1932 in the United States

1932 in the United States
Events from the year 1932 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government
President: Herbert Hoover (R-California)
Vice President: Charles Curtis (R-Kansas)
Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes (New York)
Speaker of the House of Representatives: John Nance Garner (D-Texas)
Senate Majority Leader: James Eli Watson (R-Indiana)
Congress: 72nd
Events
January–March
January 1 – The United States Post Office Department issues a set of 12 stamps commemorating the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birth.
January 7 – The Stimson Doctrine is proclaimed, in response to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
January 12 – Hattie W. Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate.
February 2 – The Reconstruction Finance Corporation begins operations in Washington, D.C.
February 4 – The 1932 Winter Olympics open in Lake Placid, New York.
February 15 – Clara, Lu & Em, generally regarded as the first daytime network soap opera, debuts in its morning time slot over the Blue Network of NBC Radio, having originally been a late evening program.
February 22 (Washington's Birthday) – The Purple Heart is revived by War Department General Order No. 3 as a decoration of the U.S. military awarded in the name of the president to those wounded or killed while serving with the U.S. Armed Forces; retrospective awards are made.
March 1 – Charles Lindbergh, Jr., the infant son of Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Charles Lindbergh, is kidnapped from the family home near Hopewell, New Jersey.
March 7 – Four people are killed when police fire upon 3,000 unemployed autoworkers marching outside the Ford River Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan.
March 25 – Tarzan the Ape Man opens, with Olympic gold medal swimmer Johnny Weissmuller in the title role; he will star in a total of twelve Tarzan films.
April–June
April 6 – U.S. president Herbert Hoover supports armament limitations.
May 2 – Comedian Jack Benny's radio show airs for the first time.
May 12 – Ten weeks after his abduction, the infant son of Charles Lindbergh is found dead just a few miles from the Lindberghs' home.
May 20–21 – Amelia Earhart flies from the US to Derry, Northern Ireland in 14 hours 54 minutes.
May 29 – The first of approximately 15,000 World War I veterans arrive in Washington, D.C. demanding the immediate payment of their military bonus, becoming known as the Bonus Army.
c. June – The Republican Citizens Committee Against National Prohibition is established for the repeal of prohibition in the U.S.
June 6
The Revenue Act of 1932 is enacted, creating the first gas tax in the United States at 1 cent per US gallon (0.26 ¢/L) sold.
The 6.4 Eureka earthquake affects the north coast of California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). Three people are injured and one killed.
June 29 – The comedy serial Vic and Sade debuts on NBC Radio.
July–September
July 8 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, bottoming out at 41.22.
July 28 – U.S. President Herbert Hoover orders the U.S. Army to forcibly evict the Bonus Army of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, D.C. Troops disperse the last of the Bonus Army the next day.
July 30–August 14 – The 1932 Summer Olympics take place in Los Angeles.
July 30 – Walt Disney's Flowers and Trees, the first animated cartoon to be presented in full Technicolor, premieres in Los Angeles, California. It releases in theaters, along with Eugene O'Neill's experimental play Strange Interlude (starring Norma Shearer and Clark Gable), and will go on to win the first Academy Award for Best Animated Short.
August – A farmers' revolt begins in the Midwestern United States.
August 7 – Raymond Edward Welch becomes the first one-legged man to scale New Hampshire.
August 10 – A 5.1 kg chondrite-type meteorite breaks into at least 7 fragments and strikes earth near the town of Archie in Cass County, Missouri.
August 31 – A total solar eclipse is visible from northern Canada through northeastern Vermont, New Hampshire, southwestern Maine, and the Capes of Massachusetts.
October–December
October 1 – The famous Babe Ruth's called shot is made in the fifth inning of game 3 of the 1932 World Series (baseball) during the 1932 New York Yankees season.
October 2 – The New York Yankees defeat the Chicago Cubs, 4 games to 0, to win their 4th World Series Title in baseball.
October 13 – Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes lays the cornerstone for a new U.S. Supreme Court building.
October 15 – The Michigan Marching Band (at this time called the Varsity band) debuts Script Ohio at the Michigan versus Ohio State game in Columbus.
October 23 – Fred Allen's radio comedy show debuts on CBS.
November 1 – The San Francisco Opera House opens.
November 7 – Buck Rogers in the 25th Century airs on American radio for the first time.
November 8 – U.S. presidential election, 1932: Democratic Governor of New York Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats Republican President Herbert Hoover in a landslide victory.
November 16 – New York City's Palace Theatre fully converts to a cinema, which is considered the final death knell of vaudeville as a popular entertainment in the United States.
