May 1937

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The following events occurred in May 1937:

• Germany's Nazi Party (NSDAP) lifted its restriction, in place since 1933, against admitting new members.^[1] All government employees were required to join the NSDAP or to relinquish their jobs.^[2] Multiple people were admitted on the same day, including war criminals Klaus Barbie, Dr. Franz Lucas, Friedrich Flick, Lothar Fendler, Heinz Pannwitz and Rudolf Lange; Sigrid Hunke, journalists Kurt DuMont and Gerhard Dengler; athlete Rudolf Harbig, musicians Paul Rostock, Werner Conze, Otto Jochum and Ludwig Hoelscher; former members of nobility Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg, Louis, Prince of Hesse and by Rhine, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, General Heinrich von Maur.
• The Neutrality Act of 1937, a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress, took effect to extend previous laws.^[3] Under the new rules, which applied for the first time to participants in civil wars, U.S. citizens were forbidden from traveling on ships of "belligerent nations" that were either engaged in war against another nation, or had an ongoing civil war.^[4] U.S. ships were prohibited from transporting passengers or certain categories of freight to belligerents. The law had an exception, however, where the U.S. president could permit the sale of materials and supplies to belligerents in Europe as long as the recipients arranged for the transport and paid immediately with cash, making it possible to provide aid to the United Kingdom and to France involvement in a war with Germany.^[5] In addition, oil and nonmilitary vehicles were could be sold to nations involved in a war.^[6]
• The Order of the German Eagle (Verdienstorden vom Deutschen Adler) was authorized by Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany as an award for foreign officials. Among the recipients would be Benito Mussolini of Italy, Francisco Franco of Spain, King Boris III of Bulgaria, Admiral Admiral Miklós Horthy of Hungary, Prime Minister Hideki Tojo of Japan, President Risto Ryti of Finland, and Americans Charles Lindbergh, Henry Ford, and Thomas J. Watson.^[7]
• Bus travel in London came to a halt as 26,000 bus drivers went on strike.^[8]
• New York's Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia backed the refusal by License Commissioner Paul Mossto renew the licenses of all 14 burlesque theaters in the city^[9] shutting down the sites of most vaudeville and stand-up comedy routines^[10] La Guardia pledged "a bitter fight to the finish" against the "filth" of the houses, including displays of female nudity.^[11] On May 3, Isidore Herk, owner of the Gaiety Theatre in Times Square, proposed a compromise of self-censorship where the shows allowed at his three theaters would be cleaned up and remove the word "burlesque" from its advertisements.,^[12] a suggestion that allowed his burlesque houses to remain open.
• In the Spanish Civil War, the supporters of the Second Spanish Republic were able to defeat the attack by Francisco Franco's nationalists in the siege of Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza.
• Manchester City F.C. finished the season in first place in the highest division of England's Football League, with a record of 22 wins and 13 draws for 57 points. Charlton Athletic F.C. was second with 21 wins and 12 draws for 54 points.^[13]
• Sunderland, the defending 1936 league champion, which had finished eighth in the First Division for 1936-37, defeated 14th place Preston North End, 3-1 in the FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium before a crowd of 93,435 people."Sunderland Wins Soccer Final, 3-1; Beats Preston Before Crowd of 93,495 to Gain English Cup for First Time", The New York Times, May 2, 1937, p.S-12
• Born:
  • Agim Krajka, Albanian composer; in Kavajë (d. 2021)^[14]
  • Robert Garland, American screenwriter known for The Electric Horseman (1979) and No Way Out; in Brooklyn, New York City (d. 2020)^[15]
  • Una Stubbs, British actress and dancer; in Welwyn Garden City (d. 2021)
• Died:
  • Snitz Edwards, (stage name for Edward Neumann), 69 , Hungarian-born American character actor on stage and film^[16]
  • Fanny Marc (Estelle Odile Fanny Legendre), 79, French sculptor^[17]

• Austrian police raided the headquarters of the Nazi Party in Vienna, finding evidence of collaboration between German and Austrian Nazis, as well as propaganda hostile to the Austrian government.^[18]
• In Moscow, an estimated 50,000 people attended the remaining churches in the city for services on the Russian Easter, despite the largest anti-religious drive since 1930.^[19]
• In Cuba, former President Mario García Menocal, who served from 1913 to 1921, announced that he was creating a new political party to oppose military interference in civil affairs, in a move seen as a threat to the military-supported regime of President Federico Laredo Brú and its control of the Cuban Congress.^[20]
• Eleven of the crew of the freighter Alecto were drowned after the ship collided with the freighter Plavnik and sank in the North Sea while both saidled in a fog.during a fog.^[21]
• Born:
  • Gisela Elsner, German writer, subject of the 2000 film No Place to Go; in Nuremberg (committed suicide, 1992)^[22]
  • Lorenzo Music (Gerald David Music), American actor, television producer and musician, co-creator of The Bob Newhart Show in 1972, as well as being the voice of Garfield the cat in cartoons and the voice of the unseen character of Carlton the Doorman in Rhoda; in Brooklyn, New York City (d. 2001)^[23]

