1932
1932 is a leap year starting on a Friday.
Years:
1929 1930 1931 - 1932(MCMXXXII) - 1933 1934 1935 Decades:
1900s 1910s 1920s - 1930s - 1940s 1950s 1960s Centuries:
19th century - 20th century - 21st century 1932 by topic: Arts Architecture - Art - Film - Literature - Music - Television Science and Technology Archaeology - Aviation - Rail transport - Radio - Science Countries Australia - Canada - India - Ireland - South Africa Other Births - Deaths - Sport - State leaders - Religious leaders - Video gaming
Events
January-February
- January 3 - British arrest and intern Mohandas Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel
- January 8 - In Britain the Archbishop of Canterbury forbids church remarriage of divorcees
- January 12 - Hattie W. Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate
- January 14 - Maurice Ravel's Concerto in G (Ravel) debuts with piano soloist Marguerite Long and Ravel conducting the Lamoureux Orchestra
- January 15 - Pierre Laval forms a new government in France
- January 15 - About 6 million unemployed in Germany
- January 26 - British submarine M-2 sinks with all 50 hands
- January 28 - Japan occupies Shanghai
- January 29 - Minority government of Karl Mureschi in Austria ends the governmental crisis
- January 31 - Japanese warships arrive in Nanking
- February 2 - General convention of disarmament begins in Geneva
- February 2 - League of Nations again recommends negotiations between the Republic of China and Japan
- February 4 - 1932 Winter Olympics open in Lake Placid, New York. Japan occupies Harbin, China
- February 11 - Pope Pius XI meets Benito Mussolini in the Vatican City
- February 18 - Japan declares Manzhouguo (Japanese name for Manchuria) formally independent from China
- February 27 - Adolf Hitler gains German Citizenship prior to elections
- February 27 - Mäntsälä rebellion in Finland
March-April
- March 1 - Charles Augustus Lindbergh III, the baby son of Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Charles Lindbergh is kidnapped
- March 9 - Eamon de Valera is elected President of the Executive Council. It is the first change of government in the Irish Free State in 10 years.
- March 18 - Peace negotiations between China and Japan begin.
- March 19 - Sydney Harbour Bridge opens
- March 20 - Graf Zeppelin begins a regular route to South America
- March 25 - Tarzan the Ape Man opens, with Olympic gold medal swimmer Johnny Weissmuller in the title role. Weismuller starred in a total of 12 Tarzan films.
- April 5 - Prohibition is lifted in Finland at 10 in the morning (local time), inventing a new Mnemonic "543210".
- April 6 - U.S. president Herbert Hoover supports armament limitations
- April 6 - Trial against fraudulent art dealer Otto Wacker begins in Berlin
- April 10 - Paul von Hindenburg elected president of Germany. Adolf Hitler receives over 13 million votes.
- April 17 - Haile Selassie announces an anti-Slavery law in Abyssinia
- April 19 - German art dealer Otto Wacker is sentenced for 19 months for selling fraudulent paintings of Vincent van Gogh
May-June
- May 2 - Comedian Jack Benny's radio show airs for the first time.
- May 6 - Paul Gordulof assassinates French president Paul Doumer in Paris - Doumer dies the next day.
- May 10 - Albert Lebrun becomes the new president of France
- May 12 - Ten weeks after his abduction, the infant son of Charles Lindbergh is found dead in Hopewell, New Jersey just a few miles from the Lindbergh's home.
- May 13 - The Premier of New South Wales, Jack Lang, is dismissed by the State Governor, Sir Phillip Game
- May 15 - Japanese troops leave Shanghai; May 15 Incident, the assassination of Japanese prime minister Tsuyoshi Inukai, occurs.
- May 16 - Massive riots between Hindus and Muslims in Bombay - thousands dead and injured.
- May 20-21 - Amelia Earhart flies from USA to Londonderry, Northern Ireland in 14 hours 54 minutes
- May 30 - German Chancellor Heinrich Brüning resigns. President Hindenburg takes Franz von Papen to form a new government.
