1932
Pan-African Chronology
Pan-African Chronology
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March 12
*Civil rights leader Andrew Young was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Young became the first African American United Nations ambassador and Mayor of Atlanta.
April 2
*Bill Pickett, one of the most famous performing cowboys of his day, died (April 2). Publicly acclaimed by President Theodore Roosevelt, Pickett performed throughout Europe and the United States, where he was often assisted by two young European American cowboys, Tom Mix and Will Rogers.
April 4
*Charles Powell, a professional football player, was born.
April 17
*Haile Selassie announced an anti-slavery law in Abyssinia.
April 17
*Haile Selassie announced an anti-slavery law in Abyssinia.
July 16
*Poet Mari Evans was born in Toledo, Ohio. Her most famous works would include I Am a Black Woman and Nightstar: 1973-78.
August 21
*Melvin Van Peebles, a motion picture producer and director, was born in Chicago. His films include Watermelon Man, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasss Song, and Putney Swope.
October 5
*Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, the first African-American congresswoman from California and the first woman to chair the Congressional Black Caucus, was born in Los Angeles, California.
October 12
*Comedian and civil rights activist Richard "Dick" Gregory was born in Saint Louis, Missouri.
November
*Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected President of the United States, promising a "New Deal" to all in the Depression-ridden nation.
December 5
*Rhythm and blues singer "Little Richard" Penniman, a formative figure in rock 'n' roll music, was born in Macon, Georgia.
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Faced with agricultural distress and racial oppression in the South, a new wave of African American migration began into the major industrial centers of the North in search of economic and social opportunities.
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George Washington Carver
In 1932, the writer James Saxon Childers wrote that Carver and his peanut products were almost solely responsible for the rise in United States peanut production after the boll weevil devastated the American cotton crop beginning about 1892. His article, "A Boy Who Was Traded for a Horse" (1932), in The American Magazine, and its 1937 reprint in Reader's Digest, contributed to this legend about Carver's influence.
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The United States
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Prior to 1932, African Americans had traditionally voted Republican, the party of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1932 promise of a "New Deal for all Americans" caused only a slight shift toward the Democratic Party. Some African Americans voted instead for the Communist Party, whose vice-presidential candidate was an African American, James W. Ford. By 1936, the voting picture had changed dramatically.
In the Presidential election, Franklin Delano Roosevelt did not receive much of the African American vote. To a certain extent the African American still identified with the Republican Party. Also, Roosevelt's running mate, John Nance Garner was a Texan. In Chicago, for example, Roosevelt received only 23% of the African American vote. Another factor in the low African American vote for Roosevelt may have been that James W. Ford, an African American, was the Vice Presidential candidate of the Communist Party.
However, Roosevelt soon became extremely popular, due to the ties which he and Mrs. Roosevelt established with prominent African Americans. Roosevelt employed African American advisors in numbers much greater than previous Administrations. The "Black Cabinet" included: Robert Vann, assistant to the Attorney General; William Hastie, Assistant Solicitor, in the Department of Interior; Eugene Kinckle Jones, adviser on Negro Affairs in the Department of Commerce; Lawrence Oxley, in the Division of Negro Labor in the Department of Labor; Mary McLeod Bethune, director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration; Edgar Brown, adviser on Negro Affairs in the Civilian Conservation Corps; Frank Horne, in several capacities with Federal housing programs; and William Trent as a race relations adviser in the Department of the Interior and in the Public Works Agency.
Four years later, in 1936, grateful for President Roosevelt's relief programs and record number of African American appointments to high offices, as well as for First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's advocacy of civil rights, African Americans voted overwhelmingly Democratic -- setting a pattern that continued into the future.
In the Presidential election, Franklin Delano Roosevelt did not receive much of the African American vote. To a certain extent the African American still identified with the Republican Party. Also, Roosevelt's running mate, John Nance Garner was a Texan. In Chicago, for example, Roosevelt received only 23% of the African American vote. Another factor in the low African American vote for Roosevelt may have been that James W. Ford, an African American, was the Vice Presidential candidate of the Communist Party.
However, Roosevelt soon became extremely popular, due to the ties which he and Mrs. Roosevelt established with prominent African Americans. Roosevelt employed African American advisors in numbers much greater than previous Administrations. The "Black Cabinet" included: Robert Vann, assistant to the Attorney General; William Hastie, Assistant Solicitor, in the Department of Interior; Eugene Kinckle Jones, adviser on Negro Affairs in the Department of Commerce; Lawrence Oxley, in the Division of Negro Labor in the Department of Labor; Mary McLeod Bethune, director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration; Edgar Brown, adviser on Negro Affairs in the Civilian Conservation Corps; Frank Horne, in several capacities with Federal housing programs; and William Trent as a race relations adviser in the Department of the Interior and in the Public Works Agency.
Four years later, in 1936, grateful for President Roosevelt's relief programs and record number of African American appointments to high offices, as well as for First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's advocacy of civil rights, African Americans voted overwhelmingly Democratic -- setting a pattern that continued into the future.
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*The Tuskegee syphilis experiment began.
The Tuskegee syphilis experiment was a clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama, by the United States Public Health Service. In the experiment, 400 impoverished black males who had syphilis were offered "treatment" by the researchers, who did not tell the test subjects that they had syphilis and did not give them treatment for the disease, but rather just studied them to chart the progress of the disease. By 1947, penicillin became available as treatment, but those running the study prevented study participants from receiving treatment elsewhere, lying to them about their true condition, so that they could observe the effects of syphilis on the human body. By the end of the study in 1972, only 74 of the test subjects were alive. 28 of the original 399 men had died of syphilis, 100 were dead of related complications, 40 of their wives had been infected, and 19 of their children were born with congenital syphilis. The study was not shut down until 1972, when its existence was leaked to the press, forcing the researchers to stop in the face of a public outcry.
Faced with agricultural distress and racial oppression in the South, a new wave of African American migration began into the major industrial centers of the North in search of economic and social opportunities.
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George Washington Carver
In 1932, the writer James Saxon Childers wrote that Carver and his peanut products were almost solely responsible for the rise in United States peanut production after the boll weevil devastated the American cotton crop beginning about 1892. His article, "A Boy Who Was Traded for a Horse" (1932), in The American Magazine, and its 1937 reprint in Reader's Digest, contributed to this legend about Carver's influence.
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Father Divine
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By May 1932, meetings were regularly held of Father Divine's followers at Rockland and throughout New York and New Jersey. Father Divine had supporters in Washington state, California and throughout the world thanks to New Thought devotees like Eugene Del Mar, an early convert and former Harlem journalist, and Henry Joerns, the publisher of a New Thought magazine in Seattle. Curiously, although the movement was predominantly black, followers outside the Northeast were mostly middle class whites.
In this period of expansions, several branch communes were opened in New York and New Jersey. Father Divine's followers finally named the movement: the International Peace Mission Peace Mission movement.
Father Divine's trial was finally held on May 24, 1932. His lawyer, Ellee J. Lovelace, a prominent Harlem African American and former United States Attorney had requested the trial be moved outside of Suffolk County, due to potential jury bias. The court acquiesced, and the trial took place at the Nassau County Supreme Court before Justice Lewis J. Smith. The jury found him guilty on June 5 but asked for leniency on behalf of Father Divine. Ignoring this request, Justice Smith lectured on how Father Divine was a fraud and "menace to society" before issuing the maximum sentence for disturbing the peace, one year in prison and a $500 fine.
Smith, 55, died of a heart attack days later on June 9, 1932. Father Divine was widely reported to have commented on the death, "I hated to do it." In fact, he wrote to his followers, "I did not desire Judge Smith to die.… I did desire that MY spirit would touch his heart and change his mind that he might repent and believe and be saved from the grave."
The impression that Justice Smith's death was divine retribution was perpetuated by the press, which failed to report Smith's prior heart problems and implied the death to be more sudden and unexpected than it was.
During his brief prison stay, Father Divine read prodigiously, notably on the Scottsboro Nine. After his attorneys secured release through an appeal on June 25, 1932, he declared that the foundational documents of the United States of America, such as the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, were inspired. Father Divine also taught that contemporary leaders strayed from these ideals, but he would become increasingly patriotic through his life.
Father Divine moved to Harlem, New York, where he had accumulated significant following in the black community. Members, rather than Father Divine himself, held most deeds for the movement, but they contributed toward Father Divine's comfortable lifestyle. Purchasing several hotels, which they called "Heavens", members could live and seek jobs inexpensively. The movement also opened several budget enterprises, including restaurants and clothing shops, that sold cheaply by cutting overheads. These proved very successful in the depression. Economical, cash-only businesses were actually part of Father Divine's doctrine.
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W. E. B. DuBois
In 1932, Du Bois was selected by several philanthropies – including the Phelps-Stokes Fund, the Carnegie Corporation, and the General Education Board – to be the managing editor for a proposed Encyclopedia of the Negro, a work Du Bois had been contemplating for 30 years. After several years of planning and organizing, the philanthropies cancelled the project in 1938, because some board members believed that Du Bois was too biased to produce an objective encyclopedia.
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W. E. B. DuBois
In 1932, Du Bois was selected by several philanthropies – including the Phelps-Stokes Fund, the Carnegie Corporation, and the General Education Board – to be the managing editor for a proposed Encyclopedia of the Negro, a work Du Bois had been contemplating for 30 years. After several years of planning and organizing, the philanthropies cancelled the project in 1938, because some board members believed that Du Bois was too biased to produce an objective encyclopedia.