• In Spain, six days of civil violence known as the May Days began in Catalonia.
• Lev Karakhan, the Soviet Union's Ambassador to Turkey since 1934, was arrested on orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to return to Moscow.^[24] Stalin had ordered the recall of Karakhan on April 26.^[25] Karakhan was arrested and charged with participation in a "pro-fascist conspiracy" to overthrow the Soviet Government. He would be executed on September 20 after being tried before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union.^[26]
• The divorce of Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson from her husband, shipbroker Ernest Simpson, became final,^[27] clearing the way for her to marry the Duke of Windsor, who had been King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions. The marriage took place one month later in France on June 3.
• German opera composer and conductor Manfred Gurlitt, a member of Germany's Nazi Party since 1933, was expelled from the Nazis by court order after failing to reveal that he had a Jewish ancestor. The court declared that Gurlitt was a "Jew of Mixed Race of the 2nd Order" and removed him from his employment.^[28]
• Born: Hans Cieslarczyk, German footballer; in Herne (d. 2020)^[29]
• Died:
  • Cosimo Rennella, Ecuadorian-born Italian flying ace during World War One with seven victories and later a member of the Air Force of Ecuador, died of pneumonia after returning from the United States, where head attended a convention of fellow World War I aces in Dayton, Ohio^[30]
  • P. W. Pilcher, 70, British photographer who perfected high-speed photography to capture photos of moving objects, including trains^[31]

• The Duke of Windsor and Wallis Warfield (ex-Simpson) reunited in France after six months apart and immediately became officially engaged.^[32]
• The Non-Intervention Committee asked both sides in the Spanish Civil War to forswear bombing of open cities.^[6]
• Born:
  • Ron Carter, American jazz double-bassist, winner of three Grammy Awards and the most-recorded jazz bassist in history;^[33] in Ferndale, Michigan^[34]
  • Dick Dale (stage name for Richard Monsour), American surf rock guitarist; in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 2019)^[35]
  • Mel Edwards, American abstract sheet-metal sculptor; in Houston^[36][37]
• Died:
  • Vasily Petrov, 62, Soviet Russian opera singer^[38][39]
  • Noel Rosa, 26, Brazilian musician, died of tuberculosis.^[40][41]

• Pavel Golovin became the world's first pilot to fly an airplane over the North Pole, as part of a crew of 11 people. After flying over the pole, Golovin landed on an ice floe 13 miles (21 km) southward.^[42] Golovin was the world's first pilot to fly an airplane over the North Pole, on 5 May 1937.^[42] The first flight over the North Pole had been made in the dirigible Nord by pilot Umberto Nobile and polar explorers Lincoln Ellsworth and Roald Amundsen on May 13, 1926.^[43]
• Spanish Prime Minister Francisco Largo Caballero sent the Guardia de Asalto to Barcelona to put down the May Days violence.^[44]
• British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin pleaded for labour peace ahead of the coronation of George VI as the bus strike threatened to spread.^[45]
• Born:
  • Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, American boxer; in Clifton, New Jersey (d. 2014)
  • Trần Đức Lương, President of Vietnam from 1997 to 2006; in Đức Phổ, Quảng Ngãi province, French Indochina^[46]
• Died: Camillo Berneri, 39, Italian anarchist and professor, was forcibly removed from his home by policemen and a group of men wearing red armbands. Taken also was his friend Francesco Barbieri, and the two men were shot to death.^[47]

• The Hindenburg disaster occurred in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 people. Newsreel footage of the tragedy would be shown around the world, shattering the public's confidence in the dirigible as a method of transportation. Radio reporter Herbert Morrison's live report of the disaster ("Oh, the humanity!") remains one of the most famous broadcasts in history.^[48][49]
• The National Federation of Press Women was organized.

• German aviation minister Hermann Göring ordered work rushed on the LZ 130 LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II, which was to have been the sister ship of the Hindenburg.^[50]
• The U.S. Congress passed neutrality legislation permitting the sale of certain commodities (excluding munitions) while making it illegal for U.S. citizens to travel on belligerent ships.^[51]
• The musical film Shall We Dance starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers was released. This film introduced the famous George and Ira Gershwin songs "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" and "They Can't Take That Away from Me".^[52]
• Died: George Topîrceanu, 51, Romanian poet, short story writer and humorist

