February 1937
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The following events occurred in February 1937:
February 1, 1937 (Monday)[edit]
- George VI released the New Year Honours list, one month late due to the abdication crisis. Queen Elizabeth was made Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order.[1]
- Argentina defeated Brazil 2-0 at the Estadio Gasómetro in Buenos Aires to win the South American Championship of football.
- The French aircraft manufacturer SNCASE was founded.
- Born:
- Don Everly, member of The Everly Brothers rock and roll duo; in Brownie, Kentucky (d. 2021);
- Garrett Morris, African-American comedian and actor and part of the original cast of Saturday Night Live; in New Orleans, Louisiana
February 2, 1937 (Tuesday)[edit]
- Senjūrō Hayashi became the new Prime Minister of Japan.
- Born:
- Remak Ramsay, American actor; in Baltimore
- Tom Smothers, American comedian and one-half of the Smothers Brothers musical comedy team; in New York City (d. 2023)
February 3, 1937 (Wednesday)[edit]
- The Battle of Málaga began.
- The 33rd International Eucharistic Congress opened in Manila, Philippines. It was the first eucharistic congress held in Asia.
- Born:
- Billy Meier, Swiss author and ufologist; in Bülach
- Alex Young, Scottish footballer; in Loanhead (d. 2017)
February 4, 1937 (Thursday)[edit]
- Willie Gallacher, the lone Communist Party of Great Britain M.P., caused an uproar in the House of Commons when he asserted that the Regency Bill under discussion was clearly "directed towards the occupant of the Throne at the present time" because he was "suspect." Conservative Member Earl Winterton jumped to his feet and declared that not even a Member "who represents so small an amount of opinion in the country" as Gallacher "should be permitted to get away with the monstrous assertion which he has just made", and said it "could only have come from someone who approaches the subject with a distorted brain."[2][3]
- German ambassador to Britain Joachim von Ribbentrop committed a social gaffe when he gave the Nazi salute to George VI, nearly knocking over the king who was stepping forward to shake Ribbentrop's hand.[4][5]
- Born: Magnar Solberg, Norwegian biathlon medalist; in Soknedal
February 5, 1937 (Friday)[edit]
- The Judicial Procedures Reform Bill was recommended by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a surprise message to Congress, recommending a drastic revision of the Supreme Court. The plan would increase the number of judges from 9 to as many as 15, and provided that each time one of the justices reached the age of 70 and didn't retire, another seat would be added to the Court.[6] The idea failed and was derided as "court packing" and an attempt by President Roosevelt to gain more control over the Court with his own appointees.
- Died: Lou Andreas-Salomé, 75, Russian-born psychoanalyst and author
February 6, 1937 (Saturday)[edit]
- The Battle of Jarama began.
- Benito Mussolini's 20-year-old son Vittorio married Orsola Buvoli in Rome. About 1,000 people stood in the rain outside the church to view the comings and goings.[7]
February 7, 1937 (Sunday)[edit]
- A crowd of 40,000 leftists marched in Paris in observance of the third anniversary of the 6 February 1934 counter-demonstrations. Prime Minister Léon Blum stood in the rain to review them.[8]
- Born: Juan Pizarro, Puerto Rican baseball player; in Santurce (d. 2021)
- Died:
- Swami Akhandananda, 72, Indian monk
- Elihu Root, 91, American lawyer and statesman
February 8, 1937 (Monday)[edit]
- The Battle of Málaga ended in a decisive Nationalist victory with the capture of the city. The Málaga–Almería road massacre ensued.