November 18 – The 5th Academy Awards, hosted by Conrad Nagel, are presented at Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, with Edmund Goulding's Grand Hotel winning the Academy Award for Best Picture. John Ford and Brian Desmond Hurst's Arrowsmith and King Vidor's The Champ both receive the most nominations with four, while the latter film and Frank Borzage's Bad Girl both receive the most awards with two. Borzage also wins Best Director, his second overall.
November 24 – In Washington, D.C., the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens.
November 30 – Exhibition American Folk Art: The Art of the Common Man in America 1750–1900 opens at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
December 23 or December 24 – Moweaqua Coal Mine disaster: a methane gas explosion claims 54 lives in Illinois.
December 27 – Radio City Music Hall opens in New York City.
Undated
Unemployment in the USA – c. 33% – 14 million.
Maxwell House Haggadah first distributed.
Dust storms begin in Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas, the start of the Dust Bowl in the United States.
The Zippo Manufacturing Co. is established to produce lighters in the United States.
Ongoing
Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)
U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915–1934)
Prohibition (1920–1933)
Great Depression (1929–1933)
Dust Bowl (1930–1936)
Births
January
January 1
Tzaims Luksus, artist and fashion designer
Jackie Parker, American football player and coach (d. 2006)
January 3 – Dabney Coleman, actor
January 5
Johnny Adams, blues singer (d. 1998)
Frank Layden, NBA executive and coach
Chuck Noll, American football coach (d. 2014)
January 6 – Stuart A. Rice, chemist
January 9 – Robert F. Taft, Jesuit priest (d. 2018)
January 15 – Cleven "Goodie" Goudeau, art director and cartoonist (d. 2015)
January 16 – Dian Fossey, primatologist (killed 1985 in Rwanda)
January 19
Richard Lester, film director
Harry Lonsdale, chemist, businessman and politician (d. 2014)
January 22 – Piper Laurie, born Rosetta Jacobs, film actress (d. 2023)
January 23 – James Rado, actor, playwright, director, writer and composer
January 31 – Rick Hall, record producer, songwriter and recording studio owner (d. 2018)
February
February 2 – Robert Mandan, American actor (d. 2018)
February 3 – Peggy Ann Garner, American actress (d. 1984)
February 4 – Herman D. Farrell Jr., American politician (d. 2018)
February 7
Gay Talese, American literary journalist
Alfred Worden, American astronaut (d. 2020)
February 8 – John Williams, American film music composer
February 10
Rockin' Dopsie, American zydeco singer and accordion player (d. 1993)
Robert Taylor, American computer scientist (d. 2017)
February 11 – Jerome Lowenthal, American pianist
February 12 – Julian Simon, American economist and author (d. 1998)
February 13 – Susan Oliver, American actress (d. 1990)
February 14 – Leo Thorsness, American war veteran and politician (d. 2017)
February 16
Harry Goz, American actor (d. 2003)
Gretchen Wyler, American dancer, actress and animal rights activist (d. 2007)
February 22 – Ted Kennedy, American politician (d. 2009)
February 23
Majel Barrett, American actress (d. 2008)
Bill Bonds, American television newscaster (d. 2014)
February 24 – Zell Miller, American politician (d. 2018)
February 25 – Faron Young, American country singer (d. 1996)
February 26 – Johnny Cash, American country singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor and author (d. 2003)
February 27 – Elizabeth Taylor, English-American film actress (d. 2011)
February 29 – Gene H. Golub, American mathematician (d. 2007)
March
March 2
Sterling Stuckey, American historian (d. 2018)
Frank E. Petersen, African-American Marine Corps aviator (d. 2015)
March 4 – Ed Roth, American car designer (d. 2001)
March 5
Paul Sand (b. Paul Sanchez), American actor and comedian
Earl Woods, African-American army officer (d. 2006)
March 7 – Ed Thrasher, American art director and photographer (d. 2006)
March 11 – Leroy Jenkins, African-American jazz musician and composer
March 12 – Andrew Young, African-American politician, diplomat and activist
March 14
Jane Maas, advertising executive and author (d. 2018)
Mark Murphy, American jazz singer (d. 2015)
March 15 – Alan Bean, American naval officer and naval aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut (d. 2018)
March 16 – Walter Cunningham, American astronaut (d. 2023)
March 17 – Donald N. Langenberg, American physicist and professor (d. 2019)
