In retaliation for the Palos incident of the previous week, the German cruiser Königsberg forced the Spanish steamer Soton aground near Santander while the Graf Spee stopped another steamer, the Aragon, and forced it to change course to a Nationalist-held port.[1][2] The Spanish government called Germany's recent naval actions "acts of aggression and war." Germany sent a note offering to release the Aragon and cease attacks on Spanish shipping as soon as restitution was made for the loss of cargo of the Palos, a proposal which Spain rejected.[2]
The Public Order Act 1936 went into effect in the United Kingdom, banning the wearing of political uniforms and empowering the police to stop political marches when there is risk of disorder.[3] The Act, given royal assent on December 18, was aimed at the British Union of Fascists, led by Oswald Mosley, whose black shirt uniforms had been modeled after those of the Fascist Party of Italy.
Alan Turing's seminal 1936 paper on the principles of modern computing was published, titled On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem, and presenting the concept of a Universal Turing Machine.[6]
Great Britain and Italy signed a "gentleman's agreement" pledging to mutually respect one another's rights and interests in the Mediterranean as well as Spain's independence and integrity.[15][16][17]
Died:Ross Alexander (stage name for Alexander Ross Smith), 29, American stage and film actor known as the star of the 1936 movie Hot Money, shot himself with a .22 caliber revolver.[22]
In China, 128 drug addicts were taken to a village near Tianjin and executed by firing squad.[23]
Evacuation of British citizens from Gibraltar continued as the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Gallant (H59) took on 252 civilians, 116 of whom were women and children.[24]
The first science fiction convention in Britain, and perhaps the world, took place in Leeds at the Theosophical Hall with 20 fans, including Arthur C. Clarke and Eric Frank Russell, attending. The meeting was organized by the Leeds chapter of Britain's Science Fiction League.[26]
The finals of Germany's Tschammerpokal were played at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, bringing an end to a tournament that had started with 5,291 soccer football teams competing for the 64 spots in the knockout competition. VfB Leipzig defeated Schalke 04, 2 to 1, before a crowd of 70,000.[27]
The U.S. Supreme Court decided De Jonge v. Oregon, unanimously holding that a law against criminal syndicalism could not be applied against someone merely for speaking at a meeting of an organization deemed to be a criminal syndicate (in the case at hand, the Communist Party of Oregon). Writing for the Court, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes commented, "The greater the importance of safeguarding the community from incitements to the overthrow of our institutions by force and violence, the more imperative is the need to preserve inviolate the constitutional rights of free speech, free press, and free assembly in order to maintain the opportunity for free political discussion, to the end that government may be responsive to the will of the people and that changes, if desired, may be obtained by peaceful means. Therein lies the security of the Republic, the very foundation of constitutional government."[31]
Paul Behncke, 67, German admiral during the First World War, known for the 1916 Battle of Jutland against the British Royal Navy[34]
Max Wenner, 49, English ornithologist and sportsman, was killed when he fell, jumped or was pushed out of a Sabena Airlines plane from an altitude of 3,000 feet (910 m).[35] Wenner had boarded the Savoia-Marchetti S.73 airplane at Köln in Germany on a flight to Brussels in Belgium. His body was found four days later in a forest near the Belgian town of Genk.
The first issue of Look magazine, created by publisher Gardner Cowles Jr. and John Cowles Sr. as a rival to Life magazine launched two months earlier by Time Inc., went on sale in the United States.[36][37] The initial magazine, dated "February 1937", had Nazi official Hermann Goering on its cover.[38][39] As with Life, Look was filled with photos to supplement its new stories. Originally a monthly magazine for its first five issues, it became a biweekly magazine on May 11 and continue without interruption until its October 19, 1971 issue, 14 months before Life published its final issue.
Khayreddin al-Ahdab formed a government as the new Prime Minister of Lebanon, at the time a French Mandate of the League of Nations, becoming the first Muslim to hold the post.
