a Broadway musical.
(WSJ, 5/18/99, p.A24)
1937 Vivien Fine wrote her
symphonic work "Elegiac Song" for muted strings.
(SFC, 3/29/00, p.A23)
1937 Carl Orff composed "Carmina
Burana" based on "saucy" medieval lyrics. The work premiered in
Frankfurt.
(SFC,11/6/97, p.C1)(SFC, 2/16/98, p.E5)
1937 Bass Player Beverly Peer
(1913-1997) joined the Chick Webb Orchestra. He played behind Ella
Fitzgerald on all her early hits.
(SFC, 1/27/97, p.A20)
1937 Legendary American songwriter
Cole Porter lost a leg as the result of a horse riding accident. He was
seriously injured while horseback riding, and as a result his leg was
eventually amputated. The writer of "I Concentrate on You," ‘I’ve Got
You Under My Skin," "Night and Day" and many other classic songs
refused to let his injuries prevent him from traveling and composing.
(HNQ, 9/19/98)
1937 Pee Wee King (d.2000 at 86),
born as Julius Frank Anthony Kuczynski, and his Golden West Cowboys
joined the Grand Ole Opry. King was the composer of the classic
"Tennessee Waltz."
(SFC, 3/11/00, p.A17)
1937 Frank Lloyd Wright arrived in
Arizona with his apprentices from their Wisconsin headquarters. He
purchased an 800-acre tract for $3.50 an acre at Mariposa Mesa and
began construction of Taliesin West.
(SFEM, 4/19/98, p.21-23)
1937 Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen
and his famously precocious dummy Charlie McCarthy made an
appearance on the Rudy Valley show, a radio variety program in the
`30s, and secured the "Edgar Bergen-Charlie McCarthy Show." An early
staple of the program was Charlie McCarthy’s ongoing feud with comedian
and frequent guest W.C. Fields. During World War II, Edgar and Charlie
entertained American servicemen around the country. The show ran with
various sponsors until 1957, always being among the top seven rated
programs on the air except for its last five years. (Bergen also did
the voice for the slow-witted dummy, Mortimer Snerd and some other
characters that were occasionally featured on the show). Bergen
discovered an aptitude for vocal tricks at an early age and created the
dummy Charlie McCarthy in high school (he had the head carved, but made
the body himself). In college, he was able to support expenses through
a combination of ventriloquism and magic tricks. Bergen died in 1978,
after almost 60 years in vaudeville, radio and films. His daughter is
Candice Bergen.
(HNQ, 3/26/01)
1937 In California the Fresno
Municipal Sanitary Landfill opened. It was the nation’s 1st true
sanitary landfill, where garbage was compacted and buried each day. The
waste later polluted groundwater. In 1987 145-acre dump was closed. In
1989 it was named a Superfund toxic site by the EPA.
(SFC, 8/29/01, p.A3)
1937 In California the Caldecott
Tunnel opened with 2 bores under the Oakland-Berkeley Hills.
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.A21)
1937 In California the Devil’s
Slide stretch of Highway 1 opened.
(SFC, 9/18/07, p.A1)
1937 In California Highway 70
opened along the Feather River Canyon.
(SSFC, 4/29/01, p.T9)
1937 Albert Kahn designed the
Martin Aircraft factory in Baltimore which later inspired a Mies Vander
Rohe concert hall.
(WSJ, 12/12/96, p.A10)
1937 The 1st Bing Crosby golf
tournament was played at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club in San Diego County.
This phase of the tournament lasted to 1942.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, DB p.37)
1937 Sun Valley, Idaho, became the
first ski resort in the US to provide lift-served skiing.
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.78)
1937 Alta ski resort near Salt
Lake City opened with a rope tow as the 2nd US ski resort. It was
designed by Alf Engen (d.1997), ski-jump champion.
(SFC, 7/22/97, p.A16)
1937 Look Magazine was founded by
Gardner Cowles.
(AH, 10/01, p.40)
1937 Women’s Day Magazine began to
be sold at A&P food stores for 3 cents.
(SFC, 9/14/96, p.B5)
1937 "Fruit, Gardener, and Home"
magazine was started. It later became "Better Homes and Gardens."
(SFEC, 9/28/97, Z1 p.2)
1937 Wickliffe Preston Draper
(d.1972), heir to a Massachusetts manufacturing fortune, helped found
the Pioneer Fund which was devoted to supporting eugenics. The initial
charter directed support for research aimed at race betterment. In 1985
the charter was amended to support programs aimed at "human race
betterment." John Marshall Harlan II, appointed the US Supreme Court in
1957, was one of the original fund directors.
