1937 The Americas

The Americas

British Guiana

*A. J. Seymour, published the first of five collections of his poetry, Verse.

Canada

Zanana L. Akande (b. 1937) was a New Democratic member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 1994 who represented the downtown Toronto riding (electoral district) of St. Andrew - St. Patrick. She served as a cabinet minister in the government of Bob Rae. She was the first woman of African descent elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, and the first woman of African descent to serve as a cabinet minister in Canada.

A daughter of immigrants from the Caribbean, she became a teacher and school principal in the Toronto public school system. After her election in 1990, she was appointed to cabinet as Minister of Community and Social Services but resigned because her private financial arrangements appeared to violate cabinet guidelines. A subsequent review cleared her of any wrongdoing. In 1992, she was named parliamentary assistant to Premier Bob Rae. In 1994 she quit politics after a dispute over the handling of an investigation and firing of Ontario civil servant Carlton Masters.

After retirement, Akande continued to be involved in the community, serving as a volunteer on boards and committees of local organizations including the YWCA and Centennial College. 

Akande was born in downtown Toronto in the Kensington Market district. Her parents came from St. Lucia and Barbados, where they had worked as teachers. They were prevented from continuing their careers in Canada because, at the time, people of African descent were not allowed to hold teaching positions. She attended Harbord Collegiate before studying at the University of Toronto.  There she received Bachelor of Arts and Master of Education degrees. She also attended the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. She was a longtime member of the Federation of Women Teachers' Associations of Ontario. Following in her parents footsteps, she worked as a teacher and a school principal for the Toronto District School Board. During her educational career she designed programs for students with special needs.

Akande was a co-founder of Tiger Lily, a newspaper for visible minority women, and once co-hosted a Toronto Arts Against Apartheid Festival. She was a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation in her youth and was friends with future New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Stephen Lewis and his siblings, and was a longtime member of its successor, the New Democratic Party. 

Akande was elected for the NDP in the Toronto riding of St. Andrew—St. Patrick in the 1990 election. Akande won the riding in a tight three-way race between incumbent Liberal Ron Kanter and Conservative candidate Nancy Jackman. The NDP won a majority government and Akande was named Minister of Community and Social Services in Bob Rae's first cabinet on October 1, 1990.  As minister, Akande presided over an increase in welfare benefits to Ontarians at the lowest income level. She raised the social assistance rate from 5% to 7% and increased the shelter allowance from 5% to 10%. She also announced $1 million in funding for food banks in an apparent contradiction to NDP policy against supporting such agencies. She recognized that the realities of the time meant the food banks were a necessity. In 1991, Akande was caught in an apparent conflict of interest situation. In December 1990, Rae announced strict guidelines which prohibited cabinet ministers from owning rental properties which included Akande. However, in February 1991, Rae wrote a private memo which softened the guidelines because he felt that a sell-off of these properties during tough economic times may cause undue hardship to ministers.

On October 10, 1991, Akande resigned as minister due to an accusation of rent-gouging in properties she owned in Toronto. The charges were eventually dismissed in 1993.

On May 4, 1992, the so-called "Yonge Street Riot" occurred in Toronto due to media reports surrounding a celebrated court case in the United States about the beating of Rodney King by police and the ensuing riots in Los Angeles. While the damage along Yonge Street was relatively minor, it was a major event for Toronto. In order to manage the fallout from this episode, Rae appointed Akande as his parliamentary assistant. One of her accomplishments was the creation of the Jobs Ontario Youth Program which created summer employment for youth from 1991 to 1994.

Akande continued as a parliamentary assistant until August 31, 1994, when she resigned from the Legislature in protest against Rae's handling of the Carlton Masters controversy. After resigning from the government she returned to her former job as school principal. 

*****

*Everett Farmer, the last person to be executed in Nova Scotia, was hanged from the gallows of Shelburne, Nova Scotia (December).

On the evening of August 1, 1937, Everett Farmer (b. 1902 in Shelburne, Nova Scotia – d. December 11 or 14 or 15, 1937 in Shelburne, Nova Scotia) shot and killed his half-brother Zachariah, then walked into town and turned himself in to police. Farmer said that the killing had been in self defense, claiming that after a drunken argument, Zachariah had refused to leave Farmer's home, and had threatened to kill him.