The government of Nazi Germany recommended German artists depict at least four children in illustrations of German families.[40]
U.S. Representative William B. Bankhead of Alabama, a Democrat, won re-election as the Speaker of the United States House of representatives, receiving 324 of 421 votes cast (76.78%). Republican nominee Bertrand Snell of New York received 83 votes.[41]
The successful German film Panzerkreuzer Sebastopol: Weisse Sklaven (Battleship Sebastopol: White Slaves), directed by Karl Anton, premiered[42] after being approved by Nazi censors. The film was described by a later historian as "a clumsy anti-communist Nazi replica" ("einer plump antikommunistischen NS-Replik")[43] of Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 Soviet film Battleship Potemkin.
Born:
Irwin Schiff, American mob associate nicknamed "The Fat Man"; in The Bronx, New York (murdered, 1987)[44]
Abdul Monem, Bangladeshi entrepreneur, founder of the conglomerate AML (Abdul Monem Ltd) that owns Igloo Ice Cream company and Coca-Cola of Bangladesh, as well as AM Sugar Refinery Ltd., AM Rice Bran Oil, ServicEngine BPO, and AM Securities and Financial Services Ltd; in Brahmanbaria, Bengal Province, British India (d. 2020)[45]
The Soviet Census of 1937 was held and resulted in a count of 162,039,470 people, much lower than the 180,000,000 expected by Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin.[47] After the presentation of the results to Stalin in March, he ordered the arrest of Census Bureau, Olimpiy Kvitkin and census statisticians Mikhail Kurman, Lazar Brand, Ivan Oblomov and Ivan Kraval, as well as the chiefs of most of the regional statistical centers, and executions followed.[48] The census would be set aside by decision of the Sovnarkom on September 25, with an editorial in the Communist Party newspaper declaring that "enemies of the people gave the census counters invalid instructions that led to the gross under-counting of the population, but the brave NKVD under the leadership of Nikolai Yezhov destroyed the snake's nest in the statistical bodies."[49]
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered the annual State of the Union address to Congress. "The statute of NRA has been outlawed", the president said. "The problems have not. They are still with us." Roosevelt said that means "must be found to adapt our legal forms and our judicial interpretation to the actual present national needs of the largest progressive democracy in the modern world."[50]
The U.S. Congress passed a resolution strictly forbidding the export of arms to Spain.[51]
U.S. President Roosevelt signed an amendment to the Neutrality Act to establish an embargo on the shipment of weapons to Spain.[60] His signature came too late to stop the vessel Mar Cantabrico, which had already left New York with just such a cargo.[61]
After being expelled from Norway on December 9 and deported on the oil tanker Ruth, former Soviet Russian activist Leon Trotsky and his wife Natalia Sedova arrived in Mexico, where he would spend the rest of his life until his assassination in 1940.[64]
Italy banned interracial marriage between its won citizens and women in its African colonies, specifically "Regular or irregular unions between Italians and Abyssinian women," referring to women in Ethiopia. Other decrees were that Jewish communities in Africa must open their business premises on Saturdays and shut them on Sundays," an application of Italy's existing Shop Hours Act to the colonies in Libya, Somalia and Ethiopia.[65]
The American Board of Surgery was established in Philadelphia for the purpose of certifying surgeons who have met a defined standard of education, training and knowledge.
With the Spanish Nationalists of Francisco Franco conducting bombing raids and advancing to capture Spain's capital, the Spanish government ordered an evacuation of all noncombatant citizens remaining in Madrid.[66][17]
The report of the Brownlow Committee (officially the President's Committee on Administrative Management), appointed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to recommend for reorganization of the executive branch of the U.S. government, was presented by the President to seven congressional leaders who had been summoned to the White House for a Sunday meeting.[67][68] Composed of three professors of political science — Louis Brownlow and Charles Merriam of the University of Chicago and Luther Gulick of Columbia University— the Committee declared that "The President needs help,"[69] and delivered recommendations that Roosevelt discussed with his cabinet the next day and then to Congress on Tuesday.