- June - 15,000 World War I veterans march in Washington, DC
- June 4 - Military coup in Chile
- 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.
- June 14 - Bans against SS and SA overturned in Germany
- June 20 - Benelux customs union negotiated
- June 24 - After a relatively bloodless military rebellion, Siam becomes a Constitutional monarchy
July-October
- July 1- ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) established
- July 5 - António de Oliveira Salazar becomes the fascists prime minister of Portugal (for the next 36 years)
- July 7 - French submarine Sromethee sinks off Cherbourg - 66 dead
- July 12 - Hedley Verity establishes a new first-class record by taking all ten wickets for only ten runs against Nottinghamshire on a pitch affected by a storm.
- July 17 - Bloody Sunday of Altona in Germany - armed communists attack a national socialist demonstration - 18 dead. Many other political street fights follow.
- July 28 - US President Herbert Hoover orders the United States Army to forcibly evict the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, DC. US troops dispersed the last of the "Bonus Army" the next day.
- July 30 - 1932 Summer Olympics open in Los Angeles.
- August 6 - First Venice Film Festival
- August 10 - A 5.1 kg chondrite type Meteorite broke into at least seven fragments and struck earth near the town of Archie in Cass County, Missouri.
- August 18 - Auguste Piccard reaches altitude of 16.500 meters with an air balloon
- August 30 - Hermann Göring elected as a chairman of German senate
- August 31 - Total Solar eclipse visible from northern Canada through NE Vermont, New Hampshire, SW Maine, and the Capes of Massachusetts
- September 9 - The Generalitat reinstaurated, Catalonia regains political autonomy inside the 2nd Spanish Republic from September 25
- September 18 - Actress Peg Entwhistle commits Suicide jumping from the letter H of the (then) Hollywoodland sign
- September 20 - Mohandas Gandhi begins an Hunger strike in Poona prison
- September 28 - According to Prussian statistics, 115 people have been killed in political riots during the year
- October 15 - Tata Airlines (later to become Air India) makes its first flight
- October 19 - Wedding of Prince Gustav Adolf of Sweden and Princess Sibylla of Sachse-Coburg
November-December
- November 1 - San Francisco Opera House opened
- November 7 - Buck Rogers in the 25th Century airs on Radio for the first time.
- November 8 - U.S. presidential election, 1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats Herbert Hoover in a landslide victory.
- November 9 - Riots between conservative and socialist supporters in Switzerland - 12 dead, 60 injured
- November 11 - Tornado and huge waves kills about thousand in Santa Crus del Sure in Cuba
- November 19 - Second wife of Josef Stalin is found dead in her home
- November 21 - German president Hindenburg begins negotiations with Adolf Hitler about the formation of a new government
- November 24 - In Washington, DC, the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens.
- December 3 - Hindenburg names Kurt von Schleicher as a German chancellor
- December 12 - Japan and Soviet Union reform their diplomatic connections
- December 25 - Earthquake in the Kansu Province in China - 70,000 dead
Unknown dates
- Saudi Arabia is declared a unified nation with Ibn Saud as a king.
- Female suffrage in Brazil
- Norway annexes northern Greenland.
- Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay
- In the next five years, Dr. Morris Bolber and associates successfully murder and collect the insurance money for more than 30 victims.
- Mars candy bar
- Zippo lighters
- The Kennedy-Thorndike experiment shows that measured time as well as length are affected by motion, in accordance with the theory of Special relativity.
- Chadwick discovers the Neutron.
- Geneticist J. B. S. Haldane publishes The Causes of Evolution and thereby unifies the findings of Mendelian Genetics with those of evolutionary science.
- Second Polar Year, an international scientific collaboration.
