Events 1 - 200 of 352
Astonished Heart
Jan 9 Noël Coward's stage drama "Astonished Heart" premieres in London
Giannini Bank President
Jan 14 L. M. (Mario) Giannini elected President of Bank of America
- Jan 15 1st all-glass windowless structure in US completed, Toledo, Ohio
- Jan 15 Horace Stoneham is elected president of New York Giants MLB franchise; succeeds late father, Charles; remains president for next 40 years, presiding over move to SF, before selling team in 1976
- Jan 15 Nonprofit Ford Foundation incorporates
- Jan 16 1st photo finish camera installed at Hialeah Race track in Hialeah, Florida
- Jan 16 Screen Actors Guild incorporates with King Vidor as president
- Jan 16 Spanish socialists, communists and anarchists form Unidad Popular
Edward VIII
Jan 20 Edward VIII succeeds British King George V
Stompin' at the Savoy
Jan 24 Benny Goodman and His Orchestra record "Stompin' at the Savoy" for Victor Records in Chicago, Illinois
Laval's Government Fails
Jan 24 Pierre Laval's second French government falls
Stalin Dislikes Opera
Jan 26 Joseph Stalin views Dmitri Shostakovich's opera "Lady Macbeth" but he and his officials leave early and the play is denounced in state press
Shostakovich Opera Criticized
Jan 28 Pravda criticizes Dmitri Shostakovich's opera "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"
First Baseball Hall of Fame
Jan 29 1st players elected to Baseball Hall of Fame: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson & Walter Johnson
"Modern Times"
Feb 5 "Modern Times", silent film directed by, written by and starring Charlie Chaplin, is released
Ferguson's Patents Tractor Hydraulics
Feb 5 Harry Ferguson patents the suction side hydraulic control system, allowing control of three-point mounted agricultural implements attached to tractors [1]
- Feb 5 National Wildlife Federation forms
- Feb 6 IV Winter Olympic Games open in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
- Feb 6 Pravda criticizes Dmitri Shostakovich's ballet "Clear Brook"
- Feb 7 Felix the Cat, animated film released by Van Beuren Studios licensed from Otto Messmer
- Feb 7 Flag of the US Vice President authorized
- Feb 8 1st ski jumping tournament at Red Wing, Minnesota
- Feb 8 First-ever NFL Draft: Jay Berwanger from the University of Chicago is first pick by Philadelphia Eagles
- Feb 8 German alpine skier Christi Cranz wins the inaugural Olympic women’s combined gold medal at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games ahead of teammate Käthe Grasegger
Event of Interest
Feb 8 Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru succeeds Mahatma Gandhi as chairman of India Congress Party
- Feb 9 German skier Franz Pfnür wins the inaugural Olympic men’s combined gold medal at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games ahead of teammate Gustav Lantschner
- Feb 11 Pumping begins to build Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay
- Feb 13 Ivar Ballangrud of Norway narrowly misses winning all 4 speed skating events at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Olympics; finishes 2nd in 1,500m just 1.0s behind teammate Charles Mathiesen
- Feb 14 Karl Schäfer of Austria wins his 2nd consecutive men’s figure skating Olympic gold medal at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games in Germany
- Feb 14 National Negro Congress organizes in Chicago
- Feb 14 Norwegian speed skater Ivar Ballangrud sets Olympic record 17:24.3 to win the 10,000m at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games; his 3rd gold medal from 4 events and 4th career Olympic gold
- Feb 15 -60°F (-51°C), Parshall, North Dakota (state record)
Volkswagen Beetle
Feb 15 Adolf Hitler announces construction of the Volkswagen Beetle (the People's Car, aka the Käfer/Beetle)
- Feb 15 Great Britain’s 0-0 tie with the US is enough to clinch their first ever Olympic ice hockey gold medal at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games; breaks Canada’s 4 straight Games golden streak
Olympic Gold
Feb 15 Sonja Henie of Norway becomes the most successful Olympic figure skater ever by winning her 3rd consecutive gold medal at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games; beats Cecilia College of Great Britain by 6.4 points
- Feb 16 IV Winter Olympic Games close in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
- Feb 16 Spanish Frente Popular (People's Front) wins elections
- Feb 17 -58°F (-50°C), McIntosh, South Dakota (state record)
- Feb 17 S. N. Behrman's play "End of Summer" premieres in NYC
- Feb 17 The world's first superhero, The Phantom, a cartoon strip by Lee Falk, makes his first appearance in comics
- Feb 18 NHL record 32 points scored, NY Americans (28) & Mont Maroons (24)
Election of Interest
Feb 19 Manuel Azaña becomes Prime Minister of Spain for the second time
- Feb 22 Construction on Ypenburg Netherlands airport begins
- Feb 22 Sonja Henie of Norway follows up her Winter Olympics victory with an incredible 10th consecutive women’s World Championship figure skating gold medal in Paris, France
- Feb 23 1st rocket air mail flight, Greenwood Lake, NY
Event of Interest
Feb 26 Adolf Hitler introduces Ferdinand Porsche's "Volkswagen"
- Feb 26 Military coup in Japan
- Feb 27 Dutch swimmer Willy den Ouden sets new women's world 100m freestyle record (1:04.6) in Amsterdam; lasts 22 years until broken in 1956 by Dawn Fraser of Australia
- Feb 28 Karl Schäfer of Austria follows up his Winter Olympics victory with his 7th consecutive men’s figure skating World Championship title in Paris, France
- Feb 28 Olympic champions Ernst Baier and Maxi Herber of Germany win their 4th consecutive pairs figure skating gold medal at the World Championships in Paris, France
US Neutrality Act
Feb 29 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs 2nd Neutrality Act
- Mar 1 A strike occurs aboard the S.S. California, leading to the demise of the International Seamen's Union and the creation of the National Maritime Union.
