1937

Events from the year **1937 in the United States**.

* Senate Majority Leader: Joseph Taylor Robinson (D-AR) (until July 14), Alben W. Barkley (D-KY) (starting July 22)
* Congress: 74th (until January 3), 75th (starting January 3)

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: Bibb Graves (Democratic)
* Governor of Arizona: Benjamin Baker Moeur (Democratic) (until January 4), Rawghlie Clement Stanford (Democratic) (starting January 4)
* Governor of Arkansas: Junius Marion Futrell (Democratic) (until January 12), Carl Edward Bailey (Democratic) (starting January 12)
* Governor of California: Frank Merriam (Republican)
* Governor of Colorado:
	+ until January 1: Edwin C. Johnson (Democratic)
	+ January 1-January 12: Ray Herbert Talbot (Democratic)
	+ starting January 12: Teller Ammons (Democratic)
* Governor of Connecticut: Wilbur Lucius Cross (Democratic)
* Governor of Delaware: C. Douglass Buck (Republican) (until January 19), Richard C. McMullen (Democratic) (starting January 19)
* Governor of Florida: David Sholtz (Democratic) (until January 5), Fred P. Cone (Democratic) (starting January 5)
* Governor of Georgia: Eugene Talmadge (Democratic) (until January 12), Eurith D. Rivers (Democratic) (starting January 12)
* Governor of Idaho: C. Ben Ross (Democratic) (until January 4), Barzilla W. Clark (Democratic) (starting January 4)
* Governor of Illinois: Henry Horner (Democratic)
* Governor of Indiana: Paul V. McNutt (Democratic) (until January 11), M. Clifford Townsend (Democratic) (starting January 11)
* Governor of Iowa: Clyde L. Herring (Democratic) (until January 14), Nelson G. Kraschel (Democratic) (starting January 14)
* Governor of Kansas: Alfred M. Landon (Republican) (until January 11), Walter A. Huxman (Democratic) (starting January 11)
* Governor of Kentucky: Happy Chandler (Democratic)
* Governor of Louisiana: Richard W. Leche (Democratic)
* Governor of Maine: Louis J. Brann (Democratic) (until January 6), Lewis O. Barrows (Republican) (starting January 6)
* Governor of Maryland: Harry W. Nice (Republican)
* Governor of Massachusetts: James Michael Curley (Democratic) (until January 7), Charles F. Hurley (Democratic) (starting January 7)
* Governor of Michigan: Frank Fitzgerald (Republican) (until January 1), Frank Murphy (Democratic) (starting January 1)
* Governor of Minnesota: Hjalmar Petersen (Farmer-Labor) (until January 4), Elmer A. Benson (Farmer-Labor) (starting January 4)
* Governor of Mississippi: Hugh L. White (Democratic)
* Governor of Missouri: Guy Brasfield Park (Democratic) (until January 11), Lloyd C. Stark (Democratic) (starting January 11)
* Governor of Montana: Elmer Holt (Democratic) (until January 4), Roy E. Ayers (Democratic) (starting January 4)
* Governor of Nebraska: Robert Leroy Cochran (Democratic)
* Governor of Nevada: Richard Kirman Sr. (Democratic)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Styles Bridges (Republican) (until January 7), Francis P. Murphy (Republican) (starting January 7)
* Governor of New Jersey: Harold G. Hoffman (Republican)
* Governor of New Mexico: Clyde Tingley (Democratic)
* Governor of New York: Herbert H. Lehman (Democratic)
* Governor of North Carolina: John C. B. Ehringhaus (Democratic) (until January 7), Clyde R. Hoey (Democratic) (starting January 7)
* Governor of North Dakota: Walter Welford (Republican) (until January 6), William Langer (Republican) (starting January 6)
* Governor of Ohio: Martin L. Davey (Democratic)
* Governor of Oklahoma: Ernest W. Marland (Democratic)
* Governor of Oregon: Charles H. Martin (Democratic)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: George Howard Earle III (Democratic)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Theodore Francis Green (Democratic) (until January 5), Robert E. Quinn (Democratic) (starting January 2)
* Governor of South Carolina: Olin D. Johnston (Democratic)
* Governor of South Dakota: Tom Berry (Democratic) (until January 5), Leslie Jensen (Republican) (starting January 5)
* Governor of Tennessee: Harry Hill McAlister (Democratic) (until January 15), Gordon Browning (Democratic) (starting January 15)
* Governor of Texas: James V. Allred (Democratic)
* Governor of Utah: Henry H. Blood (Democratic)
* Governor of Vermont: Charles M. Smith (Republican) (until January 7), George David Aiken (Republican) (starting January 7)
* Governor of Virginia: George C. Peery (Democratic)
* Governor of Washington: Clarence D. Martin (Democratic)
* Governor of West Virginia: Herman G. Kump (Democratic) (until January 18), Homer A. Holt (Democratic) (starting January 18)