France massed troops in French Morocco and threatened to occupy the Spanish side if the Nationalists refused to quickly oust the Germans reported in the territory. France feared that Germany was building up troops there under the guise of "volunteers" in preparation for a surprise attack on French Morocco.[70]
Britain warned its citizens that anyone volunteering to fight for either side in the Spanish Civil War would be subject to prosecution under the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870.[71]
Adolf Hitler assured France that Germany had no intention of seizing the Kingdom of Morocco, at the time a French protectorate.[76]
Police in Flint, Michigan, armed with guns and tear gas, attempted to enter plant #2 of General Motors' Fisher Body company with the objective of breaking up the sit-down strike that had been called by the United Automobile Workers labor union on December 30. Strikers occupying the building pelted the police with bottles and bolts, and 14 miners were wounded by police gunfire before the police backed off.[77] General Motors and the UAW would reach an agreement and the strike would end after 44 days on February 11.[78]
The United States invalidated all passports to Spain, in order to deter Americans from volunteering for the Spanish Civil War.[79]
Miguel Telles Antunes, Portuguese paleontologist for whom Lourinhasaurus antunesi, the Lourinhasaurus dinosaur is named. Other extinct species bearing his name are the weasel shark Paragaleus antunesi, the horse Equus caballus antunesi and the bird Fluviatilavis antunesi.
U.S. President Roosevelt informed Congress of the largest plan up to that time for reorganization of the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, based on the report of the Brownlow Committee.[82]
Western Air Express Flight 7 crashed into Los Pinetos Peak near Newhall, California, killing five of the 13 people aboard. The Boeing 247 was on a flight from Salt Lake City to Burbank, California, when it struck the mountain in bad weather. The documentary filmmakers Martin and Osa Johnson were on board and both were seriously injured, with Martin dying the next day. One of the survivors, passenger Arthur A. Robinson, hiked 5 miles (8.0 km) down the mountainside and alerted rescuers searching for the accident site.[84]
At the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, a crowd of 50,000 onlookers watched as authorities burned 10,000 ounces (280,000 g) of drugs and then executed 5 drug traffickers.[88][89]
The Royal Navy destroyer HMS Achates evacuated 212 civilians, including 58 women and children, from Gibraltar.[24]
Pope Pius XI left his sickbed for the first time in a month.[90]
The French Chamber of Deputies voted unanimously to give Prime Minister Léon Blum power to halt the flow of volunteers from or through France to fight in the Spanish Civil War.[93]
Two days of voting in the Finnish presidential election concluded as voters in Finland selected 300 people to serve in the Electoral College that was scheduled to meet on February 15. Of the 300, 155 were committed to a particular candidate, with the choice for the college being President Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, incumbent Prime Minister Kyösti Kallio, or former President Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg.[96] Of the three, Kallio would be elected president on February 15.[96]
Five senior German Catholic bishops, along with the Vatican Secretary of State, Eugenio Pacelli, unanimously voted to ask Pope Pius XI to take a stand against Nazi Germany's increasing demands against the German Church.[97] The Pope issued the papal encyclicalMit brennender Sorge ("With deep anxiety") to be used on March 14.
The French Colonial Ministry confirmed reports that it was studying plans to offer land on Madagascar and other French colonies for settlement by Jews.[99]
A prison riot broke out near Guelph in Canada. Inmates started fires and fought police for ten hours until order was restored. An estimated $250,000 in damage was done and it was feared that 200 of the prison's 700 inmates had escaped.[100]
At a special meeting in Warsaw, the Stronnictwo Ludowe, a political party to champion the rights of farm laborers, voted to present demands to the Polish government and then to organize a strike of the nation's peasants. The strike itself would take place for 10 days in August.
The Soviet Union sent Britain a note on the Spanish Civil War explaining that the Soviet government, although it "presently does not practice the dispatchment of volunteer detachments, does not consider it expedient to adopt unilateral prohibitive measures."[101]
German Führer Adolf Hitler authorized the creation of Adolf Hitler Schools, special new schools for gifted boys 12 to 18 that would prepare them for the NS-Ordensburgen.[106]
All 25 crew of the German Navy transport Welle, a converted trawler, were killed when the ship foundered in the Bay of Kiel off of the coast of Fehmarn.[107]
General Motors de México (GMM) a subsidiary of the U.S. automobile manufacturer, produced the first Chevrolet truck assembled in Mexico.