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The Communist Party
*The Communist Party selected an African American, James W. Ford, as its vice-presidential candidate.
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Educational Institutions
*Among the 117 African American institutions of higher education, 36 were public, 81 were private (74 of which were church-affiliated), and 5 offered graduate-level instruction. Before 1937, only five offered graduate level education.
*Between 1913 and 1932, the Rosenwald Fund had aided in the construction of more than 5,000 school buildings for the education of African Americans in 15 Southern states. African Americans contributed 17% of the money disbursed by the Fund.
*Howard University began publishing the Journal of Negro Education.
The Labor Movement
*Ten African Americans were killed when European American employees of the Illinois Central Railroad tried to prevent African Americans from working there.
Literature and Journalism
*Countee Cullen published his only novel, One Way to Harlem.
*Wallace Thurman's novel Infants of the Spring was published. It is considered to be one of the last novels of the Harlem Renaissance.
*Rudolph Fisher published The Conjure Man Dies, the first African American detective novel.
*Victor Daly's novel, Not Only War, an attack on racism within the United States Army during World War I, was published. The novel concerns the racial tensions over French women.
*The James Weldon Johnson Literary Guild conducted a nationwide poetry contest for African American children. One winner was Margaret Walker of New Orleans with her poem "When Night Comes."
Medicine
*Aliene Carrington Ewell founded a society for African American nurses, Chi Eta Phi, in Washington, D. C. It would expand to 72 chapters in 22 states.
Music
*Thomas Dorsey, the "Father of Gospel", established the first music publishing firm dedicated only to gospel music.
*The NAACP published "Mississippi River Slavery - 1932" after investigating the conditions of African-American workers on federal flood-control projects. It would lead to a United States Senate investigation and to the setting of federal standards for minimum conditions and wages.
The NAACP published 10,000 copies of a leaflet, Mississippi River Slavery - 1932. It was the result of an investigation made by Roy Wilkins and George Schuyler into conditions on Federal flood-control projects. Wilkins and Schuyler carried out their investigations by working on some projects. In 1933, Senate investigations began and resulted in the government setting minimum standards for conditions and for wages for all workers.
The Nation of Islam
*Communist attempts at infiltration of the Black Muslim movement proved unsuccessful.
Notable Births
*Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, the first African-American congresswoman from California and the first woman to chair the Congressional Black Caucus, was born in Los Angeles, California (October 5).
Yvonne Brathwaite Burke (b. October 5, 1932) was a politician from Los Angeles, California, United States. She was the first African-American woman to represent the West Coast in Congress. She served in congress from 1973 until the end of 1978. She was the Los Angeles County Supervisor representing the 2nd District (1992–2008). She served as the Chair of the Board of Supervisors three times (1993–94, 1997–98, 2002–03).
Yvonne Brathwaite Burke (b. October 5, 1932) was a politician from Los Angeles, California, United States. She was the first African-American woman to represent the West Coast in Congress. She served in congress from 1973 until the end of 1978. She was the Los Angeles County Supervisor representing the 2nd District (1992–2008). She served as the Chair of the Board of Supervisors three times (1993–94, 1997–98, 2002–03).
Born Perle Yvonne Watson on October 5, 1932, in Los Angeles to James A. Watson and the former Lola Moore. She married William A. Burke in Los Angeles on June 14, 1972. To this union was born a daughter, Autumn Roxanne on November 23, 1973.
Burke attended the University of California at Berkeley from 1949 to 1951; and the University of California at Los Angeles from 1951 to 1953 where she received a bachelor's degree; She then attended the University of Southern California Law School and received a juris doctor degree in 1956
*Poet Mari Evans was born in Toledo, Ohio (July 16). Her most famous works would include I Am a Black Woman and Nightstar: 1973-78.
Mari Evans (b. July 16, 1923) grew up in Toledo, Ohio. She attended the University of Toledo.
Born in Toledo, Ohio, Evans was 10 years old when her mother died, and she was subsequently encouraged in her writing by her father, as she recalls in her essay "My Father's Passage" (1984). She attended local public schools before going on to the University of Toledo, where she majored in fashion design in 1939, though left without a degree. She began a series of teaching appointments in American universities in 1969. During 1969–70, she served as writer in residence at Indiana University-Purdue, where she taught courses in African-American Literature. The next year, she accepted a position as writer in residence at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. From 1968 to 1973, Mari Evans produced, wrote and directed the television program The Black Experience for WTTV in Indianapolis. She received an honorary degree from Marian College in 1975. Evans continued her teaching career at Purdue (1978–80), at Washington University in Saint Louis (1980), at Cornell University (1981–85), and the State University of New York at Albany (1985–86).
Among her books of poetry are A Dark and Splendid Mass (1992), Nightstar: 1973-1978 (1981), I Am a Black Woman (1970), and Where Is All the Music? (1968). Her books for children include Dear Corinne, Tell Somebody! Love, Annie: A Book about Secrets (1999), Singing Black: Alternative Nursery Rhymes for Children (1998, illustrated by Ramon Price) Jim Flying High (1979, illustrated by Ashley Bryan), Rap Stories (1974), and J.D. (1973, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney).
She is also the author of the plays Eye (a 1979 adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God) and River of My Song (first produced in 1977).
She is a contributor to and an editor of the volume Black Women Writers (1950-1980): A Critical Evaluation (1984), and has taught at colleges and universities including Spelman College, Purdue University, and Cornell University.
Among her honors are fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the John Hay Whitney Fellowship. In 1997, she was celebrated with her photo on a Ugandan postage stamp.
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*Comedian and civil rights activist Richard "Dick" Gregory was born in Saint Louis, Missouri (October 12).
Gregory wrote many books, including Nigger: An Autobiography (1964) and No More Lies: The Myth and the Reality of American History (1971). He made a brief return to the comedy circuit in the mid-1990s.
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Dick Gregory, byname of Richard Claxton Gregory (b. October 12, 1932, St. Louis, Missouri), African-American comedian, civil rights activist, and spokesman for health issues, who became nationally recognized in the 1960s for a biting brand of comedy that attacked racial prejudice. By addressing his hard-hitting satire to white audiences, he gave a comedic voice to the rising Civil Rights Movement. In the 1980s his nutrition business venture targeted unhealthy diets of black Americans.
Reared in poverty in St. Louis, Gregory began working at an early age to help support his family. He was involved in sports and social causes in high school, and he entered Southern Illinois University on an athletic scholarship in 1951, excelling as a middle-distance runner. He was named the university’s outstanding student athlete in 1953, the same year he left college to join the U.S. Army, where he hosted and performed comedy routines in military shows.
After a brief return to his alma mater in 1955-56, Gregory sought entrance to the national comedy circuit in Chicago. His breakthrough came in 1961, when a one-nighter at the Chicago Playboy Club turned into a six-week stint that earned him a profile in Time magazine and a television appearance on “The Jack Paar Show.” In his numerous subsequent television, nightclub, and concert routines, he targeted poverty, segregation, and racial discrimination. Active in the Civil Rights Movement, he participated in numerous demonstrations and was arrested for civil disobedience several times. In 1963 he was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama. His activism spurred him to run for mayor of Chicago in 1966 and for president of the United States in 1968.
In the early 1970s Gregory abandoned comedy to focus on his political interests, which widened from race relations to include such issues as violence, world hunger, capital punishment, drug abuse, and poor health care. He generated particular attention for his many hunger fasts. At this time he became a vegetarian, a marathon runner, and an expert on nutrition. He soon began a successful business venture with his nutritional product, the “Bahamian Diet,” around which he built Dick Gregory Health Enterprises, Inc. Through his company, he targeted the lower life expectancy of African Americans, which he attributed to poor nutrition and drug and alcohol abuse.
Gregory wrote many books, including Nigger: An Autobiography (1964) and No More Lies: The Myth and the Reality of American History (1971). He made a brief return to the comedy circuit in the mid-1990s.
*Rhythm and blues singer "Little Richard" Penniman, a formative figure in rock 'n' roll music, was born in Macon, Georgia (December 5).
As his success grew, Little Richard appeared in some of the earliest rock-and-roll movies: Don’t Knock the Rock and The Girl Can’t Help It (both 1956) and Mr. Rock and Roll (1957). In the latter he stands at the piano belting out songs with a dark intensity that, in the bland Eisenhower years, seemed excessive, an impression amplified by his bizarre six-inch pompadour, eyeliner, and pancake makeup. At the very peak of his fame, however, he concluded that rock and roll was the Devil’s work; he abandoned the music business, enrolled in Bible college, and became a traveling Evangelical preacher. When the Beatles skyrocketed onto the music scene in 1964, they sang several of his classic songs and openly acknowledged their debt to their great forebear. This renewed attention inspired Little Richard to return to the stage and the recording studio for another shot at stardom. Although a new song, “Bama Lama Bama Loo” (1964), invoked the fun and vitality of his heyday, record-buying youngsters were not impressed. A major recording contract in the early 1970s produced three albums for Reprise Records — The Rill Thing, King of Rock ’n’ Roll, and Second Coming—collections that showed Little Richard in fine voice but somewhat out of his element in the hard rock styles of the period.
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Little Richard, original name Richard Wayne Penniman (b. December 5, 1932, Macon, Georgia), flamboyant American singer and pianist whose hit songs of the mid-1950s were defining moments in the development of rock and roll.
