1937

January

January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua.

January 11 – The first issue of Look magazine goes on sale in the United States.

January 15 – Spanish Civil War: Second Battle of the Corunna Road (begun 13 December 1936) concludes with both sides withdrawing.

January 19 – Howard Hughes establishes a record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.

January 20 – Franklin D. Roosevelt is sworn in for a second term as President of the United States. This is the first time Inauguration Day in the United States is on this date, on which continues to occur; 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 seventeen 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.

January 26 – Michigan celebrates its centennial anniversary as a U.S. state.

January 30 – Ingrid Christensen becomes the first woman to set foot on the continent of Antarctica.

January 31 – The Soviet Union executes 31 people for alleged Trotskyism.

February

February 5 – U.S President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes a plan to enlarge the Supreme Court of the United States.

February 8 – Spanish Civil War: Falangist troops take Málaga.

February 8 – February 27 – Spanish Civil War – Battle of Jarama: Nationalist and government troops fight to a stalemate.

February 11 – A sit-down strike ends when General Motors recognizes the United Automobile Workers union.

February 16 – Wallace H. Carothers receives a patent for nylon.

February 19

Airliner VH-UHH (Stinson) goes down over Lamington National Park, bound for Sydney, killing five 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. The Italian security guard fire into the crowd of Ethiopian onlookers. Authorities exact further reprisals, which include indiscriminately slaughtering native Ethiopians over the next three days, detaining thousands of Ethiopians at Danan and slaughtering almost 300 monks at 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.

March

March – The first issue of Detective Comics is published in the United States. It goes on to become the longest continually published comic book in American history; it is still published as of 2016.

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 17 – The Atherton Report (private investigator Edwin Atherton's report detailing vice and police corruption in San Francisco) is released.

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 demonstrators protesting at the arrest of Puerto Rican Nationalist Party leader Pedro Albizu Campos, killing 17 people and injuring over 200.

The first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Aerobile, makes its initial flight.

March 26

In Crystal City, Texas, spinach growers erect a statue of the cartoon character Popeye.

William H. Hastie becomes the first African American appointed to a federal judgeship in the United States.

April

April 1

Aden becomes a British crown colony.

Bombing of Jaén 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.

NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the National Labor Relations Act is constitutional.

April 17 – The animated short Porky's Duck Hunt, directed by Tex Avery for the Looney Tunes series, featuring the debut of Daffy Duck, is released in the United States.

April 20 – A fire in an elementary school in Kilingi-Nõmme, Estonia, kills seventeen students and injures fifty.

April 26 – Spanish Civil War: Bombing of Guernica 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

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.

17 million unemployed in the USA.

May 1 – A general strike occurs in Paris, France.

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 Casablanca team (abbreviated WAC)(Arabic: نادي الوداد الرياضي / Berber : Wydad Dar al-Beida team) commonly known as Wydad al ouma is a Moroccan sports club based in Casablanca, Morocco, best known for its football casablanca team.

May 12 – The coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth takes place 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 27 – In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County. The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushes a button in Washington, D.C., signaling the start of vehicle traffic over the bridge.

May 28 – Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

May 28 – In Germany Volkswagen Group is founded, to build a "people's car". A new town is set to be created to house the thousands of workers who will be involved in the production of the car.

May 30

Spanish Civil War: Spanish ship Ciudad de Barcelona is torpedoed.

The Chicago Police Department shoot and kill ten unarmed demonstrators in Chicago in what is known as the Memorial Day massacre.

June

June 3 – Wallis Simpson marries The Duke of Windsor (the former Edward VIII), in France.

June 8

The first total solar eclipse to exceed seven minutes of totality in over 800 years, is visible in the Pacific and Peru.

Carl Orff's Carmina Burana premieres in Frankfurt, Germany.

June 14 – Pennsylvania becomes the first (and only) of the United States to celebrate Flag Day officially as a state holiday.

June 21 – The coalition government of Léon Blum resigns in France.

June – Picasso completes his painting Guernica.

June/July – The Dáil Éireann debates and passes the draft new Constitution of Ireland, which is then submitted for public approval by plebiscite.

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.

First alleged sighting of the White River Monster.

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.

A guard takes his place at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Washington, D.C.; continuous guard has been maintained there ever since.