Since Farmer was unable to afford legal representation, and the province of Nova Scotia had no legal aid system at the time, Vincent Pottier was appointed to represent Farmer free of charge.

The trial began on September 28, 1937, with Justice William F. Carroll presiding.

At the conclusion of the trial, the jury deliberated for less than two hours before finding Farmer guilty.

In December of that year, Farmer was hanged from a gallows that had been constructed in the Shelburne County Courthouse where his trial had taken place.

The case against Farmer was suspect, in terms of how the prosecution, conviction and execution of Farmer may have been influenced not only by Farmer's inability to afford proper legal representation, but by the fact that he was black.

In 2005, Farmer's case served as the basis for Louise Delisle's play The Days of Evan.

*****

Cuba

*Mike Cuellar, the 1969 Cy Young Award winner, was born in Santa Clara, Cuba (May 8).

Miguel Ángel Cuellar Santana (b. May 8, 1937, Santa Clara, Cuba – d. April 2, 2010, Orlando, Florida) was a Cuban left-handed starting pitcher who spent fifteen seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Astros, Baltimore Orioles and California Angels.  His best years were spent with the Orioles, helping them capture five American League East Division  Division titles, three consecutive American League (AL) pennants and the 1970 World Series Championship.  He shared the AL Cy Young Award in 1969 and won 20-or-more games in a season four times from 1969 to 1974.  In 1971, he was a part of the last starting rotation to feature four pitchers (Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Pat Dobson and Mike Cuellar) with at least twenty victories each in one season. Cuellar, nicknamed "Crazy Horse" while with the Orioles, ranks among Baltimore's top five career leaders in wins (143), strikeouts (1,011), shutouts (30) and  innings pitched (2,028), and trails only Dave McNally among left-handers in wins and shutouts.

*The Cuban band Orquesta de la Playa recorded "Bruca manigua", Arsenio Rodriguez's first hit (June 17).

Arsenio Rodríguez (b. Ignacio Arsenio Travieso Scull, August 31, 1911, Guira de Macurijes in Bolondron [Pedro Betancourt], Matanzas Province, Cuba – d. December 30, 1970) was a Cuban musician, composer and bandleader. He played the tres, as well as the tumbadora, and he specialized in son, rumba and other Afro-Cuban music styles.  In the 1940s and 1950s, Rodríguez reorganized the son conjunto ('son group') and developed the son montuno, the basic template of modern-day salsa. He claimed to be the true creator of the mambo and was an important and prolific composer who wrote nearly two hundred songs.

Ignacio Arsenio Travieso Scull was born in Guira de Macurijes in Bolondrón (Pedro Betancourt), Matanzas Province as the third of fifteen children, fourteen boys and one girl, to Bonifacio Travieso, a veteran of the Cuban War of Independence who worked as a farmer, and Dorotea Rodríguez Scull.  His family had Kongo origins, and both his grandfather and great-grandfather were practitioners of Palo Monte.  In 1918, at around 7 years of age, Arsenio was blinded when a horse kicked him in the head after he accidentally hit the animal with a broom. In 1926, his family moved from Guines to Havana, where he started playing in local groups around Marianao.  By 1928, he had formed the Septeto Boston which often performed in third-tier, working-class cabarets in the area. His father died in 1933 and sometime in the early 1930s, Arsenio changed his stagename from Travieso (which means "mischievous" or "naughty") to his mother's maiden name, Rodríguez, a fairly common Spanish surname. After dissolving the unsuccessful Septeto Boston in 1934, Rodríguez joined the Septeto Bellamar, directed by his uncle-in-law José Interián and featuring his cousin Elizardo Scull on vocals. The group often played at dance academies such as Sport Antillano.

*Diego Segui, a baseball player who played for both of Seattle's Major League Baseball teams, was born in Holguin, Cuba (August 17).