- Kreuger & Toll of the "Match King" Ivar Kreuger collapses - he commits suicide
Births
January
- January 3 - Dabney Coleman, American actor
- January 3 - Coo Coo Marlin, American race car driver (d. 2005)
- January 5 - Johnny Adams, American musician (d. 1998)
- January 5 - Umberto Eco, Italian scholar and author
- January 6 - Stuart A. Rice, American chemist
- January 16 - Dian Fossey, American zoologist (d. 1985)
- January 18 - Robert Anton Wilson, American author
- January 22 - Piper Laurie, American actress
- January 26 - Coxsone Dodd, Jamaican record producer (d. 2004)
- January 29 - Tommy Taylor, English footballer (d. 1958)
- January 30 - Knock Yokoyama, Japanese comedian and politician
February-March
- February 3 - Peggy Ann Garner, American actress (d. 1984)
- February 6 - François Truffaut, French film director (d. 1984)
- February 7 - Gay Talese, American author
- February 8 - John Williams, American composer and conductor
- February 9 - Gerhard Richter, German painter
- February 11 - Jerome Lowenthal, American pianist
- February 12 - Julian Lincoln Simon, American economist and author (d. 1998)
- February 14 - Alexander Kluge, German author and film director
- February 16 - Harry Goz, American actor (d. 2003)
- February 18 - Milos Forman, Czech film director
- February 22 - Edward Kennedy, American politician
- February 23 - Majel Barrett, American actress
- February 24 - Michel Legrand, French composer
- February 25 - Faron Young American singer (d. 1996)
- February 26 - Johnny Cash, American singer (d. 2003)
- February 27 - Elizabeth Taylor, English-born actress
- March 4 - Miriam Makeba, South African singer
- March 12 - Andrew Young, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
- March 16 - Don Blasingame, Major League Baseball player and Japanese baseball manager (d. 2005)
- March 18 - John Updike, American author
- March 21 - Walter Gilbert, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 30 - Ted Morgan, French-born author, biographer, and journalist
April-July
- April 1 - Gordon Jump, American television actor (d. 2003)
- April 1 - Debbie Reynolds, American actress
- April 2 - Michael Vernon, Australian consumer activist (d.1993)
- April 4 - Anthony Perkins, American actor (d. 1992)
- April 4 - Andrei Tarkovsky, Russian film director (d. 1986)
- April 8 - Baginda Almutawakkil Alallah Sultan Iskandar Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Ismail, King of Malaysia
- April 9 - Carl Perkins, American musician (d. 1998)
- April 12 - Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lankan politician (assassinated) (d. 2005)
- April 12 - Tiny Tim, American musician (d. 1996)
- April 23 - Halston, American fashion designer (d. 1990)
- April 26 - Michael Smith, English-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2000)
- April 27 - Casey Kasem, American disc jockey and voice actor
- April 27 - Gian-Carlo Rota, Italian-born mathematician and philosopher (d. 1999)
- May 8 - Phyllida Law, Scottish actress
- May 8 - Sonny Liston, American boxer (d. 1970)
- May 25 - John Gregory Dunne, American writer (d. 2003)
- June 4 - John Drew Barrymore, American actor (d. 2004)
- June 4 - Maurice Shadbolt, New Zealand writer (d. 2004)
- June 12 - Rona Jaffe, American novelist
- June 18 - Dudley R. Herschbach, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- June 18 - Geoffrey Hill, English poet
- June 25 - Peter Blake, English artist
- June 27 - Anna Moffo, American soprano
- June 28 - Pat Morita, American actor
- July 2 - Dave Thomas, American fast-food entrepreneur (d. 2002)
- July 9 - Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense
- July 12 - Otis Davis, American runner
- July 21 - Ernie Warlick, American football player
- July 29 - Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker, U.S. Senator
August-December
- August 1 - Meena Kumari, Indian actress
- August 2 - Lamar Hunt, American sportsman
- August 2 - Peter O'Toole, Irish actor