* Governor of Wisconsin: Philip La Follette (Wisconsin Progressive)
* Governor of Wyoming: Leslie A. Miller (Democratic)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: Thomas E. Knight (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas: William Lee Cazort (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Robert L. Bailey (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of California: George J. Hatfield (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Raymond Herbert Talbot (Democratic) (until January 1), Frank J. Hayes (Democratic) (starting January 1)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: T. Frank Hayes (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Delaware: Roy F. Corley (Republican) (until January 19), Edward W. Cooch (Democratic) (starting January 19)
* Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: G. P. Mix (Democratic) (until January 3), Charles C. Gossett (Democratic) (starting January 3)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Thomas Donovan (Democratic) (until January 4), John H. Stelle (Democratic) (starting January 4)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: M. Clifford Townsend (Democratic) (until January 11), Henry F. Schricker (Democratic) (starting January 11)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Nelson G. Kraschel (Democratic) (until January 14), John K. Valentine (Democratic) (starting January 14)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Charles W. Thompson (Republican) (until month and day unknown), William M. Lindsay (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Keen Johnson (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Earl K. Long (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Joseph L. Hurley (Democratic) (until January 7), Francis E. Kelly (Democratic) (starting January 7)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan:
	+ until January 1: Thomas Read (Democratic)
	+ January 1-January 5: vacant
	+ starting January 5: Leo J. Nowicki (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: William B. Richardson (Republican) (until January 4), Gottfrid Lindsten (Republican) (starting January 4)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Jacob Buehler Snider (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Frank Gaines Harris (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Montana: William P. Pilgeram (political party unknown) (until month and day unknown), Hugh R. Adair (political party unknown) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Walter H. Jurgensen (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Fred S. Alward (political party unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico: Louis Cabeza de Baca (Democratic) (until January 1), Hiram M. Dow (Democratic) (starting January 1)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: M. William Bray (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Alexander H. Graham (Democratic) (until January 7), Wilkins P. Horton (Democratic) (starting January 7)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: vacant (until January 6), Thorstein H. H. Thoresen (Republican) (starting January 6)
* Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Harold G. Mosier (Democratic) (until January 11), Paul P. Yoder (Democratic) (starting January 11)
* Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: James E. Berry (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Thomas Kennedy (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Robert E. Quinn (Democratic) (until January 5), Raymond E. Jordan (Democratic) (starting January 5)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Joseph Emile Harley (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: Robert Peterson (Democratic) (until January 5), Donald McMurchie (Republican) (starting January 5)
* Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: Bryan Pope (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Walter Frank Woodul (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: George D. Aiken (Republican) (until January 7), William H. Wills (Republican) (starting January 7)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: James H. Price (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Washington: Victor A. Meyers (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin:
	+ until January 4: vacant
	+ January 4-October 16: Henry A. Gunderson (Progressive)
	+ starting October 16: vacant