Born into a family of 12 children, Penniman learned gospel music in Pentecostal churches churches of the Deep South. As a teenager he left home to perform rhythm and blues in medicine shows and nightclubs, where he took the name “Little Richard,” achieving notoriety for high-energy onstage antics. His first recordings in the early 1950s, produced in the soothing jump-blues style of Roy Brown, showed none of the soaring vocal reach that would mark his later singing. His breakthrough came in September 1955 at a recording session at J&M Studio in New Orleans, Louisiana, where Little Richard, backed by a solid rhythm-and-blues band, howled “Tutti Frutti,” with its unforgettable exhortation, “A wop bop a loo bop, a lop bam boom!” In the year and a half that followed, he released a string of songs on Specialty Records that sold well among both African American and European American audiences: “Rip It Up,” “Long Tall Sally,” “Ready Teddy,” “Good Golly, Miss Molly,” and “Send Me Some Lovin’,” among others. Blessed with a phenomenal voice able to generate croons, wails, and screams unprecedented in popular music, Little Richard scored hits that combined childishly amusing lyrics with sexually suggestive undertones. Along with Elvis Presley's records for the Sun label in the mid-1950s, Little Richard’s sessions from the same period offer models of singing and musicianship that have inspired rock musicians ever since.
As his success grew, Little Richard appeared in some of the earliest rock-and-roll movies: Don’t Knock the Rock and The Girl Can’t Help It (both 1956) and Mr. Rock and Roll (1957). In the latter he stands at the piano belting out songs with a dark intensity that, in the bland Eisenhower years, seemed excessive, an impression amplified by his bizarre six-inch pompadour, eyeliner, and pancake makeup. At the very peak of his fame, however, he concluded that rock and roll was the Devil’s work; he abandoned the music business, enrolled in Bible college, and became a traveling Evangelical preacher. When the Beatles skyrocketed onto the music scene in 1964, they sang several of his classic songs and openly acknowledged their debt to their great forebear. This renewed attention inspired Little Richard to return to the stage and the recording studio for another shot at stardom. Although a new song, “Bama Lama Bama Loo” (1964), invoked the fun and vitality of his heyday, record-buying youngsters were not impressed. A major recording contract in the early 1970s produced three albums for Reprise Records — The Rill Thing, King of Rock ’n’ Roll, and Second Coming—collections that showed Little Richard in fine voice but somewhat out of his element in the hard rock styles of the period.
In the late 1990s Little Richard continued to appear at concerts and festivals, performing songs that had become cherished international standards. He remained a frequent guest on television talk shows and children’s programs, but his madcap mannerisms, so threatening to parents in the 1950s, had come to seem amusingly safe. Having weathered a career marked by extraordinary changes in direction, Little Richard survived not only as the self-proclaimed “architect of rock and roll” but also as a living treasure of 20th-century American culture.
*Charles Powell, a professional football player, was born (April 4).
Charles Elvin Powell (April 4, 1932 – September 1, 2014) was an American professional football player.
Powell was born in Texas. He and his younger brother Art Powell, a great NFL wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders in the 1960s, grew up in the Logan Heights area of San Diego, California.
Powell played professional baseball and football as well as boxed. His greatest success was as an NFL player and a boxer, even fighting Muhammad Ali.
Charlie starred in football, basketball, track and baseball at San Diego High School. In 1950, as a 6'-3", 230-pound defensive end and offensive end, with tremendous power and speed, he was named the California high school football player of the year. In track, he ran 100 yards in 9.6 seconds and threw the shot put 57 feet 9¼ inches. In basketball, he was a second-team all-league center. As a high school baseball player, he hit balls out of San Diego Balboa Stadium. He turned a down an offer of a tryout by the Harlem Globetrotters.
After High School, Charlie was recruited by Notre Dame and UCLA to play football, St. Louis Browns baseball owner Bill Veeck, who had acquired the legendary pitcher Satchel Paige from the Cleveland Indians, signed the power-hitting outfielder to a professional baseball contract. He was sent to the Stockton Ports, a Class B minor league team.
After playing pro baseball in the summer of 1952, Charlie suddenly abandoned his pro baseball career and signed a pro football contract with the San Francisco 49ers. At 19, he became the youngest player in NFL history. In his first game, he started against the NFL champion Detroit Lions and had multiple sacks against QB Bobby Layne totaling 67 yards in losses.
Powell played five seasons in the NFL for the 49ers (1952–53 and 1955–57) and two for the Oakland Raiders (1960–61).
Powell was also a professional boxer. In March 1959, on television, he knocked out Nino Valdes of Cuba who was the number 2 ranked heavyweight fighter in the world at the time. Powell fought Muhammad Ali (who was then known as Cassius Clay) at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh on January 24, 1963. He was knocked out in the third round. He finished his pro boxing career with a record of 25-11-3. In his career, Charlie also fought Floyd Patterson, losing to him in 6 rounds.
Powell was a member of the Breitbard San Diego Hall of Fame. Powell died on September 1, 2014, at age of 82 after living with dementia for several years.
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*Melvin Van Peebles, a motion picture producer and director, was born in Chicago (August 21). His films include Watermelon Man, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasss Song, and Putney Swope.
Melvin Van Peebles, original name Melvin Peebles (b. August 21, 1932, Chicago, Illinois), American filmmaker who wrote, directed, and starred in Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971), a groundbreaking film that spearheaded the rush of African American action films known as "blaxploitation" in the 1970s. He also served as the film’s composer and editor.
After graduating from Ohio Wesleyan University (B.A., 1953), Van Peebles traveled extensively in Europe, Mexico, and the United States, working a variety of jobs that included painter, postal worker, and street performer along with a stint in the air force. While living in Paris, he wrote several French-language novels, including La Permission (1967), which he turned into his first feature film. The romantic drama was released in France in 1967 and in the United States (as The Story of a Three-Day Pass) the following year. Van Peebles made his Hollywood directorial debut with Watermelon Man (1970), a comedy about racial bigotry. He then turned to his pet project, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Using mostly his own money and relying largely on non-professional actors and technicians, Van Peebles told the story of one African American man’s battle against European American authority. Violent, sexy, and angry, the film scored a huge success with African American audiences (it was one of the top box-office earners that year) while angering many European American critics.
Van Peebles had begun a musical career with the album Brer Soul (1969), which featured a mostly spoken vocal style that prefigured rap. He subsequently moved into Broadway musical theatre, adapting some of his recorded songs for the production Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death (1971) and one of his novels for Don’t Play Us Cheap! (1972; film 1973). Thereafter he continued to write, act, compose, and direct for films, television, and the stage. Subsequent films in which he appeared include O.C. and Stiggs (1985), Boomerang (1992), The Hebrew Hammer (2003), and Peeples (2013). With the comedy Identity Crisis (1989), he ended a 16-year hiatus from screen directing, and he later wrote and directed Le Conte du ventre plein (2000; Bellyful) and Confessions of a Ex-Doofus-Itchy Footed Mutha (2008); none of these efforts, however, were widely seen. In addition to his entertainment career, Van Peebles became involved in commodities trading in the 1980s and was the first African American to hold a seat on the American Stock Exchange.
Van Peebles’s son Mario, who played the character Sweetback as a boy in the 1971 film, became a noted film actor and director in his own right. Besides directing his father in such films as the western Posse (1993), Mario co-wrote, directed, and starred in the feature Baadasssss! (2003), about the making of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.
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*Civil rights leader Andrew Young was born in New Orleans, Louisiana (March 12). Young became the first African American United Nations ambassador and Mayor of Atlanta.
Andrew Young, in full Andrew Jackson Young, Jr. (b. March 12, 1932, New Orleans, Louisiana), American politician, civil-rights leader, and clergyman.
Young was reared in a middle-class African American family, attended segregated Southern schools, and later entered Howard University (Washington, D.C.) as a premed student. But he turned to the ministry and graduated in 1955 from the Hartford Theological Seminary (Hartford, Conn.) with a divinity degree.
A pastor at several African American churches in the South, Young became active in the civil-rights movement—especially in voter registration drives. His work brought him in contact with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Young joined with King in leading the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Following King’s assassination in 1968, Young worked with Ralph Abernathy until he resigned from the SCLC in 1970.
Defeated that year in his first bid for a seat in Congress, Young ran again in 1972 and won. He was re-elected in 1974 and 1976. In the House he opposed cuts in funds for social programs while trying to block additional funding for the war in Vietnam. He was an early supporter of Jimmy Carter, and, after Carter’s victory in the 1976 presidential elections, Andrew Young was made the United States’ Ambassador to the United Nations. His apparent sympathy with the Third World made him very controversial, and he was finally forced to resign in 1979 after it became known that he had met with a representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization. In 1981 Young was elected mayor of Atlanta, and he was re-elected to that post in 1985, serving through 1989.
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Notable Deaths
*There were six recorded lynchings in the United States.
*Ten African Americans were killed when European American employees of the Illinois Central Railroad tried to prevent African Americans from working there.
*Bill Pickett, one of the most famous performing cowboys of his day, died (April 2). Publicly acclaimed by President Theodore Roosevelt, Pickett performed throughout Europe and the United States, where he was often assisted by two young European American cowboys, Tom Mix and Will Rogers.
