January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the
Ohio River in the United States, leading to the
Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into February, leaving 1 million people homeless and 385 people dead.[1]
Airliner VH-UHH (Stinson) goes down over
Lamington National Park, bound for Sydney, killing 5 people.
Yekatit 12: During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in
Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, two
Eritrean nationalists attempt to kill viceroy
Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades. Italian security guards fire into the crowd of Ethiopian onlookers. Authorities exact further reprisals, which include indiscriminately slaughtering native Ethiopians over the next 3 days, detaining thousands of Ethiopians at
Danan and slaughtering almost 300 monks at the
Debre Libanos Monastery.
The flag of the Netherlands is officially adopted.
February 25 –
Hergé's
Tintin adventure The Broken Ear (L'Oreille cassée) concludes serialization in the Belgian weekly newspaper supplement Le Petit Vingtième, and soon afterwards is published as a book in black and white.
May 6 –
Hindenburg disaster: In the United States, the German
airship Hindenburg bursts into flame when mooring to a mast in
Lakehurst, New Jersey. Of the 36 passengers and 61 crew on board, 13 passengers and 22 crew die, as well as one member of the ground crew.
May 8 –
Wydad Athletic Club (WAC)(Arabic: نادي الوداد الرياضي; Berber: Wydad Dar al-Beida; commonly: Wydad al ouma) is established in
Casablanca, Morocco; it will be best known for its Casablanca
Association football team.
As one of the reprisals for the attempted assassination of Italian viceroy
Rodolfo Graziani, a detachment of Italian troops massacres the entire community of
Debre Libanos in Ethiopia, killing 297 monks and 23 laymen.
The
Dáil Éireann passes the Executive Authority (Consequential Provisions) Act, 1937, which abolishes the office of Governor-General of the Irish Free State, retrospectively dated to
December1936.[6]
The first total
solar eclipse to exceed 7 minutes of totality, in over 800 years, is visible in the Pacific and Peru.
July 31 –
NKVD Operative Order 00447 "Об операции по репрессированию бывших кулаков, уголовников и других антисоветских элементов" ("The operation for repression of former kulaks, criminals and other anti-Soviet elements") is approved by the Politburo of the
Soviet Union, initially as a 4-month plan for 75,950 people to be executed and an additional 193,000 to be sent to the
Gulag.
August 2 – The
Marijuana Tax Act[10] in the United States is a significant bill on the path that will lead to the criminalization of cannabis. It was introduced to the U.S. Congress by Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry Anslinger.
August 5 – The
Soviet Union commences one of the largest campaigns of the
Great Purge, to "eliminate anti-Soviet elements". Within the following year, at least 724,000 people are killed[citation needed] on order of the
troikas, directed by
Joseph Stalin. This is an offensive that targets social classes (such as the
kulaks), ethnic or racial backgrounds which are seen as non-Russian,[citation needed] and Stalin's personal opponents from the
Communist Party and their sympathizers.
September 30 – Austrian born actress of Jewish descent,
Hedy Lamarr arrives in
New York City to flee from her possessive husband
Friedrich Mandl who made arms agreements with the Nazis, and to begin her Hollywood career.[12]
October 9 –
Jimmie Angel lands his plane on top of Devil's Mountain; however, the plane gets damaged, and he has to trek through the rainforest for help.
October 13 – Germany, in a note to
Brussels, guarantees the inviolability and integrity of Belgium, so long as the latter abstains from military action against Germany.
October 18–
21 –
Spanish Civil War: The whole Spanish northern seaboard falls into the Falangists' hands;
Republican forces in
Gijón, Spain, set fire to petrol reserves, prior to retreating before the advancing
Falangists.
USS Panay incident: Japanese bombers sink the American gunboat
USS Panay on the
Yangtze in China; the United States accepts the Japanese statement that this was unintentional.
Switzerland begins construction of its
Border Line defences.
The
Vibora Luviminda sugar plantation trade unions strike on
Maui island, Hawaii.
Italian psychiatrist
Amarro Fiamberti is the first to document a transorbital approach to the brain, which becomes the basis for the controversial medical procedure of
transorbital lobotomy.
Soviet industry produces about four times as much as it had in
1928.
The Allen Organ Company, builder of church, home and theatre organs, is founded in Macungie, Pennsylvania.