The CBS radio show Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories, starring Edith Spencer in the title role, premiered at 1:45 p.m. Eastern Time as a 15-minute soap opera.[108] Sponsored by Spry Vegetable Shortening, the show would run on CBS radio until November 16, 1956.[109]
Howard Hughes set a new transcontinental aviation record by flying from Los Angeles to New York in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.[113]
The British Parliament convened for its first session of the New Year. Anthony Eden gave a speech on the foreign situation saying that the future of the continent lay with Germany, who "has it in her power to influence a choice which will decide not only her fate, but that of Europe. If she chooses co-operation with other nations, full and equal co-operation, there is nobody in this country who will not assist wholeheartedly to remove misunderstandings and to make the way smooth for peace and prosperity."[114]
Radio Nacional de España (RNE), the official radio broadcaster of the Fascist-governed areas of Spain, was launched by the Spanish Nationalist government in Salamanca, originally as an operation of Generalissimo Francisco Franco's State Delegation for Press and Propaganda.
In the U.S. state of Tennessee, the marriage of a 22-year-old man to a 9-year-old girl horrified newspaper and magazine readers and called attention to the lack of laws setting a minimum wage for marriage. At the time, Tennessee law provided only that the parents of a child had to provide consent to the marriage.[117]
Cook's Night Out, one of the first cooking shows on television, was first broadcast, as a 15-minute feature on BBC Television from its sole station, in London. The description of the program in Radio Times was "Marcel Boulestin will demonstrate before the camera the making of the first of five dishes, each of which can be prepared as a separate dish, while the whole together make an excellent five-course dinner. In his first talk, M. Boulestin will demonstrate the cooking of an omelette."[122][123]
Japan's Prime Minister Kōki Hirota and his entire Japanese cabinet resigned due to a split between military leaders, and anti-military parliamentary members of the National Diet who thought that the army had too much influence over the government.[130] Hirota was in sharp disagreement with the War Minister, General Hisaichi Terauchi over a speech made by Kunimatsu Hamada
The second Moscow Trial began five months after the trial and execution of 16 former Soviet Communist Party leaders the previous August. The new defendants were 17 lesser communist leaders branded collectively as the Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center (including economic administrator Georgy Pyatakov and highway administrator Leonid Serebryakov), who were charged with an anti-Stalin conspiracy.[131]
Died:A. J. Montague, 74, U.S. Congressman for Virginia since 1912 and former Governor of Virginia from 1902 to 1906, died at his home after having been in poor health since winning re-election to a 13th term.[134]
The soap operaThe Guiding Light premiered on NBC Radio at 4:45 in the afternoon Eastern time, initially as "a story which details the experiences of a minister in a melting pot community."[135] The show's title came from the lamp that the show's protagonist, the Reverend John Ruthledge (voiced by Arthur Peterson Jr.), would turn on in his parsonage to let people know that he was always available to counsel them.[136] The radio show continued until June 29, 1956, running concurrently with a CBS television show which premiered on June 30, 1952, running for 54 years until its final episode on September 18, 2009, 72 years after the premiere of radio show that began the series.[136][137]
A bus accident killed 23 of 32 passengers on the in the U.S. state of Florida, most of whom were tourists. The bus, operated by Tamiami Trail Tours, fell into a canal running alongside the Tamiami Trail road in the Florida Everglades.[138]
Dimitri Navachine, 47, Russian economist and Soviet diplomat who guided the Soviet Union's financial matters until defecting to France in 1929, was stabbed to death while walking his dog in Paris.[139][140]
Addison Burkhardt, 57, American playwright, screenwriter and lyricist, died of influenza.[141]
The Ohio River reached a crest of 79.99 feet (24.38 m) as it reached Cincinnati. Most of the region on the river in southern Ohio, northern Kentucky and southeastern Indiana was without electricity.