Diego Pablo Seguí González (b. August 17, 1937, Holguin, Cuba) was a Major League Baseball pitcher.  Listed at 6' 0" (1.83 m), 190 lb. (86 k), Seguí batted and threw right handed. He was born in Holguin, Cuba.  His son, David Segui, was a major league first baseman.

A forkball specialist, Seguí pitched for the Kansas City Athletics, Washington Senators, Oakland Athletics, Seattle Pilots, St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariners in all or part of 16 seasons spanning 1962–1977.

In 1970 with Oakland, Seguí won 10 games as a  reliever and a starter, while leading the American League pitchers with a 2.56 ERA (earned run average). 

Interestingly, Seguí holds the unique distinction of having pitched for both of Seattle's major league baseball teams, the Pilots and the Mariners, in the first game ever played by each franchise. In these contests, he earned a save for the Pilots in 1969, and absorbed the opening-day loss for the Mariners in 1977.

Segui's most productive season came in 1969 for the Pilots, when he posted career-highs in wins (12) and saves (6), against only six losses. At the end of the season, his teammates voted him the Pilots' Most Valuable Player.

After he started the Mariners' inaugural game in 1977, he was dubbed "the Ancient Mariner".  And, although he set a Mariner single-game record with 10 strikeouts early in the season on May 5, he failed to get a win the rest of the way. After compiling a 0–7 record with a 5.69 ERA, he was released at the end of the season.

After his release, Segui  continued pitching in the Mexican League for another 10 years, tossing a no-hitter for the Cafeteros de Cordoba in the 1978 season. During his Mexico stint, he amassed a 96–61 record with a 2.91 ERA and 1025 strikeouts in 193 pitching appearances.

Seguí also pitched for four different teams in the Venezuelan Winter League during 15 seasons between 1962 and 1983. He posted a 95–58 record and a 2.76 ERA in 213 games, setting a league's all-time record with 941 strikeouts, to surpass Aurelio Monteagudo (897) and Jose Bracho (748). Additionally, Segui ranks second in wins behind Bracho (109), third in complete games (68), and is fourth both in ERA and innings pitched (1249⅔).

Seguí was inducted into the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 2003. He also gained induction into the Hispanic Heritage Museum Hall of Fame on August 19, 2006 in San Francisco, California.  

Dominican Republic

*The Parsley Massacre began in Hispaniola when Dominican President Rafael Trujillo made an inflammatory speech against Haitans (October 2).

The Parsley Massacre, also referred to as El Corte ("the cutting") in Spanish and as Kout kouto a ("the knife blow") in Creole, was a genocidal massacre carried out in the Fall of  1937 against the Haitian population living in the borderlands of the Dominican Republic with Haiti at the direct order of Dominican President Rafael Trujillo.  Estimates of the total number of deaths vary considerably and range from a low of 547 to a high of 12,166.

The popular name for the massacre came from the shibboleth that the dictatorial Trujillo had his soldiers apply to determine whether or not those living on the border were native Afro-Dominicans or immigrant Afro-Haitians.  Dominican soldiers would hold up a sprig of parsley to someone and ask what it was. How the person pronounced the Spanish word for parsley (perejil) determined their fate. The Haitian languages, French and Haitian Creole, pronounce the r as an uvular approximant or a voiced velar fricative, respectively so their speakers can have difficulty pronouncing the alveolar tap or the alveolar trill of the Dominican Republic language, Spanish.  Also, only Spanish but not French or Haitian Creole pronounces the j as the voiceless velar fricative.  If they could pronounce it the Spanish way the soldiers considered them Dominican and let them live, but if they pronounced it the French or Creole way they considered them Haitian and executed them.

The term Parsley Massacre was used frequently in the English-speaking media 75 years after the event, but most scholars recognize that it is a misconception, as research indicates that the explanation is based more on myth than on personal accounts.

Rafael Trujillo, a proponent of anti-Haitianism, made his intentions towards the Haitian community clear in a short speech he gave October 2, 1937, at a dance in his honor in Dajabon. He said,

"For some months, I have traveled and traversed the border in every sense of the word. I have seen, investigated, and inquired about the needs of the population. To the Dominicans who were complaining of the depredations by Haitians living among them, thefts of cattle, provisions, fruits, etc., and were thus prevented from enjoying in peace the products of their labor, I have responded, 'I will fix this.' And we have already begun to remedy the situation. Three hundred Haitians are now dead in Banica. This remedy will continue."