- Mar 1 Boulder (Hoover) Dam fully completed
Bradman Scores 369
Mar 2 Australian cricket's batting maestro Don Bradman scores 369 in 253 minutes (46 fours, 4 sixes) in South Australia's innings and 349 run win over Tasmania
- Mar 3 Clarrie Grimmett ends his Test career with 13 wkts in 5th Test v South Africa
Hindenburg Disaster
Mar 4 First flight of the airship Hindenburg at Friedrichshafen, Germany
8th Academy Awards
Mar 5 8th Academy Awards: "Mutiny on the Bounty", Victor McLaglen & Bette Davis wins
- Mar 5 Spitfire makes its 1st flight (Eastleigh Aerodrome in Southampton)
- Mar 6 Belgium ends Locarno pact
Hitler Breaks Treaty of Versailles
Mar 7 German dictator Adolf Hitler breaks the Treaty of Versailles by sending troops into the then demilitarized Rhineland
- Mar 8 The first stock car race is held in Daytona Beach, Florida.
- Mar 14 Federal Register, 1st magazine of the US government, publishes 1st issue
The Great Ziegfeld
Mar 22 "The Great Ziegfeld" directed by Robert Z. Leonard and starring William Powell and Luise Rainer premieres in Los Angeles (Best Picture 1937
- Mar 23 Italy, Austria & Hungary sign Pact of Rome
1st Intravenous Radioisotope Injection
Mar 23 Physician Joseph G. Hamilton injects a leukemia patient with a sodium radioisotope, first intravenous injection of a human with a radioisotope
- Mar 24 Detroit Red Wings beat Montreal Maroons, 1-0 in 16:30 of 6th period of OT; record Stanley Cup playoff game lasts 9 periods (176 minutes)
- Mar 25 200-inch mirror blank to build the Hale telescope leaves Corning New York for California (then largest telescopic mirror ever made)
- Mar 26 1st parliamentary debate on NZ radio
- Mar 26 200" telescope lens shipped, Corning Glass Works, NY-Cal Tech
- Mar 26 Mary Joyce ends a 1,000 mile trip by dog in Alaska
- Mar 27 WOS-AM in Jefferson City Missouri goes off the air
- Mar 29 10,000 watch the 200-inch mirror blank passing through Indianapolis
- Mar 29 Nazi propaganda claims 99% of Germans voted for Nazi candidates
Lucky" Luciano Arrested
Apr 1 Charles "Lucky" Luciano" is arrested in Arkansas on a criminal warrant from New York
- Apr 1 Orissa constituted a province of British India
- Apr 5 Tupelo, Mississippi virtually annihilated by a tornado, 216 die
- Apr 6 ANP begins telex service in Amsterdam
- Apr 6 Tornado, kills 203 & injuring 1,800 in Gainesville Georgia
- Apr 10 200" mirror blank arrives from Corning Glass Works of New York at Caltech's optical shop in Pasadena, California for use in Palomar Observatory's Hale Telescope; the work takes 11-1/2 years [1]
- Apr 11 First Butlins holiday camp opens in the UK at Ingoldmells, near Skegness
Red Wings 1st Championship
Apr 11 Stanley Cup Final, Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, ON: Detroit Red Wings beat Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2 for a 3-1 series win; Red Wings first SC Championship
- Apr 13 Ioannis Metaxas becomes Prime Minister of Greece
Édith Piaf Under Suspicion
Apr 14 French singer Édith Piaf questioned after nightclub owner and her patron Louis Leplée murdered in Paris
- Apr 15 Irish government authorizes establishment of Aer Lingus (Aerloingeas) as the national airline of the Republic of Ireland
- Apr 18 Pan-Am Clipper begins regular passenger flights from San Francisco to Honolulu
- Apr 19 First day of the Great Uprising in Palestine, anti-Jewish riots break out
- Apr 20 Jews repel an Arab attack in Petach Tikvah Palestine
- Apr 26 Dmitri Shostakovich completes his 4th Symphony
- Apr 29 1st pro baseball game in Japan is played Nagoya defeats Daitokyo, 8-5
Haile Selassie Escapes
May 1 Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie leaves Ethiopia as Italy invades
Hoover Arrests Karpis
May 1 FBI's J. Edgar Hoover arrests gangster Alvin "Creepy" Karpis
- May 2 Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and family flee Abyssinia
Peter and the Wolf
