1932 in the United States explained
Events from the year 1932 in the United States.
Incumbents
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.[1]
- 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.[2]
- 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
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 - 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 - A farmers' revolt begins in the Midwestern United States.
- August 7 - Raymond Edward Welch becomes the first one-legged man to scale 6288feet 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.[4]
- December 23 or 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.
Undated
Ongoing
Births
January
- January 1
- January 3 – Dabney Coleman, actor 2024)
- January 6 – Stuart A. Rice, chemist
- January 9 – Robert F. Taft, Jesuit priest (d. 2018)
- January 15 – Cleven Goudeau, art director and cartoonist (d. 2015)
- January 16 – Dian Fossey, primatologist (killed 1985 in Rwanda)
- January 19
- January 22 – Piper Laurie, born Rosetta Jacobs, film actress (d. 2023)
- January 23 – James Rado, actor, playwright, director, writer and composer
- January 31 – Rick Hall, record producer, songwriter and recording studio owner (d. 2018)
February
- February 2 – Robert Mandan, American actor (d. 2018)
- February 3 – Peggy Ann Garner, American actress (d. 1984)
- February 4 – Herman D. Farrell Jr., American politician (d. 2018)
- February 7
- February 8 – John Williams, American film music composer
- February 10
- February 11 – Jerome Lowenthal, American pianist
- February 12 – Julian Simon, American economist and author (d. 1998)
- February 13 – Susan Oliver, American actress (d. 1990)
- February 14 – Leo Thorsness, American war veteran and politician (d. 2017)
- February 16
- February 22 – Ted Kennedy, American politician (d. 2009)
- February 23
- February 24 – Zell Miller, American politician (d. 2018)
- February 25 – Faron Young, American country singer (d. 1996)
- February 26 – Johnny Cash, American country singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor and author (d. 2003)
- February 27 – Elizabeth Taylor, English-American film actress (d. 2011)
- February 29 – Gene H. Golub, American mathematician (d. 2007)
March
- March 2
- March 4 – Ed Roth, American car designer (d. 2001)
- March 7 – Ed Thrasher, American art director and photographer (d. 2006)
- March 11 – Leroy Jenkins, African-American jazz musician and composer
- March 12 – Andrew Young, African-American politician, diplomat and activist
- March 14
- March 15 – Alan Bean, American naval officer and naval aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut (d. 2018)
- March 16 – Walter Cunningham, American astronaut (d. 2023)[11]
- March 17 – Donald N. Langenberg, American physicist and professor (d. 2019)
- March 18 – John Updike, American novelist and poet (d. 2009)
- March 20 – Tod Dockstader, American composer (d. 2015)
- March 21 – Walter Gilbert, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 22 – Leo Welch, American blues musician (d. 2017)
- March 27 – Junior Parker, African-American blues musician (d. 1971)
- March 29 – Al Bianchi, American basketball player
- March 31 – Thomas Beers, co-founder of the needle-pointing business Sudberry House
April
- April 1
- April 2 – Edward Egan, American cardinal (d. 2015)
- April 3 – Colin Cantwell, American artist (d. 2022)[13]
- April 4
- April 5 – Clemmie Spangler, American billionaire businessman and academic administrator (d. 2018)
- April 7
- April 9
- Paul Krassner, American author, journalist, comedian and editor (d. 2019)
- Carl Perkins, American rock singer (d. 1998)
- April 10 – Blaze Starr, American burlesque artist (d. 2015)
- April 11 – Joel Grey, born Joel Katz, American actor, singer and dancer
- April 12 – Tiny Tim, American musician (d. 1996)