(WSJ, 6/11/99, p.A8)(WSJ, 8/17/99, p.A1)
1937 The first drive-in bank
opened in Los Angeles.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1937 Margaret Fogarty Rudkin
installed an oven in her stable and began baking whole-wheat bread on
the family’s 120-acre Pepperidge Farm.
(SFC, 9/14/96, p.B5)
1937 Albert Szent-Gyorgyi von
Nagyrapolt of the Mayo Clinic won the Nobel Prize for his work on
vitamin C.
(SFC, 7/5/96, PM, p.5)
1937 The US government passed the
Reindeer Industry Act. The law made it illegal for anyone other than
the Inupiat or other native tribal people in Alaska to possess reindeer.
(WSJ, 12/14/95, p.A-1)
1937 The US Congress passed the
Miller-Tydings Act Free Trade Act in order to exempt fair trade from
antitrust legislation. It amended the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 so
as to legalize retail price maintenance, allowing manufacturers to
maintain minimum prices for the sale of their goods. In 1975 Congress
repealed the Miller-Tydings Act.
(WSJ, 8/18/08,
p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resale_price_maintenance)
1937 A government program was
begun to provide American flags, certified to have flown over the
capital, to the public. Each flag was provided a certificate with the
date it was flown and the name of the person for whom it was flown. By
1998 the program average 250-300 flags per day with a peak of 10,471
flown on July 4, 1976, and a record of 154,224 flown in 1991.
(SFC, 7/4/98, p.C2)
1937 The Federal Reserve,
dominated by bankers who feared interstate banking, forced A.P.
Giannini’s Transamerica Corp. to divest 58% of its ownership in
BankAmerica stock.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B1)
1937 In the US Southwest the 1882
Hopi reservation was divided into districts. The large District 6 was
earmarked for the Hopi. The Navajo replaced the Hopi in other areas.
[see 1882]
(SFEC, 5/4/97, z1 p.4)
1937 Herman Phleger, chief council
to the State dept. during the Eisenhower administration and a
prosecutor of Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg, purchased an estate of
1,300 acres on the SF peninsula between SF watershed lands and San
Mateo county’s Huddart Park. Phleger was also a founder of the
Save-the-Redwoods League and died in 1984. The estate was later
acquired for public use and added to the Golden Gate National
Recreation Area.
(SFC, 4/28/95, p.P-3)
1937 The state Legislature named
the native redwood as the State Tree of California. In 1951 the coastal
Sequoia sempervirens and the Sierra Sequoia gigantea were said to both
qualify as the state tree.
(SFC, 10/26/01, WB p.7)
1937 California’s San Quentin
Prison opened its gas chamber for executions and hanging ceased at
Folsom Prison.
(SFEC, 1/26/97, p.B4)
1937 The first McDonald’s opened
in Pasadena, Ca. [see 1955]
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1937 Jack and Teresa Harris
founded their original Harris Ranch near Coalinga in the Central Valley
of California. In 1987 they added the Inn with 88 rooms, which later
expanded to 153 rooms. By 2006 the ranch had become a corporate
operation covering 18,000 acres.
(SSFC, 5/21/06, p.G10)
1937 Rollin P. Eckis (d.1999 at
94), geologist, discovered the Kern County oil field near Bakersfield,
Ca.
(SFC, 11/19/99, p.D8)
1937 General Mills introduced Kix
cereal. It was made possible by the development of the “puffing gun”
invented by Lester Borchardt Sr. (1907-2007).
(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.A6)
1937 Ruel Call opened a small
filling station in Afton, Wyoming. He was one of the grandsons of Anson
Vasco Call, who had 4 wives and 37 children. In the early 1960s Ruel
launched his own gasoline brand, Maverik. In the mid-1960s his nephew,
O. Jay Call, launched Flying J, a discount fuel retailer. In May, 2004,
Kristen Call and her father Bill launched iFuel, a discount gasoline
retailer that used the Internet for paying with bank transfers.
(WSJ, 5/4/06, p.A10)
1937 Vernon Rudolph (d.1973)
launched Krispy Creme, a donut operation, in Winston-Salem, NC. Heirs
sold the business to Beatrice Foods, which changed the recipe. Some 20
franchisees bought the company in 1982. the 1st shop outside the
Southeast opened in Indianapolis in 1995. The company went public in
2000.
(WSJ, 9/3/04, p.A5)
1937 The Cord 812 was the first
car without running boards.
(SFC, 1/29/00, p.E3)
1937 Alfred P. Sloan became GM’s
chairman.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1937 GM introduced the automatic
transmission at Buick and Oldsmobile.