March 18 – John Updike, American novelist and poet (d. 2009)
March 20 – Tod Dockstader, American composer (d. 2015)
March 21 – Walter Gilbert, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
March 22 – Leo Welch, American blues musician (d. 2017)
March 27 – Junior Parker, African-American blues musician (d. 1971)
March 29 – Al Bianchi, American basketball player
March 31 – Thomas Beers, co-founder of the needle-pointing business Sudberry House
April
April 1
Gordon Jump, American actor (d. 2003)
Debbie Reynolds, American actress, singer and dancer (d. 2016)
April 2 – Edward Egan, American cardinal (d. 2015)
April 3 – Colin Cantwell, American artist (d. 2022)
April 4
Richard Lugar, American politician (d. 2019)
Anthony Perkins, American actor (d. 1992)
April 5 – Clemmie Spangler, American billionaire businessman and academic administrator (d. 2018)
April 7
Del Monroe, American actor (d. 2009)
Cal Smith, American country music singer (d. 2013)
April 9
Jim Fowler, American zoologist (d. 2019)
Paul Krassner, American author, journalist, comedian and editor (d. 2019)
Carl Perkins, American rock singer (d. 1998)
April 10 – Blaze Starr, American burlesque artist (d. 2015)
April 11 – Joel Grey, born Joel Katz, American actor, singer and dancer
April 12 – Tiny Tim, American musician (d. 1996)
April 13 – Dick Farley, American basketball player (d. 1969)
April 14 – Loretta Lynn, American country singer (d. 2022)
April 21 – Elaine May, American film director
April 22 – Red Davis, American basketball player
April 23 – Halston, American fashion designer (d. 1990)
April 26 – Red Morrison, American basketball player
April 27 – Casey Kasem, American disc jockey and actor (d. 2014)
May
May 2 – Ed Bressoud, American baseball player (d. 2023)
May 4 – Susan Brown, American actress (d. 2018)
May 7 – Pete Domenici, American politician (d. 2017)
May 8 – Sonny Liston, American boxer (d. 1970)
May 10 – Diane Washburn, American fashion model
May 11 – John Vasconcellos, American lawyer and politician (d. 2014)
May 16 – William J. Pulte, American real estate developer (d. 2018)
May 17 – Chris Ballingall, American baseball player
May 19 – Bill Fitch, American basketball coach (d. 2022)
May 22 – Robert Spitzer, American psychiatrist (d. 2015)
May 25
Roger Bowen, American comedic actor and novelist (d. 1996)
John Gregory Dunne, American novelist (d. 2003)
K. C. Jones, African-American basketball player and coach (d. 2020)
May 26 – Joe Altobelli, American baseball player (d. 2021)
May 29
Paul R. Ehrlich, biologist
Richie Guerin, basketball player and coach
June
June 4 – John Drew Barrymore, American actor (d. 2004)
June 6 – David Scott, American astronaut
June 10
J. Bennett Johnston, American politician
Gardner McKay, American actor (d. 2001)
June 12
Rona Jaffe, American novelist (d. 2005)
Barbara Uehling, American educator and university administrator (d. 2020)
June 13 – Bob McGrath, American actor (d. 2022)
June 15 – Mario Cuomo, American politician (d. 2015)
June 18 – Dudley R. Herschbach, American chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986
June 21
Gene White, defensive back in the National Football League
O. C. Smith, American musician (d. 2001)
June 24 – Scott Marlowe, American actor (d. 2001)
June 25
Julian Robertson, American billionaire hedge fund manager (d. 2022)
Hank Cicalo, American recording engineer
June 26
Don Valentine, American influential venture capitalist
Marvin York, American politician
June 27
Eddie Kasko, American Major League Baseball
Anna Moffo, American operatic soprano (d. 2006)
June 28 – Pat Morita, Asian-American actor (d. 2005)
June 29 – Alice Langtry, American politician (d. 2017)
July
July 1
Rod Driver, American professor of mathematics
Joseph Duffey, American academic, educator and political appointee (d. 2021)
July 2 – Dave Thomas, American fast-food entrepreneur (d. 2002)
July 3 – William J. Taylor, American politician
July 4 – Otis Young, African-American actor (d. 2001)
July 5
Alan Cooke Kay, American lawyer and judge
Victor Navasky, American journalist, editor and academic
July 8 – John Pascal, American writer (d. 1981)
July 9 – Donald Rumsfeld, American politician, 13th & 21st United States Secretary of Defense (d. 2021)
July 12
Otis Davis, African American 400 m runner
Monte Hellman, American film director, producer, writer and editor
July 16
Tim Asch, American anthropologist, photographer and ethnographic filmmaker (d. 1994)
Gary Bergen, American basketball player (d. 2010)