- April 13 – Dick Farley, American basketball player (d. 1969)
- April 14 – Loretta Lynn, American country singer (d. 2022)
- April 16 – Bob Beckwith, American firefighter (September 11 attacks) (d. 2024)
- April 21 – Elaine May, American film director
- April 22 – Red Davis, American basketball player
- April 23 – Halston, American fashion designer (d. 1990)
- April 26 – Red Morrison, American basketball player
- April 27 – Casey Kasem, American disc jockey and actor (d. 2014)
May
- May 2 – Ed Bressoud, American baseball player (d. 2023)[14]
- May 4 – Susan Brown, American actress (d. 2018)
- May 7 – Pete Domenici, American politician (d. 2017)
- May 8 – Sonny Liston, American boxer (d. 1970)
- May 10 – Diane Washburn, American fashion model
- May 11 – John Vasconcellos, American lawyer and politician (d. 2014)
- May 16 – William J. Pulte, American real estate developer (d. 2018)
- May 17 – Chris Ballingall, American baseball player
- May 19 – Bill Fitch, American basketball coach (d. 2022)
- May 22 – Robert Spitzer, American psychiatrist (d. 2015)
- May 25
- May 26 – Joe Altobelli, American baseball player (d. 2021)
June
- June 4 – John Drew Barrymore, American actor (d. 2004)
- June 6 – David Scott, American astronaut
- June 7 – Joe Collier, American football coach (d. 2024)
- June 10
- June 12 – Barbara Uehling, American educator and university administrator (d. 2020)
- June 13 – Bob McGrath, American actor (d. 2022)
- June 15 – Mario Cuomo, American politician (d. 2015)
- June 18 – Dudley R. Herschbach, American chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986
- June 21
- June 24 – Scott Marlowe, American actor (d. 2001)
- June 26
- June 28 – Pat Morita, Asian-American actor (d. 2005)
- June 29 – Alice Langtry, American politician (d. 2017)
July
August
- August 1 – Meir Kahane, American-born Israeli rabbi and ultra-nationalist writer and political figure (d. 1990 in Israel)
- August 2
- August 3 – Bob Carney, American basketball player (d. 2011)
- August 5 – Ja'Net DuBois, American actress, singer, dancer (d. 2020)
- August 7 – Maurice Rabb Jr., African-American ophthalmologist (d. 2005)
- August 8
- August 12 – Charlie O'Donnell, American game show announcer (d. 2010)
- August 14 – James V. Hansen, American politician (d. 2018)
- August 15
- August 16 – Pervis Spann, African-American radio broadcaster (d. 2022)[20]
- August 20 – Bill Hudson, American civil rights photojournalist (d. 2010)
- August 26 – Joe Engle, Americanastronaut (d. 2024)
September
- September 1 – Sunny von Bülow, socialite (d. 2008)
- September 3 – Eileen Brennan, actress and singer (d. 2013)
- September 4 – Vince Dooley, American football coach (d. 2022)
- September 5 – Carol Lawrence, actress, singer and dancer
- September 6 – Marguerite Pearson, baseball player (d. 2005)
- September 7
- September 8 – Patsy Cline, country singer (d. 1963)
- September 9 – Bill Porter, salesman (d. 2013)
- September 13 – Whitey Bell, basketball player
- September 17 – Doyle Corman, politician (d. 2019)
- September 14 – Josh Culbreath, Olympic athlete (d. 2021)[22]
- September 21 – Mickey Kuhn, child actor (d. 2022)
- September 26
- September 27 – Oliver E. Williamson, economist (d. 2020)
October
- October 1 – Albert Collins, African-American blues guitarist and singer (d. 1993)
- October 2 – Maury Wills, baseball player and manager (d. 2022)[23]
- October 3 – Joe Morgenstern, film critic and journalist
- October 4
- October 9
- October 11 – Dottie West, country music singer and songwriter (d. 1991)
- October 12
- October 13
- October 17 – Paul Anderson, weightlifter (d. 1994)
- October 19 – Robert Reed, American actor (The Brady Bunch) (d. 1992)
- October 20
- October 22 – Barboura Morris, American actress (d. 1975)
- October 24 – Foster Diebold, American academic (d. 2018)
