1932

Events from the year **1932 in the United States**.

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: Benjamin M. Miller (Democratic)
* Governor of Arizona: George W. P. Hunt (Democratic)
* Governor of Arkansas: Harvey Parnell (Democratic)
* Governor of California: James Rolph Jr. (Republican)
* Governor of Colorado: Billy Adams (Democratic)
* Governor of Connecticut: Wilbur Lucius Cross (Democratic)
* Governor of Delaware: C. Douglass Buck (Republican)
* Governor of Florida: Doyle E. Carlton (Democratic)
* Governor of Georgia: Richard Russell Jr. (Democratic)
* Governor of Idaho: C. Ben Ross (Democratic)
* Governor of Illinois: Louis L. Emmerson (Republican)
* Governor of Indiana: Harry G. Leslie (Republican)
* Governor of Iowa: Daniel Webster Turner (Republican)
* Governor of Kansas: Harry H. Woodring (Democratic)
* Governor of Kentucky: Ruby Laffoon (Democratic)
* Governor of Louisiana:
	+ until January 25: Huey P. Long (Democratic)
	+ January 25-May 10: Alvin Olin King (Democratic)
	+ starting May 10: Oscar K. Allen (Democratic)
* Governor of Maine: William Tudor Gardiner (Republican)
* Governor of Maryland: Albert C. Ritchie (Democratic)
* Governor of Massachusetts: Joseph B. Ely (Democratic)
* Governor of Michigan: Wilber Marion Brucker (Republican)
* Governor of Minnesota: Floyd B. Olson (Farmer-Labor)
* Governor of Mississippi: Theodore G. Bilbo (Democratic) (until January 19), Martin Sennett Conner (Democratic) (starting January 19)
* Governor of Missouri: Henry S. Caulfield (Republican)
* Governor of Montana: John E. Erickson (Democratic)
* Governor of Nebraska: Charles W. Bryan (Democratic)
* Governor of Nevada: Fred B. Balzar (Republican)
* Governor of New Hampshire: John Gilbert Winant (Republican)
* Governor of New Jersey: Morgan Foster Larson (Republican) (until January 19), A. Harry Moore (Democratic) (starting January 19)
* Governor of New Mexico: Arthur Seligman (Democratic)
* Governor of New York: Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic)
* Governor of North Carolina: Oliver Max Gardner (Democratic)
* Governor of North Dakota: George F. Shafer (Republican) (until December 31), William Langer (Republican) (starting December 31)
* Governor of Ohio: George White (Democratic)
* Governor of Oklahoma: William H. Murray (Democratic)
* Governor of Oregon: Julius L. Meier (Independent)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: Gifford Pinchot (Republican)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Norman S. Case (Republican)
* Governor of South Carolina: Ibra Charles Blackwood (Democratic)
* Governor of South Dakota: Warren Green (Republican)
* Governor of Tennessee: Henry Hollis Horton (Democratic)
* Governor of Texas: Ross S. Sterling (Democratic)
* Governor of Utah: George Dern (Democratic)
* Governor of Vermont: Stanley C. Wilson (Republican)
* Governor of Virginia: John Garland Pollard (Democratic)
* Governor of Washington: Roland H. Hartley (Republican)
* Governor of West Virginia: William G. Conley (Republican)
* Governor of Wisconsin: Philip La Follette (Republican)
* Governor of Wyoming: Alonzo M. Clark (Republican)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: William C. Davis (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas: William Lee Cazort (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of California: Frank Merriam (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Samuel R. Spencer (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Delaware: James H. Hazel (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: O. E. Hailey (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Fred E. Sterling (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Edgar D. Bush (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Arch W. McFarlane (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Jacob W. Graybill (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Happy Chandler (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana:
	+ until January 25: Alvin O. King (Democratic)
	+ January 25-May 10: vacant
	+ starting May 10: John B. Fournet (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: William S. Youngman (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Luren D. Dickinson (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Henry M. Arens (Farmer Labor)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Bidwell Adam (Democratic) (until January 19), Dennis Murphree (Democratic) (starting January 19)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Edward Henry Winter (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Montana: Frank A. Hazelbaker (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Theodore Metcalfe (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Morley Griswold (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico: Andrew W. Hockenhull (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: Herbert H. Lehman (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Richard T. Fountain (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: John W. Carr (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: John T. Brown (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: Robert Burns (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Edward C. Shannon (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: James G. Connelly (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: E. B. Jackson (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: Odell K. Whitney (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: Sam R. Bratton (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Barry Miller (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Stanley C. Wilson (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: James H. Price (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Washington: John Arthur Gellatly (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Henry A. Huber (Republican)