Bill Byrge, American character actor and comedian
Max McGee, American football player (d. 2007)
Ron Marciniak, American football guard in the National Football League (d. 2020)
Dick Thornburgh, American lawyer and Republican politician (d. 2020)
July 17
Red Kerr, American basketball player (d. 2009)
Karla Kuskin, American children's writer and illustrator (d. 2009)
Bobby Leonard, American basketball player (d. 2021)
July 20 – Dick Giordano, American comic book artist and editor (d. 2010)
July 21
Norman Geisler, American Christian author, theologian and philosopher
Ernie Warlick, American football player (d. 2012)
July 29 – Nancy Landon Kassebaum, American politician
July 31 – John Searle, American philosopher
August
August 1 – Meir Kahane, American-born Israeli rabbi and ultra-nationalist writer and political figure (d. 1990 in Israel)
August 2
John Cohen, American folk musician and photographer (d. 2019)
Lamar Hunt, American sports promoter (d. 2006)
August 3 – Bob Carney, American basketball player (d. 2011)
August 5 – Ja'Net DuBois, American actress, singer, dancer (d. 2020)
August 7 – Maurice Rabb Jr., African-American ophthalmologist (d. 2005)
August 8
John Culver, American politician
Mel Tillis, American country singer (d. 2017)
August 12 – Charlie O'Donnell, American game show announcer (d. 2010)
August 14 – James V. Hansen, American politician (d. 2018)
August 15
Abby Dalton, American actress (d. 2020)
Robert L. Forward, American science fiction author and physicist (d. 2002)
Jim Lange, American-Canadian disc jockey and game show host (d. 2014)
August 16 – Pervis Spann, African-American radio broadcaster (d. 2022)
August 20 – Bill Hudson, civil rights photojournalist (d. 2010)
August 21 – Melvin Van Peebles, African-American actor, filmmaker, playwright, novelist and composer
September
September 1 – Sunny von Bülow, socialite (d. 2008)
September 3 – Eileen Brennan, actress and singer (d. 2013)
September 4 – Vince Dooley, American football coach (d. 2022)
September 5 – Carol Lawrence, actress, singer and dancer
September 6 – Marguerite Pearson, baseball player (d. 2005)
September 7
John Paul Getty Jr., American-born philanthropist (d. 2003)
Mary Previte, politician (d. 2019)
September 8 – Patsy Cline, country singer (d. 1963)
September 9 – Bill Porter, salesman (d. 2013)
September 11
Bob Packwood, politician
Art Spoelstra, basketball player (d. 2008)
September 13 – Whitey Bell, basketball player
September 17 – Doyle Corman, politician (d. 2019)
September 14 – Josh Culbreath, Olympic athlete (d. 2021)
September 21 – Mickey Kuhn, child actor (d. 2022)
September 24
Anthony Michael Milone, Roman Catholic prelate (d. 2018)
Jackie Moore, basketball player
September 26
Donna Douglas, actress (The Beverly Hillbillies) (d. 2015)
Richard Herd, actor (d. 2020)
September 27 – Oliver E. Williamson, economist (d. 2020)
October
October 1 – Albert Collins, African-American blues guitarist and singer (d. 1993)
October 2 – Maury Wills, baseball player and manager (d. 2022)
October 3 – Joe Morgenstern, film critic and journalist
October 4
Stan Dragoti, film director (d. 2018)
Felicia Farr, actress and model
October 9
David Plowden, photographer
Judy Tyler, actress (d. 1957)
October 11 – Dottie West, country music singer and songwriter (d. 1991)
October 12
Jake Garn, politician
Dick Gregory, African American comedian and civil rights activist (d. 2017)
Ned Jarrett, racing driver and broadcaster
October 13
Ed Kalafat, basketball player
Jean Edward Smith, political scientist and biographer
John G. Thompson, mathematician
October 17 – Paul Anderson, weightlifter (d. 1994)
October 19 – Robert Reed, American actor (The Brady Bunch) (d. 1992)
October 20
William Christopher, American actor (M*A*S*H) (d. 2016)
Rosey Brown, American football player (d. 2004)
October 22 – Barboura Morris, American actress (d. 1975)
October 24 – Foster Diebold, American academic (d. 2018)
October 27
Sylvia Plath, American poet (d. 1963 in the United Kingdom)
Chuck Stobart, American football player and coach (d. 2022)
October 28 – Suzy Parker, American fashion model and actress (d. 2003)
October 29 – Dick Garmaker, American basketball player (d. 2020)
October 29 – Velma Barfield, American serial killer who murders at least six (d. 1984)
October 30 – Bob Koester, record producer and businessman (d. 2021)
November
November 2 – Guy Sparrow, American basketball player
November 3 – Thomas J. Manton, politician (d. 2006)