- October 28 – Suzy Parker, American fashion model and actress (d. 2003)
- October 29 – Dick Garmaker, American basketball player (d. 2020)
- October 29 – Velma Barfield, American serial killer who murders at least six (d. 1984)
- October 30 – Bob Koester, record producer and businessman (d. 2021)
November
December
- December 5
- December 7
- December 9 – Bill Hartack, jockey (d. 2007)
- December 12 – Bob Pettit, basketball player
- December 17 – Kelly E. Taggart, admiral and civil engineer (d. 2014)
- December 19 – Jim Paxson Sr., basketball player (d. 2014)
- December 18 – Roger Smith, actor (d. 2017)
- December 21 – Edward Hoagland, essayist
- December 24 – Earl Dodge, temperance movement leader (d. 2007)
- December 25 – Janie Lou Gibbs, serial killer who murdered five of her relatives (d. 2010)
- December 28 – Nichelle Nichols, African American actress (d. 2022)[26]
- December 29 – Inga Swenson, actress and singer
Deaths
- January 12 - James Felts, newspaper editor and politician (born 1866)
- January 26 - William Wrigley, Jr., chewing gum manufacturer (born 1861)
- January 27 - Ed Appleton, baseball player (born 1892)
- February 8 - Mad Dog Coll, hitman (shot) (born 1908 in Ireland)
- February 15 - Minnie Maddern Fiske, stage actress (born 1865)
- March 1 - Frank Teschemacher, jazz woodwind player (automobile accident) (born 1906)
- March 6 - John Philip Sousa, composer and conductor, "the march king" ("The Stars and Stripes Forever") (born 1854)
- March 14 - George Eastman, photographic inventor (Eastman Kodak) (suicide) (born 1854)
- March 18 - Chauncey Olcott, musical theater actor (born 1858)
- March 31 - Eben Byers, steel tycoon and socialite (radiation poisoning) (born 1880)
- April 2 - Bill Pickett, African American cowboy of slave ancestry (born 1870)
- April 15 - A. J. Rosier, politician, assassinated (b. 1880)[27]
- April 22 - J. Warren Keifer, Union army officer and politician (born 1836)
- April 27 - Hart Crane, poet (born 1899)[28]
- May 3 - Charles Fort, researcher of the unusual (born 1874)
- May 30 - John Hubbard, admiral (born 1849)
- June 21 - Major Taylor, African American racing cyclist (born 1878)
- June 27 - Francis P. Duffy, Roman Catholic priest (born 1871 in Canada)
- July 7 - Henry Eyster Jacobs, Lutheran theologian (born 1844)
- July 22 - Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., Broadway theatrical impresario (born 1867)
- July 24 - Cynthia S. Burnett, educator, temperance reformer, and newspaper editor (born 1840)
- August 2 - Dan Brouthers, baseball player (born 1858)[29]
- August 25 - Edith Rockefeller McCormick, socialite, daughter of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller (born 1872)
- September 5 - Paul Bern, screenwriter (suicide) (born 1889)
- September 22 - Claude C. Hopkins, advertising executive (born 1866)
- September 25 - Joel R. P. Pringle, admiral (born 1873)
- September 27 - John Sharp Williams, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1911 to 1923 (born 1854)
- October 17 - Lucy Bacon, painter (born 1857)
- October 26 - Molly Brown, Denver socialite, survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic (born 1867)
- November 4 - Belle Bennett, actress (cancer) (born 1891)
- November 15 or 17 - Charles W. Chesnutt, African American author, essayist and political activist (born 1858)
- November 18 - Jay Hunt, American film director (born 1855)
- November 22 - William Walker Atkinson, writer and occultist (born 1862)
- November 23 - Henry S. Whitehead, writer of horror fiction and fantasy (born 1882)
- December 28 - Malcolm Whitman, tennis player (born 1877)
See also
Notes and References
- Web site: Lake Placid Winter Olympics - Athletes, Medals & Results . Olympics.com . 17 September 2021 . en . 25 April 2018.
- Web site: Riding the Rails: Timeline of the Great Depression . . . USA . 23 August 2016.