Bill Pickett, (b. December 5, 1870?, Williamson County, Texas — d. April 2, 1932, Tulsa, Oklahoma), American rodeo cowboy who introduced bulldogging, a modern rodeo event that involves wrestling a running steer to the ground.
Pickett was descended from American Indians (Cherokees) and African American slaves in the Southwest. He grew up in West Texas, learning to ride and rope as a boy, and became a ranch hand; he performed simple trick rides in town on the weekends. In 1900, he became a showman, sponsored by Lee Moore, a Texas rodeo entrepreneur. In 1907, Pickett signed with the 101 Ranch Wild West Show, becoming one of its star performers and assuming the status of a legendary figure for his masterful handling of both wild and domestic animals. For bulldogging, or steer wrestling, he perfected a technique of jumping from his horse, grabbing the steer around the neck or horns, sinking his teeth into the animal’s lip, and pulling it to the ground. Pickett’s most-grueling performance came in 1908 in a bullring in Mexico City. He there wrestled and rode a Mexican fighting bull for seven minutes before a riotous audience enraged at this original interpretation of the Mexican national pastime of bullfighting.
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The Peace Movement
*The peace movement of Ethiopia was organized in Chicago and petitioned President Roosevelt to use relief funds to settle African Americans in Africa.
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Performing Arts
*Florence B. Price played her piano concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which would do her Symphony in E Minor in 1933.
*Buddy (Clarence) Bradley became the first African American to choreograph a show of white dancers. He was hired to prepare the London production of Evergreen for which he was in charge of sixty-four dancers. Bradley received full-credit in the program. His career from this time on was mainly in Europe, where he was an important figure in popular dance.
*Buddy (Clarence) Bradley became the first African American to choreograph a show of white dancers. He was hired to prepare the London production of Evergreen for which he was in charge of sixty-four dancers. Bradley received full-credit in the program. His career from this time on was mainly in Europe, where he was an important figure in popular dance.
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Politics
*No mention of African Americans was made in the platforms of the Democratic, Farmer-Labor, Prohibition or Socialist Labor parties.
*The Republican Party platform stated: "For 70 years the Republican Party has been the friend of the American Negro. Vindication of the rights of the Negro citizen to enjoy the full benefits of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness is traditional in the Republican Party, and our party stands pledged to maintain equal opportunity and rights for Negro citizens. We do not propose to depart from that tradition nor to alter the spirit or letter of that pledge."
*The Socialist Party platform called for "the enforcement of Constitutional guarantees of economic, political and legal equality for the Negro." It also called for "the enactment and enforcement of drastic anti-lynching laws."
*The Communist Party platform read: "The Communist Party is the political party of the oppressed masses of the people -- the industrial workers, the persecuted Negroes, the toiling farmers. The Communist Party enters this election campaign explicitly to rally the toilers of the city and country, Negro and white, in a united struggle for jobs and bread, for the fight against imperialist war. ... The Negro people, always hounded, persecuted, disfranchised, and discriminated against in capitalist America, are, during this period of crisis, oppressed as never before. They are the first to be fired when layoffs take place. They are discriminated against when charity rations are handed out to the unemployed. They are cheated and robbed by the Southern white landlords and evicted from their lands and homes when their miserable income does not enable them to pay rent. When they protest against this unbearable oppression and persecution they are singled out for police attacks in the North and for lynch victims in the South. Over 150 Negroes have been barbarously lynched at the instigation of the white ruling class ... " In this platform the Negro reform leaders were attacked as "shamelessly aiding the white master class in these vicious attacks." James W. Ford, an African American, was the Vice Presidential candidate on the Communist ticket.
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Publications
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*Howard University began publishing the Journal of Negro Education.
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Radio
*Don Redman became the first African American orchestra leader to have a sponsored radio series.
Don (Donald Matthew) Redman (1900-1964), a jazz saxophonist, bandleader, and arranger, was the first African American orchestra leader to have a sponsored radio series. He was a pioneer jazz arranger-composer and contributed significantly to the development of the big-band sound of the 1920s and 1930s. A child prodigy, Redman was born in Piedmont, West Virginia, and studied at music conservatories in Boston and Detroit.
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Sports
*****
*The New York Rens, an African American professional basketball team, won the first world championship in any sport by beating the Boston Celtics.
*At the Olympics, Eddie Tolan won a gold medal in a record 100 meter dash, setting a new world record. Ralph Metcalfe was a close second. Tolan also won a gold medal in the 200 meter run, and Ed Gordon earned a gold in the long jump.
*George "Kid Chocolate" Dixon won the featherweight boxing championship, which he would hold through 1934.
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Statistics
*In 1932, the trend of immigration of people of African descent continued to be away from the United States, reaching its peak in 1933, when the total number of people of African descent to the United States was 84, while departures amounted to 1,058. Almost all immigration of people of African descent to the United States came from the Crown Colonies and the dependencies of Great Britain and France in the West Indies.
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The Americas
Mexico
*The town of San Lorenzo was renamed Yanga for the African slave leader who led a slave resistance against the Spanish.
Yanga Municipality is a municipality located in the southern area of the State of Veracruz, Mexico, about 80 km from the state capital of Xalapa. It was formerly known as San Lorenzo de los Negros (after a colony of cimarrones in the early 17th century) or San Lorenzo de Cerralvo (after a 17th-century Spanish colonial priest). In 1932 it was renamed after Yanga, the cimarron leader who in 1609 resisted an attack by Spanish forces trying to regain control of the area. Captured in the area of present-day Guinea in West Africa before 1570, he was a chief of the Yang-Bara tribe before being sold into slavery.
Gaspar Yanga had been in the highlands since leading escape by a band of slaves in 1570. After fighting off the Spanish forces in 1609, and having a series of bloody skirmishers over nearly a decade, in 1618, he finally obtained an agreement with Spanish officials to grant freedom to the fugitive slaves and independence to their village, a few kilometers from the city of Cordoba, Veracruz. It became known as San Lorenzo de los Negros (named after the cimarrones) or San Lorenzo de Cerralvo (named after Juan Laurencio, a Jesuit friar who had accompanied the 1609 expedition sent by the Viceroy).
The inhabitants of African descent of San Lorenzo proclaimed their loyalty to the Church and the King of Spain, but refused to pay tribute to the Spanish government. They also agreed to capture fugitive slaves and return them to their masters in return for a fee. They were among the many free blacks of Mexico, which had the second-highest slave population of the Americas after Brazil.
Europe
France
*The manifesto "Murderous Humanitarianism" was signed by prominent Surrealists including the Martiniquans Pierre Yovotte and J. M. Monnerot.
Great Britain
Europe
France
*The manifesto "Murderous Humanitarianism" was signed by prominent Surrealists including the Martiniquans Pierre Yovotte and J. M. Monnerot.
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings. The aim was to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality." Artists painted unnerving, illogical scenes with photographic precision, created strange creatures from everyday objects and developed painting techniques that allowed the unconscious to express itself.
Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur. However, many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. Leader Andre Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was, above all, a revolutionary movement.
Surrealism developed largely out of the Dada activities during World War I and the most important center of the movement was Paris. From the 1920s onward, the movement spread around the globe, eventually affecting the visual arts, literature, film, and music of many countries and languages, as well as political thought and practice, philosophy, and social theory.The anti-colonial revolutionary and proletarian politics of "Murderous Humanitarianism" (1932) which was drafted mainly by Rene Crevel, signed by Andre Breton, Paul Eluard, Benjamin Peret, Yves Tanguy, and the Martiniquan Surrealists Pierre Yoyotte and J. M. Monnerot perhaps makes it the original document of what is later called 'black Surrealism', although it is the contact between Aime Cesaire and Breton in the 1940s in Martinique that really lead to the communication of what is known as 'black Surrealism'.Great Britain
*Buddy (Clarence) Bradley became the first African American to choreograph a show of white dancers. He was hired to prepare the London production of Evergreen for which he was in charge of sixty-four dancers. Bradley received full-credit in the program. His career from this time on was mainly in Europe, where he was an important figure in popular dance.
Africa
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Nnamdi Azikiwe
*Nnamdi Azikiwe, the future first president of Nigeria, received a master's degree in religion from Lincoln University, a historically black university located in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
Ethiopia
(Abyssinia)
*In 1932, the Sultanate of Jimma was formally absorbed into Ethiopia following the death of Sultan Abba Jifar II of Jimma.
*Haile Selassie announced an anti-slavery law in Abyssinia (April 17).
Nigeria
*Yaba Higher College was established.
Nnamdi Azikiwe
*Nnamdi Azikiwe, the future first president of Nigeria, received a master's degree in religion from Lincoln University, a historically black university located in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
Ethiopia
(Abyssinia)
*In 1932, the Sultanate of Jimma was formally absorbed into Ethiopia following the death of Sultan Abba Jifar II of Jimma.
*Haile Selassie announced an anti-slavery law in Abyssinia (April 17).
Nigeria
*Yaba Higher College was established.
Yaba Higher College the brainchild of E.R.J. Hussey, who became Director of Education in Nigeria in 1929. Soon after arriving, he proposed a higher college at Yaba similar to the Makerere College in Uganda, his previous posting. The goal was at first to train assistants for government departments and private firms, with a gradual increase in standards until eventually the college would reach the level of a British university. Hussey gained acceptance of the plan, starting with a special medical school at King's College. By 1932 the school had its own building - a temporary hut - and other courses were added.