November 4 – Noam Pitlik, actor and director (d. 1999)
November 5 – Ed Badger, college and professional basketball coach
November 6
Stonewall Jackson, country singer
Eugene H. Peterson, clergyman and biblical scholar (d. 2018)
November 8
Ben Bova, science writer (d. 2020)
Andy Johnson, American basketball player (d. 2002)
November 9 – Frank Selvy, American basketball player
November 10 – Roy Scheider, American actor and amateur boxer (d. 2008)
November 12 – Jerry Douglas, American actor(d. 2021)
November 13
Willie Edwards, murder victim (d. 1957)
Richard Mulligan, American actor (d. 2000)
November 15
Clyde McPhatter, American singer (d. 1972)
Emily Meggett, American Geechee-Gullah community leader (d. 2023)
November 22 – Robert Vaughn, American actor (d. 2016)
November 24 – Johnny Horan, American basketball player (d. 1980)
November 28
Midge Costanza, American social and political activist (d. 2010)
Ethel Ennis, African American jazz singer (d. 2019)
December
December 5
Sheldon Glashow, physicist
Little Richard, singer, songwriter, and musician (d. 2020)
December 7
Ellen Burstyn, actress
Paul Caponigro, photographer
December 9 – Bill Hartack, jockey (d. 2007)
December 12 – Bob Pettit, basketball player
December 17 – Kelly E. Taggart, admiral and civil engineer (d. 2014)
December 19 – Jim Paxson Sr., basketball player (d. 2014)
December 18 – Roger Smith, actor (d. 2017)
December 21 – Edward Hoagland, essayist
December 24 – Earl Dodge, temperance movement leader (d. 2007)
December 25 – Janie Lou Gibbs, serial killer who murdered five of her relatives (d. 2010)
December 28 – Nichelle Nichols, African American actress (d. 2022)
December 29 – Inga Swenson, actress and singer
Deaths
January 12 – James Felts, newspaper editor and politician (born 1866)
January 26 – William Wrigley, Jr., chewing gum manufacturer (born 1861)
January 27 – Ed Appleton, baseball player (born 1892)
February 8 – Mad Dog Coll, hitman (shot) (born 1908 in Ireland)
February 15 – Minnie Maddern Fiske, stage actress (born 1865)
March 1 – Frank Teschemacher, jazz woodwind player (automobile accident) (born 1906)
March 6 – John Philip Sousa, composer and conductor, "the march king" ("The Stars and Stripes Forever") (born 1854)
March 14 – George Eastman, photographic inventor (Eastman Kodak) (suicide) (born 1854)
March 18 – Chauncey Olcott, musical theater actor (born 1858)
March 31 – Eben Byers, steel tycoon and socialite (radiation poisoning) (born 1880)
April 2 – Bill Pickett, African American cowboy of slave ancestry (born 1870)
April 15 – A. J. Rosier, politician, assassinated (b. 1880)
April 22 – J. Warren Keifer, Union army officer and politician (born 1836)
April 27 – Hart Crane, poet (born 1899)
May 3 – Charles Fort, researcher of the unusual (born 1874)
May 30 – John Hubbard, admiral (born 1849)
June 21 – Major Taylor, African American racing cyclist (born 1878)
June 27 – Francis P. Duffy, Roman Catholic priest (born 1871 in Canada)
July 7 – Henry Eyster Jacobs, Lutheran theologian (born 1844)
July 22 – Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., Broadway theatrical impresario (born 1867)
July 24 – Cynthia S. Burnett, educator, temperance reformer, and newspaper editor (born 1840)
August 2 – Dan Brouthers, baseball player (born 1858)
August 25 – Edith Rockefeller McCormick, socialite, daughter of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller (born 1872)
September 5 – Paul Bern, screenwriter (suicide) (born 1889)
September 22 – Claude C. Hopkins, advertising executive (born 1866)
September 25 – Joel R. P. Pringle, admiral (born 1873)
September 27 – John Sharp Williams, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1911 to 1923 (born 1854)
October 17 – Lucy Bacon, painter (born 1857)
October 26 – Molly Brown, Denver socialite, survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic (born 1867)
November 4 – Belle Bennett, actress (cancer) (born 1891)
November 15 or 17 – Charles W. Chesnutt, African American author, essayist and political activist (born 1858)
November 18 – Jay Hunt, American film director (born 1855)
November 22 – William Walker Atkinson, writer and occultist (born 1862)
November 23 – Henry S. Whitehead, writer of horror fiction and fantasy (born 1882)
December 28 – Malcolm Whitman, tennis player (born 1877)
See also
List of American films of 1932
Timeline of United States history (1930–1949)
References
External links
1930s in the United States
United States
United States
Years of the 20th century in the United States