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April 1937

Month of 1937 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

April 1937
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The following events occurred in April 1937:

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April 26, 1937: More than 1,600 people killed by aerial bombardment of Guernica in Spain.
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April 13, 1937: Brutal lynching of two African-Americans takes place in Mississippi, with photographs later published worldwide (pictured: Robert McDaniels)
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April 1, 1937 (Thursday)

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April 2, 1937 (Friday)

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April 3, 1937 (Saturday)

April 4, 1937 (Sunday)

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April 5, 1937 (Monday)

  • The first postage stamps bearing the face of Adolf Hitler went on sale in Germany to commemorate the Führer's 48th birthday.[18][19]
  • The first elections in British India for the new Punjab Provincial Assembly were held for 175 seats, of which 42 were for any candidate, 84 were limited to Muslims, 31 for Sikhs, and 18 others for representatives of different groups (four for women, five for landholders, three for trade union representatives, two for Indian Christians, and one apiece for a European, a British-born Indian, a university representative and representative of industry. Overall, candidates of the Unionist Party won a majority of 98 of 175 seats.[20]
  • The French liner Normandie crossed the Atlantic Ocean in record time, with an average speed of 30.98 knots (57.37 km/h; 35.65 mph).[21]
  • Born:
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April 6, 1937 (Tuesday)

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April 7, 1937 (Wednesday)

  • The Pennsylvania chocolate workers' sitdown strike ended abruptly when at least 3,000 people— other Hershey employees, workers at neighboring dairies affected by the strike, and local residents—arrived at the factory and gave the strikers until 1:00 to leave the factory or to be forcibly evicted. When the deadline arrived with no exit, the strikebreaking group entered the factory with bats, clubs and hammers and beat several people, with the worst assault on three union organizers.[8] As 800,000 pounds (360,000 kg) of milk daily was destroyed as a result of the strike, farmers armed with sticks and clubs assaulted the strikers, many of whom were taken to hospitals.[30][31]
  • In British India, the bicameral Assam Legislative Assembly, the first parliament of native Indians in the Assam Province, was opened by the British governor, Sir Robert Reid in Shillong with a 108-member House of Representatives and a 21-member Legislative Council. Babu Basanta Kumar Das was sworn in as the first Speaker of the House of the new Assembly on the same day.
  • Born:
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April 8, 1937 (Thursday)

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April 9, 1937 (Friday)

  • In Nazi Germany, the Gestapo carried out a nationwide raid all on all chapters of B'nai B'rith, the international Jewish social service organization. All property of the B'nai B'rith was confiscated by the German government and the German corporation was dissolved.[36]
  • Mark R. Rein, a Russian-born German journalist, was kidnapped in Barcelona while in Spain, and taken to the Soviet Union by agents of the Soviet secret police, the OGPU. He was never seen in public again, and presumed to have been executed as part of an operation to round up opponents of the regime of Joseph Stalin.[37]
  • The Kamikaze became the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly from Japan to Europe, as pilot Masaaki Iinuma and navigator Kenji Tsukagoshi arrived in London 51 hours and 17 minutes after departing from Tokyo.
  • Born:
  • Died: Albert Paine, 75, American author and biographer[41]

April 10, 1937 (Saturday)

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April 11, 1937 (Sunday)

  • The British cabinet held a rare Sunday meeting in which it decided to afford the fullest protection to British shipping outside the three-mile limit in northern Spanish waters. This was understood to include authorizing the Royal Navy to open fire on any Spanish vessels interfering with British cargo ships.[49]
  • The Junkers Ju 89 prototype Nazi German bomber had its first flight, piloted by Peter Hesselbach.[50] The project was discontinued 18 days later because the fuel consumption of the Ju 89 and another heavy bomber, the Dornier Do 19, was too high.
  • Died: John Richard Morgan, 83, Welsh international footballer who represented the Wales national football team from 1877 to 1883[51]
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April 12, 1937 (Monday)