Trujillo reportedly was acting in response to reports of Haitians stealing cattle and crops from Dominican borderland residents. According to some sources, the massacre killed an estimated 20,000 Haitians living in the Dominican border—clearly at Trujillo's direct order. However, estimates of the number of victims vary widely. For approximately five days, from October 2, 1937 to October 8. 1937, Dominican troops killed Haitians with guns, machetes, clubs, and knives. Some died while trying to flee to Haiti across the Artibonite River, which has often been the site of bloody conflict between the two nations.

The Dominican Republic,  formerly the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo, is the eastern portion of the island of Hispaniola and occupies five-eighths of the land while having ten million inhabitants. In contrast, Haiti, the former French colony of  Saint Domingue, is on the western three-eighths of the island and has almost exactly the same population, with an estimated 500 people per square mile.

This over-population has forced many Haitians onto land too mountainous, eroded, or dry for productive farming. Instead of staying on lands incapable of supporting them, many Haitians migrated to Dominican soil, where land hunger was lower. While Haitians benefited by gaining farm land, Dominicans in the borderlands subsisted mostly on agriculture, and benefited from the ease of exchange of goods with Haitian markets.

Due to inadequate roadways connecting the borderlands to major cities, "Communication with Dominican markets was so limited that the small commercial surplus of the frontier slowly moved toward Haiti." This threatened Trujillo's regime because of long-standing border disputes between the two nations. If large numbers of Haitian immigrants began to occupy the less densely populated Dominican borderlands, the Haitian government might try to make a case for claiming Dominican land. Additionally, loose borders let contraband pass freely, and without taxes between nations, depriving the Dominican Republic of tariff revenue.

Furthermore, the Dominican government saw the loose borderlands as a liability in terms of possible formation of revolutionary groups that could flee across the border with ease, while at the same time amassing weapons and followers.

Despite attempts to blame Dominican civilians, evidence indicates that bullets from Krag rifles were found in Haitian bodies, and only Dominican soldiers had access to this type of rifle. Therefore, the Haitian Massacre, which is still referred to as el corte (the cutting) by Dominicans and as kouto-a (the knife) by Haitians, was, "...a calculated action on the part of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo to homogenize the furthest stretches of the country in order to bring the region into the social, political and economic fold," and rid his republic of Haitians.

Thereafter, Trujillo began to develop the borderlands to link them more closely with urban areas. These areas were modernized, with the addition of modern hospitals, schools, political headquarters, military barracks, and housing projects—as well as a highway to connect the borderlands to major cities.

Additionally, after 1937, quotas restricted the number of Haitians permitted to enter the Dominican Republic, and a strict and often discriminatory border policy was enacted. Dominicans continued to deport and kill Haitians in southern frontier regions—as refugees died of exposure, malaria and influenza.

In the end, United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt and Haitian president Stenio Vincent sought reparations of $750,000, of which the Dominican government paid $525,000 (US$ 8,641,840.28 in 2016 dollars). Of this 30 dollars per victim, survivors received only 2 cents each, due to corruption in the Haitian bureaucracy.
Despite the number of reported deaths by Haitian, American and British officials, and following over half a century of agricultural expansion and population growth which may have led to accidental unearthing of human remains, no mass grave containing the bodies of murdered Haitians has ever been found.

Nonetheless, the lack of graves does not prove that the killings did not take place; however, it does suggest that the number of dead was in reality much less than those commonly reported. Reports from the day have numbers ranging from as little as 1,000 dead up to 12,000. 

*Juan Marichal, a Hall of Fame baseball player, was born in Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic (October 20).

Juan Antonio Marichal Sánchez (b. October 20, 1937, Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic) played as a right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball most notably for the San Francisco Giants.  Marichal was known for his high leg kick, pinpoint control and intimidation tactics, which included aiming pitches directly at the opposing batters' helmets.