May 2 Sergei Prokofiev's musical "Peter and the Wolf" premieres in Moscow
- May 3 French People's Front win elections
Joe DiMaggio Debuts
May 3 NY Yankee Joe DiMaggio makes his major-league debut, gets 3 hits
- May 4 Pulitzer prize for the novel awarded to Harold L. Davis for "Honey in the Horn"
- May 5 Edward Ravenscroft patents screw-on bottle cap with a pour lip
- May 5 Italian troops occupy Addis Ababa
- May 8 Jockey Ralph Neves unexpectedly revived after being declared dead after a fall. His wife faints when he returned to track
- May 9 1st KLM airplane to land on Bonaire
- May 9 Italy takes Addis Abba, annexing Absynnia (Ethiopia)
- May 10 Manuel Azaña elected the second President of the Spanish Republic
- May 10 Nahas Pasja becomes premier of Egypt
- May 12 Ralph Vaughan Williams' opera "Poisoned Kiss" premieres in London
- May 13 Quiroga government takes office in Spain
Johnson's Record Flight
May 15 Amy Johnson arrives in Croydon, England having flown from South Africa in a record 4 days and 16 hours
- May 16 1st British air hostess Daphne Kearley flies to France
- May 21 Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her hand. Her story soon becomes one of Japan's most notorious scandals.
- May 22 Aer Lingus (Aerloingeas) is incorporated as the national airline of the Republic of Ireland
- May 24 Dutch bishops forbid membership of Nazi party
- May 24 Tony Lazerri 2 grand slams (11 RBIs); Ben Chapman sets record by reaching 1st 7 times safely, Yanks beat A's 25-2
- May 25 The Remington Rand strike, led by the American Federation of Labor, begins
- May 26 1st government of Zealand in Belgium ends
- May 27 First flight of Irish airline Aer Lingus, a six-seater de Havilland DH.84 Dragon biplane between Baldonnel Airfield in Clondalkin, County Dublin and Bristol (Whitchurch) Airport, England
- May 27 RMS Queen Mary leaves Southampton for NY on maiden voyage
On Computable Numbers
May 28 Alan Turing submits "On Computable Numbers" for publication, in which he set out the theoretical basis for modern computers.
- Jun 6 Aviation gasoline 1st produced commercially Paulsboro, New Jersey
- Jun 7 Charles "Lucky" Luciano is convicted on 62 counts of compulsory prostitution
- Jun 7 Yanks beat Indians 5-4 in 16; longest game without a strikeout
- Jun 11 International Surrealist Exhibition opens in London, England
- Jun 11 Presbyterian Church of America founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Jun 12 1st 50 KW US radio station (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
- Jun 12 LPGA Western Open Women's Golf, Topeka CC: Opal Hill scores a 3 & 2 win over Mrs. Charkes Dennehy to claim her second consecutive major title
- Jun 13 2nd Belgian government of Van Zealand forms
- Jun 14 Oranienburg Concentration Camp opens in Germany
Waal Bridge Opens
Jun 16 Dutch Queen Wilhelmina opens the Waal bridge with the longest arch in Europe at the time
Schmeling KOs Louis
Jun 19 German boxer Max Schmeling KOs up-and-coming American heavyweight Joe Louis in 12 rounds at Yankee Stadium, New York
McCarthy All-Star Manager
Jun 19 Joe McCarthy is named to manage AL All-Stars, rather than high-strung Mickey Cochrane, who is very close to a nervous breakdown
Jesse Owens Sets 100m Record
Jun 20 American sprinter Jesse Owens sets a 100m world record of 10.2 seconds
- Jun 22 Harry Froboess dives 110 m from airship into Bodensee & survives
- Jun 22 Virgin Islands receives a constitution from US (Organic Act)
- Jun 24 Mary McLeod Bethune named director of Negro Affairs in National Youth Adm
- Jun 24 Rookie outfielder Joe DiMaggio ties 3 MLB records in New York's 10-run 5th inning against the White Sox, hitting 2 home runs for 8 total bases; Yankees beat Chicago, 18-4
- Jun 26 1st flight of Fw61 helicopter
- Jun 26 Everett Marshall beats Ali Baba in Columbus, to become wrestling champ
- Jun 28 Japanese puppet state of Mengjiang is formed in northern China