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Whittle's first jet engine, on display at the Science Museum, London
  • British engineer Frank Whittle and his team successfully tested a prototype jet engine, the Power Jets W.1, at his factory in Rugby, Warwickshire.[52][53]
  • The U.S. Supreme Court decided National Labor Relations Board v Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation, ruling 5 to 4 that the U.S. Congress had the power under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution to regulate labor relations within a particular U.S. state for industries that impacted interstate commerce, even if only indirectly. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes wrote the majority opinion, stating that "Employees have as clear a right to organize and select their representatives for lawful purposes as the respondent has to organize its business and select its own officers and agents," and added that "Although activities may be intrastate in character when separately considered," the federal government could regulate them "if they have such a close and substantial relation to interstate commerce that their control is essential or appropriate to protect that commerce from burdens and obstructions."
  • Born:
  • Died: Abdülhak Hâmid Tarhan, 85, Ottoman Turkish playwright and poet[54]

April 13, 1937 (Tuesday)

  • The lynching of Roosevelt Townes and Robert McDaniels, the first to be covered extensively by the United States media, took place in Duck Hill, Mississippi, after the two men were accused of the December 30 murder of a white shopkeeper.[55][56] After the two appeared in court in Winona, Mississippi, and entered a plea of not guilty, a mob of about 100 men overpowered the sheriff and five deputy sheriffs and seized Townes and McDaniels at the Montgomery County Courthouse. The two men were then transported in a school bus by members of the lynch mob, taken to a wooded area near Duck Hill, chained to trees, and tortured with a blowtorch. McDaniels was shot to death, and Townes was burned to death. Days later, Life magazine became the first U.S. publication to print photographs that had been taken at the scene of the crime, bringing the practice of lynching of African-Americans to worldwide attention.[57][58]
  • Fuad Hamza, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Egypt, welcomed David Ben-Gurion, the Chairman of the Zionist and Jewish Agency Executive and future Prime Minister of Israel, to Hamza's home in Beirut in Lebanon, as Ben-Gurion attempted to find out Saudi King Ibn Saud's views on the formation of a Jewish state in the Middle East. Hamza arranged for Ben-Gurion to meet with King Ibn Saud and Crown Prince Saud.[59]
  • The Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal was launched.
  • Born:

April 14, 1937 (Wednesday)

  • The musical stage comedy Babes in Arms. with music and lyrics by the team of Rodgers and Hart, opened at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway. The show spawned several hit songs including "My Funny Valentine" and "The Lady is a Tramp".
  • The Bruderhof community, a settlement of Anabaptist Christian Hutterites near Fulda in Germany, was raided by the Gestapo, assisted by the German SS and local police.[60] The three members of the executive committee (Hans Meier, Hans Boller, and Karl Keiderling) were arrested and the property of the residents was confiscated. Two visitors from the Hutterian Brethren in America, Michael Waldner and David Hofer, happened to be present, and told police that they would report the persecution to their organization upon their return home. The Nazi government relented, released the committee members after three months, and allowed the Bruderhof members to leave Germany.[61]
  • Lord Somervell, the Attorney-General for England, issued his official opinion to the Home Secretary, Viscount Simon, that although the former King Edward VIII "could not have claimed the right to be described as a Royal Highness" under British law, and that Edward's fiancée, Wallis Simpson, would have no right to claim the title "on any legal basis", it was "within the prerogative of His Majesty", King George VI, to continue to refer to Edward as "His Royal Highness" and to regulate the title by Letters Patent.[62]
  • Mitchell Hepburn, Premier of the Canadian province of Ontario, forced two of his cabinet ministers to resign after they had opposed his handling of the Oshawa Strike.[33][63]
  • Born:
  • Died: Ned Hanlon, 79, American baseball player and manager, 1996 inductee to the Baseball Hall of Fame, known for his innovations during his managerial career from 1899 to 1907, and for winning the National League pennant three consecutive years managing the NL Baltimore Orioles (1894, 1895, and 1896) and two consecutive years for the Brooklyn Superbas (1899 and 1900)[64]

April 15, 1937 (Thursday)

April 16, 1937 (Friday)

April 17, 1937 (Saturday)

April 18, 1937 (Sunday)

April 19, 1937 (Monday)