## Events

### January - March

* January 11 – The first issue of *Look* magazine goes on sale.
* January 12 – Adventurer and filmmaker Martin Johnson, of Martin and Osa Johnson fame, is killed along with four others in the crash of Western Air Express Flight 7 in mountainous terrain near Saugus, California.
* January 19 – Howard Hughes sets a new record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.
* January 20 – Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes swears in Franklin D. Roosevelt for a second term. This is the first time Inauguration Day in the United States occurs on this date, in response to the ratification in 1933 of the 20th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Inauguration has occurred on January 20 ever since. John Nance Garner is sworn in for a second term as Vice President of the United States.
* January 26 – Michigan celebrates its Centennial Anniversary of statehood.
* January 31 – The Ohio River floods.
* February 5 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes a plan to enlarge the Supreme Court of the United States.
* February 6 – John Steinbeck's novella of the Great Depression *Of Mice and Men* is published.
* February 11 – A sit-down strike ends when General Motors recognizes the United Automobile Workers Union.
* March 1 – The first issue of the comic book *Detective Comics* is published in the United States. 27 issues later, *Detective Comics* introduces Batman. The comic goes on to become the longest continually published comic magazine in American history; it is still published as of 2017.
* March 2 – The Steel Workers Organizing Committee, precursor to United Steelworkers, signs a collective bargaining agreement with U.S. Steel.
* March 4 – The 9th Academy Awards, hosted by George Jessel, are presented at Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, with Robert Z. Leonard's *The Great Ziegfeld* winning the Outstanding Production. The film was among two others (being Mervyn LeRoy's *Anthony Adverse* and William Wyler's *Dodsworth*) to each receive the most nominations with seven, while *Anthony Adverse* won the most awards with four. Frank Capra receives his second Best Director award for *Mr. Deeds Goes to Town*.
* March 17 – The Atherton Report (private investigator Edwin Atherton's report detailing vice and police corruption in San Francisco) is released.
* March 18
	+ 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 in response to the New London School explosion.
* March 26
	+ William Henry Hastie becomes the first African-American appointed to a federal judgeship.
	+ In Crystal City, Texas, spinach growers erect a statue of the cartoon character Popeye.
* March 28 – Sculptor Robert George Irwin kills three people in Turtle Bay, Manhattan.

### April - June

* April 12 – *NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel*: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the National Labor Relations Act is constitutional.
* April 13 – Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is established.
* 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.
* May 1 – 7 million unemployed in the USA.
* May 6 – Hindenburg disaster: The German airship Hindenburg bursts into flame when mooring to a mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey.
* May 7 – An enquiry begins into the Hindenburg disaster.
* 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 Golden Gate Bridge.
* May 30 – Labor strike at US Steel in Chicago; crackdown.
* June 14 – Pennsylvania becomes the first (and only) of the United States to celebrate Flag Day officially as a state holiday.
* June 20 – The first transpolar flight in history successfully arrives at Vancouver, Washington.
* June 24 – The U.S. Navy's first two fast battleships, *North Carolina* and *Washington*, are ordered from the New York and Philadelphia Naval Shipyards, respectively.
* June 25 – In The Bronx, an extended Orchard Beach recreation area opens, turning Hunter Island into a peninsula.

### July - September

* 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 first stands post 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 in 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.
* July 14 – A world record-breaking non-stop flight lands near San Jacinto, California
* 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.
* 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 18 – African American writer Zora Neale Hurston publishes her novel *Their Eyes Were Watching God*.
* September 20 – USS *Yorktown* is commissioned.
* September 26 – Street & Smith launches a half-hour radio program, *The Shadow*, with Orson Welles in the title role.

### October - December

* October 1
	+ The Marijuana 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 5 – Roosevelt gives his famous *Quarantine Speech* in Chicago.
* October 10 – The New York Yankees defeat the New York Giants, 4 games to 1, to win their 6th World Series Title.
* October 15 – Ernest Hemingway's novel *To Have and Have Not* is first published.
* December 12
	+ Panay incident: Japanese bombers sink the American gunboat USS *Panay*.
	+ Mae West makes a risque guest appearance on the NBC *Chase and Sanborn Hour* that eventually results in her being banned from radio.
* December 21 – Walt Disney's *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs*, the first feature-length animated cartoon with sound, opens and becomes a smash hit.
* December 22 – The Lincoln Tunnel, connecting New York City to Weehawken, New Jersey, under the Hudson River opens to road traffic.
* December 25 – At the age of 70, 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 was still seldom played), Mozart, and Brahms. Millions tune in to listen, including U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

## Memoriam

* January 1
	+ Rabbit Brown, country blues singer (aged 57; New Orleans, LA, USA)
	+ Redoshi, penultimate survivor of the transatlantic slave trade (aged 89; AL, USA)
	+ J. Gresham Machen, Presbyterian theologian (aged 55; Bismarck, ND, USA)
* January 2 – Ross Alexander, actor (aged 29; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* January 11 – Emma A. Cranmer, prohibition reformer and suffragist (aged 78; MN, USA)
* January 13 – Martin Johnson, adventurer and filmmaker (aged 52; Los Pinetos, CA, USA)
* February 7 – Elihu Root, statesman and diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912 (aged 91; New York City, NY, USA)
* February 11 – Walter Burley Griffin, architect and town planner (aged 60; Lucknow, India)
* February 15 – Oliver W. Stewart, politician (aged 69; Bloomington, IL, USA)
* March 1 – DeWitt Jennings, actor (aged 65; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* March 15 – H. P. Lovecraft, horror fiction author (aged 46; Providence, RI, USA)
* March 23 – George Ross Kirkpatrick, writer and political activist (aged 70; San Gabriel, CA, USA)
* March 29 – William Edward White, African American baseball player (aged 76; Chicago, IL, USA)
* April 10 – Ralph Ince, film director (aged 50; London, England, UK)
* April 14 – Ned Hanlon, baseball manager (aged 79; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* April 16 – Jay Johnson Morrow, military engineer and politician, 3rd Governor of the Panama Canal Zone (aged 67; Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone)
* May 14 – John Burke, 24th Treasurer of the United States (aged 78; Rochester, MN, USA)
* May 23 – John D. Rockefeller, oil industry business magnate and philanthropist (aged 97; Ormond Beach, FL, USA)
* June 7 – Jean Harlow, actress and sex symbol (aged 26; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* July 2 – Amelia Earhart, aviator, missing on flight (aged 39; Pacific Ocean)
* July 9 – Oliver Law, labor organizer and Army officer, killed in Spanish Civil War (aged 36; Mosquito Crest, Spain)
* July 11 – George Gershwin, popular composer (aged 38; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* July 14 – Joseph Taylor Robinson, politician (aged 64; Washington, DC, USA)
* July 29 – Ella Maria Ballou, writer (aged 84; North Smithfield, RI, USA)
* August 11 – Edith Wharton, novelist (aged 75; Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt, France)
* August 21 – Hannah J. Patterson, suffragist and social activist (aged 57; Pittsburgh, PA, USA)
* August 27
	+ Andrew Mellon, banker and Secretary of the Treasury (aged 82; Southampton, NY, USA)
	+ George W. Woodbey, African-American minister, author and politician (aged 82; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* September 8 – Anna Hempstead Branch, poet (aged 62; New London, CT, USA)
* September 11 – Loraine Wyman, folk singer and dulcimer player (aged 51; NY, USA)
* September 13 – Ellis Parker Butler, humorist (aged 67; Williamsville, MA, USA)
* September 21 – Osgood Perkins, actor (aged 45; Washington, DC, USA)
* September 22 – Ruth Roland, actress (aged 45; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* September 26 – Bessie Smith, African American blues singer (aged 43; Clarksdale, MS, USA)
* September 29 – Ray Ewry, field athlete (aged 63; Long Island, NY, USA)
* October 6 – Blind Uncle Gaspard, Cajun musician (aged 58; Plaucheville, LA, USA)
* October 22 – George Horace Lorimer, newspaper editor (aged 70; Wyncote, PA, USA)
* November 6 – Colin Campbell Cooper, painter (aged 81; Santa Barbara, CA, USA)
* November 12 – Atlee Pomerene, politician (aged 73; Cleveland, OH, USA)
* November 25 – Raymond Stanton Patton, admiral (aged 54; Washington, DC, USA)
* November 30 – James O. McKinsey, accountant and pioneer of management consulting (aged 48; Chicago, IL, USA)
* December 6 – Florence Griswold, curator (aged 86; Lyme, CT, USA)
* December 21
	+ Ted Healy, vaudeville actor (aged 41; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
	+ Frank B. Kellogg, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1929 (aged 80; St. Paul, MN, USA)
* December 25 – Newton D. Baker, United States Secretary of War (aged 66; Shaker Heights, OH, USA)
* December 28 – Milford W. Howard, U.S. Representative from Alabama (aged 75; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* December 29 – Don Marquis, poet (aged 59; New York City, NY, USA)