July 4 – The Lost Colony historical drama is first performed at an outdoor theater in the location where it is set, Roanoke Island, North Carolina.

July 5

The canned precooked meat product Spam is introduced by the Hormel company in the United States

The highest recorded temperature in Canada, at Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan, is 45 °C (113 °F).

July 7

Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Lugou Bridge (aka Marco Polo Bridge Incident): Japanese forces invade China (often seen as the beginning of World War II in Asia).

Peel Commission proposes partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states.

July 9 – The silent film archives of Fox Film Corporation are destroyed by the 1937 Fox vault fire.

July 11 – American popular composer George Gershwin dies in Los Angeles of a brain tumor, age 38.

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 24 – Alabama drops rape charges against the so-called Scottsboro Boys.

July 25–31 – Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Beiping–Tianjin, a series of actions fought around Beiping and Tianjin, resulting in Japanese victory.

July 28 – The Irish Republican Army attempts the assassination by bomb of George VI in Belfast.

July 29 – Tungchow Mutiny: units of the East Hopei Army mutiny and kill Japanese troops and civilians in Tōngzhōu.

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 Marihuana 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 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 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 National Revolutionary Army defeats the Japanese.

September 27 – The last Bali tiger dies.

October

October 1

The Marihuana Tax Act becomes law in the United States.

U.S. Supreme Court associate justice Hugo Black, in a nationwide radio broadcast, refutes allegations of past involvement in the Ku Klux Klan.

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.

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 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 25 – Celâl Bayar forms the new (ninth) government of Turkey.

November

November 3 – Maurice J. Tobin resoundingly defeats former governor and mayor James Michael Curley in Boston's mayoral election.

November 5

Spanish Civil War – 35,000 Republican supporters are massacred in Piedrafita de Babia, near León.

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 4 – The Dandy comic is first published in Scotland; it will still be running as of 2011.

December 11 – Italy withdraws from the League of Nations.

December 12

USS Panay incident: Japanese bombers sink the American gunboat USS Panay.

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.

December 16 – The original production of the musical Me and My Girl opens at the West End Victoria Palace Theatre in London. A later revival of this musical would win an award.

December 21 – Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first feature-length traditionally animated film, premieres in selected theaters.

December 25 – At the age of 70, legendary 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 trades union's sugar plantation 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.

John Steinbeck's novella of the Great Depression Of Mice and Men is published in the United States.

Napoleon Hill's self-help book Think and Grow Rich is published in the United States.

Soviet industry produces about four times as much as it had in 1928.

Hergé's The Broken Ear is published in black and white.

January

January 1 – Anne Aubrey, British actress

January 4

Grace Bumbry, American opera singer

Dyan Cannon, American actress, film director, and screenwriter

January 6

Paolo Conte, Italian singer, pianist and composer

Underwood Dudley, American mathematician

January 8 – Dame Shirley Bassey, Welsh singer

January 13

George Reisman, American economist

Ati George Sokomanu, President of Vanuatu

January 14

Ken Higgs, English cricketer

Leo Kadanoff, American physicist (d. 2015)

January 15 – Margaret O'Brien, American child actress

January 16 – Francis George, American cardinal (d. 2015)

January 18

Yukio Endo, Japanese gymnast (d. 2009)

John Hume, Northern Irish politician; Nobel Peace Prize laureate

January 19 – Giovanna Marini, Italian singer-songwriter

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 27 – John Ogdon, English pianist (d. 1989)

January 29 – Bobby Scott, American musician, producer and songwriter (d. 1990)

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 musician

Garrett Morris, American comedian and actor

February 2

Remak Ramsay, American actor

Tom Smothers, American musician and comedian

Eric Arturo Delvalle, Panamanian lawyer (d. 2015)

February 3 – Billy Meier, Swiss Prophet

February 4 – Magnar Solberg, Norwegian biathlete

February 5 – Gaston Roelants, Belgian Olympic athlete

February 8

Manfred Krug, German actor and singer

Harry Wu, Chinese Human Rights activist (d. 2016)

February 9

Francis William Lawvere, American mathematician

Robert "Bilbo" Walker Jr., American blues guitarist

February 10 – Anne Anderson, Scottish physiologist (d. 1983)

February 11 – Bill Lawry, Australian cricketer

February 12 – Charles Dumas, American athlete (d. 2004)