The Japanese military declined to accept General Kazushige Ugaki, the former Japanese Governor-General of Korea, as Prime Minister. To prevent Ugaki from forming a cabinet, the Imperial Army refused to allow any of its officers to serve as a Minister of War.[142]
The 1935 salaries of Hollywood movie stars were made public as part of a Congressional study on salaries paid by corporations. Greta Garbo topped the list at $332,500, followed by Wallace Beery ($278,749), Joan Crawford ($241,403), William Powell ($238,750) and Clark Gable ($211,553).[145]
Britain's Labour Party disassociated itself from the "Socialist League", a group of Labour MPs who sought to move Labour further to the left and had launched a "Unity Campaign" to bring British left-wing organizations into a united front against Fascism. Members of the League were given the choice of either quitting the Labour Party or quitting the Socialist League, and most opted to stay with Labour.[146]
On the fourth anniversary of becoming the Chancellor of Germany and leading his Nazi Party to control of the nation, Adolf Hitler said in a speech that Germany was renouncing Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles, in which Germany accepted the blame for starting the First World War.[151] On the same day, Hitler convened a meeting of his cabinet and issued a bill for approval by the Nazi parliament, "Law for the reorganization of relations between the Reichsbank and the Reichsbahn", nationalizing Germany's banks and its railways.[152]
Paul Freiherr von Eltz-Rübenach, the Reichspostminister (in charge of the postal service) and the Reichsminister für Verkehr (in charge of transportation) became the only remaining official in Hitler's cabinet who was not a member of the Nazi Party. At the cabinet meeting, Hitler personally presented the Golden Party Badge and party membership to those ministers not already enrolled. Eltz-Rübenach, a devout Roman Catholic who was concerned about the government's campaign against religion, declined the offer. He was told to submit his resignation.[153] and was replaced two days later.
The Trial of the Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center ended, and 13 of the 17 defendants were sentenced to execution by firing squad.[154]
The Associated Press reported a total of 333 known deaths across eight U.S. states from the recent flooding. 225 of the deaths were in Kentucky.[155]
German fuehrer Adolf Hitler issued a decree forbidding German nationals from accepting a Nobel Prize. The ban came shortly after the Nobel Foundation had awarded the Nobel Peace Price to Carl von Ossietzky, one of Hitler's political opponents.[156]
^ abDarrah, David (January 4, 1937). "Spain Charges Acts of War". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
^Mercer, Derrik, ed. (1989). Chronicle of the 20th Century. London: Chronicle Communications Ltd. p. 478. ISBN978-0-582-03919-3.
^"Somoza Assumes Office; Acceptance Speech of New Nicaraguan President Well Received". The New York Times. January 2, 1937. p. 2.
^"Nicaragua Elects Gen. Somoza President— Commander of National Army Receives Nearly 3/4 Of Votes Cast in Election". Baltimore Sun. December 9, 1936. p. 3.
^"U.S. Army Plane Wrecked; Two Officers Killed— Col. F. I. Eglin And Lieut. Howard E. Shelton Believed Victims". Baltimore Evening Sun. January 2, 1937. p. 1.
^Frank, Willard C. (August 1987). "The Spanish Civil War and the Coming of the Second World War". The International History Review. 9 (3). Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Taylor & Francis: 390–391. doi:10.1080/07075332.1987.9640449. ISSN0707-5332. JSTOR40105814.
^ abcCortada, James W., ed. (1982). Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 505. ISBN0-313-22054-9.
^Arnold, Mark (2022). Stars of Walt Disney Productions. BearManor Media. p. 197. ISBN9798887710723.
^"Admiral Behncke, 70, of Germany Is Dead; Former Navy Chief Commanded a Line of Battleships at the Battle of Jutland". The New York Times. January 5, 1937. p. 23.
^A. G. Volkov Census of 1937 Facts and Fictions, originally published in Перепись населения СССР 1937 года. История и материалы/Экспресс-информация. Серия «История статистики». Выпуск 3–5 (часть II). М., 1990/ с. 6–63.