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The FET Party flag

April 20, 1937 (Tuesday)

April 21, 1937 (Wednesday)

April 22, 1937 (Thursday)

April 23, 1937 (Friday)

April 24, 1937 (Saturday)

  • Britain and France allowed Belgium to withdraw from its security obligation under the Locarno Treaties, excusing Belgium from having to render assistance along with the British and French in the event of German aggression toward Poland. The leaders of both the UK and France publicly declared that Belgium's security was paramount to the Western Allies and that they would defend Belgium's borders against aggression of any sort, whether directed solely at Belgium, or to obtain bases to wage war against "other states".[118]
  • British cryptographer and codebreaker Dillwyn "Dilly" Knox, who had been part of the Room 40 cryptanalysis group in the British Admiralty that had decoded the Zimmerman Telegram in 1917, was able to break the Enigma code messages between Nazi Germany and Francisco Franco's Spanish Nationalists.[119] News of the breakthrough was not shared with the Spanish Second Republic, which was fighting against the Nationalists.[120]
  • Born: La Thoại Tân (stage name for Pham Van Tan), Vietnamese-born American actor and singer; in Saigon, French Cochinchina (now Ho Chi Minh City, Socialist Republic of Vietnam)
  • Died: Lucy Beaumont, 63, English-born actress who performed on stage and in film in the UK and in the United States[121]

April 25, 1937 (Sunday)

  • The Soviet Union announced the completion of all goals of the five-year plan nine months to a year ahead of schedule. The announcement came despite numerous articles in the state-controlled press stating that many branches of the plan were lagging behind.[122]
  • The Belarusian State Philharmonic, the national orchestra of the nation of Belarus, was founded in Minsk in the Byelorussian SSR.
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Sohn falls to his death
  • Died:
    • Clem Sohn, 26, American airshow daredevil known for his stunt of gliding while wearing a wingsuit, and frequently billed as "The Batman",[123] fell to his death while performing at an airshow in Vincennes, France, in front of a large crowd, after neither his parachute nor his emergency parachute opened.[124][125]
    • Michał Drzymała, 79, Polish folk hero

April 26, 1937 (Monday)

  • Nazi Germany's Condor Legion carried out the destructive aerial bombing of the small (population 7,000) Spanish town of Guernica,[126] killing at least 170 civilians and perhaps as many as 300. The first wave of bombing occurred at 4:30 in the afternoon as a single German Dornier Do 17 dropped 12 50-kg bombs, with the most destructive wave starting at 6:30 p.m. with three bomber squadrons of three Junkers Ju52 planes carrying out heavy bombing for 15 minutes, followed by other airplanes strafing roads leading out of town. Franco claimed three days later that Guernica had been destroyed on the ground by Communist demolition teams.[81]
  • The "Roman salute", a gesture in which the right arm is raised upward at an angle, fully extended, facing forward, with palm down and fingers touching, and revived in the 20th century as a symbol of support of Fascism, was formally approved in a decree by Francisco Franco as a form of salute among his Spanish nationalists. Franco issued his decree from his capital at Burgos.[127] The salute, already used in Italy and Germany, was strictly used in Fascist rallies in insurgent-held Spain. The Spanish Nationalist military hierarchy continued to use the traditional military salutes. After World War II, use of the salute would be discontinued in September 1945.[81]
  • The U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of Herndon v. Lowry, ruling, 5 to 4, that the anti-insurrection law of the U.S. state of Georgia was unconstitutional and a violation of the First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, as well as of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution applying the rights to proceedings in all U.S. states.[128]
  • The long-running but now forgotten NBC Radio program Lorenzo Jones began a run of 18 seasons as a "comedy soap opera" about an inventor (portrayed by Karl Swenson) of strange gadgets, and with Bette Garde as his devoted wife Belle. The 15-minute show would be a late afternoon mainstay on NBC's daytime schedule until the end of the 1954–55 season.[129]

April 27, 1937 (Tuesday)

April 28, 1937 (Wednesday)

April 29, 1937 (Thursday)

April 30, 1937 (Friday)

References

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