The college at Yaba was an all-male residential institute. It was officially opened in January 1934. It provided vocational training in subjects that included agriculture, forestry, medicine, veterinary science, surveying and civil and mechanical engineering. It also provided training for secondary school teachers, mainly science teachers. Yaba was affiliated with the University of London. The college offered limited diplomas, so Nigerians who wanted higher education either had to go abroad or earn external degrees from the University of London through correspondence courses.
Educated Nigerians were vocally critical of Yaba College. Four days after the college opening, the Nigerian Daily Times described it as "a grand idea, and imposing structure, resting on rather weak foundations". Noting the low standards of the Middle Schools, whose graduates would enter Yaba, the Daily Times said "..we wish to declare emphatically that this country will not be satisfied with an inferior brand [of education] such as the present scheme seems to threaten". The Nigerian Youth Movement, formed by members of the Lagos intelligentsia who were protesting the plan for Yaba College, soon became an important nationalist organization.
Sierra Leone
*Alhaji Ahmad Kabbah, the President of Sierra Leone from 1996 to 1997 and from 1998 to 2007, was born.
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, (b. February 16, 1932, Pendembu, Kailahun district, British Protectorate of Sierra Leone - d. March 13, 2014, Freetown, Sierra Leone), was a Sierra Leonean politician who served twice as his country’s president (March 29, 1996–May 25, 1997, and Feb. 13, 1998–Sept. 17, 2007). He was ultimately compelled to call on foreign military assistance to quash Sierra Leone’s decadelong civil war (1991–2002) and bring peace to the country. Kabbah was born into a Muslim family but attended a Christian school in Freetown before matriculating in economics at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth (B.Sc., 1959), and being called to the bar (1969) at Gray’s Inn, London. He joined the civil service in Sierra Leone, but a military coup in 1967 prompted him to work for the United Nations Development Programme in other African countries for more than two decades. He returned home in the early 1990s, became leader of the Sierra Leone People’s Party, and was elected president in March 1996. After a coup toppled his administration the following year, Kabbah called on the United Nations, troops from the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group, and eventually (in 2000) British forces to restore him to office. He was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2002 to another five-year term. Although he failed to build a strong national economy, Kabbah maintained political stability, and in 2007 he oversaw a peaceful transfer of power to his elected successor from the opposition All People’s Congress.
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South Africa
*South Africa abandoned the gold standard.
Although the use of gold as currency is as old as recorded history, the modern gold standard began in 1816 when Britain passed the Gold Standards Act, which ensured that gold coins became the only real measure of value. Five years later, in 1821, Britain adopted the gold bullion standard, making it possible for Britons to convert their money into gold on demand. It was very much a measure of the wealth of Britain and its growing dominance at the center of the world trade. The United States, for example, did not join the growing number of nations on the gold standard until 1879.
The gold standard remained more or less intact throughout the first quarter of the 20th century, except for a few years during World War I when the normal flow of international trade was interrupted by warfare. South Africa, however, did not re-adopt the gold standard -- this time based on gold coin rather than bullion -- until 1925.
During the days of the gold standard, the price of gold was generally fixed by international agreement -- so that gold could be used as an international currency for the settling of debts. Consequently, the gold standard among major trading countries until after World War I provided an automatic mechanism for adjusting a nation's balance of payments (the difference between the amount of goods, imported and exported, either surplus or deficit) and regulating its internal economy. A balance of payments surplus naturally led to an inflow of gold, which allowed interest rates to fall and economic activity to accelerate, including employment. However, over time, more money led to increased prices and imports from other countries -- and so the opposite began to happen and the balance of payments deteriorated. Once a deficit appeared, the outflow of gold slowed down the economy and unemployment rose.
As history shows, the gold standard proved to be particularly harsh on nations -- and people -- with a continuing balance of payments deficit, being more concerned with the debits between nations than the internal economy. The terrible unemployment that flowed from the Wall Street crash in the 1930s made governments (including the government of South Africa) realize that sticking to the gold standard was too costly when measured against the misery of unemployment it caused at home.
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Uganda
*Bernard Bourdillon was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Uganda. {See 1935.}
South Africa
*South Africa abandoned the gold standard.
Although the use of gold as currency is as old as recorded history, the modern gold standard began in 1816 when Britain passed the Gold Standards Act, which ensured that gold coins became the only real measure of value. Five years later, in 1821, Britain adopted the gold bullion standard, making it possible for Britons to convert their money into gold on demand. It was very much a measure of the wealth of Britain and its growing dominance at the center of the world trade. The United States, for example, did not join the growing number of nations on the gold standard until 1879.
The gold standard remained more or less intact throughout the first quarter of the 20th century, except for a few years during World War I when the normal flow of international trade was interrupted by warfare. South Africa, however, did not re-adopt the gold standard -- this time based on gold coin rather than bullion -- until 1925.
During the days of the gold standard, the price of gold was generally fixed by international agreement -- so that gold could be used as an international currency for the settling of debts. Consequently, the gold standard among major trading countries until after World War I provided an automatic mechanism for adjusting a nation's balance of payments (the difference between the amount of goods, imported and exported, either surplus or deficit) and regulating its internal economy. A balance of payments surplus naturally led to an inflow of gold, which allowed interest rates to fall and economic activity to accelerate, including employment. However, over time, more money led to increased prices and imports from other countries -- and so the opposite began to happen and the balance of payments deteriorated. Once a deficit appeared, the outflow of gold slowed down the economy and unemployment rose.
As history shows, the gold standard proved to be particularly harsh on nations -- and people -- with a continuing balance of payments deficit, being more concerned with the debits between nations than the internal economy. The terrible unemployment that flowed from the Wall Street crash in the 1930s made governments (including the government of South Africa) realize that sticking to the gold standard was too costly when measured against the misery of unemployment it caused at home.
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Uganda
*Bernard Bourdillon was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Uganda. {See 1935.}
General Historical Events
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The Depression
*Congress authorized the Reconstruction Finance Corporation on January 22 to help finance industry and agriculture in accordance with President Hoover's request.
*A tariff war between Britain and Ireland began in July. The loss of the country's chief export market brought a collapse of its cattle industry and worsened its economic depression.
*A tariff war between Britain and Ireland began in July. The loss of the country's chief export market brought a collapse of its cattle industry and worsened its economic depression.
*Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted to 41.22 by July 7, down from its high of 381.17 on September 3. 1929. This would be the low point of the Dow.
*The Emergency Relief and Reconstruction Act passed by Congress on July 21 gave the Reconstruction Finance Corporation power to lend $1.8 billion to the states for relief and self-liquidating public works projects.
*A Home Loan Act passed by Congress on July 22 established 12 federal home loan banks that would lend money to mortgage loan institutions. The measure was designed to rescue the banks that were being forced to close.
*Under the Home Loan Act, the controller of the currency ordered a moratorium on first mortgage foreclosures on August 26.
*Britain abandoned free trade for the first time since 1849. Britain imposed a ten percent tariff on most important goods but agreed at the Imperial Economic Conference at Ottawa to exempt Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other Commonwealth nations, which in turn would provide markets for Britain's otherwise uncompetitive textiles, steel, motorcars, and telecommunications equipment, discouraging innovation in many industries.
*Germany had 5.6 million unemployed, Britain 2.6 million.
*The average weekly United States wage fell to $17, down from $28 in 1929. "Breadlines" formed in many cities.
*Some 1,616 United States banks failed, nearly 20,000 business firms went bankrupt, there were 21,000 suicides and expenditures for food and tobacco fell $10 billion below 1929 levels.
*United States industrial production dropped to one-third its 1929 total, and the United States Gross National Product (GNP) sank to $41 billion, just over half its 1929 level.
*Prominent United States intellectuals endorsed communism saying that only the Communist Party had proposed a real solution to the nation's problems. Endorsers included Sherwood Anderson, Erskine Caldwell, John Dos Passos, Theodore Dreiser, Waldo Frank, Granville Hicks, Sidney Hook, Matthew Josephson, and Lincoln Steffens.
*Chicago utilities magnate Samuel Insull (age 73) ran into financial difficulties. Three of his largest companies went into receivership. Once Thomas Edison's private secretary, Insull was indicted on charges related to his activities as president of Chicago Edison, Commonwealth Edison, and People's Gas Light and Coke, and other companies, but he would avoid arrest for two years and he was acquitted after trials in 1934 and 1935.
*The American Federation of Labor reversed its long-standing position against unemployment insurance and urged that work be spread through a 30 hour week with some "economic planning" in the federal government.
*United States unemployment reached between 15 and 17 million. 34 million Americans had no income of any kind, and Americans who did work averaged little more than $16 per week.
*The average weekly United States wage fell to $17, down from $28 in 1929. "Breadlines" formed in many cities.
*Some 1,616 United States banks failed, nearly 20,000 business firms went bankrupt, there were 21,000 suicides and expenditures for food and tobacco fell $10 billion below 1929 levels.
*United States industrial production dropped to one-third its 1929 total, and the United States Gross National Product (GNP) sank to $41 billion, just over half its 1929 level.
*Prominent United States intellectuals endorsed communism saying that only the Communist Party had proposed a real solution to the nation's problems. Endorsers included Sherwood Anderson, Erskine Caldwell, John Dos Passos, Theodore Dreiser, Waldo Frank, Granville Hicks, Sidney Hook, Matthew Josephson, and Lincoln Steffens.
*Chicago utilities magnate Samuel Insull (age 73) ran into financial difficulties. Three of his largest companies went into receivership. Once Thomas Edison's private secretary, Insull was indicted on charges related to his activities as president of Chicago Edison, Commonwealth Edison, and People's Gas Light and Coke, and other companies, but he would avoid arrest for two years and he was acquitted after trials in 1934 and 1935.
*The American Federation of Labor reversed its long-standing position against unemployment insurance and urged that work be spread through a 30 hour week with some "economic planning" in the federal government.
*United States unemployment reached between 15 and 17 million. 34 million Americans had no income of any kind, and Americans who did work averaged little more than $16 per week.
January
Latin America's first Communist revolt in January, followed the military overthrow of El Salvador's President Arturo Araujo, who was freely elected last year on a platform to reform the nation's feudal system. He had upset oligarchs and the army that had so long dominated El Salvador. His vice president, General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez, suppressed the rebellion, leaving 10,000 to 30,000 dead in what critics called the matanzas, -- the butchery.
January 1
The United States Post Office Department issued a set of 12 stamps commemorating the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birth.
January 3
The British arrested and interned Mohandas Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel.
January 7
The Stimson Doctrine was proclaimed, in response to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
*United States Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson announced that the United States could not admit the legality nor did it intend to recognize the legitimacy of any arrangement with Japan which impaired Chinese sovereignty and threatened the Open Door Policy. However, the Stimson Doctrine had no practical effect.
January 8
In Great Britain, the Archbishop of Canterbury forbade Anglican church remarriage of divorced persons.
January 9
In what is known as the Sakuradamon Incident, Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang failed in his effort to assassinate Hirohito Emperor of Japan. The Kuomintang's official newspaper ran an editorial expressing regret that the attempt failed, which was used by the Japanese as a pretext to attack Shanghai later in the month.
January 12
Hattie W. Caraway, of Arkansas, became the first woman elected to a full term in the United States Senate.
January 14
Maurice Ravel's Concerto in G debuted with piano soloist Marguerite Long and Ravel conducting the Lamoureux Orchestra.
January 15
About 6 million were reported unemployed in Germany.
January 22
The 1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising began. It was suppressed by the government of Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez.
January 24
Marshal Pietro Badoglio declared the end of Libyan resistance.
January 26
The British submarine M2 sank with all 60 hands aboard.
January 28
Conflict arose between Japan and China in the Battle of Shanghai.
January 29
The minority government of Karl Buresch in Austria ended the governmental crisis.
*In retaliation to the continued Chinese boycott of Japanese goods, the Japanese landed troops from warships in Shanghai and killed thousands in the first terror bombing of civilians. Aware of the effect on world opinion, the Japanese made it clear that any attempt by the United States to interfere with Japan's "destiny" would precipitate war.
January 31
Japanese warships arrived in Nanking.
February
February 1
Brave New World, a novel by Aldous Huxley, was first published.
February 2
A general World Disarmament Conference began in Geneva. The principal issue at the conference was the demand made by Germany for gleichberechtigung ("equality of status" i.e. abolishing Part V of the Treaty of Versailles, which had disarmed Germany) and the French demand for sécurité ("security" i.e. maintaining Part V).
The League of Nations again recommended negotiations between the Republic of China and Japan.
The Reconstruction Finance Corporation began operations in Washington, D.C.
February 4
The 1932 Winter Olympics opened in Lake Placid, New York.
Japan occupied Harbin, China.
February 9
Junnosuke Inoue, a prominent Japanese businessman, banker and former governor of the Bank of Japan was assassinated by the right-wing extremist group the League of Blood in the League of Blood Incident.
February 11
Pope Pius XI met with Benito Mussolini in Vatican City.
February 15
Clara, Lu & Em, generally regarded as the first daytime network soap opera, debuted in its morning time slot over the Blue Network of NBC Radio, having originally been a late evening program.
February 18
Japan declared Manchukuo (the Japanese name for Manchuria) officially independent from China.
February 22
The first Purple Heart was awarded.
February 24
Women's suffrage was granted in Brazil.
February 25
Adolf Hitler obtained German citizenship by naturalization, opening the opportunity for him to run in the 1932 election for Reichprasident.
February 27
The Mantsala rebellion occurred in Finland.
March
Eamon de Valera was elected president of Ireland and suspended Irish land annuity payments.
March 1
*Charles Lindbergh's infant son was kidnapped and murdered, claiming the world's headlines.
Charles Lindbergh, Jr., the infant son of Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Charles Lindbergh, was kidnapped from the family home near Hopewell, New Jersey.
Japan proclaimed Manchuria an independent state and installed Puyi as puppet emperor.
March 2
The Mantsala rebellion ended in failure. Finnish democracy prevailed. The Lapua Movement was condemned by conservative Finnish President Pehr Evind Svinhufvud in a radio speech.
March 5
Dan Takuma, a prominent Japanese businessman and director of the Mitsui Zaibatsu conglomerate, was assassinated by the radical right-wing League of Blood group.
March 7
Four people were killed when police fired upon 3,000 unemployed autoworkers marching outside the Ford River Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan.
*In Dearborn, Michigan, police fired into a crowd of 3,000 men, women and children demonstrating outside the Ford Motor Company plant. Four were killed, 100 wounded, and the wounded were handcuffed to their hospital beds on charges of rioting.
March 9
Eamon de Valera was elected President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State. It was the first change of government in the Irish Free State since its foundation 10 years previously.
March 18
Peace negotiations between China and Japan began.
March 19
In Australia, the Sydney Harbour Bridge opened.
March 20
The Graf Zeppelin began a regular route to South America.
March 21
A series of deadly tornadoes in the south killed more than 220 people in Alabama, 34 in Georgia and 17 in Tennessee during a two-day period.
March 23
*The Norris-La Guardia Act passed by Congress prohibited the use of injunctions in labor disputes except under defined conditions and outlaws "yellow-dog contracts" that made workers promise not to join any labor union. Sponsored by George William North (R., Nebraska) and Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (R., New York).
March 25
Tarzan the Ape Man opened with Olympic gold medal swimmer Johnny Weissmuller in the title role. (Weismuller would go on to star in a total of twelve Tarzan films.)
April
April 5
10,000 disgruntled Newfoundlanders marched on their legislature to show discontent with their political situation. This was a flash point in the demise of the Dominion of Newfoundland.
Kreuger & Toll, the company of the "Match King" Ivar Kreuger, collapsed.
The first Alko stores were opened in Finland at 10 in the morning (local time) following the end of Prohibition in that country, resulting in a new mnemonic "543210".
April 6
United States President Herbert Hoover supported armament limitations at the World Disarmament Conference.
The trial against the fraudulent art dealer Otto Wacker began in Berlin.
April 11
Paul von Hindenburg was re-elected president of Germany.
April 13
The German Chancellor Heinrich Bruning banned the SA (Sturmabteilung -- "Storm Detachment" -- the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party) and the SS (Schutzstaffel -- "Protection Squadron" -- the subsequent paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party) as threats to public order, arguing that they were chiefly responsible for the wave of political violence afflicting Germany.
April 14
John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton focused a proton beam on lithium and split its nucleus.
April 17
Haile Selassie announced an anti-slavery law in Abyssinia.
April 19
German art dealer Otto Wacker was sentenced to 19 months in prison for selling fraudulent paintings he attributed to Vincent van Gogh.
April 25
Two of the companions of Islamic prophet Muhammad were moved from their graves upon informing of water in the graves in the dream of King Faisal of Iraq in Salmaan Paak, Iraq. Their names were Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman and Jabir ibn Abd Allah.
April 29
Korean pro-independence paramilitary Yun Bong-gil detonated a bomb at a gathering of Japanese government and mililtary officials in Shanghai's Hongkou Park, killing General Yoshinori Shirakawa and injuring Mamoru Shigemitsu and Vice Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura.
May
May 2
Comedian Jack Benny's radio show aired for the first time.
May 6
Paul Gorguloff shot French president Paul Doumer in Paris; Doumer dies the next day.
*Paul Doumer, the French President, was assassinated by a Russian emigre. Doumer was succeeded by Albert Lebrun. May elections gave leftist parties a majority. Edouard Heriot began a second ministry but resigned in December over refusal by the Chamber to support his government's proposal to pay installments on France's war debt to the United States.
The politically powerful General Kurt von Schleicher met secretly with Adolf Hitler. General Schleicher told Hitler that he was scheming to bring down the Brüning government and asked for Nazi support of the new "presidential government" Schleicher was planning to form. Schleicher and Hitler negotiated a "gentlemen's agreement" where in exchange for lifting the ban on the SA and SS and having the Reichstag dissolved for early elections that summer, the Nazis would support Schleicher's new chancellor.
May 10
Albert Lebrun became the new president of France.
Violent scenes erupted in the Reichstag as Hermann Goring and other Nazi MRDs attacked the Defense Minister General Wilhelm Groener for his lack of belief in a supposed Social Democratic putsch. After the debate, General Schleicher informed Groener that he had lost the confidence of the Army and must resign at once.
May 12
Ten weeks after his abduction, the infant son of Charles Lindbergh was found dead just a few miles from the Lindbergh home.
General Wilhelm Groener resigned as Defense Minister of Germany. Schleicher took control of the Defense Ministry.
May 13
The Premier of New South Wales, Jack Lang, was dismissed by the State Governor, Philip Game.