^Tierney, Dominic (2007). FDR and the Spanish Civil War: Neutrality and Commitment in the Struggle That Divided America. Duke University Press. pp. 51–52. ISBN978-0-8223-4076-8.
^"Duce's new Laws for Empire— Mixed Marriages Forbidden", The Daily Telegraph (London), January 11, 1937, p.14
^"Women, Children ordered to Quit Madrid at Once— Defense Council Excepts Only Families of Men Operating Public Services in Capital— Rebels Continue to Push Forward". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. January 11, 1937. p. 1. MADRID, Jan. 11— Evacuation of virtually the entire civil population of Madrid was under way today as Fascist rebel troops continued to advance toward the capital. The evacuation order was issued yesterday.
^"Roosevelt Meets Congress Leaders on Reorganization; Senate and House Chiefs Hear President's Views Preparatory to Message Tomorrow". The New York Times. January 11, 1937. p. 1.
^"F.D.R. Outlines Governmental Overhaul Plan— Reorganization Message Due Tuesday in Congress— Democratic Chieftains Hold Parley With President". The Nashville Tennessean. January 11, 1937. p. 1.
^U.S. President’s Committee on Administrative Management. Report of the President’s Committee. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1937, p. 5.
^"France's Army Ready to Enter Spanish Africa". Chicago Daily Tribune. January 11, 1937. p. 1.
^Brewer, Sam (January 11, 1937). "Britain Forbids Her Citizens to Enlist in Spain". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 2.
^"50,000 Watch Shooting of 5 Drug Peddlers". Chicago Daily Tribune. January 14, 1937. p. 2.
^Humanities, National Endowment for the (January 14, 1937). "China's Own Opium War". Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, January 14, 1937, Image 12. pp. A. ISSN2331-9968. Retrieved 2024-01-02.
^"Pope Arises From Sickbed For First Time in a Month". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. January 13, 1937. p. 1.
^"Speed Up War! Hitler and Duce Warn Franco". Chicago Daily Tribune. January 15, 1937. p. 1.
^"Bunyan, Ox Tower Over Bemidji Carnival". Minneapolis Journal. January 14, 1937. p. 15.
^"France Votes to Halt Spanish War Volunteers". Chicago Daily Tribune. January 16, 1937. p. 4.
^"Comic Ryan dies in U.S.", Liverpool Daily Post, April 23, 1977, p.1
^"Japan Cabinet Resigns; Fight in Parliament". Chicago Daily Tribune. January 23, 1937. p. 13.
^Vadim Z Rogovin, 1937: Stalin's Year of Terror (Mehring books 1998; ISBN0-929087-77-1.) p. 113.
^Avramovski, Živko (1969). "The Yugoslav-Bulgarian Perpetual Friendship Pact of 24 January 1937". Canadian Slavonic Papers. 11 (3 (Fall)): 315. doi:10.1080/00085006.1969.11091166.
^Hartmut Gagelmann, Nicolae Bretan: His Life, His Music, translated by Beaumont Glass (Pendragon Press, 2000)p.114
^"Rep. A. J. Montague Passes Away At Home At Urbanna; Former Governor and Has Served in Congress Since April 5, 1913", AP report in Roanoke (VA) Times, January 25, 1937, p.1
^"Radio Around The Clock", AP report in The Daily American, (Somerset PA) p.3
^"Playwright Found Dead in Apartment", INS report in The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City UT), January 26, 1937, p.14
^"Japanese Army Balks Effort to Pick Cabinet". Chicago Daily Tribune. January 27, 1937. p. 8.
^Martens, Holger[in German] (2004). Hamburgs Weg zur Metropole. Von der Groß-Hamburg-Frage zum Bezirksverwaltungsgesetz [Hamburg's path to becoming a metropolis: from the Greater Hamburg Question to the District Administration Act (= contributions to the history of Hamburg.)]. Beiträge zur Geschichte Hamburgs (in German). Vol. 63. Hamburg: Verlag Verein für Hamburgische Geschichte. ISBN3-935413-08-4.