January
January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua.
January 11 – The first issue of Look magazine goes on sale in the United States.
January 19 – Howard Hughes establishes a record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.
January 20 – Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes swears in Franklin D. Roosevelt for a second term. This is the first time Inauguration Day in the United States occurs on that date, on which it has occurred ever since; the change is due to the ratification in 1933 of the 20th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
January 23 – In Moscow, seventeen leading Communists go on trial, accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime and assassinate its leaders.
January 26 – The U.S. state of Michigan celebrates its Centennial Anniversary of statehood.
January 31 – The USSR executes 31 people for alleged Trotskyism.
January 19: Howard Hughes sets record.
February
February 5 – U.S President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes a plan to enlarge the Supreme Court of the United States.
February 8 – Spanish Civil War: Falangist troops take Málaga.
February 8 – February 27 – Spanish Civil War – Battle of Jarama: Nationalist and government troops fight to a stalemate.
February 11 – A sit-down strike ends when General Motors recognizes the United Automobile Workers Union.
February 16 – Wallace H. Carothers receives a patent for nylon.
February 19
Airliner VH-UHH (Stinson) goes down over Lamington National Park, bound for Sydney, killing five people.
Yekatit 12: During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, two Eritrean nationalists attempt to kill viceroy Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades. The Italian security guard fire into the crowd of Ethiopian onlookers. Authorities exact further reprisals, which include indiscriminately slaughtering native Ethiopians over the next three days, detaining thousands of Ethiopians at Danan and slaughtering almost 300 monks at Debre Libanos monastery.
The flag of the Netherlands is officially adopted.
February 20 – Roberto Ortiz is elected president of Argentina.
February 21 – The League of Nations Non-Intervention Committee prohibits foreign nationals from fighting in the Spanish Civil War.
March
March – The first issue of Detective Comics is published in the United States. Twenty-seven issues later, Detective Comics introduces Batman. The magazine goes on to become the longest continually published comic book in American history; it is still published as of 2013.
March 10 (dated March 14 (Passion Sunday)) – The encyclical Mit brennender Sorge ("With burning concern") of Pope Pius XI is published in Germany in the German language. Largely the work of Cardinals von Faulhaber and Pacelli, it condemns breaches of the 1933 Reichskonkordat agreement signed between the Nazi government and the Catholic Church, and criticises Nazism's views on race and other matters incompatible with Catholicism.
March 17 – The Atherton Report (private investigator Edwin Atherton's report detailing vice and police corruption in San Francisco) is released.
March 18 – New London School explosion: In the worst school disaster in American history in terms of lives lost, the New London School in New London, Texas, suffers a catastrophic natural gas explosion, killing in excess of 295 students and teachers. Mother Frances Hospital opens in Tyler, Texas, a day ahead of schedule in response to the explosion.
March 19 – The encyclical Divini Redemptoris of Pope Pius XI, critical of communism, is published.
March 21
Ponce massacre: A police squad, acting under orders from Governor of Puerto Rico Blanton Winship, opens fire on demonstrators protesting at the arrest of Puerto Rican Nationalist Party leader Pedro Albizu Campos, killing 17 people and injuring over 200.
The first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Aerobile, makes its initial flight.
March 26
In Crystal City, Texas, spinach growers erect a statue of the cartoon character Popeye.
William H. Hastie becomes the first African American appointed to a federal judgeship in the United States.
April
April 1
Aden becomes a British crown colony.
Bombing of Jaén in Spain by the Condor Legion of the Nazi German Luftwaffe.
April 9 – The Kamikaze arrives at Croydon Airport in London; it is the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly to Europe.
April 12
Frank Whittle ground-tests the world's first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby, England.
NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the National Labor Relations Act is constitutional.
April 17 – The animated short Porky's Duck Hunt, directed by Tex Avery for the Looney Tunes series, featuring the debut of Daffy Duck, is released in the United States.
April 20 – A fire in an elementary school in Kilingi-Nõmme, Estonia, kills seventeen students and injures fifty.
April 26 – Spanish Civil War: Bombing of Guernica in Spain by the Condor Legion of the Nazi German Luftwaffe in support of the Francoists. Three-quarters of the town is destroyed and hundreds killed.[1]
May
May
The Dáil Éireann passes the Executive Authority (Consequential Provisions) Act, 1937, which abolishes the office of Governor-General of the Irish Free State, retrospectively dated to December 1936.
17 million unemployed in the USA.
May 1 – A general strike occurs in Paris, France.
May 6 – Hindenburg disaster: In the United States, the German airship Hindenburg bursts into flame when mooring to a mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Of the 36 passengers and 61 crew on board, 13 passengers and 22 crew die, as well as one member of the ground crew.
May 7 – Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion Fighter Group, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrives in Spain to assist Francisco Franco's forces.
May 12 – The coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth takes place at Westminster Abbey, London.
May 21
A Soviet station becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
As one of the reprisals for the attempted assassination of Italian viceroy Rodolfo Graziani, a detachment of Italian troops massacres the entire community of Debre Libanos, killing 297 monks and 23 laymen.
May 27 – In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County. The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushes a button in Washington, D.C., signaling the start of vehicle traffic over the Golden Gate Bridge.
May 28 – Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
May 28 – In Germany Volkswagen Group is founded, to build a "people's car". A new town is set to be created to house the thousands of workers who will be involved in the production of the car.
May 30
Spanish Civil War: Spanish ship Ciudad de Barcelona is torpedoed.
The Chicago Police Department shoot and kill ten unarmed demonstrators in Chicago in what is known as the Memorial Day massacre.
June
June 3 – Wallis Simpson marries The Duke of Windsor (the former Edward VIII), in France.
June 8
The first total solar eclipse to exceed seven minutes of totality in over 800 years, is visible in the Pacific and Peru.
Carl Orff's Carmina Burana premieres in Frankfurt, Germany.
June 14 – Pennsylvania becomes the first (and only) of the United States to celebrate Flag Day officially as a state holiday.
June 21 – The coalition government of Léon Blum resigns in France.
June 28 – Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established in the United States, superseding the Emergency Conservation Work program.
June – Picasso completes his painting Guernica.
June/July – The Dáil Éireann debates and passes the draft new Constitution of Ireland, which is then submitted for public approval by plebiscite.
July
July 1
The Gestapo arrests pastor Martin Niemöller in Germany.
In a referendum the people of the Irish Free State accept the new Constitution by 685,105 votes to 527,945.
First alleged sighting of the White River Monster.
July 2
Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear after taking off from New Guinea during Earhart's attempt to become the first woman to fly around the world.
A guard takes his place at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Washington, D.C.; continuous guard has been maintained there ever since.
July 4 – The Lost Colony historical drama is first performed at an outdoor theater in the location where it is set, Roanoke Island, North Carolina.
July 5
The canned precooked meat product Spam is introduced by the Hormel company in the United States
The highest recorded temperature in Canada, at Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan, is 45°C (113°F).
July 7
Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Lugou Bridge (aka Marco Polo Bridge Incident): Japanese forces invade China (often seen as the beginning of World War II in Asia).
Peel Commission proposes partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states.[2][3]
July 11 – American popular composer George Gershwin dies in Los Angeles of a brain tumor, age 38.
July 20 – The Geibeltbad Pirna is opened in Dresden, Germany.
July 21 – Éamon de Valera is elected President of the Executive Council (prime minister) of the Irish Free State by the Dáil (parliament).
July 22 – New Deal: The United States Senate votes down President Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.
July 24 – Alabama drops rape charges against the so-called Scottsboro Boys.
July 25–31 – Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Beiping–Tianjin, a series of actions fought around Beiping and Tianjin, resulting in Japanese victory.
July 28 – The Irish Republican Army attempts the assassination by bomb of George VI in Belfast.
July 29 – Tungchow Mutiny: units of the East Hopei Army mutiny and kill Japanese troops and civilians in Tōngzhōu.
July 31 – NKVD operative order 00447 «Об операции по репрессированию бывших кулаков, уголовников и других антисоветских элементов» ("The operation for repression of former kulaks, criminals and other anti-Soviet elements") is approved by the Politburo of the Soviet Union, initially as a 4-month plan for 75,950 people to be executed and an additional 193,000 to be sent to the Gulag.
August
August 2 – The Marihuana Tax Act Pub. 238, 75th Congress, 50 Stat. 551 (Aug. 2, 1937), is a significant bill on the path that will lead to the criminalization of cannabis. It was introduced to U.S. Congress by Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry Anslinger. (The Act is now commonly referred to using the modern spelling as the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act.)
August 5 – The Soviet Union commences one of the largest campaigns of the Great Purge, to "eliminate anti-Soviet elements." Within the following year, at least 724,000 people are killed[citation needed] on order of the troikas, directed by Joseph Stalin. This was an offensive that targeted social classes (such as the kulaks), ethnic or racial backgrounds which were seen as non-Russian,[citation needed] and Stalin's personal opponents from the Communist Party and their sympathizers.
August 6 – Spanish Civil War: Falangist artillery bombards Madrid.
August 8 – Japan occupies Beijing.
August 14 – The Battle of Shanghai.
August 26 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Japanese aircraft attack the car carrying the ambassador of Great Britain during a raid on Shanghai.
September
September 2 – The Great Hong Kong Typhoon kills an estimated 11,000 persons.
September 5 – Spanish Civil War: The city of Llanes falls to the Falangists.
September 7 – CBS broadcasts a two-and-a-half hour memorial concert nationwide on radio in memory of George Gershwin, live from the Hollywood Bowl. Many celebrities appear, including Oscar Levant, Fred Astaire, Otto Klemperer, Lily Pons and members of the original cast of Porgy and Bess. The concert is recorded and released complete years later in what is excellent sound for its time, on CD. The Los Angeles Philharmonic is the featured orchestra.
September 10 – Nine nations meet in the Nyon Conference, led by the United Kingdom and France, to address international piracy in the Mediterranean Sea.
September 17 – Abraham Lincoln's head is dedicated at Mount Rushmore.
September 19 – Swiss professional ice hockey club HC Ambrì-Piotta founded.
September 21 – George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. of London publishes the first edition of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.
September 25 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Pingxingguan: The Communist Chinese National Revolutionary Army defeats the Japanese.
September 27 – The last Bali tiger dies.
October
October 1
The Marihuana Tax Act becomes law in the United States.
U.S. Supreme Court associate justice Hugo Black, in a nationwide radio broadcast, refutes allegations of past involvement in the Ku Klux Klan.
October 3 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Japanese troops advance toward Nanking.
October 5 – Roosevelt gives his famous Quarantine Speech in Chicago.
October 9 – Jimmie Angel lands his plane on top of Devil's Mountain; however, the plane gets damaged and he has to trek through the rainforest for help.
October 13 – Germany, in a note to Brussels, guarantees the inviolability and integrity of Belgium so long as the latter abstains from military action against Germany.
October 15 – Ernest Hemingway's novel To Have and Have Not is first published.
October 18–October 21 – Spanish Civil War: The whole Spanish northern seaboard falls into the Falangists' hands; Republican forces in Gijón, Spain, set fire to petrol reserves prior to retreating before the advancing Falangists.
October 25 – Celâl Bayar forms the new (ninth) government of Turkey.
November
November 3 – Maurice J. Tobin resoundingly defeats former governor and mayor James Michael Curley in Boston's mayoral election.
November 5
Spanish Civil War – 35,000 Republican supporters are massacred in Piedrafita de Babia, near León.
World War II: In the Reich Chancellery, Adolf Hitler holds a secret meeting and states his plans for acquiring "living space" for the German people (recorded in the Hossbach Memorandum).
November 6 – Italy joins the Anti-Comintern Pact.
November 9 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Japanese troops take Shanghai.
November 10 – Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas announces the Estado Novo ("New State"), thence becoming dictator of Brazil until 1945.
November 11 – The Kogushi sulfur mine collapse, in western Gunma, Japan, kills at least 245 people.
December
December 4 – The Dandy comic is first published in Scotland; it will still be running as of 2011.
December 11 – Italy withdraws from the League of Nations.
December 12
USS Panay incident: Japanese bombers sink the American gunboat USS Panay.
Mae West makes a risque guest appearance on NBC's Chase and Sanborn Hour, which eventually results in her being banned from radio.
December 13 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Nanjing ends. The Japanese soldiers killed over 300,000 Chinese in 3 months, it is called "Nanking Massacre".
December 16 – The original production of the musical Me and My Girl opens at the West End Victoria Palace Theatre in London. A later revival of this musical would win an award.
December 21 – Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first feature-length traditionally animated film, premieres in selected theaters.
December 25 – At the age of 70, legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini conducts the NBC Symphony Orchestra on radio for the first time, beginning his successful 17-year tenure with that orchestra. This first concert consists of music by Vivaldi (at a time when he was still seldom played), Mozart, and Brahms. Millions tune in to listen, including U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
December 29 – The new Constitution of Ireland (Bunreacht na hÉireann) comes into force. The Irish Free State becomes "Ireland", and Éamon de Valera becomes the first Taoiseach (prime minister) of the new state. A Presidential Commission (made up the Chief Justice, the Speaker of Dáil Éireann, and the President of the High Court) assumes the powers of the new presidency, pending the popular election of the first President of Ireland in June 1938. The new constitution prohibits divorce.
January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua.
January 11 – The first issue of Look magazine goes on sale in the United States.
January 19 – Howard Hughes establishes a record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.
January 20 – Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes swears in Franklin D. Roosevelt for a second term. This is the first time Inauguration Day in the United States occurs on that date, on which it has occurred ever since; the change is due to the ratification in 1933 of the 20th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
January 23 – In Moscow, seventeen leading Communists go on trial, accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime and assassinate its leaders.
January 26 – The U.S. state of Michigan celebrates its Centennial Anniversary of statehood.
January 31 – The USSR executes 31 people for alleged Trotskyism.
January 19: Howard Hughes sets record.
February
February 5 – U.S President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes a plan to enlarge the Supreme Court of the United States.
February 8 – Spanish Civil War: Falangist troops take Málaga.
February 8 – February 27 – Spanish Civil War – Battle of Jarama: Nationalist and government troops fight to a stalemate.
February 11 – A sit-down strike ends when General Motors recognizes the United Automobile Workers Union.
February 16 – Wallace H. Carothers receives a patent for nylon.
February 19
Airliner VH-UHH (Stinson) goes down over Lamington National Park, bound for Sydney, killing five people.
Yekatit 12: During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, two Eritrean nationalists attempt to kill viceroy Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades. The Italian security guard fire into the crowd of Ethiopian onlookers. Authorities exact further reprisals, which include indiscriminately slaughtering native Ethiopians over the next three days, detaining thousands of Ethiopians at Danan and slaughtering almost 300 monks at Debre Libanos monastery.
The flag of the Netherlands is officially adopted.
February 20 – Roberto Ortiz is elected president of Argentina.
February 21 – The League of Nations Non-Intervention Committee prohibits foreign nationals from fighting in the Spanish Civil War.
March
March – The first issue of Detective Comics is published in the United States. Twenty-seven issues later, Detective Comics introduces Batman. The magazine goes on to become the longest continually published comic book in American history; it is still published as of 2013.
March 10 (dated March 14 (Passion Sunday)) – The encyclical Mit brennender Sorge ("With burning concern") of Pope Pius XI is published in Germany in the German language. Largely the work of Cardinals von Faulhaber and Pacelli, it condemns breaches of the 1933 Reichskonkordat agreement signed between the Nazi government and the Catholic Church, and criticises Nazism's views on race and other matters incompatible with Catholicism.
March 17 – The Atherton Report (private investigator Edwin Atherton's report detailing vice and police corruption in San Francisco) is released.
March 18 – New London School explosion: In the worst school disaster in American history in terms of lives lost, the New London School in New London, Texas, suffers a catastrophic natural gas explosion, killing in excess of 295 students and teachers. Mother Frances Hospital opens in Tyler, Texas, a day ahead of schedule in response to the explosion.
March 19 – The encyclical Divini Redemptoris of Pope Pius XI, critical of communism, is published.
March 21
Ponce massacre: A police squad, acting under orders from Governor of Puerto Rico Blanton Winship, opens fire on demonstrators protesting at the arrest of Puerto Rican Nationalist Party leader Pedro Albizu Campos, killing 17 people and injuring over 200.
The first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Aerobile, makes its initial flight.
March 26
In Crystal City, Texas, spinach growers erect a statue of the cartoon character Popeye.
William H. Hastie becomes the first African American appointed to a federal judgeship in the United States.
April
April 1
Aden becomes a British crown colony.
Bombing of Jaén in Spain by the Condor Legion of the Nazi German Luftwaffe.
April 9 – The Kamikaze arrives at Croydon Airport in London; it is the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly to Europe.
April 12
Frank Whittle ground-tests the world's first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby, England.
NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the National Labor Relations Act is constitutional.
April 17 – The animated short Porky's Duck Hunt, directed by Tex Avery for the Looney Tunes series, featuring the debut of Daffy Duck, is released in the United States.
April 20 – A fire in an elementary school in Kilingi-Nõmme, Estonia, kills seventeen students and injures fifty.
April 26 – Spanish Civil War: Bombing of Guernica in Spain by the Condor Legion of the Nazi German Luftwaffe in support of the Francoists. Three-quarters of the town is destroyed and hundreds killed.[1]
May
May
The Dáil Éireann passes the Executive Authority (Consequential Provisions) Act, 1937, which abolishes the office of Governor-General of the Irish Free State, retrospectively dated to December 1936.
17 million unemployed in the USA.
May 1 – A general strike occurs in Paris, France.
May 6 – Hindenburg disaster: In the United States, the German airship Hindenburg bursts into flame when mooring to a mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Of the 36 passengers and 61 crew on board, 13 passengers and 22 crew die, as well as one member of the ground crew.
May 7 – Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion Fighter Group, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrives in Spain to assist Francisco Franco's forces.
May 12 – The coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth takes place at Westminster Abbey, London.
May 21
A Soviet station becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
As one of the reprisals for the attempted assassination of Italian viceroy Rodolfo Graziani, a detachment of Italian troops massacres the entire community of Debre Libanos, killing 297 monks and 23 laymen.
May 27 – In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County. The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushes a button in Washington, D.C., signaling the start of vehicle traffic over the Golden Gate Bridge.
May 28 – Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
May 28 – In Germany Volkswagen Group is founded, to build a "people's car". A new town is set to be created to house the thousands of workers who will be involved in the production of the car.
May 30
Spanish Civil War: Spanish ship Ciudad de Barcelona is torpedoed.
The Chicago Police Department shoot and kill ten unarmed demonstrators in Chicago in what is known as the Memorial Day massacre.
June
June 3 – Wallis Simpson marries The Duke of Windsor (the former Edward VIII), in France.
June 8
The first total solar eclipse to exceed seven minutes of totality in over 800 years, is visible in the Pacific and Peru.
Carl Orff's Carmina Burana premieres in Frankfurt, Germany.
June 14 – Pennsylvania becomes the first (and only) of the United States to celebrate Flag Day officially as a state holiday.
June 21 – The coalition government of Léon Blum resigns in France.
June 28 – Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established in the United States, superseding the Emergency Conservation Work program.
June – Picasso completes his painting Guernica.
June/July – The Dáil Éireann debates and passes the draft new Constitution of Ireland, which is then submitted for public approval by plebiscite.
July
July 1
The Gestapo arrests pastor Martin Niemöller in Germany.
In a referendum the people of the Irish Free State accept the new Constitution by 685,105 votes to 527,945.
First alleged sighting of the White River Monster.
July 2
Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear after taking off from New Guinea during Earhart's attempt to become the first woman to fly around the world.
A guard takes his place at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Washington, D.C.; continuous guard has been maintained there ever since.
July 4 – The Lost Colony historical drama is first performed at an outdoor theater in the location where it is set, Roanoke Island, North Carolina.
July 5
The canned precooked meat product Spam is introduced by the Hormel company in the United States
The highest recorded temperature in Canada, at Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan, is 45°C (113°F).
July 7
Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Lugou Bridge (aka Marco Polo Bridge Incident): Japanese forces invade China (often seen as the beginning of World War II in Asia).
Peel Commission proposes partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states.[2][3]
July 11 – American popular composer George Gershwin dies in Los Angeles of a brain tumor, age 38.
July 20 – The Geibeltbad Pirna is opened in Dresden, Germany.
July 21 – Éamon de Valera is elected President of the Executive Council (prime minister) of the Irish Free State by the Dáil (parliament).
July 22 – New Deal: The United States Senate votes down President Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.
July 24 – Alabama drops rape charges against the so-called Scottsboro Boys.
July 25–31 – Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Beiping–Tianjin, a series of actions fought around Beiping and Tianjin, resulting in Japanese victory.
July 28 – The Irish Republican Army attempts the assassination by bomb of George VI in Belfast.
July 29 – Tungchow Mutiny: units of the East Hopei Army mutiny and kill Japanese troops and civilians in Tōngzhōu.
July 31 – NKVD operative order 00447 «Об операции по репрессированию бывших кулаков, уголовников и других антисоветских элементов» ("The operation for repression of former kulaks, criminals and other anti-Soviet elements") is approved by the Politburo of the Soviet Union, initially as a 4-month plan for 75,950 people to be executed and an additional 193,000 to be sent to the Gulag.
August
August 2 – The Marihuana Tax Act Pub. 238, 75th Congress, 50 Stat. 551 (Aug. 2, 1937), is a significant bill on the path that will lead to the criminalization of cannabis. It was introduced to U.S. Congress by Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry Anslinger. (The Act is now commonly referred to using the modern spelling as the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act.)
August 5 – The Soviet Union commences one of the largest campaigns of the Great Purge, to "eliminate anti-Soviet elements." Within the following year, at least 724,000 people are killed[citation needed] on order of the troikas, directed by Joseph Stalin. This was an offensive that targeted social classes (such as the kulaks), ethnic or racial backgrounds which were seen as non-Russian,[citation needed] and Stalin's personal opponents from the Communist Party and their sympathizers.
August 6 – Spanish Civil War: Falangist artillery bombards Madrid.
August 8 – Japan occupies Beijing.
August 14 – The Battle of Shanghai.
August 26 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Japanese aircraft attack the car carrying the ambassador of Great Britain during a raid on Shanghai.
September
September 2 – The Great Hong Kong Typhoon kills an estimated 11,000 persons.
September 5 – Spanish Civil War: The city of Llanes falls to the Falangists.
September 7 – CBS broadcasts a two-and-a-half hour memorial concert nationwide on radio in memory of George Gershwin, live from the Hollywood Bowl. Many celebrities appear, including Oscar Levant, Fred Astaire, Otto Klemperer, Lily Pons and members of the original cast of Porgy and Bess. The concert is recorded and released complete years later in what is excellent sound for its time, on CD. The Los Angeles Philharmonic is the featured orchestra.
September 10 – Nine nations meet in the Nyon Conference, led by the United Kingdom and France, to address international piracy in the Mediterranean Sea.
September 17 – Abraham Lincoln's head is dedicated at Mount Rushmore.
September 19 – Swiss professional ice hockey club HC Ambrì-Piotta founded.
September 21 – George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. of London publishes the first edition of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.
September 25 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Pingxingguan: The Communist Chinese National Revolutionary Army defeats the Japanese.
September 27 – The last Bali tiger dies.
October
October 1
The Marihuana Tax Act becomes law in the United States.
U.S. Supreme Court associate justice Hugo Black, in a nationwide radio broadcast, refutes allegations of past involvement in the Ku Klux Klan.
October 3 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Japanese troops advance toward Nanking.
October 5 – Roosevelt gives his famous Quarantine Speech in Chicago.
October 9 – Jimmie Angel lands his plane on top of Devil's Mountain; however, the plane gets damaged and he has to trek through the rainforest for help.
October 13 – Germany, in a note to Brussels, guarantees the inviolability and integrity of Belgium so long as the latter abstains from military action against Germany.
October 15 – Ernest Hemingway's novel To Have and Have Not is first published.
October 18–October 21 – Spanish Civil War: The whole Spanish northern seaboard falls into the Falangists' hands; Republican forces in Gijón, Spain, set fire to petrol reserves prior to retreating before the advancing Falangists.
October 25 – Celâl Bayar forms the new (ninth) government of Turkey.
November
November 3 – Maurice J. Tobin resoundingly defeats former governor and mayor James Michael Curley in Boston's mayoral election.
November 5
Spanish Civil War – 35,000 Republican supporters are massacred in Piedrafita de Babia, near León.
World War II: In the Reich Chancellery, Adolf Hitler holds a secret meeting and states his plans for acquiring "living space" for the German people (recorded in the Hossbach Memorandum).
November 6 – Italy joins the Anti-Comintern Pact.
November 9 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Japanese troops take Shanghai.
November 10 – Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas announces the Estado Novo ("New State"), thence becoming dictator of Brazil until 1945.
November 11 – The Kogushi sulfur mine collapse, in western Gunma, Japan, kills at least 245 people.
December
December 4 – The Dandy comic is first published in Scotland; it will still be running as of 2011.
December 11 – Italy withdraws from the League of Nations.
December 12
USS Panay incident: Japanese bombers sink the American gunboat USS Panay.
Mae West makes a risque guest appearance on NBC's Chase and Sanborn Hour, which eventually results in her being banned from radio.
December 13 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Nanjing ends. The Japanese soldiers killed over 300,000 Chinese in 3 months, it is called "Nanking Massacre".
December 16 – The original production of the musical Me and My Girl opens at the West End Victoria Palace Theatre in London. A later revival of this musical would win an award.
December 21 – Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first feature-length traditionally animated film, premieres in selected theaters.
December 25 – At the age of 70, legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini conducts the NBC Symphony Orchestra on radio for the first time, beginning his successful 17-year tenure with that orchestra. This first concert consists of music by Vivaldi (at a time when he was still seldom played), Mozart, and Brahms. Millions tune in to listen, including U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
December 29 – The new Constitution of Ireland (Bunreacht na hÉireann) comes into force. The Irish Free State becomes "Ireland", and Éamon de Valera becomes the first Taoiseach (prime minister) of the new state. A Presidential Commission (made up the Chief Justice, the Speaker of Dáil Éireann, and the President of the High Court) assumes the powers of the new presidency, pending the popular election of the first President of Ireland in June 1938. The new constitution prohibits divorce.