Marichal also played for the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers for the final two seasons of his career.  Although he won more games than any other pitcher during the 1960s, he appeared in only one World Series game and he was often overshadowed by his contemporaries Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson in post-season awards. Nevertheless, Marichal was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983.  He had career statistics of 243 wins with 142 losses and a 2.89 career earned run average (ERA).  He also had 2,303 strikeouts.

Puerto Rico 

*Juan Pizarro, a baseball player who played for 18 seasons in Major League Baseball, was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico (February 7).  

Juan Ramon Pizarro Cordova a.k.a. "Terín" (b. February 7, 1937, Santurce, Puerto Rico) was a Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher.  He played for 18 seasons on 9 teams, from 1957 through 1974. In 1964, he won 19 games (19–9) and pitched 4 shutouts for the Chicago White Sox.  He also was an All-Star player in 1963 and 1964.

*The Ponce massacre occurred in Ponce, Puerto Rico when police opened fire on a peaceful civilian march. Twenty-one were killed and more than 200 wounded (March 21).

The Ponce massacre was an event that took place on Palm Sunday,  March 21, 1937, in Ponce, Puerto Rico, when a peaceful civilian march turned into a police shooting in which 19 civilians and two policemen were killed, and more than 200 others wounded. Most of the dead were reportedly shot in their backs. The march had been organized by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party to commemorate the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico by the governing Spanish National Assembly in 1873, and to protest the United States Government's imprisonment of the Party's leader, Pedro Albizu Campos, on sedition charges.

An investigation led by the United States Commission on Civil Rights put the blame for the massacre squarely on the United States-appointed Governor of Puerto Rico, Blanton Winship. Further criticism by members of the United States Congress led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to remove Winship in 1939 as governor.

Governor Winship was never prosecuted for the massacre and no one under his chain of command - including the police who took part in the event, and admitted to the mass shooting - was ever prosecuted or reprimanded.

The Ponce massacre remains the largest massacre in post-Spanish imperial history in Puerto Rico.  It has been the source of many articles, books, paintings, films, and theatrical works.

*Orlando Cepeda, a Hall of Fame baseball player, was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico (September 17).

Orlando Manuel "Peruchin" Cepeda Pennes (b. September 17, 1937, Ponce, Puerto Rico) was a Major League Baseball first baseman who became a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.  The 1958 National League Rookie of the Year, Cepeda was voted the National League Most Valuable Player in 1967, the year his team, the St. Louis Cardinals,  won the World Series.  Overall, Cepeda appeared in three World Series and was the first winner of the American League's Outstanding Designated Hitter Award in 1973. Cepeda batted .300 or better 9 times in his 16 seasons.

Cepeda was born to a poor family. His father, Pedro "Perucho" Cepeda, was also a baseball player in Puerto Rico, an upbringing that influenced Cepeda's interest in the sport from a young age. His first contact with professional baseball was as a batboy for the Santurce Crabbers of Puerto Rico. Pedro Zorilla, the team's owner, persuaded his family to let him attend a New York Giants tryout. He played for several Minor League Baseball teams before attracting the interest of the Giants, who had just moved to San Francisco.

During a career that lasted sixteen years, Cepeda played with the San Francisco Giants (1958–66), St. Louis Cardinals (1966–68), Atlanta Braves (1969–72), Oakland Athletics (1972), Boston Red Sox (1973), and Kansas City Royals (1974). Cepeda was selected to play in seven Major League Baseball All-Star Games during his career, becoming the first player from Puerto Rico to start one. In 1978, Cepeda was sentenced to five years in prison on drug possession charges, of which he served ten months in prison and the rest on probation. In 1987, Cepeda was contracted by the San Francisco Giants to work as a scout and "goodwill ambassador." And, in 1999, Cepeda was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. 

Uruguay

*The Black Native Party of Uruguay was recognized by the Electoral Court. 

On January 5, 1937 the party was recognized by the Electoral Court. In March 1937 a new manifesto was issued, following similar lines as the original party manifesto.

On July 5, 1937 a local committee of the party was established in Rivera. On December 4, 1937 a General Assembly of the party was organized. On December 18, 1937 a local committee was set up in the town of Melo.

The party published the journal Pan ('Bread') as its organ. The first issue was published on April 15, 1937. Nine issues were published until December 1937. Sandalio del Puerto was the editor of Pan, until being replaced by Carmelo Gentile in October 1937.

*****

Europe

France

*The French Colonial Ministry confirmed reports that it was studying plans to offer land on Madagascar and other French colonies for settlement by Jews (January 16).

*Josephine Baker married a Jewish Frenchman, Jean Lion, and became a French citizen. 

Germany

*The encyclical Mit brennender Sorge ("With burning concern") of Pope Pius XI was published in Germany in the German language (March 10). Largely the work of Cardinals von Faulhaber and Pacelli, it condemned breaches of the 1933 Reichskonkordat agreement signed between the Nazi government and the Catholic Church, and criticized Nazism's views on race and other matters incompatible with Catholicism.

Mit brennender Sorge (English: With Burning Concern) On the Church and the German Reich is an encyclical of Pope Pius XI, issued during the Nazi era on March 10, 1937 (but bearing a date of Passion Sunday, March 14, 1937). Written in German, not the usual Latin, it was smuggled into Germany for fear of censorship and was read from the pulpits of all German Catholic churches on one of the Church's busiest Sundays,  Palm Sunday (March 21 that year).

The encyclical condemned breaches of the 1933 Reichskonkordat agreement signed between the German Reich and the Holy See.  It condemned "pantheistic confusion", "neopaganism",  "the so-called myth of race and blood", and the idolizing of the State. It contained a vigorous defense of the Old Testament out of belief that it prepared the way for the New. The encyclical states that race is a fundamental value of the human community which is necessary and honorable but condemns the exaltation of race, or the people, or the state, above their standard value to an idolatrous level. The encyclical declares "that man as a person possesses rights he holds from God, and which any collectivity must protect against denial, suppression or neglect."  National Socialism, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party are not named in the document. The term "Reich Government" is used. 

The large effort to produce and distribute over 300,000 copies of the letter was entirely secret, allowing priests across Germany to read the letter without interference. The Gestapo raided the churches the next day to confiscate all the copies they could find, and the presses that had printed the letter were closed. An intensification of the general anti-church struggle began around April in response to the encyclical. The regime further constrained the actions of the Church and harassed monks with staged prosecutions. Though Hitler is not named in the encyclical, it does refer to a "mad prophet" that some claim refers to Hitler himself.

The Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Pacelli (later elected as Pope Pius XII), wrote to Germany's Cardinal Faulhaber  on April 2, 1937 explaining that the encyclical was theologically and pastorally necessary “to preserve the true faith in Germany.” The encyclical also defended baptized Jews, considered still Jews by the Nazis (but not by the Church) because of racial theories that the Church could not accept. The encyclical does not discuss the Jewish people in general; however, the Nazis framed their position against the Jewish people in terms of the Germanic race and the Jewish race, i.e., racism. It was reported at the time that the encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge was somewhat overshadowed by the anti-communist encyclical Divini Redemptoris which was issued on March 19 in order to avoid the charge by the Nazis that the Pope was indirectly favoring communism.

 *In the years of 1937–1938, Eugen Fischer and his colleagues analyzed 600 children in Nazi Germany who were descended from French-African soldiers who occupied western areas of Germany after World War I.  The children derogatorily called the "Rhineland Bastards" were subsequently subjected to sterilization afterwards.

Eugen Fischer (b. July 5, 1874 – d. July 9, 1967) was a German professor of medicine, anthropology and eugenics. He was director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics between 1927 and 1942. He was appointed rector of the Frederick William University of Berlin by Adolf Hitler in 1933, and later joined the Nazi Party. 

In 1908, Fischer conducted field research in German Southwest Africa (now Namibia). He studied the Basters, offspring of German or Boer men who had fathered children by the native women (the Khoi) in that area. His study concluded with a call to prevent a "mixed race" by the prohibition of "mixed marriage" such as those he had studied. His study was based unethical medical practices on the Herero and Namaqua people. He argued that while the existing Mischling -- mixed race -- descendants of the mixed marriages might be useful for Germany, he recommended that they should not continue to reproduce. His recommendations were followed and by 1912 interracial marriage was prohibited throughout the German colonies. As a precursor to his experiments on Jews in Nazi Germany, Fischer collected bones and skulls for his studies, in part from medical experimentation on African prisoners of war in Namibia during the Herero and Namaqua Genocide.  

The ideas expressed in Fischer's study, related to maintaining the purity of races, influenced future German legislation on race, including the Nuremberg laws.

In 1933, Adolf Hitler appointed Fischer rector of the Frederick William University of Berlin (now Humboldt University). Fischer retired from the university in 1942.

Eugen Fischer did not officially join the Nazi Party until 1940. However, he was influential with National Socialists early on. A two-volume work, Foundations of Human Hereditary Teaching and Racial Hygiene published 1921 and 1932, and in 1936 published under Human Heredity Theory and Racial Hygiene, co-written by Erwin Baur and Fritz Lenz, served as the scientific basis for the Nazis' eugenic (race purification) policies. Fischer also authored The Rehoboth Bastards and the Problem of Miscegenation among Humans (1913) (German: Die Rehobother Bastards und das Bastardierungsproblem beim Menschen), a field study which provided context for later racial debates, which influenced German colonial legislation, and which provided scientific support for the Nuremberg laws.  

Under the Nazi regime, Fischer developed the physiological specifications used to determine racial origins and developed the so-called Fischer-Saller scale, a scale used to determine shades of hair color. He and his team experimented on Gypsies and African Germans, taking blood and measuring skulls to find scientific validation for his eugenic theories.

Efforts to return the Namibian skulls taken by Fischer were started with an investigation by the University of Freiburg in 2011 and completed with the return of the skulls in March 2014.  Additionally, in 1985, the United Nations' Whitaker Report classified the aftermath of the Herero rebellion as an attempt to exterminate the Herero and Nama peoples of South-West Africa, and therefore being one of the earliest attempts at genocide in the 20th century. In 2004 the German government recognized and apologized for the events, but ruled out financial compensation for the victims' descendants. Finally, in July 2015, the German government and parliament officially called the events a "genocide" and "part of a race war".

Great Britain

*Shirley Bassey, a singer best known for singing the theme song for the James Bond film Goldfinger, was born in Tiger Bay, Cardiff, Wales (January 8).  

Shirley Veronica Bassey, (b. January 8, 1937, Tiger Bay, Cardiff, Wales) is a Welsh singer whose career began in the mid-1950s. She is best known for recording the theme songs to the James Bond films Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and Moonraker (1979).

In 2000, Bassey was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the performing arts. In 1977 she received the Brit Award for Best British Female Solo Artist in the previous 25 years. Bassey has been called "one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century."

*Paul Robeson made an important speech on the Spanish Civil War at the Royal Albert Hall in London during a benefit to raise funds for Basque refugee children (June 24). "There is no standing above the conflict on Olympian heights. There are no impartial observers", Robeson said. "The liberation of Spain from the oppression of fascist reactionaries is not a private matter of the Spaniards, but the common cause of all advanced and progressive humanity."

Italy

*Italy banned interracial marriage in its African colonies (January 9).

*Italy protested to Britain for inviting Haile Selassie to send an envoy to the king's coronation ceremony (February 23).

*In Italy, the Ministry of Popular Culture ordered all foreign words and names to be Italianized (June 1). Louis Armstrong, for example, was to be known as Luigi Fortebraccio.

Liechtenstein

*Liechtenstein added a crown to its national flag so it would no longer be identical to the flag of Haiti (June 24).

Soviet Union

*From 1937 to 1938, Jack Chen organized an international art exhibition in the Soviet Union, European countries and the United States, bringing the works of the Chinese artists who were opposed to the Japanese aggression in China. It was the first time that the revolutionary art of China was introduced to the world.

Switzerland

*Switzerland recognized the Italian conquest of Ethiopia (June 15).