May 15
Japanese troops departed from Shanghai. Back in Japan, the May 15 Incident occurred as an attempted military coup transpired. The Japanese prime minister Tsuyoshi Inukai was assassinated by naval officers.
*The Japanese Prime Minister Ki Tsuyoshi Inukai was assassinated, effectively bringing party government in Japan to an end. Inukai was succeeded by the Governor General of (Chosen) Korea, the 73 year old Makoto Saito.
May 16
Massive riots between Hindus and Muslims in Bombay (Mumbai) left thousands dead and injured.
May 20-May 21
Amelia Earhart flew from the United States to County Londonderry, Northern Ireland in 14 hours 54 minutes.
May 20
Federacion Obrera de la Industria de la Carne Initiated a major strike in the Argentinian meat-packing industry.
May 26
Judgment in Donoghue v. Stevenson was handed down in the House of Lords, creating the neighbor principle in English law.
May 29
The first of approximately 15,000 World War I veterans arrived in Washington, D. C. demanding the immediate payment of their military bonus, becoming known as the Bonus Army.
*"Bonus Marchers" descended on Washington as some 25,000 poverty-stricken World War veterans demonstrated to obtain "bonuses" authorized by the Adjustment Compensation Act of 1924 but not due until 1945. Hoping to get roughly $500 each, the veterans camped out with wives and children in the city's parks, dumps, empty stores, and warehouses.
May 30
German chancellor Heinrich Bruning was dismissed by President von Hindenburg. President Hindenburg asked Franz von Papen to form a new government, known as the "Government of the President's Friends", which was openly dedicated to the destruction of democracy and the Weimar Republic. The downfall of Brüning was largely the work of Schleicher, who had been scheming against him since the beginning of May. Schleicher took the position of Defense Minister in his friend Papen's government.
May 31
*President Hindenburg of Germany invited Franz von Papen to form a government. Papen does so but excluded Nazis.
June
June
The Chaco War began between Bolivia and Paraguay.
June 4
A military coup occurred in Chile.
The Papen government dissolved the Reichstag for elections on July 31, 1932 in the full expectation that the Nazis would win the largest number of seats.
June 6
The Revenue Act of 1932 was enacted, creating the first gas tax in the United States at 1 cent per US gallon (0.26 ¢/L) sold.
June 14
The Papen government lifted the ban against the SS and SA in Germany.
June 16
The Lausanne conference opened to discuss reparations, which Germany had not paying since the Hoover Moratorium of June 1931.
June 20
The Benelux customs union was negotiated.
June 24
After a relatively bloodless military rebellion, Siam (Thailand) became a constitutional monarchy.
*Absolute government in Siam (Thailand) was ended as radicals captured Rama VII and held him prisoner until he agreed to reforms and the creation of a senate.
June 29
The comedy serial Vic and Sade debuted on NBC Radio.
July
*A tariff war between Britain and Ireland began. The loss of the country's chief export market brought a collapse of its cattle industry and worsened its economic depression.
July 5
Antonio de Oliveira Salazar became the fascist prime minister of Portugal. Salazar would remain as Portugal's prime minister for the next 36 years.
July 7
The French submarine Promethee sank off Cherbourg. 66 were killed.
*Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted to 41.22, down from its high of 381.17 on September 3. 1929. This would be the low point of the Dow.
July 8
The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached its lowest level of the Great Depression, bottoming out at 41.22.
July 9
The Constitutionalist Revolution began in Brazil, with the uprising of the state of Sao Paulo.
The Lausanne conference ended in agreement to cancel reparations against Germany.
July 12
Norway annexed northern Greenland.
Hedley Verity established a new first-class cricket record by taking all ten wickets for only ten runs against Nottinghamshire on a pitch affected by a storm.
July 17
In what became known as Altona Blood Sunday, in Altona, Germany, armed communists attacked a National Socialist demonstration. 18 were killed and many other political street fights followed.
July 20
In what is known as , the Preubenschlag in Germany, the Papen government dispatched the Reichswehr under General Gerd von Rundstedt to depose the elected SPD government in Prussia under Otto Braun. The coup gave Papen control of Prussia, the most powerful Land in Germany, and was a major blow to German democracy.
July 21
The British Empire Economic Conference opened in Ottawa, Canada.
July 28
United States President Herbert Hoover ordered the United States Army to forcibly evict the Bonus Army of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, D.C. Troops dispersed the last of the Bonus Army the next day.
*Army tanks, gas grenades, cavalry, and infantry armed with machine guns and bayonetted rifles dispersed the "Bonus Marchers" demonstrators from their main camp on Anacostia Flats and elsewhere in an operation commanded by United States Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur (age 52), Major Dwight David Eisenhower (age 41), Major George Smith Patton, Jr. (age 45), and other officers. The violence produced 100 casualties, but President Hoover maintained that the Bonus Marchers were "communists and persons with criminal records" rather than veterans.
July 30
The 1932 Summer Olympics opened in Los Angeles.
Walt Disney's Flowers and Trees, the first animated cartoon to be presented in full Technicolor, premiered in Los Angeles. It was released in theaters, along with the film version of Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude (starring Norma Shearer and Clark Gable). Flowers and Trees would go on to win the first Academy Award for Best Animated Short.
July 31
Reichstag election sees the Nazis win 37% of the vote, becoming the largest party in the Reichstag.
*A general election in Germany made the Nazi party the biggest party in the Reichstag, but still without an overall majority.
August
A farmers' revolt began in the Midwestern United States.
August 1
The second International Polar Year, an international scientific collaboration, began.
Forrest Mars produced the first Mars bar in his Slough factory in England.
August 2
The first positron was discovered by Carl D. Anderson.
August 5
Hitler met with Schleicher and reneged on the "gentlemen's agreement", demanding that he (Hitler) be appointed Chancellor. Schleicher agreed to support Hitler as Chancellor provided that he (Schleicher) could remain minister of defense. Schleicher set up a meeting between Hindenburg and Hitler on for the August 13 to discuss Hitler's possible appointment as chancellor.
August 6
The first Venice Film Festival was held.
In Germany, the first worldwide Autobahn (Bundesautobahn 555) opened by Konrad Adenauer.
Carl Gustaf Ekman resigned as Prime Minister of Sweden, and was replaced by his Minister of Finance Felix Hamrin.
August 7
Raymond Edward Welch became the first one legged man to scale the 6,288 foot tall Mount Washington in New Hampshire.
August 9
The Papen government in Germany, which liked to take a tough "law and order" stance, passed, via Article 48, a law proscribing the death penalty for a variety of offenses and with the court system simplified so that the courts could hand down as many death sentences as possible.
In what became known as the Potempa Murder case, in the German town of Potempa, five Nazi "Brownshirts" broke into the house of Konrad Pietrzuch, a Communist miner, and proceeded to castrate and beat him to death in front of his mother. The case attracted much media attention in Germany. The murderers were released from jail after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany.
August 10
A 5.1 kg condrite-type meteorite broke into fragments and struck earth near the town of Archie, Missouri.
August 11
To celebrate Constitution Day in Germany, Chancellor Franz von Papen and his interior minister Baron Wilhelm von Gayl presented proposed amendments to the Weimar constitution for a "New State" to deal with the problems besetting Germany.
August 13
*Hitler announced that he would not serve as Vice Chancellor under Franz von Papen.
Hitler met President von Hindenburg and asked to be appointed as Chancellor. Hindenburg refused on the grounds that Hitler was not qualified to be Chancellor and asked him (Hitler) instead to serve as Vice-Chancellor in Papen's government. Hitler announced his "all or nothing" strategy in which he would oppose any government not headed by himself and would accept no office other than Chancellor.
August 18
Auguste Piccard reached an altitude of 16,197 m (53,140 ft) with a hot air balloon.
August 18-19
Scottish aviator Jim Mollison became the first pilot to make an East-to-West solo transatlantic flight, from Portmarnock, Dublin, Ireland to Pennfield, New Brunswick, Canada, in his de Havilland Puss Moth biplane The Heart's Content.
August 20
The Ottawa conference ended with the adoption of Imperial Preference tariff, turning the British Empire into one economic zone with a series of tariffs meant to exclude non-empire states from competing within the markets of Britain, the Dominions, and the rest of the empire.
August 22
The five SA men involved in the torture and murder of Konrad Pietrzuch are quickly convicted and sentenced to death under an emergency law introduced by the Papen government on August 8. The Potempa case became a cause celebre in Germany with the Nazis demonstrating for amnesty for the "Potempa five" on the grounds they were justified in killing the Communist Pietrzuch. Hitler sent a telegram congratulating the "Potempa five". Many Germans argued that the "Potempa five" were patriotic heroes who should not be executed while others maintained the death sentences were appropriate given the brutality of the torture and murder.
August 23
The Panama Civil Aviation Authority was established.
August 30
Hermann Goring was elected as Speaker of the German Reichstag.
*Another leading Nazi, Herman Goering, was elected President of the Reichstag, making Franz von Papen's position untenable.
August 31
A total solar eclipse was visible from northern Canada through northeastern Vermont, New Hampshire, southwestern Maine and the Capes of Massachusetts.
September
September 1
Germany walked out of the World Disarmament Conference under the grounds that the other powers are refusing to grant gleichberechtigung ("equality of status" i.e. abolishing Part V of the Treaty of Versailles, which had disarmed Germany).
*New York City's playboy mayor James John "Jimmy" Walker, age 51, resigned during an investigation of corruption by a state legislative commission headed by Judge Samuel Seabury.
September 2
Despite the court's sentence of death against the "Potempa five", Chancellor von Papen in his capacity as Reich Commissioner of Prussia refused to have the "Potempa five" executed on the grounds that they were not aware of the emergency law at the time they committed the murder, but in reality because he was still hoping for Nazi support for his government.
September 9
The Generalitat of Catalonia was restored within the Second Spanish Republic from September 25 until the collapse of the Republic in 1939.
The Chaco War, a conflict between Paraguay and Bolivia because of delimitation problems and others, began.
September 10
The IND Eighth Avenue Line, at the time the world's longest subway line (31 miles [50 kilometers]) began operation in Manhattan.
September 11
Canadian operations ended on the International Railway (New York - Ontario).
September 12
The very unpopular Papen government was defeated on a massive motion of no-confidence in the Reichstag. With the exceptions of the German People's Party and the German National People's Party, every party in the Reichstag votes for the no-confidence motion. Papen had Hindenburg dissolve the Reichstag for new elections in November.
September 20
Mohandas K. Gandhi began a hunger strike in Poona prison, India.
September 22
The Soviet famine of 1932-33 began, millions starve to death as a result of forced collectivization and as part of the government's effort to break rural resistance to its policies. The Soviet regimes denies the famine and allows millions to die.
September 23
The Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd was proclaimed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, concluding the country's unification under the rule of Ibn Saud.
September 24
After his party`s victory in the election to the Swedish Riksdag`s second chamber, Social Democrat Per Albin Hansson became the new Prime Minister of Sweden, after Felix Hamrin.
*In Sweden, a socialist government came to power with Per Albin Hansson as prime minister. Hansson would continue as prime minister until his death in 1946, and the Social Democratic party would retain power until 1970.
September 27
The Ryutin Affair reached its height in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Politburo met and condemned the so-called "Ryutin Platform" and agreed to expel those associated with it from the Communist Party. However, the Politburo refused Stalin's request to execute those associated with the "Ryutin Platform".
October
October 1
Babe Ruth made his famous called shot home run in the fifth inning of game 3 of the 1932 World Series.
Gyula Gombos became Prime Minister of Hungary, the first time a member of the radical right had become Hungary's head of government.
October 3
Iraq became an independent kingdom under Faisal.
October 13
Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes laid the cornerstone for a new United States Supreme Court building.
October 15
Tata Airlines (later to become Air India) made its first flight.
The Michigan Marching Band (at this time called the Varsity band) debuted Script Ohio at the Michigan versus Ohio State game in Columbus.
October 19
Prince Gustav Adolf of Sweden married Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
October 23
Fred Allen's radio comedy show debuted on CBS in the United States.
October 25
Twenty-one year old Michael D'Oyly Carte, grandson of theatrical impresario and hotelier Richard D'Oyly Carte, was killed in a car crash in Switzerland.
November
November 1
The San Francisco Opera House opened.
November 3
There was a strike by transport workers in Berlin. The Nazis and the Communists both co-operated in support of the strike. The Nazi-Communist co-operation hurt the Nazis at the upcoming election with many right-wing voters switching back to the German National People's Party.
November 6
The Reichstag election was held. The Nazis remained the largest party, but their share of the seats dropped from 37% to 32%.
November 7
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century debuted on American radio. It was the first science fiction program on radio.
November 8
In the United States presidential election, the Democratic Governor of New York Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican President Herbert Hoover in a landslide victory.
November 9
A hurrican and huge waves killed about 2,500 in Santa Cruz del Sur in the worst natural disaster in Cuban history.
In what is known as the Geneva Massacre, the military in Switzerland fired on a socialist anti-fascist demonstration in Geneva leaving 13 dead and 60 injured.
November 16
New York City's Palace Theatre was fully converted to a cinema, which was considered the final death knell of vaudeville as a popular entertainment in the United States.
November 17
*Franz von Papen resigned as Prime Minister of Germany.
November 19
The second wife of Joseph Stalin was found dead in her home.
November 21
German president Hindenburg began negotiations with Adolf Hitler about the formation of a new government.
November 24
In Washington, D.C., the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opened.
November 30
The Polish Cipher Bureau broke the German Enigma cipher.
December
December 1
Germany returned to the World Disarmament Conference after the other powers agreed to accept gleichberechtigung "in principle". Henceforward, it would be clear that Germany would be allowed to rearm beyond the limits imposed by the Treaty of Versailles.
December 3
Hindenburg named Kurt von Schleicher as German chancellor after he ousted Papen. Papen was deeply angry about how his former friend Schleicher had brought him down and decided that he would do anything to get back into power.
December 4
Chancellor Schleicher met with Gregor Strasser and offered to appoint him Vice-Chancellor and Reich Commissioner for Prussia out of the hope that if faced with a split in the NSDAP, Hitler would support his government.
December 5
At a secret meeting of the Nazi leaders, Strasser urged Hitler to drop his "all or nothing" strategy and accept Schleicher's offer to have the Nazis serve in his cabinet. Hitler gave a dramatic speech saying that Schleicher's offer was not acceptable and that he would stick to his "all or nothing" strategy whatever the consequences might be and that he would win the Nazi leadership over to his viewpoint.
December 8
Gregor Strasser resigned as the chief of the NSDAP's organizational department in protest against Hitler's "all or nothing" strategy.
December 12
Japan and the Soviet Union reformed their diplomatic connections.
December 19
BBC World Service began broadcasting as the BBC Empire Service.
December 24
A methane gas explosion caused the Moweaqua Coal Mine Disaster in a coal mine in Moweaqua, Illinois and claimed 54 lives.
December 25
An earthquake in the Kansu Province in China killed 70,000. IG Farben filed a patent application in Germany for the medical application of the first sulfonamide oral antibiotic which would be marketed as Prontosil, following Gerhard Domagk's laboratory demonstration of its properties as an antibiotic.
December 27
Radio City Music Hall opened in New York City.
Internal passports were introduced in the Soviet Union.
December 28
The Cologne banker Kurt von Schroder -- who was a close friend of Papen and a NSDAP member -- met with Adolf Hitler to tell him that Papen wanted to set up a meeting to discuss how they could work together. Papen wanted Nazi support to return to the Chancellorship while Hitler wanted Papen to convince Hindenburg to appoint him Chancellor. Hitler agreed to meet Papen on January 3, 1933.
Date unknown
Dust storms began in Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas marking the beginning of the Dust Bowl in the United States.
Zippo lighters were developed.
Zero-length springs were invented, revolutionizing seismometers and gravimeters.
The Kennedy-Thorndike experiment showed that measured time as well as length are affected by motion, in accordance with Einstein's theory of special relativity.
James Chadwick discovered the neutron.
Geneticist J. B. S. Haldane published The Causes of Evoluion, unifying the findings of Mendelian genetics with those of evolutionary science.
The heath hen became extinct in North America.
Walter B. Pitkin published Life Begins at Forty in the United States.
The Republican Citizens Committee Against National Prohibition was established to work for the repeal of Prohibition in the United States.
The Yezd Fire temple (Atash Behram) became established in Yazd, Iran.
The Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc. (ARE) was founded in Virginia Beach, Virginia, as an open-membership group to research the collected transcripts of Edgar Cayce's continuing trances, stored at the Edgar Cayce Foundation.
"The Noah of Washington Mud Flats" predicted a Deluge in 1936, building an Ark and demon-proof armor.
Unemployment in the United States reached approximately 33% with 14 million being unemployed. A similar level of unemployment affected Germany. Many people in depressed countries did not receive unemployment benefits due to governments not being able to afford benefit payments.
*Franklin Delano Roosevelt was selected president on a campaign promising a "New Deal" for Americans stricken by the Depression.
*The son of aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped, resulting in a sensational manhunt and trial.
*****
*"I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people," declared New York governor Franklin D. Roosevelt as he accepted the Democratic party nomination for president at Chicago. Roosevelt went on to win election by a landslide, gaining 472 electoral votes and 57 percent of the popular vote versus 59 electoral votes and 40 percent of the popular vote for President Hoover, who carried only six states as economic depression worsened.
*Prospectors struck oil in Bahrain.
*In India, Mahatma Gandhi began a 'fast unto death' to press the British authorities into improving their treatment of untouchables whom Gandhi calls harijan -- "God's children". Gandhi's campaign of civil disobedience brought rioting and landed Gandhi in prison. Nevertheless, Gandhi persisted in his demands for social reform and he urged a new boycott of British goods. He succeeded in obtaining a pact improving the status of the "untouchables" after six days of fasting.
*In Britain, 36 year old Oswald Mosley left the Labour Party because of its defeatist attitude towards unemployment and founded his own party, the British Union of Fascists. Mosley would become an admirer of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and would demand the expulsion of Jews from Britain.
*The Chinese continued to boycott Japanese goods.
*Josef Stalin cracked down on kulaks in Ukraine and the Caucasus who resisted collectivization. He dispatched troops to requisition all foodstuffs and prevented trains carrying food from reaching the areas.
*The atom was "manually" split for the first time. English physicist John Douglas Cockroft (age 35) and his associate Ernest Walton used a voltage multiplier they developed in the 1920s to accelerate charged subatomic particles to extremely high velocities. They used this "atomic gun" to bombard lithium with protons, and the alpha particles (helium nuclei) they produced showed that the protons reacted with the lithium nuclei to produce helium.
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