January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the
Ohio River in the United States, leading to the
Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into February, leaving 1 million people homeless and 385 people dead.[1]
Airliner VH-UHH (Stinson) goes down over
Lamington National Park, bound for Sydney, killing 5 people.
Yekatit 12: During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in
Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, two
Eritrean nationalists attempt to kill viceroy
Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades. Italian security guards fire into the crowd of Ethiopian onlookers. Authorities exact further reprisals, which include indiscriminately slaughtering native Ethiopians over the next 3 days, detaining thousands of Ethiopians at
Danan and slaughtering almost 300 monks at the
Debre Libanos Monastery.
The flag of the Netherlands is officially adopted.
February 25 –
Hergé's
Tintin adventure The Broken Ear (L'Oreille cassée) concludes serialization in the Belgian weekly newspaper supplement Le Petit Vingtième, and soon afterwards is published as a book in black and white.
May 6 –
Hindenburg disaster: In the United States, the German
airship Hindenburg bursts into flame when mooring to a mast in
Lakehurst, New Jersey. Of the 36 passengers and 61 crew on board, 13 passengers and 22 crew die, as well as one member of the ground crew.
May 8 –
Wydad Athletic Club (WAC)(Arabic: نادي الوداد الرياضي; Berber: Wydad Dar al-Beida; commonly: Wydad al ouma) is established in
Casablanca, Morocco; it will be best known for its Casablanca
Association football team.
As one of the reprisals for the attempted assassination of Italian viceroy
Rodolfo Graziani, a detachment of Italian troops massacres the entire community of
Debre Libanos in Ethiopia, killing 297 monks and 23 laymen.
The
Dáil Éireann passes the Executive Authority (Consequential Provisions) Act, 1937, which abolishes the office of Governor-General of the Irish Free State, retrospectively dated to
December1936.[6]
The first total
solar eclipse to exceed 7 minutes of totality, in over 800 years, is visible in the Pacific and Peru.
July 31 –
NKVD Operative Order 00447 "Об операции по репрессированию бывших кулаков, уголовников и других антисоветских элементов" ("The operation for repression of former kulaks, criminals and other anti-Soviet elements") is approved by the Politburo of the
Soviet Union, initially as a 4-month plan for 75,950 people to be executed and an additional 193,000 to be sent to the
Gulag.
August 2 – The
Marijuana Tax Act[10] in the United States is a significant bill on the path that will lead to the criminalization of cannabis. It was introduced to the U.S. Congress by Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry Anslinger.
August 5 – The
Soviet Union commences one of the largest campaigns of the
Great Purge, to "eliminate anti-Soviet elements". Within the following year, at least 724,000 people are killed[citation needed] on order of the
troikas, directed by
Joseph Stalin. This is an offensive that targets social classes (such as the
kulaks), ethnic or racial backgrounds which are seen as non-Russian,[citation needed] and Stalin's personal opponents from the
Communist Party and their sympathizers.
September 30 – Austrian born actress of Jewish descent,
Hedy Lamarr arrives in
New York City to flee from her possessive husband
Friedrich Mandl who made arms agreements with the Nazis, and to begin her Hollywood career.[12]
October 9 –
Jimmie Angel lands his plane on top of Devil's Mountain; however, the plane gets damaged, and he has to trek through the rainforest for help.
October 13 – Germany, in a note to
Brussels, guarantees the inviolability and integrity of Belgium, so long as the latter abstains from military action against Germany.
October 18–
21 –
Spanish Civil War: The whole Spanish northern seaboard falls into the Falangists' hands;
Republican forces in
Gijón, Spain, set fire to petrol reserves, prior to retreating before the advancing
Falangists.
USS Panay incident: Japanese bombers sink the American gunboat
USS Panay on the
Yangtze in China; the United States accepts the Japanese statement that this was unintentional.
Switzerland begins construction of its
Border Line defences.
The
Vibora Luviminda sugar plantation trade unions strike on
Maui island, Hawaii.
Italian psychiatrist
Amarro Fiamberti is the first to document a transorbital approach to the brain, which becomes the basis for the controversial medical procedure of
transorbital lobotomy.
Soviet industry produces about four times as much as it had in
1928.
The Allen Organ Company, builder of church, home and theatre organs, is founded in Macungie, Pennsylvania.