- Jun 29 Empire State Building broadcasts high definition TV-343 lines
Cohan 1st Congressional Medal
Jun 29 George M. Cohan is the first artist to be presented with a US Congressional Gold Medal, by Franklin D. Roosevelt (for raising war morale)
- Jun 29 Pope Pius XI encyclical to US bishops "On motion pictures"
- Jun 30 40 hour work week law approved for US federal employees
- Jun 30 Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie asks the League of Nations for sanctions against Italy
Gone With The Wind
Jun 30 Margaret Mitchell's novel "Gone With The Wind" is published
- Jul 1 AVRO radio broadcast studios in Hilversum opens
- Jul 1 Watchfulness Committee forms in Amsterdam
- Jul 4 League of Nations ends sanctions against Italy after Italian takeover of Abyssinia
- Jul 5 120°F (49°C), Gannvalley, South Dakota (state record)
- Jul 6 114°F (46°C), Moorhead, Minnesota (state record)
- Jul 6 121°F (49°C), Steele, North Dakota (state record)
- Jul 6 A major breach of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal in England sends millions of gallons of water cascading 200 feet into the River Irwell
- Jul 7 American businessman Henry F. Phillips receives patents for a new "cross-recessed" screw, and the new screwdriver needed to make it work
- Jul 7 RCA shows 1st real TV program (dancing, film on locomotives, Bonwit Teller fashion show and monologue from Tobacco Road & comedy)
- Jul 10 109°F (43°C) Cumberland & Frederick, Maryland (state record)
- Jul 10 110°F (43°C) at Runyon, New Jersey (state record)
- Jul 10 111°F (44°C) Phoenixville, Pennsylvania (state record)
- Jul 10 112°F (44°C) at Martinsburg, West Virginia (state record)
- Jul 10 New Straits Convention allows Turkish re-armament of Dardanelles
Baseball Record
Jul 10 Phillies Chuck Klein becomes 4th to hit 4 HRs in a game
- Jul 11 Triborough Bridge linking Manhattan, Bronx and Queens opens
- Jul 13 112°F (44°C), Mio, Michigan (state record)
- Jul 13 114°F (46°C), Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin (state record)
- Jul 14 1 million demonstrate to support French People's Front government
- Jul 14 116°F (47°C), Collegeville, Indiana (state record)
- Jul 15 Dutch 2nd Chamber agree to temporarily increase defense budget
- Jul 16 1st x-ray photo of arterial circulation, Rochester, NY
- Jul 16 NY Giants are 10½ games back in NL, & go on to win pennant
Hubbell Begins Winning Streak
Jul 17 NY Giants future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Carl Hubbell begins MLB record 24 game winning streak, beating Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-0 at Forbes Field
Spanish Civil War Begins
Jul 17 Spanish generals Francisco Franco and Emilio Mola lead a right-wing uprising, starting the Spanish Civil War
- Jul 18 Charles "Lucky" Luciano is sentenced to 30 to 50 years in state prison
- Jul 18 Spanish Civil War: General Francisco Franco issues manifesto and leads an uprising in the Spanish army stationed in Morocco
Feller Makes Debut
Jul 19 17-year-old Cleveland Indians future Baseball HOF pitcher Bob Feller makes his MLB debut in relief in 9-5 loss to Senators at Griffith Stadium, Washington
- Jul 19 Spanish premier Casares Quiroga succeeded by Jose Giral
- Jul 22 Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Johnny Moore hits 3 straight home runs in a 16-4 rout of the Pittsburgh Pirates
- Jul 24 118°F (48°C), Minden, Nebraska (state record)
- Jul 24 121°F (49°C), near Alton, Kansas (state record)
- Jul 24 Generals Mola and Cabanellas form Spanish anti-government
- Jul 25 115 acre Orchard Beach opens in the Bronx
- Jul 26 The Axis Powers decide to intervene in the Spanish Civil War.
- Jul 31 IOC awards Tokyo, Japan 1940 Summer Olympic Games (later cancelled, Second Sino-Japanese War)
- Aug 1 Benjamin Mays named president of Morehouse College
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists