1932 in the United States

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US flag 48 stars.svg
1932
in
the United States

Decades:
  • 1910s
  • 1920s
  • 1930s
  • 1940s
  • 1950s
See also:

Events from the year 1932 in the United States.

1932 Chrysler Imperial Convertible Sedan by LeBaron.

Incumbents[]

Federal Government[]

  • President: Herbert Hoover (R-California)
  • Vice President: Charles Curtis (R-Kansas)
  • Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes (New York)
  • Speaker of the House of Representatives: John Nance Garner (D-Texas)
  • Senate Majority Leader: James Eli Watson (R-Indiana)
  • Congress: 72nd

Events[]

January–March[]

  • January 1 – The United States Post Office Department issues a set of 12 stamps commemorating the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birth.
  • January 12 – Hattie W. Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate.
  • February 2 – The Reconstruction Finance Corporation begins operations in Washington, D.C.
  • February 4 – The 1932 Winter Olympics open in Lake Placid, New York.[1]
  • February 15 – Clara, Lu & Em, generally regarded as the first daytime network soap opera, debuts in its morning time slot over the Blue Network of NBC Radio, having originally been a late evening program.
  • February 22 (Washington's Birthday) – The Purple Heart is revived by War Department General Order No. 3 as a decoration of the U.S. military awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving with the U.S. Armed Forces; retrospective awards are made.
  • March 1 – Charles Lindbergh, Jr., the infant son of Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Charles Lindbergh, is kidnapped from the family home near Hopewell, New Jersey.
  • March 7 – Four people are killed when police fire upon 3,000 unemployed autoworkers marching outside the Ford River Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan.[2]

April–June[]

  • April 6 – U.S. president Herbert Hoover supports armament limitations.
  • May 12 – Ten weeks after his abduction, the infant son of Charles Lindbergh is found dead just a few miles from the Lindberghs' home.
  • May 20–21 – Amelia Earhart flies from the US to Derry, Northern Ireland in 14 hours 54 minutes.
  • May 29 – The first of approximately 15,000 World War I veterans arrive in Washington, D.C. demanding the immediate payment of their military bonus, becoming known as the Bonus Army.
  • June 6
    • The Revenue Act of 1932 is enacted, creating the first gas tax in the United States at 1 cent per US gallon (0.26 ¢/L) sold.
    • The 6.4 MwEureka earthquake affects the north coast of California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). Three people are injured and one killed.
  • June 29 – The comedy serial Vic and Sade debuts on NBC Radio.

July–September[]

  • July 8 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, bottoming out at 41.22.
  • July 28 – U.S. President Herbert Hoover orders the U.S. Army to forcibly evict the Bonus Army of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, D.C. Troops disperse the last of the Bonus Army the next day.
  • July 30
    • The 1932 Summer Olympics open in Los Angeles.
    • Walt Disney's Flowers and Trees, the first animated cartoon to be presented in full Technicolor, premieres in Los Angeles, California. It releases in theaters, along with Eugene O'Neill's experimental play Strange Interlude (starring Norma Shearer and Clark Gable), and will go on to win the first Academy Award for Best Animated Short.
  • August – A farmers' revolt begins in the Midwestern United States.
  • August 7 – Raymond Edward Welch becomes the first one-legged man to scale 6,288 feet (1,917 m) New Hampshire.
  • August 10 – A 5.1 kg chondrite-type meteorite breaks into at least 7 fragments and strikes earth near the town of Archie in Cass County, Missouri.
  • August 31 – A total solar eclipse is visible from northern Canada through northeastern Vermont, New Hampshire, southwestern Maine, and the Capes of Massachusetts.

October–December[]

  • October 2 – The New York Yankees defeat the Chicago Cubs, 4 games to 0, to win their 4th World Series Title in baseball.
  • October 15 – The Michigan Marching Band (at this time called the Varsity band) debuts Script Ohio at the Michigan versus Ohio State game in Columbus.
  • October 23 – Fred Allen's radio comedy show debuts on CBS.
  • November 1 – The San Francisco Opera House opens.
  • November 7 – Buck Rogers in the 25th Century airs on American radio for the first time.
  • November 8 – U.S. presidential election, 1932: Democratic Governor of New York Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats Republican President Herbert Hoover in a landslide victory.
  • November 16 – New York City's Palace Theatre fully converts to a cinema, which is considered the final death knell of vaudeville as a popular entertainment in the United States.
  • November 18 – The 5th Academy Awards, hosted by Conrad Nagel, are presented at Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, with Edmund Goulding's Grand Hotel winning the Academy Award for Best Picture. John Ford and Brian Desmond Hurst's Arrowsmith and King Vidor's The Champ both receive the most nominations with four, while the latter film and Frank Borzage's Bad Girl both receive the most awards with two. Borzage also wins Best Director, his second overall.
  • November 24 – In Washington, D.C., the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens.
  • November 30 – Exhibition American Folk Art: The Art of the Common Man in America 1750–1900 opens at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.[3]
  • December 27 – Radio City Music Hall opens in New York City.

Undated[]

  • Unemployment in the USA – c. 33% – 14 million.
  • The Republican Citizens Committee Against National Prohibition is established for the repeal of prohibition in the U.S.
  • Maxwell House Haggadah first distributed.

Ongoing[]

  • Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)
  • U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915–1934)
  • Prohibition (1919–1933)
  • Great Depression (1929–1933)
  • Dust Bowl (1930–1936)

Births[]

January[]

Piper Laurie
  • January 1
    • Tzaims Luksus, American artist and fashion designer
    • Jackie Parker, American football player and coach (d. 2006)
  • January 3Dabney Coleman, American actor
  • January 5Johnny Adams, American singer (d. 1998)
  • January 6Stuart A. Rice, American chemist
  • January 9Robert F. Taft, American Jesuit priest (d. 2018)
  • January 15Cleven "Goodie" Goudeau, American art director and cartoonist (d. 2015)
  • January 16Dian Fossey, American primatologist (killed 1985 in Rwanda)
  • January 19Harry Lonsdale, American chemist, businessman and politician (d. 2014)
  • January 22Piper Laurie, American actress

February[]

Ted Kennedy
Johnny Cash
Elizabeth Taylor
  • February 2Robert Mandan, American actor (d. 2018)
  • February 3Peggy Ann Garner, American actress (d. 1984)
  • February 4Herman D. Farrell Jr., American politician (d. 2018)
  • February 7
    • Gay Talese, American literary journalist
    • Alfred Worden, American astronaut (d. 2020)
  • February 8John Williams, American film music composer
  • February 10
    • Rockin' Dopsie, American zydeco singer and accordion player (d. 1993)
    • Robert Taylor, American computer scientist (d. 2017)
  • February 11Jerome Lowenthal, American pianist
  • February 12Julian Simon, American economist and author (d. 1998)
  • February 13Susan Oliver, American actress (d. 1990)
  • February 14Leo Thorsness, American war veteran and politician (d. 2017)
  • February 16
    • Harry Goz, American actor (d. 2003)
    • Gretchen Wyler, American dancer, actress and animal rights activist (d. 2007)
  • February 22Ted Kennedy, American politician (d. 2009)
  • February 23
    • Majel Barrett, American actress (d. 2008)
    • Bill Bonds, American television newscaster (d. 2014)
  • February 24Zell Miller, American politician (d. 2018)
  • February 25Faron Young, American country singer (d. 1996)
  • February 26Johnny Cash, American country singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor and author (d. 2003)
  • February 27Elizabeth Taylor, English-American film actress (d. 2011)
  • February 29Gene H. Golub, American mathematician (d. 2007)

March[]