- Book: Bell . Daniel . Encyclopedia of International Games . 17 March 2016 . McFarland . 978-1-4766-1527-1 . 517 . en.
- Book: Cahill, Holger. Holger Cahill
. Holger Cahill. American Folk Art: The Art of the Common Man in America 1750–1900. New York. MoMA. 1932.
- 1959 Encyclopedia Americana.
- News: The long legacy of the U.S. occupation of Haiti . Washington Post . 19 August 2022.
- Web site: Volstead Act History, Definition, & Significance Britannica . www.britannica.com . 15 August 2022 . en.
- Book: Bob. Eagle. Eric S.. LeBlanc. 2013. Blues - A Regional Experience. Praeger Publishers. Santa Barbara. 178 . 978-0313344237.
- Web site: Roberts . Sam . Jane Maas, a Pioneer for Women in Advertising, Dies at 86 . The New York Times . 8 July 2019 . 21 November 2018.
- Matt Schudel, "Mark Murphy, jazz singer of freewheeling virtuosity, dies at 83", The Washington Post, October 24, 2015.
- Web site: Biographical Data: Walter Cunningham NASA ASTRONAUT (FORMER). October 24, 2021. NASA. July 2014.
- Web site: Debbie Reynolds obituary . the Guardian . 28 December 2021 . en . 29 December 2016.
- https://www.starwars.com/news/colin-cantwell COLIN CANTWELL, DESIGNER OF THE X-WING AND MORE, PASSES AWAY
- https://nypost.com/2023/07/19/mlb-all-star-ed-bressoud-who-played-for-ny-giants-and-mets-before-willie-mays-did-it-dead-at-91/ MLB All-Star Ed Bressoud — who played for NY Giants and Mets before Willie Mays did it — dead at 91
- https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/21/health/paul-parkman-dead.html Dr. Paul Parkman, Who Helped to Eliminate Rubella, Dies at 91
- Web site: Anna Moffo . https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/anna-moffo-6106544.html . 2022-05-01 . subscription . live . The Independent . 1 July 2020 . en . 17 March 2006.
- Book: Roberto Quercetani. A World History of Track and Field Athletics, 1864-1964. Oxford University Press. 1964. 62.
- Brian Hanley. "Johnny Kerr". Chicago Sun-Times. May 14, 1990. 105.
- News: Bobby 'Slick' Leonard, Hoosiers and Pacers icon, dies at 88. Zak. Keefer. J.. Michael. April 13, 1986. April 13, 2021. The Indianapolis Star.
- https://abc7chicago.com/pervis-spann-death-wvon-radio-chicago/11651430/ Pervis Spann, WVON broadcasting legend, dies at 89
- https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-remembers-former-nasa-johnson-director-george-w-s-abbey/ NASA Remembers Former NASA Johnson Director George W. S. Abbey
- https://www.inquirer.com/sports/josh-culbreath-olympic-medalist-norristown-obituary-20210703.html Josh Culbreath, Norristown native and Olympic medalist in the hurdles, dies at 88
- https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/34630686/los-angeles-dodgers-great-maury-wills-nl-mvp-1962-dies-age-89 Los Angeles Dodgers great Maury Wills, NL MVP in 1962, dies at age 89
- Web site: Sylvia Plath Biography, Poems, Books, Death, & Facts . Encyclopedia Britannica . 27 July 2021 . en.
- https://kslsports.com/496071/former-utah-football-head-coach-chuck-stobart-passes-away-at-88/ Former Utah Football Head Coach Chuck Stobart Passes Away At 88
- Web site: Lehman . Katie Von . Nichelle Nichols (1932-) . blackpast.org . 23 January 2007 . 7 December 2020.
- Book: Bartlett, Ichabod Sargent . History of Wyoming . 1918 . . 2 . Chicago . 55–56 . en.
- Web site: Hart Crane American poet . Encyclopedia Britannica . 27 July 2021 . en.
- Web site: Dan Brouthers . Society for American Baseball Research . 25 June 2023.