- August 6 - Howard Hodgkin, British painter and print-maker
- August 11 - Fernando Arrabal, Moroccan-born writer
- August 17 - V. S. Naipaul, West Indian-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- August 18 - William R. Bennett, Premier of British Columbia
- September 4 - Dinsdale Landen, English actor (d. 2003)
- September 7 - Paul Getty, American-born philanthropist (d. 2003)
- September 8 - Patsy Cline, American singer (d. 1963)
- September 18 - Nikolai Rukavishnikov, cosmonaut (d. 2002)
- September 22 - Algirdas Brazauskas, President of Lithuania
- September 25 - Glenn Gould, Canadian pianist (d. 1982)
- September 26 - Richard Herd, American actor
- September 26 - Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India
- September 27 - Oliver E. Williamson, American economist
- October 19 - Robert Reed, American actor (d. 1992)
- October 20 - Rosey Brown, American football playerr (d. 2004)
- October 24 - Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- October 24 - Robert Mundell, Canadian economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- October 28 - Suzy Parker, American actress (d. 2003)
- November 3 - Albert Reynolds, President of Ireland
- November 4 - Thomas Klestil, President of Austria (d. 2004)
- November 4 - Noam Pitlik, American actor and director (d. 1999)
- November 15 - Petula Clark, English singer, actress, and songwriter
- November 20 - Richard Dawson, English-born game show host
- November 29 - Jacques Chirac, President of France
- December 2 - Manuel Puig, Argentinian writer (d. 1990)
- December 5 - Sheldon Lee Glashow, American physicist
- December 9 - Bill Hartack, American jockey
- December 24 - Earl Dodge, American presidential candidate
- December 28 - Dhirubhai Ambani, Indian businessman (d. 2002)
- December 28 - Dorsey Burnette, American singer (d. 1979)
- December 28 - Roy Hattersley, British politician
Unknown dates
- Mehmood, Indian actor (d. 2004)
- Irene Jai Narayan, Fiji politician
- Blaze Starr, American dancer
Deaths
- January 21 - Giles Lytton Strachey British writer and biographer (b. 1880)
- January 24 - Sir Alfred Yarrow, English shipbuilder and philanthropist (b. 1842)
- February 10 - Edgar Wallace, English novelist and screenwriter (b. 1875)
- February 16 - Ferdinand Buisson, French pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1841)
- March 1 - Frank Teschemacher, American musician (b. 1906)
- March 6 - John Philip Sousa, American band leader, conductor, and composer (b. 1854)
- March 7 - Aristide Briand, French statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1862)
- March 14 - George Eastman, American inventor (b. 1854)
- March 31 - Eben Byers, American steel tycoon and socialite (radiation poisoning) (b. 1880)
- April 4 - Wilhelm Ostwald, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
- April 20 - Giuseppe Peano, Italian mathematician (b. 1858)
- April 26 - Hart Crane, American poet (b. 1899)
- April 26 - William Lockwood, English cricketer (b. 1868)
- May 3 - Charles Fort, American researcher of the unusual (b. 1874)
- May 7 - Paul Doumer, President of France (assassinated) (b. 1857)
- May 15 - Tsuyoshi Inukai, Prime Minister of Japan (assassinated) (b. 1855)
- May 17 - Frederick C. Billard, Commandant of the United States Coast Guard (b. 1873)
- June 21 - Major Taylor, American cyclist (b. 1878)
- July 6 - Kenneth Grahame, English author (b. 1859)
- July 23 - Alberto Santos-Dumont, Brazilian aviation pioneer (b. 1873)
- September 20 - Wovoka, Paiute visionary
- September 23 - Jules Chéret, French poster designer (b. 1836)
- December 19 - Yoon Bong-Gil, Korean resister against Japanese occupation of Korea, executed (b. 1908)
Unknown date
- Lucy Bacon, American painter {b. 1857}
Nobel Prizes
- Physics - Werner Karl Heisenberg
- Chemistry - Irving Langmuir
- Medicine - Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, Edgar Douglas Adrian
- Literature - John Galsworthy
- Peace - not awarded