Alan Bean
John Updike
  • March 2
    • Sterling Stuckey, American historian (d. 2018)
    • Frank E. Petersen, African-American Marine Corps aviator (d. 2015)
  • March 4Ed Roth, American car designer (d. 2001)
  • March 5Earl Woods, African-American army officer (d. 2006)
  • March 7Ed Thrasher, American art director and photographer (d. 2006)
  • March 11Leroy Jenkins, African-American jazz musician and composer
  • March 12Andrew Young, African-American politician, diplomat and activist
  • March 14
    • Jane Maas, advertising executive and author (d. 2018)[4]
    • Mark Murphy, American jazz singer (d. 2015)
  • March 15Alan Bean, American naval officer and naval aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut (d. 2018)
  • March 16Walter Cunningham, American astronaut[5]
  • March 17Donald N. Langenberg, American physicist and professor (d. 2019)
  • March 18John Updike, American novelist and poet (d. 2009)
  • March 20Tod Dockstader, American composer (d. 2015)
  • March 21Walter Gilbert, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
  • March 22Leo Welch, American blues musician (d. 2017)
  • March 27Junior Parker, African-American blues musician (d. 1971)
  • March 29Al Bianchi, American basketball player
  • March 31 – Thomas Beers, co-founder of the needle-pointing business Sudberry House

April[]

Debbie Reynolds
Loretta Lynn
Casey Kasem
  • April 1
    • Gordon Jump, American actor (d. 2003)
    • Debbie Reynolds, American actress, singer and dancer (d. 2016)[6]
  • April 2Edward Egan, American cardinal (d. 2015)
  • April 4
    • Richard Lugar, American politician (d. 2019)
    • Anthony Perkins, American actor (d. 1992)
  • April 5Clemmie Spangler, American billionaire businessman and academic administrator (d. 2018)
  • April 7
    • Del Monroe, American actor (d. 2009)
    • Cal Smith, American country music singer (d. 2013)
  • April 9
    • Jim Fowler, American zoologist (d. 2019)
    • Paul Krassner, American author, journalist, comedian and editor (d. 2019)
    • Carl Perkins, American rock singer (d. 1998)
  • April 10Blaze Starr, American burlesque artist (d. 2015)
  • April 11Joel Grey, born Joel Katz, American actor, singer and dancer
  • April 12Tiny Tim, American musician (d. 1996)
  • April 13Dick Farley, American basketball player (d. 1969)
  • April 14Loretta Lynn, American country singer
  • April 21Elaine May, American film director
  • April 22Red Davis, American basketball player
  • April 23Halston, American fashion designer (d. 1990)
  • April 26Red Morrison, American basketball player
  • April 27Casey Kasem, American disc jockey and actor (d. 2014)

May[]

K. C. Jones
  • May 4Susan Brown, American actress (d. 2018)
  • May 7Pete Domenici, American politician (d. 2017)
  • May 8Sonny Liston, American boxer (d. 1970)
  • May 11John Vasconcellos, American lawyer and politician (d. 2014)
  • May 16William J. Pulte, American real estate developer (d. 2018)
  • May 17Chris Ballingall, American baseball player
  • May 19Bill Fitch, American basketball coach (d. 2022)
  • May 22Robert Spitzer, American psychiatrist (d. 2015)
  • May 25
    • Roger Bowen, American comedic actor and novelist (d. 1996)
    • John Gregory Dunne, American novelist (d. 2003)
    • K. C. Jones, African-American basketball player and coach (d. 2020)[7]
  • May 26Joe Altobelli, American baseball player (d. 2021)
  • May 29
    • Paul R. Ehrlich, biologist
    • Richie Guerin, basketball player and coach

June[]

David Scott
Mario Cuomo
Pat Morita
  • June 4John Drew Barrymore, American actor (d. 2004)
  • June 6David Scott, American astronaut
  • June 10
    • Bennett Johnston, American politician
    • Gardner McKay, American actor (d. 2001)
  • June 12
    • Rona Jaffe, American novelist (d. 2005)
    • Barbara Uehling, American educator and university administrator (d. 2020)
  • June 15Mario Cuomo, American politician (d. 2015)
  • June 18Dudley R. Herschbach, American chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986
  • June 21
    • Gene White, defensive back in the National Football League
    • O. C. Smith, American musician (d. 2001)
  • June 23 – , American politician
  • June 24Scott Marlowe, American actor (d. 2001)
  • June 25
    • Julian Robertson, American billionaire former hedge fund manager
    • Hank Cicalo, American recording engineer
  • June 26
    • Don Valentine, American influential venture capitalist
    • Marvin York, American politician
  • June 27
    • Eddie Kasko, American Major League Baseball
    • Anna Moffo, American operatic soprano (d. 2006)[8]
  • June 28Pat Morita, Asian-American actor (d. 2005)
  • June 29Alice Langtry, American politician (d. 2017)

July[]

Dave Thomas
Donald Rumsfeld
John Searle
  • July 1
    • Rod Driver, American professor of mathematics
    • Joseph Duffey, American academic, educator and political appointee (d. 2021)
  • July 2Dave Thomas, American fast-food entrepreneur (d. 2002)
  • July 3William J. Taylor, American politician
  • July 4Otis Young, African-American actor (d. 2001)
  • July 5
    • Alan Cooke Kay, American lawyer and judge
    • Victor Navasky, American journalist, editor and academic
  • July 8John Pascal, American writer (d. 1981)
  • July 9Donald Rumsfeld, American politician, 13th & 21st United States Secretary of Defense (d. 2021)
  • July 12
    • Otis Davis, African American 400 m runner
    • Monte Hellman, American film director, producer, writer and editor
  • July 16
    • Tim Asch, American anthropologist, photographer and ethnographic filmmaker (d. 1994)
    • Gary Bergen, American basketball player (d. 2010)
    • Bill Byrge, American character actor and comedian
    • Max McGee, American football player (d. 2007)
    • Ron Marciniak, American football guard in the National Football League (d. 2020)
    • Dick Thornburgh, American lawyer and Republican politician (d. 2020)
  • July 17
    • Karla Kuskin, American children's writer and illustrator (d. 2009)
    • Bobby Leonard, American basketball player (d. 2021)
  • July 20Dick Giordano, American comic book artist and editor (d. 2010)
  • July 21
    • Norman Geisler, American Christian author, theologian and philosopher
    • Ernie Warlick, American football player (d. 2012)
  • July 29Nancy Landon Kassebaum, American politician
  • July 31John Searle, American philosopher

August[]

Melvin Van Peebles
  • August 1Meir Kahane, American-born Israeli rabbi and ultra-nationalist writer and political figure (d. 1990 in Israel)
  • August 2
    • John Cohen, American folk musician and photographer (d. 2019)
    • Lamar Hunt, American sports promoter (d. 2006)
  • August 3Bob Carney, American basketball player (d. 2011)
  • August 5Ja'Net DuBois, American actress, singer, dancer (d. 2020)
  • August 7Maurice Rabb Jr., African-American ophthalmologist (d. 2005)
  • August 8
    • John Culver, American politician
    • Mel Tillis, American country singer (d. 2017)
  • August 12Charlie O'Donnell, American game show announcer (d. 2010)
  • August 14James V. Hansen, American politician (d. 2018)
  • August 15
    • Abby Dalton, American actress (d. 2020)
    • Robert L. Forward, American science fiction author and physicist (d. 2002)
    • Jim Lange, American-Canadian disc jockey and game show host (d. 2014)
  • August 20Bill Hudson, civil rights photojournalist (d. 2010)
  • August 21Melvin Van Peebles, African-American actor, filmmaker, playwright, novelist and composer

September[]

Patsy Cline
  • September 1Sunny von Bülow, American socialite (d. 2008)
  • September 3Eileen Brennan, American actress and singer (d. 2013)
  • September 5Carol Lawrence, American actress, singer and dancer
  • September 6Marguerite Pearson, American baseball player (d. 2005)
  • September 8Patsy Cline, American country singer (d. 1963)
  • September 11Bob Packwood, American politician
  • September 13Whitey Bell, American basketball player
  • September 14Josh Culbreath, American Olympic athlete (d. 2021)[9]
  • September 24
    • Anthony Michael Milone, Roman Catholic prelate (d. 2018)
    • Jackie Moore, basketball player
  • September 26
    • Donna Douglas, actress (The Beverly Hillbillies) (d. 2015)
    • Richard Herd, actor (d. 2020)
  • September 27Oliver E. Williamson, economist (d. 2020)

October[]

Dottie West
Dick Gregory
Robert Reed
  • October 1Albert Collins, African-American blues guitarist and singer (d. 1993)
  • October 4
    • Stan Dragoti, American film director (d. 2018)
    • Felicia Farr, American actress and model
  • October 9
    • David Plowden, American photographer
    • Judy Tyler, American actress (d. 2014)
  • October 11Dottie West, American country music singer and songwriter (d. 1991)
  • October 12
    • Jake Garn, American politician
    • Dick Gregory, African American comedian and civil rights activist (d. 2017)
    • Ned Jarrett, American racing driver and broadcaster
  • October 13
    • Ed Kalafat, American basketball player
    • Jean Edward Smith, American political scientist and biographer
    • John G. Thompson, American mathematician
  • October 17Paul Anderson, American weightlifter (d. 1994)
  • October 19Robert Reed, American actor (The Brady Bunch) (d. 1992)
  • October 20
    • William Christopher, American actor (M*A*S*H) (d. 2016)
    • Rosey Brown, American football player (d. 2004)
  • October 22Barboura Morris, American actress (d. 1975)
  • October 24Foster Diebold, American academic (d. 2018)
  • October 27Sylvia Plath, American poet (d. 1963 in the United Kingdom)[10]
  • October 28Suzy Parker, American fashion model and actress (d. 2003)
  • October 29Dick Garmaker, American basketball player (d. 2020)
  • October 29Velma Barfield, American serial killer who murders at least six (d. 1984)
  • October 30Bob Koester, record producer and businessman (d. 2021)

November[]

Roy Scheider
Robert Vaughn
  • November 2Guy Sparrow, American basketball player
  • November 3Thomas J. Manton, politician (d. 2006)
  • November 4Noam Pitlik, actor and director (d. 1999)
  • November 5Ed Badger, college and professional basketball coach
  • November 6
    • Stonewall Jackson, country singer
    • Eugene H. Peterson, clergyman and biblical scholar (d. 2018)
  • November 8
    • Ben Bova, science writer (d. 2020)
    • Andy Johnson, American basketball player (d. 2002)
  • November 9Frank Selvy, American basketball player
  • November 10Roy Scheider, American actor and amateur boxer (d. 2008)
  • November 12Jerry Douglas, American actor
  • November 13
    • Willie Edwards, murder victim (d. 1957)
    • Richard Mulligan, American actor (d. 2000)
  • November 15Clyde McPhatter, American singer (d. 1972)
  • November 22Robert Vaughn, American actor (d. 2016)
  • November 24Johnny Horan, American basketball player (d. 1980)
  • November 28
    • Midge Costanza, American social and political activist (d. 2010)
    • Ethel Ennis, African American jazz singer (d. 2019)

December[]

Little Richard
Nichelle Nichols
  • December 5
    • Sheldon Glashow, American physicist
    • Little Richard, American singer, songwriter, and musician (d. 2020)
  • December 7
    • Ellen Burstyn, American actress
    • Paul Caponigro, American photographer
  • December 9Bill Hartack, American jockey (d. 2007)
  • December 12Bob Pettit, American basketball player
  • December 17Kelly E. Taggart, American admiral and civil engineer (d. 2014)
  • December 19Jim Paxson Sr., American basketball player (d. 2014)
  • December 21Edward Hoagland, American essayist
  • December 24Earl Dodge, American temperance movement leader (d. 2007)
  • December 25Janie Lou Gibbs, American serial killer who murdered five of her relatives (d. 2010)
  • December 28Nichelle Nichols, African American actress[11]
  • December 29Inga Swenson, American actress and singer

Deaths[]

  • January 26 – William Wrigley, Jr., chewing gum manufacturer (born 1861)
  • February 8 – Mad Dog Coll, hitman (shot) (born 1908 in Ireland)
  • February 15 – Minnie Maddern Fiske, stage actress (born 1865)
  • March 1 – Frank Teschemacher, jazz woodwind player (automobile accident) (born 1906)
  • March 6 – John Philip Sousa, composer and conductor, "the march king" ("The Stars and Stripes Forever") (born 1854)
  • March 14 – George Eastman, photographic inventor (Eastman Kodak) (suicide) (born 1854)
  • March 18 – Chauncey Olcott, musical theater actor (born 1858)
  • March 31 – Eben Byers, steel tycoon and socialite (radiation poisoning) (born 1880)
  • April 2 – Bill Pickett, African American cowboy of slave ancestry (born 1870)
  • April 22 – J. Warren Keifer, Union army officer and politician (born 1836)
  • April 27 – Hart Crane, poet (born 1899)[12]
  • May 3 – Charles Fort, researcher of the unusual (born 1874)
  • May 30 – John Hubbard, admiral (born 1849)
  • June 21 – Major Taylor, African American racing cyclist (born 1878)
  • June 27 – Francis P. Duffy, Roman Catholic priest (born 1871 in Canada)
  • July 7 – Henry Eyster Jacobs, Lutheran theologian (born 1844)
  • July 22 – Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., Broadway theatrical impresario (born 1867)
  • August 2 – Dan Brouthers, baseball player (born 1858)
  • August 25 – Edith Rockefeller McCormick, socialite, daughter of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller (born 1872)
  • September 5 – Paul Bern, screenwriter (suicide) (born 1889)
  • September 22 – Claude C. Hopkins, advertising executive (born 1866)
  • September 25 – Joel R. P. Pringle, admiral (born 1873)
  • September 27 – John Sharp Williams, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1911 to 1923 (born 1854)
  • October 17 – Lucy Bacon, painter (born 1857)
  • October 26 – Molly Brown, Denver socialite, survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic (born 1867)
  • November 4 – Belle Bennett, actress (cancer) (born 1891)
  • November 15 or 17 – Charles W. Chesnutt, African American author, essayist and political activist (born 1858)
  • November 18 – Jay Hunt, American film director (born 1855)
  • November 22 – William Walker Atkinson, writer and occultist (born 1862)
  • November 23 – Henry S. Whitehead, writer of horror fiction and fantasy (born 1882)
  • December 28 – Malcolm Whitman, tennis player (born 1877)

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Lake Placid Winter Olympics - Athletes, Medals & Results". Olympics.com. 25 April 2018. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
  2. ^ "Riding the Rails: Timeline of the Great Depression". American Experience. USA: Public Broadcasting Service. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  3. ^ Cahill, Holger (1932). American Folk Art: The Art of the Common Man in America 1750–1900. New York: MoMA.
  4. ^ Roberts, Sam (21 November 2018). "Jane Maas, a Pioneer for Women in Advertising, Dies at 86". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
  5. ^ "Biographical Data: Walter Cunningham NASA ASTRONAUT (FORMER)" (PDF). NASA. July 2014. Retrieved October 24, 2021.
  6. ^ "Debbie Reynolds obituary". the Guardian. 29 December 2016. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  7. ^ Goldstein, Richard (December 25, 2020), "K.C. Jones, Celtics Standout as Player and Coach, Dies at 88", The New York Times
  8. ^ "Anna Moffo". The Independent. 17 March 2006. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  9. ^ Josh Culbreath, Norristown native and Olympic medalist in the hurdles, dies at 88
  10. ^ "Sylvia Plath | Biography, Poems, Books, Death, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
  11. ^ Lehman, Katie Von. "Nichelle Nichols (1932- )". blackpast.org. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  12. ^ "Hart Crane | American poet". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 27 July 2021.

External links[]

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