February 13 – Rupiah Banda, 4th President of Zambia

February 14 – Magic Sam, American musician (d. 1969)

February 17 – Mary Ann Mobley, American actress; Miss America 1959 (d. 2014)

February 20

Robert Huber, German chemist; Nobel Prize laureate

George Leonardos, Greek journalist and author

Roger Penske, American race car driver

Nancy Wilson, American singer

February 21

Ron Clarke, Australian runner (d. 2015)

King Harald V of Norway

February 25

Sir Tom Courtenay, English actor

Bob Schieffer, American television journalist

February 27 – Barbara Babcock, American character actress

March

March 2 – Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President of Algeria

March 3 – Bobby Driscoll, American actor, primarily known as a child actor and voice actor (d. 1968)

March 4

Graham Dowling, New Zealand cricketer

Leslie H. Gelb, American foreign policy expert, President of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1993

Yuri Senkevich, Russian cosmonaut (d. 2003)

Barney Wilen, French jazz saxophonist (d. 1996)

March 5 – Olusegun Obasanjo, President of Nigeria

March 6 – Valentina Tereshkova, Russian cosmonaut, first woman in space

March 8

Richard Fariña, American folk music singer and novelist (d. 1966)

Juvénal Habyarimana, 3rd President of Rwanda (d. 1994)

March 9 – Harry Neale, Canadian ice hockey coach and broadcaster

March 14 – Benny Paret, Cuban welterweight boxer (d. 1962)

March 15 – Valentin Rasputin, Russian writer (d. 2015)

March 17 – Frank Calabrese, Sr., American gangster in the Chicago Outfit (d. 2012)

March 20 – Jerry Reed, American country musician (d. 2008)

March 22 – Armin Hary, German athlete

March 23

Craig Breedlove, American race car driver

Tony Burton, American actor and comedian (d. 2016)

March 27 – Thomas Aquinas Daly, American painter

March 30 – Warren Beatty, American actor and director

April

April 5 – Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State

April 6

Merle Haggard, American country musician (d. 2016)

Billy Dee Williams, American actor

April 9 – Valerie Singleton, English television presenter

April 10 – Bella Akhmadulina, Russian poet (d. 2010)

April 15 – Robert W. Gore, American inventor

April 16 – George "The Animal" Steele, American professional wrestler

April 17

Don Buchla, American electronic-instrument designer (d. 2016)

Ferdinand Piëch, Austrian engineer and business magnate

April 18 – Jan Kaplický, British architect of Czech origin (d. 2009)

April 19

Elinor Donahue, American actress

Joseph Estrada, Filipino actor and politician, 13th President of the Philippines

April 20 – George Takei, Japanese American actor, director and author

April 22 – Jack Nicholson, American film actor and director

April 24 – Joe Henderson, American rhythm and blues and gospel music singer (d. 1964)

April 26 – Jean-Pierre Beltoise, French race car driver (d. 2015)

April 27

Sandy Dennis, American actress (d. 1992)

Robin Eames, Anglican prelate; Northern Irish clergyman and peace activist

April 28 – Saddam Hussein, 5th President of Iraq (d. 2006)

April 29 – Jill Paton Walsh, English novelist

May

May 1 – Una Stubbs, British actress

May 2

Gisela Elsner, German writer (d. 1992)

Lorenzo Music, American voice actor (d. 2001)

May 3 – Hans Cieslarczyk, German football player

May 4 – Ron Carter, American jazz musician

May 5 – Trần Đức Lương, President of Vietnam

May 6 – Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, American boxer (d. 2014)

May 8

Carlos Gaviria Díaz, Colombian justice and politician

Thomas Pynchon, American writer

May 12 – George Carlin, American comedian (d. 2008)

May 13

Trevor Baylis, English inventor

Roch Carrier, Canadian writer

Roger Zelazny, American writer (d. 1995)

May 15

Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State

Trini Lopez, American musician

May 16 – Yvonne Craig, American actress (d. 2015)

May 17 – Hazel O'Leary, U.S. Secretary of Energy

May 18

Brooks Robinson, American baseball player

Jacques Santer, Luxembourg politician, President of the European Council

May 21

Sofiko Chiaureli, Georgian actress (d. 2008)

John Fairfax, British ocean rower (d. 2012)

Mengistu Haile Mariam, President of Ethiopia

May 22 – Facundo Cabral, Argentine singer (d. 2011)

May 24 – Roger Peterson, pilot who flew the plane on The Day the Music Died (d. 1959)

June

June 1

Morgan Freeman, American actor

Rosaleen Linehan, Irish actress

Colleen McCullough, Australian author (d. 2015)

Ezio Pascutti, Italian footballer (d. 2017)

June 2 – Sally Kellerman, American actress and singer

June 3

Phyllis Baker, American professional baseball player (d. 2006)

Crawford Hallock Greenewalt, Jr., American archaeologist (d. 2012)

Solomon P. Ortiz, U.S. congressman from Texas

June 4 – Gorilla Monsoon, American professional wrestler and announcer (d. 1999)

June 7 –

Neeme Järvi, Estonian conductor

Roberto Blanco, German singer

June 8 – Toni Harper, American child singer

June 9 – Harald Rosenthal, German biologist

June 10 – Luciana Paluzzi, Italian actress

June 11 – Robin Warren, Australian pathologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

June 15

Herbert Feuerstein, German cabarettist and entertainer

Waylon Jennings, American country singer (d. 2002)

Alan Thornett, British Trotskyist activist

June 16

Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, 48th Prime Minister of Bulgaria (2001-2005).

Charmian May, British actress (d. 2002)

June 17 – Clodovil Hernandes, Brazilian fashion designer, television presenter, and politician (d. 2009)

June 18

Wray Carlton, American football player

Vitaly Zholobov, Soviet cosmonaut

June 19 – André Glucksmann, French philosopher and author (d. 2015)

June 23 – Martti Ahtisaari, 10th President of Finland

June 25 – Keizō Obuchi, 54th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 2000)

June 26 – Robert Coleman Richardson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)

June 28 – Ron Luciano, American baseball umpire and writer (d. 1995)

July

July 1

Lydia Makhubu, Swazi chemist and former professor of chemistry

Ali Chekr, Lebanese fencer

July 2

Polly Holliday, American actress

Richard Petty, seven-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion

Dee Palmer, English composer, arranger,[1] and keyboardist

Dennis Keeney, American scientist in soil science and water chemistry

July 4

Sonja Haraldsen, Queen of Norway and wife to King Harald V of Norway

Wolf von Lojewski, German television journalist

July 5 – Jo de Roo, Dutch former professional road racing cyclist

July 6

Vladimir Ashkenazy, Russian pianist

Ned Beatty, American actor

Michael Sata, Zambian president (d. 2014)

July 7

Jocelyn Newman, Australian politician

Lars-Erik Larsson, Swedish rowing coxswain

Carroll Hubbard, American politician

Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong administrator

Carol Nugent, American actress

Nanami Shiono, Japanese author and novelist

Valery Anisimov,

July 9 – David Hockney, English-born artist

July 12

Bill Cosby, American actor and comedian

Lionel Jospin, Prime Minister of France

July 13 – Ghillean Prance, British botanist and ecologist

July 14 – Yoshirō Mori, 55th Prime Minister of Japan

July 17 – Jaberi Bidandi Ssali, Ugandan politician[3] and businessman

July 18

Roald Hoffmann, Polish-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

Hunter S. Thompson, American author and journalist (d. 2005)

July 20

Dick Hafer, American Christian cartoonist (d. 2003)

Ken Ogata, Japanese actor (d. 2008)

July 27

Anna Dawson, British actress

Don Galloway, American actor (d. 2009)

July 29

Ryutaro Hashimoto, 53rd Prime Minister of Japan (d. 2006)

Daniel McFadden, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate

August

August 2 – Coenraad Bron, Dutch computer scientist (d. 2006)

August 4 – David Bedford, American musician (d. 2011)

August 5 – Herb Brooks, American hockey coach (d. 2003)

August 6 – Barbara Windsor, English actress

August 8 – Dustin Hoffman, American actor

August 14 – Alberta Nelson, American actress (d. 2006)

August 16

David Anderson, Canadian politician

Ian Deans, Canadian politician (d. 2016)

August 18

Jean Alingué Bawoyeu, Chadian politician and former Prime Minister

Willie Rushton, English comedian and cartoonist (d. 1996)

August 20

Jim Bowen, English stand-up comedian and TV personality

Jean-Louis Petit, French composer, conductor and organist

August 21

Donald Dewar, First Minister of Scotland (d. 2000)

Robert Stone, American novelist

Chuck Traynor, American pornographer (d. 2002)

Gustavo Noboa, President of Ecuador

August 22 – Francesco Musso, Italian Olympic boxer

August 26

Kenji Utsumi, Japanese voice actor and actor (d. 2013)

Gennady Yanayev, former Soviet leader (d. 2010)

August 27 – Alice Coltrane, American jazz harpist, organist, pianist and composer (d. 2007)

August 29 – James Florio, Governor of New Jersey

August 30 – Bruce McLaren, Founder of McLaren Racing (d. 1970)

August 31 – Bobby Parker, American rock musician (d. 2013)

September

September 4

Dawn Fraser, Australian swimmer

Mikk Mikiver, Estonian actor and director (d. 2006)

September 5 – William Devane, American actor

September 6

Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada (Keith Gordon Ham), American-born Hare Krishna guru (d. 2011)

Jo Anne Worley, American comedian

September 7

Cüneyt Arkın, Turkish film actor

John Phillip Law, American actor (d. 2008)

September 10 – Tommy Overstreet, American country singer (d. 2015)

September 11 – Paola Ruffo di Calabria, Italian-born Queen of the Belgians

September 13

Don Bluth, American director, producer

Meeli Sööt, Estonian actress

September 15

Jean-Claude Decaux, French advertising executive (d. 2016)

King Curtis Iaukea, American professional wrestler (d. 2010)

Robert Lucas, Jr., American economist, Nobel Prize laureate

Fernando de la Rúa, President of Argentina

September 16 – Keith Bosley, British broadcaster, poet and translator

September 17

Orlando Cepeda, Puerto Rican baseball player

Ilarion Ionescu-Galați, Romanian conductor

September 19 – Abner Haynes, American football player

September 26 – Jerry Weintraub, American film producer and talent agent (d. 2015)

September 28

Rod Roddy, American television announcer (d. 2003)

Bob Schul, American Olympic athlete

October

October 2 – Johnnie Cochran, American attorney (d. 2005)

October 4

Jackie Collins, English author (d. 2015)

Franz Vranitzky, former Chancellor of Austria

October 5 – Barry Switzer, American football coach

October 11 – Bobby Charlton, English footballer

October 15 – Linda Lavin, American actress (Alice)

October 17 – Paxton Whitehead, English actor

October 20 – Juan Marichal, Dominican baseball player

October 23 – Carlos Lamarca, Brazilian military turned guerrilla leader (d. 1971)

October 24

John Goetz, American professional baseball player (d. 2008)

M. Rosaria Piomelli, born Agrisano, Italian-born American architect

October 28 – Lenny Wilkens, American basketball player and coach

October 31 – Tom Paxton, American folk singer-songwriter

November

November 1

"Whisperin" Bill Anderson, American country music singer-songwriter and game show host

Witta Pohl, German actress (d. 2011)

November 2 – Earl Carroll, American lead vocalist for The Cadillacs (d. 2012)

November 4

Michael Wilson, Canadian politician and diplomat

Loretta Swit, American actress

November 5

Chan Sek Keong, third Chief Justice of Singapore

Harris Yulin, American actor

November 6 – Joe Warfield, American actor

November 8 – Paul Foot, British journalist (d. 2004)

November 10 – Zdeněk Zikán, Czech football player (d. 2013)

November 11 – Stephen Lewis, Canadian politician and diplomat

November 15

Little Willie John, American rock and roll and rhythm and blues singer (d. 1968)

Yaphet Kotto, American actor

November 17

Peter Cook, English comedian and writer (d. 1995)

Manuel Félix López, Ecuadorian politician (d. 2004)

November 20

Ruth Laredo, American pianist (d. 2005)

Eero Mantyranta, Finnish Olympic cross-country skiier (d. 2013)

November 21

Ingrid Pitt, Polish-born British actress (d. 2010)

Marlo Thomas, American actress, producer, and social activist

November 26 – Boris Yegorov, Russian cosmonaut (d. 1994)

November 30 – Ridley Scott, British film director and producer

December

December 1

Chuck Low, American actor

Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, 7th President of Latvia

December 3 – Bobby Allison, American race car driver

December 7 – Kenneth Colley, British actor

December 8

Michael Bowen, American artist (d. 2009)

James MacArthur, American actor (d. 2010)

Arne Næss, Jr., Norwegian mountaineer and businessman (d. 2004)

December 9 – Darwin Joston, American actor (d. 1998)

December 11 – Jim Harrison, American writer

December 12 – Willie Stokes, American mobster (d. 1986)

December 17 – Kerry Packer, Australian businessman (d. 2005)

December 21 – Jane Fonda, American actress and social activist

December 26 – John Horton Conway, mathematician

December 28 – Ratan Tata, Indian industrialist

December 29

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, President of the Maldives (1978–2008)

Dieter Thomas Heck, German television presenter, singer and actor

Barbara Steele, British actress

December 30

Gordon Banks, English footballer

John Hartford, American musician and composer (d. 2001)

Jim Marshall, American football player

Noel Paul Stookey, American singer (Peter, Paul and Mary)

Zaldy Zshornack, Filipino actor (d. 2002)

December 31

Avram Hershko, Israeli biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Anthony Hopkins, British actor

Date unknown

Cathie Jung, owner of the smallest waist on a living person (measuring just 15 in.).

January

January 1 – Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, Indian spiritual teacher (b. 1874)

January 1 – John Gresham Machen, American Presbyterian theologian (b. 1881)

January 2 – Ross Alexander, American actor (b. 1907)

January 4 – Paul Behncke, German admiral (b. 1869)

January 6 – André Bessette, Canadian religious leader (b. 1845)

January 12 – Martin Johnson, American adventurer and documentary filmmaker (plane crash) (b. 1884)

January 17 – Richard Boleslavsky, Polish film director (b. 1889)

January 21 – Marie Prevost, Canadian actress (b. 1898)

February

February 5 – Lou Andreas-Salomé, Russian-born writer (b. 1861)

February 7 – Elihu Root, American statesman and diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1845)

February 11 – Walter Burley Griffin, American architect and town planner (b. 1876)

February 24 – Guy Standing, British actor (b. 1873)

February 27 – Charles Donnelly, Irish poet (killed in battle) (b. 1915)

March

March 8 – Howie Morenz, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1902)

March 9 – Paul Elmer More, American critic and essayist (b. 1864)

March 11 – Joseph S. Cullinan, American oil industrialist, founder of Texaco (b. 1860)

March 12 – Charles-Marie Widor, French organist and composer (b. 1840)

March 15 – H. P. Lovecraft, American writer (b. 1890)

March 17 – Austen Chamberlain, English statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1863)

March 20 – Harry Vardon, English golf professional (b. 1870)

March 22

Alfred Dyke Acland, British military officer (b. 1858)

Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford, English aviator and ornithologist (plane crash) (b. 1865)

March 25 – John Drinkwater, English poet and dramatist (b. 1882)

March 29 – Karol Szymanowski, Polish composer (b. 1882)

April

April 10 – Ralph Ince, American film director (b. 1887)

April 14 – Ned Hanlon, American baseball manager and MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1857)

April 16 – Jay Johnson Morrow, American military engineer and politician, 3rd Governor of the Panama Canal Zone (b. 1870)

April 19 – William Martin Conway, British art critic and mountaineer (b. 1856)

April 19 – William Morton Wheeler, American entomologist (b. 1865)

April 21 – Saima Harmaja, Finnish poet (b. 1913)

April 22 – Arthur Edmund Carewe, Armenian-American actor (b. 1884)

April 24 – Lucy Beaumont, English actress (b. 1873)

April 25 – Michał Drzymała, Polish rebel (b. 1857)

April 27 – Antonio Gramsci, Italian Communist writer and politician (b. 1891)

April 29

William Gillette, American actor (b. 1853)

Wallace Carothers, American chemist, inventor of nylon (b. 1896)

May

May 1 – Snitz Edwards, Hungarian actor (b. 1868)

May 4 – Noel Rosa, Brazilian songwriter (b. 1910)

May 6 – 36 victims of the LZ 129 Hindenburg disaster.

May 23 – John D. Rockefeller, American industrialist and philanthropist (b. 1839)

May 24 – Luis F. Álvarez, Spanish American physician (b. 1853)

May 25 – Henry Ossawa Tanner, American artist (b. 1859)

May 28 – Alfred Adler, Austrian psychologist (b. 1870)

June

June 2 – Louis Vierne, French composer (b. 1870)

June 3 – Emilio Mola, Spanish Nationalist commander (plane crash) (b. 1887)

June 7 – Jean Harlow, American film actress (b. 1911)

June 10 – Robert Laird Borden, 8th Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1854)

June 12 – Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Soviet Army officer and Red Army commander-in-chief (executed) (b. 1893)

June 18 – Gaston Doumergue, 13th President of France (b. 1863)

June 19 – J. M. Barrie, Scottish novelist and dramatist (b. 1860)

June 25 – Colin Clive, British actor (b. 1900)

July

July 2 – Amelia Earhart, American aviator (missing on this date) (b. 1897)

July 9 – Oliver Law, American labor organizer and Army officer (killed in battle) (b. 1899)

July 11 – George Gershwin, American composer (b. 1898)

July 13 – Victor Laloux, French architect (b. 1850)

July 18 – Julian Bell, English poet (killed in battle) (b. 1908)

July 20 – Guglielmo Marconi, Italian-born inventor (b. 1874)

August

August 6 – F. C. S. Schiller, German-British philosopher (b. 1864)

August 11 – Edith Wharton, American writer (b. 1862)

August 27 – Andrew W. Mellon, American banker and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (b. 1855)

August 30 – Tomás António Garcia Rosado, Portuguese general (b. 1854)

September

September 2 – Pierre de Coubertin, 2nd President of the International Olympic Committee (b. 1863)

September 13 – Ellis Parker Butler, American humorist (b. 1869)

September 14 – Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, 1st President of Czechoslovakia (b. 1850)

September 21 – Osgood Perkins, American actor (b. 1892)

September 22 – Ruth Roland, American actress (b. 1892)

September 26 – Bessie Smith, African-American singer (b. 1894)

September 29 – Ray Ewry, American athlete (b. 1873)

October

October 16 – Jean de Brunhoff, French writer (b. 1899)

October 17 – J. Bruce Ismay, English businessman (b. 1862)

October 19 – Ernest Rutherford, New Zealand physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1871)

October 26 – Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki, Polish general (b. 1867)

November

November 6 – Johnston Forbes-Robertson, British stage actor (b. 1853)

November 9 – Ramsay MacDonald, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1866)

November 11 – Uryū Sotokichi, Japanese admiral (b. 1857)

November 13 – Caroline Louise Dudley (aka Mrs. Leslie Carter), stage & screen actress (b. 1862)

November 23 – Miklós Kovács Hungarian Slovene writer (b. 1857)

November 17 – Jack Worrall, Australian cricketer and coach (b. 1860)

November 23

Jagadish Chandra Bose, Indian physicist (b. 1858)

George Albert Boulenger, Belgian naturalist (b. 1858)

November 25 – Raymond Stanton Patton, American admiral and engineer, second Director of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (b. 1882)

November 27 – Wilhelm Weinberg, German physician (b. 1862)

December

December 3 – Prosper Poullet, Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1868)

December 8 – Hans Molisch, Czech-Austrian botanist (b. 1856)

December 9 – Gustaf Dalén, Swedish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1869)

December 12 – Alfred Abel, German actor (b. 1879)

December 20 – Erich Ludendorff, German general (b. 1865)

December 21

Ted Healy, American actor (b. 1896)

Frank B. Kellogg, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1856)

December 25 – Newton D. Baker, United States Secretary of War (b. 1871)

December 28

Herbert Bullmore, Scottish Rugby Union international, grandfather of Kerry Packer (b. 1874)

Maurice Ravel, French composer (Bolero) (b. 1875)

December 30 – Hans Niels Andersen, Danish businessman, founder of the East Asiatic Company (b. 1852)

The 300,000 Chinese in Nanking, the Capital of China.

Nobel Prizes

Physics – Clinton Joseph Davisson, George Paget Thomson

Chemistry – Walter Haworth, Paul Karrer

Physiology or Medicine – Albert von Szent-Györgyi Nagyrapolt

Literature – Roger Martin du Gard

Peace – Robert Cecil

Links

1937 WWII Timeline

The 1930s Timeline: 1937 – from American Studies Programs at The University of Virginia