(F, 10/7/96, p.69)
1937 McKesson & Robbins
reported assets of over $87 million. The SEC later found that the
amount was fake by some $19 million. An investigation revealed that
president Frank Donald Coster was actually an ex-convict named Philip
M. Musica, and that he and 3 brothers had faked inventory and stolen
some $3 million from the company. The scandal prompted new rules for
the accounting profession.
(WSJ, 6/30/99, p.B1,4)
1937 Sir John Hicks invented the
IS-LM framework as an interpretation Keynes’s “General Theory” of
economics. It contrasted the investment/saving curve with the
liquidity/money curve to account for bond yields.
(Econ, 8/13/05, p.66)
1937 George Stibitz, American Bell
Labs engineer, recognized that electrical switches had a simple
numerical property (on and off) that constituted a binary system. He
then began designing and building a two-bit adder. The term "bit" was
coined by John Tulkey upon overhearing a conversation on the need to
name "binary digits." The creation of digital logic circuitry was soon
advanced by the realization of Claude Shannon at MIT that the actions
of relay based machinery could be tied to analysis by Boolean algebra,
invented in the 19th century by Charles Boole. Shannon is better known
as the founder of information theory.
(I&I, Penzias, p.99)
1937 Michael Sveda (d.1999 at 87),
chemist, invented cyclamates, a non-caloric sweetener. In the US the
Dept. of HEW banned cyclamates in 1969 due to suspected cancer risks,
which were later contradicted.
(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A22)
1937 Dr. Gerhard Fisher patented a
metal detector. Alexander Graham Bell had developed a primitive
forerunner in 1881 to try to remove an assassin’s bullet from Pres.
Garfield.
(ON, 5/02, p.9)
1937 Russell and Sigurd Varian
invented the klystron tube, an early form of the driver for microwave
power. In the 1940s Dr. Chodorow (1913-2005) of Stanford Univ. expanded
on the invention and increased its power from a few hundred watts to
millions of watts. Together with other physicists they later formed
Varian Associates in Palo Alto.
(www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/2005/pr-chodorow-102605.html)
1937 Technetium was the first
element to be synthesized in the laboratory.
(NH, 8/96, p.74)
c1937 The Fischer-Tropsch process
was discovered to liquefy natural gas using a catalyst and pure oxygen.
(WSJ, 12/8/97, p.B1)
1937 Dr. Leroy Burney set up the
country’s first mobile venereal disease clinic in Brunswick, Ga.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A17)
1937 "Musicogenic epilepsy" was
first identified. It was a kind of brain seizure triggered by specific
music.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, Z1 p.7)
1937 The West Nile virus was 1st
identified in the West Nile District of Uganda. It was able to cause
fatal encephalitis in humans.
(SFC, 9/15/00, p.D6)
1937 Medicines contaminated with
diethylene glycol killed 105 Americans this year.
(AP, 10/27/06)
1937 The Synthetic Theory of
Theodosius Dobzhansky was pivotal in explaining evolution. The
Russian-born American biologist fused the theories of natural selection
and genetic variability in his 1937 work "Genetics and the Origin of
Species." It is called the Synthetic Theory because it synthesizes
previously existing ideas. Dobzhansky’s theory states that evolution is
a two-step process whereby: first, genetic variations occur either by
mutation or chance, and second, desirable variations that help the
organism survive are passed on to the next generation and become
permanently established. Dobzhansky is credited with founding the field
of evolutionary genetics.
(HNQ, 6/11/98)
1937 Alan Turing published a paper
showing that a universal machine could be designed to perform the
functions and do the work of any device designed for problem-solving.
More important, his paper showed that a digital computer could
theoretically be designed to do the work of any analog computer. He is
considered the founder of artificial intelligence.
(V.D.-H.K.p.349)
1937 The 1st special purpose
digital computer with regenerative memory was invented by John Vincent
Atanasoff at Iowa State College.
(SFC, 12/12/01, p.A27)
1937 Gunnar Myrdal, Swedish
sociologist, was hired by the Carnegie Foundation to study America’s
race relations. Seven years later he produced his work: "An American
Dilemna: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. "
(WSJ, 10/26/95, p.A-20)
1937 Nutria rodents were
introduced to Louisiana from Argentina. They propagated rapidly and by
1997 were threatening acres of fragile wetlands due to their feeding on
plant roots. The McIlhenny family, makers of Tabasco Sauce, imported 13
nutria from Argentina to study their fur-bearing potential. The animals
escaped 3 years later during a flood and began to proliferate.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.A5)
1937 US airman Jimmy Angel
discovered the 3,312 foot Angel Falls on the Orinoco River.