## 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 – Amelia Earhart flies from the U.S. 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.
* June 1 – 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 U.S. gallon (0.26 ¢/L) sold.
	+ The 6.4 Mw 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
	+ The 1932 Summer Olympics open in Los Angeles.
	+ 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 1 – A farmers' revolt begins in the Midwestern United States.
* August 7 – Raymond Edward Welch becomes the first one-legged man to scale 6,288 feet (1,917 m) 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 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.

## Memoriam

* January 26
	+ George Turner, U.S. Senator from Washington from 1897 to 1903 (aged 81; Spokane, WA, USA)
	+ William Wrigley Jr., chewing gum manufacturer (aged 70; Phoenix, AZ, USA)
* February 8 – Mad Dog Coll, hitman (shot) (aged 23; New York City, NY, USA)
* February 15 – Minnie Maddern Fiske, stage actress (aged 66; New York City, NY, USA)
* March 1 – Frank Teschemacher, jazz woodwind player (automobile accident) (aged 25; Chicago, IL, USA)
* March 6 – John Philip Sousa, composer and conductor, "the march king" ("The Stars and Stripes Forever") (aged 77; Reading, PA, USA)
* March 14 – George Eastman, photographic inventor (Eastman Kodak) (suicide) (aged 77; Rochester, NY, USA)
* March 18 – Chauncey Olcott, musical theater actor (aged 73; Monte Carlo, Monaco)
* March 28 – L. M. Shaw, businessman, lawyer, and politician (aged 83; Washington, DC, USA)
* March 31 – Eben Byers, steel tycoon and socialite (radiation poisoning) (aged 51; Manhattan, NY, USA)
* April 2 – Bill Pickett, African American cowboy of slave ancestry (aged 61; Ponca City, OK, USA)
* April 22 – J. Warren Keifer, Union army officer and politician (aged 96; Springfield, OH, USA)
* April 27 – Hart Crane, poet (aged 32; Gulf of Mexico)
* May 3 – Charles Fort, researcher of the unusual (aged 57; New York City, NY, USA)
* May 4 – August Gillhaus, engineer (aged 64; Brooklyn, NY, USA)
* May 30 – John Hubbard, admiral (aged 83; Washington, DC, USA)
* June 21 – Major Taylor, African American racing cyclist (aged 53; Chicago, IL, USA)
* June 27 – Francis P. Duffy, Roman Catholic priest (aged 61; New York City, NY, USA)
* July 7 – Henry Eyster Jacobs, Lutheran theologian (aged 87; Gettysburg, PA, USA)
* July 11 – George F. Williams, U.S. Representative from Massachusetts (aged 80; Brookline, MA, USA)
* July 22 – Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., Broadway theatrical impresario (aged 65; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* August 2 – Dan Brouthers, baseball player (aged 74; East Orange, NJ, USA)
* August 25 – Edith Rockefeller McCormick, socialite, daughter of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller (aged 59; Chicago, IL, USA)
* September 5 – Paul Bern, screenwriter (suicide) (aged 42; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* September 22 – Claude C. Hopkins, advertising executive (aged 66; Chicago, IL, USA)
* September 25 – Joel R. P. Pringle, admiral (aged 59; San Francisco County, CA, USA)
* September 27 – John Sharp Williams, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1911 to 1923 (aged 78; Yazoo City, MS, USA)
* October 17 – Lucy Bacon, painter (aged 75; San Francisco, CA, USA)
* October 26 – Margaret Brown, Denver socialite, survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic (aged 65; New York City, NY, USA)
* November 4 – Belle Bennett, actress (cancer) (aged 41; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* November 15 – Charles W. Chesnutt, African American author, essayist and political activist (aged 74; Cleveland, OH, USA)
* November 18 – Jay Hunt, American film director (aged 77; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* November 22 – William Walker Atkinson, writer and occultist (aged 69; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* November 23 – Henry S. Whitehead, writer of horror fiction and fantasy (aged 50; Dunedin, FL, USA)
* December 28 – Malcolm Whitman, tennis player (aged 55; New York City, NY, USA)