- Born: Manfred Krug, German actor and singer (d. 2016)
February 9, 1937 (Tuesday)[edit]
- A United Air Lines passenger plane crashed into San Francisco Bay with the loss of all 11 people aboard. It was the first aviation accident to involve a Douglas DC-3.[9]
- Born:
- Clete Boyer, American baseball player; in Cassville, Missouri (d. 2007)
- William Lawvere, American mathematician; in Muncie, Indiana (d. 2023)
February 10, 1937 (Wednesday)[edit]
- A German appeals court ruled that children who failed to live up to the mental and physical standards of Nazi education could be taken away from their families and placed in state-run homes.[10]
- Born:
- Anne Anderson, Scottish reproductive physiologist; in Forres (d. 1983)
- Roberta Flack, singer; in Black Mountain, North Carolina (some sources give birth date as 1939)
February 11, 1937 (Thursday)[edit]
- The Flint sit-down strike ended when General Motors agreed to recognize the United Auto Workers.[11]
- Joachim von Ribbentrop formally presented the British Foreign Office with a demand for the return of Germany's colonies.[12]
- An issue of the British weekly news magazine Cavalcade was banned for running an article referring to rumors of the king having suffered an attack of epilepsy.[13]
- Aviator Amelia Earhart announced she would attempt to circumnavigate the globe as close to the equator as possible.[14]
- Born:
- Bill Lawry, Australian cricketer; in Thornbury, Victoria, Australia
- Eddie Shack, Canadian ice hockey player, in Sudbury, Ontario (d. 2020)
- Died: Walter Burley Griffin, 60, American architect
February 12, 1937 (Friday)[edit]
- The International Brigades halted the Nationalist advance at Jarama.[15]
- The National Football League admitted the Cleveland Rams.[16]
- The musical film When You're in Love starring Grace Moore and Cary Grant was released.
- Born:
- Charles Dumas, U.S. Olympic high jumper, in Tulsa, Oklahoma (d. 2004);
- Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, Italian noble; in Naples
- Died: Christopher Caudwell, 29, British Marxist writer, was killed in the Spanish Civil War.
February 13, 1937 (Saturday)[edit]
- A movie theater fire in Andong, China killed 685 people.[17][18] The estimate was later updated to 800 killed.[19]
- The Boston Redskins NFL team moved to Washington, D.C., and became the Washington Redskins.[20]
- Felix Kaspar of Austria won the men's competition of the World Figure Skating Championships in Vienna.
- Born: Rupiah Banda, President of Zambia from 2008 to 2011; in Gwanda, Southern Rhodesia (d. 2022)
February 14, 1937 (Sunday)[edit]
- A Nationalist warship shelled the Republican capital of Valencia for 30 minutes until counterfire from shore batteries forced its retreat.[21]
- Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg indicated that a referendum on the question of restoring the Habsburg monarchy might be held.[22]
- Born: Magic Sam (stage name for Samuel G. Maghett), African-American blues musician; in Grenada, Mississippi (d. 1969)
February 15, 1937 (Monday)[edit]
- An underground explosion in a coal mine in Wonthaggi, Australia killed 13 men.[23]
- Flooding killed 11 people around southern Los Angeles.[24]
February 16, 1937 (Tuesday)[edit]
- American chemist Wallace Carothers of the DuPont company received U.S. patent No. 2,071,250 for "monocomponent artificial filaments or the like of synthetic polymers", marketed by DuPont as the first synthetic fabric, nylon.[25][26]
- To celebrate the birth of Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, Mussolini proclaimed a general amnesty cancelling or reducing prison sentences for many types of offences.[27]
- Died: Rodmond Roblin, 84, Canadian businessman and politician who served as Premier of Manitoba from 1900 to 1915
February 17, 1937 (Wednesday)[edit]
- Ten men working on construction of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco fell to their deaths when a section of scaffolding collapsed. Only two workmen survived the fall.[28]
- Born: Mary Ann Mobley, American actress who won the Miss America 1959 beauty pageant; in Brandon, Mississippi (d. 2014)
February 18, 1937 (Thursday)[edit]
- Six U.S. Marines were killed and 10 injured in a shell explosion aboard the battleship USS Wyoming during military exercises off the coast of San Clemente Island.[29][30]
- Film actress Mary Astor and film editor Manuel del Campo were married in Yuma, Arizona.[31]
- Died: Horatio Clarence Hocken, 79, Canadian politician and founder of the Toronto Star newspaper
February 19, 1937 (Friday)[edit]
- Yekatit 12: Ethiopians attempted to assassinate Italian Viceroy Rodolfo Graziani in a grenade attack. Graziani and several of his staff were wounded. Italians would massacre 30,000 Ethiopians in reprisal killings over the next three days.[11][32]
- Born: Robert Walker, American blues musician; near Clarksdale, Mississippi (d. 2017)
February 20, 1937 (Saturday)[edit]
- Paraguay gave notice of its intent to withdraw from the League of Nations.[32]
- Hitler opened an auto show in Berlin featuring three test models of the Volkswagen.[33]
- The Indian National Congress won a majority of seats in six Indian provincial elections.[11]
- Born:
- Robert Huber, German biochemist and Nobel laureate; in Munich
- George Leonardos, Egyptian author; in Alexandria
- Roger Penske, American race car driver and team owner; in Shaker Heights, Ohio
- Nancy Wilson, American jazz singer; in Chillicothe, Ohio (d. 2018)
February 21, 1937 (Sunday)[edit]
- Nearly 40,000 Republican militia in Spain launched an attack on Oviedo.[34]
- The Spanish government dismissed General José Asensio Torrado after the fall of Málaga.[35]
- France closed its border with Spain to keep foreign fighters and weapons out of the Civil War.[36]
- The Italians captured the leader of the Ethiopian resistance, Desta Damtew.[32]
- The first successful flying car, the Waterman Arrowbile, made its first flight.
- Born:
- King Harald V of Norway, in Skaugum
- Ron Clarke, Australian athlete and politician; in Melbourne (d. 2015)
February 22, 1937 (Monday)[edit]
- Italian Premier Benito Mussolini decreed that any native chieftain or officer who opposed Italian colonial troops, even in territory as yet unoccupied, would be put to death.[37]
- Died: James P. Buchanan, 69, American politician
February 23, 1937 (Tuesday)[edit]
- Italy protested to Britain for inviting Haile Selassie to send an envoy to the king's coronation ceremony.[4]
- The seventh known victim of the Cleveland Torso Murderer was found.
- Murray Murdoch of the New York Rangers became the first player in NHL history to appear in 500 consecutive games.[38]
- Died: Henry T. Mayo, 80, American admiral
February 24, 1937 (Wednesday)[edit]
- In the Battle of Jarama, Republicans tried to take strategic Pingarrón Hill southeast of Madrid but were pushed back.[39]
- Died:
- Desta Damtew, 45, leader of Ethiopian resistance, was executed
- Vladimir Ippolitovich Lipsky, 73, Ukrainian scientist and botanist
- Humphrey Pearson, 43, American screenwriter and playwright, was shot to death
- Guy Standing, 63, English actor
February 25, 1937 (Thursday)[edit]
- The John Steinbeck novella Of Mice and Men was published.[11]
- The first issue of Detective Comics, which would introduce Batman the following year and would give DC Comics its name, was published.
- The British liner Llandovery Castle was sailing from Gibraltar to Marseilles carrying 100 passengers when it hit a naval mine off Cap de Creus. A large hole was torn in its hull but it managed to limp to Port-Vendres.ref>"Floating Mine Tears Hole in British Ship; 300 Passengers Safe". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 26, 1937. p. 11.</ref>
- Born:
- Tom Courtenay, English actor; in Hull, England
- Bob Schieffer, U.S. television reporter and news anchor; in Austin, Texas
February 26, 1937 (Friday)[edit]
- The play The Ascent of F6, by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, premiered at the Mercury Theatre in London.
February 27, 1937 (Saturday)[edit]
- The French government passed a new defense plan extending the Maginot Line.[32]
- The Battle of Jarama ended in a strategic Republican victory over the rebel Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War.
- Canada won the World Ice Hockey Championships, held in London.
- Died: Charles Donnelly, 22, Irish poet and activist, was killed in the Spanish Civil War.
February 28, 1937 (Sunday)[edit]
- Spanish Foreign Minister Julio Álvarez del Vayo scolded the European democracies for "lamentable weakness ... in the face of the tactics of Fascist nations to make themselves masters of the continent." Álvarez del Vayo declared that "the defense of Madrid is the defense of Paris and London tomorrow."[40]
- Died: Harrington Mann, 72, Scottish painter
References[edit]
- ^ Brewer, Sam (February 1, 1937). "King Gives Queen Top Honors in New Year's List". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 3.
- ^ "Stirs Tempest by Insinuating King is Unfit". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 5, 1937. p. 1.
- ^ "Regency during total incapacity of the Sovereign". February 4, 1937. Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 4 February 1937. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
- ^ a b Mercer, Derrik, ed. (1989). Chronicle of the 20th Century. London: Chronicle Communications Ltd. p. 479. ISBN 978-0-582-03919-3.
- ^ Bloch, Michael. Ribbentrop. New York: Crown Publishing, 1992. p, 125–127. ISBN 0-517-59310-6.
- ^ "Roosevelt Asks Power to Reform Courts, Increasing the Supreme Bench to 15 Judges; Congress Startled, But Expected to Approve". The New York Times. February 6, 1937. p. 1.
- ^ "Papa Mussolini is Happy; Beams as His Son Weds". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 7, 1937. p. 5.
- ^ "40,000 March in Paris to Recall Strife of 1934". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 8, 1937. p. 2.
- ^ "February 9, 1937". PlaneCrashInfo. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
- ^ Schultz, Sigrid (February 11, 1937). "True Nazi Life Prescribed for Coddled Boys". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
- ^ a b c d "1937". MusicAndHistory. Archived from the original on August 29, 2012. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
- ^ "German Demand for Colonies Put in Britain's Lap". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 12, 1937. p. 6.
- ^ "Ban Magazine for Story on King's Health". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 12, 1937. p. 1.
- ^ "Amelia Earhart to Circle Globe East to West". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 12, 1937. p. 28.
- ^ Simkin, John (2014). "Spanish Civil War: Chronology". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
- ^ "Vote Cleveland Pro Football Franchise". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 13, 1937. p. 19.
- ^ Nash, Jay Robert (1976). Darkest Hours. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 659. ISBN 978-1-59077-526-4.
- ^ "THEATRE FIRE". Sydney Morning Herald. 1937-02-15. Retrieved 2024-01-02.
- ^ "THEATRE FIRE". Sydney Morning Herald. 1937-02-16. Retrieved 2024-01-02.
- ^ Griffith, R. D. (2012). To the NFL: You Sure Started Somethin': A Historical Guide of All 32 NFL Teams and the Cities They've Played In. Dorrance Publishing. p. 226. ISBN 978-1-4349-1681-5.
- ^ "Shell Spain's New Capital". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 15, 1937. p. 1.
- ^ "Chief of Austria Urges Return of a Hapsburg King". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 15, 1937. p. 3.
- ^ "Number 20 Coal Shaft Disaster". Monument Australia. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
- ^ "Los Angeles Area Flooded, 11 Are Killed". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 16, 1937. p. 1.
- ^ " "On this date, February 16, in 1937, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. was granted U.S. patent No. 2,071,250 for Nylon, The Hagley Vault, the Hagley Museum
- ^ "16th February 1937: Organic chemist Wallace Carothers is awarded a patent for nylon", HistoryPod.net
- ^ Taylor, Edmond (February 17, 1937). "Il Duce Frees Foes in Honor of Baby Prince". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
- ^ Bateson, John (2012). The Final Leap: Suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-520-27240-8.
- ^ "4 Killers Get Horner Stay". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 19, 1937. p. 1.
- ^ "Casualties: US Navy and Marine Corps Personnel Killed and Injured in Selected Accidents and Other Incidents Not Directly the Result of Enemy Action". Naval History and Heritage Command. 7 December 2022. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
- ^ "Mary Astor of Films Marries Mexican Actor". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 19, 1937. p. 3.
- ^ a b c d "Chronology 1937". indiana.edu. 2002. Archived from the original on April 2, 2020. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
- ^ Schultz, Sigrid (February 19, 1937). "'People's Auto' at $250 Ready for Hitler O.K.". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 15.
- ^ Payne, Stanley G. (1967). Politics and the Military in Modern Spain. Stanford University Press. p. 521.
- ^ Cortada, James W., ed. (1982). Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 506. ISBN 0-313-22054-9.
- ^ Small, Alex (February 22, 1937). "Border Clamp on Spain Seen As Boon to Madrid". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 2.
- ^ "Mussolini Decrees Death for Ethiopians Who Bombed Viceroy". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 23, 1937. p. 4.
- ^ Maguire, Liam (2012). Next Goal Wins!: The Ultimate NHL Historian's One-of-a-kind Collection of Hockey Trivia. Random House Canada. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-307-36340-4.
- ^ "Rebel Barrage Wilts Loyalist Charge Up Hill". Chicago Daily Tribune. February 25, 1937. p. 2.
- ^ "Accuses Italy". Chicago Daily Tribune. March 1, 1937. p. 4.