(SFEC, 4/16/00, p.T9)
1937 An asteroid was discovered
and named Hermes. It disappeared and was not seen again until 2003 and
found to actually be a pair of objects traveling together.
(SFC, 10/27/03, p.A4)
1937 Heavy flooding hit along the
valley of the Ohio River.
(IS, 3/6/97, p.A12)
1937 Jean de Brunhoff (37), French
painter, died of tuberculosis. He illustrated the Babar stories
invented by his wife Cecille (d.2003).
(SFC, 4/15/03, p.A16)
1937 Walter Gay (b.1856), American
painter, died. He painted jewel-box-like interior scenes of French
homes.
(WSJ, 3/26/03, p.D8)
1937 In Australia the assimilation
of mixed-blood Aborigines, by force if necessary, was adopted as
official policy at a meeting of federal and state officials, while
Aborigines living a "tribal life" are to stay on reserves.
(AP, 1/30/08)
1937 Bolivia under the nationalist
administration of General David Toro nationalized its energy sector.
Toro cancelled the Standard Oil Company's oil contracts and seized the
US company's holdings in exchange for a 1.7 million dollar
indemnification.
(http://coanews.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=872)
1937 Burma was made a crown colony
of Britain.
(SFC, 5/7/02, p.A9)
1937 Americans Robert H. Bates and
Bradford Washburn reached the summit of Mount Lucania in Canada’s Yukon
Territory. At this time Lucania was the highest unscaled peak in North
America. They were forced by weather to hike some 100 miles for their
return. Bates had joined Washburn in 1935 to map the Yukon Territory
for the National Geographic Society.
(WSJ, 9/29/07, p.A6)
1937 Ceylon (Sri Lanka) banned the
capture of wild elephants. At the turn of the century some 10-15
thousand elephants roamed wild in Sri Lanka. By 2006 only some 3,000
were left.
(SFC, 5/19/06, p.A2)
1937 The Bank of China in Shanghai
was designed by Palmer and Turner in a melding of Chinese and Art-Deco
elements. It was a 17 story, stone-clad tower capped by a distinct
pagoda-like roof with upturned eaves.
(Hem. 1/95, p. 84)
1937 Orestes Lopez (Cuban pianist)
and his brother bassist Israel (Cachao) Lopez (1918-2008) formalized an
improvisation they called danzon mambo.
(SFEC, 9/19/99, DB p.37)(SSFC, 3/23/08, p.A2)
1937 The Gayer-Anderson Museum was
founded in Cairo, Egypt.
(AM, 3/04, p.34)
1937 Mercedes- Benz developed an
all-wheel-drive car, largely for military purposes.
(WSJ, 9/16/05, p.W12)
1937 Japanese soldiers raped and
killed tens of thousands of Chinese women during their invasion of
China. [photo from Nanjing]
(SFEC, 12/1/96, p.C4)
1937 England’s King Edward VIII,
Duke of Windsor, abdicated to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson. [Chronicle
says 1936]
(Hem., 8/96, p.21)(SFC, 12/4/96, p.C3)
1937 In France the Eiffel Tower
was embroidered with 10,000 meters of pink, blue and green neon to
celebrate an int’l. exposition.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A20)
1937 Heinrich Himmler, acting
interior minister of Germany, revised the chimney-sweep law. His rules
tied the sweeps to their districts and decreed that they need to be
German, to enable him to use them as local spies. In 1969 the law was
updated and in theory opened the profession to non-Germans.
(Econ, 10/21/06, p.76)
1937 In Germany Dr. Ferdinand
Sauerbruch, Hitler’s personal physician, said that Hitler was showing
signs of growing megalomania and "was a border case between genius and
insanity… (potentially) the craziest criminal the world ever saw."
(SFC, 4/28/01, p.A10)
1937 The German explorer, Dr.
Burkhart Waldecker, traced the southernmost source of the Nile river to
a spring in Burundi. The river that feeds more water into Lake Victoria
than any other is the Kagera, whose ultimate source is 500 miles
southwest of its entrance to the lake.
(NG, May 1985, R. Caputo, p.629,631)
1937 In Germany Hans J.P. von
Ohain built and tested a laboratory model of a jet engine.
(SFC, 8/10/96, p.A20)
1937 Thousands of Haitian
immigrants were massacred in the Dominican Republic. In 1998 the novel
"The Farming of Bones" by Edwidge Danticat was based on this event.
(SFEC, 12/13/98, BR p.3)
1937 A Hungarian brigade joined
the Spanish civil war to fight the fascists.
(MT, Fall. ‘97, p.4)
1937 In Iceland an airline was
founded that developed into Icelandair.
(WSJ, 10/14/08, p.B10)
1937 Italy occupied Albania. [see
Apr 8, 1939]
(SFC, 4/5/97, p.A20)
1937 Mussolini helped inspire the
Estado Novo of Brazil’s Pres. Getulio Vargas. The system of labor and
industrial syndicates continued to influence labor relations to 2007.
(Econ, 4/14/07, SR p.5)
1937 The 1,700 year-old Axum
Obelisk was dismantled and removed from Ethiopia by Italian forces.
Mussolini used it to commemorate the 15th anniversary of his march on
Rome.
(AM, 5/01, p.10)
1937 This year In Italy at the
Fascioli Resort on lake Como is the setting for British writer H.E.
Bates’ novella that was made into a 1996 film titled: "A Month by the
Lake" with Vanessa Redgrave.
(SFC, 5/17/96, p.E-1)
1937 An Italian Alfa Romeo 8C
2900B Cabriolet, later called one of the finest classic cars in
existence, was produced. In 1999 it sold for $4 million.
(SFC, 8/31/99, p.A26)
1937 In South Africa the vervet
monkey was classified as vermin after one bit the daughter of the
country’s finance minister. In 1976 the species was listed as
threatened by the Convention on Int’l. Trade and Endangered Species.
(SFC, 5/19/07, p.B6)
1937 Leon Trotsky fled the Soviet
Union and went to Mexico where he moved in with Diego Rivera and Frida
Kahlo.
(WSJ, 1/4/95, p. A-10)
1937 Stalin ordered a major
overhaul of Uzbek leadership and heads began to roll. The artist
Alexander Rodchenko, who had designed the album "Ten Years of
Uzbekistan," blotted out the photos of purged Uzbek leaders in his
personal copy. It provided grist for the 1997 book by David King "The
Commissar Vanishes," that describes how Stalin manipulated images for
his benefit.
(WSJ, 10/29/97, p.A20)
1937 Stalin deported some 180,000
Soviet Koreans from their homes and farms and sent them by cattle car
to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
(LSA, Fall/06, p.28)
1937 The USSR census of this year
reported a decline in the population to 162 million and Stalin had the
officials responsible for the count shot. He had told officials a year
earlier that the count would be 170 million, which ignored those who
died in famines and purges.
(WSJ, 12/1/99, p.A24)(Econ, 12/22/07, p.99)
1937 Saab was founded as an
aviation and defense company in Linkoping, Sweden. Its name was an
acronym for "Svenska Aeroplan AB," where "AB" stands for "aktiebolaget"
("limited company"), thus written as 'SAAB'.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab)
1937 Edvin Ohrstrom (1906-1994),
artist and sculptor, and 2 others developed the Ariel technique at
Orrefors in Orrefors, Sweden. This technique created a design by
trapping air bubbles between two layers of glass. In 1990 Orrefors
merged with Kosta Boda AB, which in turn became part of the New Wave
Group in 2005.
(SFC, 11/19/08, p.G6)
1937 In Tajikistan the city of
Khodzhent established a university.
(SFC, 4/30/97, p.A12)
1937-1938 Their were sweeping purges across the
Soviet Union. 14 million people across Russia were estimated to have
died in the purges. Several hundred Americans were arrested in Karelia,
near the Finnish border. Several thousand Americans and Canadians had
moved there to help develop the Soviet timber industry. 40,000 people a
month were executed.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, BR p.7)(SFC, 7/17/97,
p.A10)(SFEC,11/9/97, p.A12)(SFC, 4/17/99, p.B3)
1937-1941 Aug, A supernova flared up in the galaxy
IC-4182 and stayed visible for 5 years.
(SCTS, p.186)
1937-1941 In Belarus some 2 million people were
killed during Stalinist purges on the outskirts of Minsk.
(SSFC, 9/2/01, p.A14)
1937-1945 The Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp
operated over this period. It was located near the city of Weimar where
Germany’s Shakespeare Society and the Goethe-Schiller Archives are
located.
(Hem., Nov.’95, p.114)
1937-1947 The Cazalet Chronicle by Elizabeth Jane
Howard focused on an upper middle-class English family of this period.
The four books include "The Light Years" (1990), "Marking Time,"
"Confusion" and "Casting Off" (1996).
(WSJ, 8/2/96, p.A10)
1937-1995 Don Cherry, jazz trumpet player, died near
Malaga, Spain of liver failure on Dec 19, 1995.
(WSJ, 10/23/95, p.A-1)
1937-1996 Dr. Amos Tversky (b3/16 d6/2), cognitive
psychologist. He studied how people make decisions about risks,
benefits and probabilities.
(SFC, 6/6/96, p.C6)
Go to 1938