• Italy recalled its news correspondents from London and banned all British newspapers except for the Daily Mail, The Observer and The Evening News. The move was believed to have been taken in reaction to the British press mocking the recent defeats of Italian troops in the Spanish Civil War.^[53]
• War Admiral won the Kentucky Derby.^[54]
• Widnes defeated Keighley 18-5 to win rugby's Challenge Cup in front of 47,699 at Wembley Stadium.^[55]
• The Montreux Convention Regarding the Abolition of the Capitulations in Egypt was concluded.
• The adventure film The Prince and the Pauper starring Errol Flynn and Billy and Bobby Mauch was released.^[56]
• Born:
  • Mike Cuellar, Cuban baseball player; in Santa Clara, Cuba (d. 2010)
  • Carlos Gaviria Díaz, Colombian justice and politician; in Sopetrán (d. 2015)
  • Thomas Pynchon, American novelist; in Glen Cove, New York

• 5,000 women and children began to evacuate Bilbao.^[57]
• More than 50 were injured in Toulouse when a riot broke out between political factions. The rioting began when rightists paraded to an equestrian statue of Joan of Arc shouting "France for the French", referring to the allegation that the Popular Front government of Prime Minister Léon Blum took orders from Moscow.^[58]

• Frozen food came to Britain when frozen asparagus went on sale for the first time.^[59]

• George VI met all the representatives of England's Dominions and colonies and pledged to carry on his father's work "for the welfare of our great empire." The speech made no mention of his brother Edward.^[60]
• The adventure film Captains Courageous starring Freddie Bartholomew and Spencer Tracy was released.

• The coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth took place at Westminster Abbey in London.
• BBC Television made its first outdoor broadcast to cover the king's coronation procession.^[57]
• Born: George Carlin, American comedian; in Manhattan, New York City (d. 2008)
• Died: Carl Emil Pettersson, 61, Swedish sailor

• The British destroyer HMS Hunter struck a naval mine south of Almería, Spain and took severe damage, killing 8.^[61]
• Antisemitic rioting broke out in three towns near Brześć-Litewski, Poland, after a police officer pushed a Jewish butcher and was stabbed to death by the butcher's son. Jewish-owned stores were looted and at least 53 Jews were injured during violence that continued into the next morning.^[62][63]
• Born:
  • Trevor Baylis, English inventor; in Kilburn, London (d. 2018)
  • Roch Carrier, Canadian author; in Sainte-Justine, Quebec, Canada
  • Roger Zelazny, American poet and author; in Euclid, Ohio (d. 1995)^[64]
• Died: John Clem, 85, American army general

• The 8th Imperial Conference began in London.
• The Governor of Puerto Rico, Blanton Winship, signed a bill providing for sterilization of the insane and the establishment of a eugenics board.^[65]

• Valencia endured the most intensive Nationalist aerial bombardment yet made on the city, killing more than 30 people.^[66] The British embassy there was damaged and two staff members wounded.^[67]
• Francisco Largo Caballero resigned as Prime Minister of Spain after the Socialists and Communists withdrew participation from his cabinet over his desire to give POUM clemency.^[6][68]
• "September in the Rain" by Guy Lombardo topped the American pop charts.^[69]
• War Admiral won the Preakness Stakes.
• Born:
  • Madeleine Albright, Czechoslovakian-born American politician and diplomat; in Prague (d. 2022)
  • Trini Lopez, American musician and actor; in Dallas, Texas (d. 2020)
• Died: Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden, 72, British politician

• Nationalists came within 7 miles (11 km) of the Basque capital of Bilbao, pushing the Republicans out of the village of Gorocica.^[70]
• Born: Yvonne Craig, American actress; in Taylorville, Illinois (d. 2015)

• Juan Negrín became Prime Minister of Spain.
• Råsunda Stadium was formally inaugurated in Stockholm, Sweden. England defeated Sweden in a friendly, 4-0.^[71]
• Born: Hazel R. O'Leary, United States Secretary of Energy; in Newport News, Virginia

• The wedding of the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Warfield was set for June 3 at the Château de Candé in Monts, France.^[72]
• Outgoing Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin made the last significant speech of his time in office, in which he asked the youth of Britain to guard against the threats of fascism and communism and said that the League of Nations was of "doubtful" value.^[73]
• Archbishop of Chicago George Mundelein made the paper hanger speech, an anti-Nazi speech that condemned the Nazi totalitarianism and spoke about how "a nation of 60 million intelligent people will submit in fear and servitude" to Hitler, whom he called an "alien, an Austrian paper hanger."^[74]
• Born:
  • Brooks Robinson, American baseball player; in Little Rock, Arkansas (d. 2023)
  • Jacques Santer, 22nd Prime Minister of Luxembourg and President of the European Commission; in Wasserbillig, Luxembourg

• The press in Nazi Germany demanded that the Vatican publicly repudiate the Archbishop of Chicago George Mundelein for his remarks. "The cardinal insulted not only the head of the German state and its ministers but the entire German nation", an editorial in Der Angriff stated. "We make the Catholic church responsible if the speech evokes a new wave of anti-German agitation, and we ask the Vatican if it intends to tolerate this speech without protest."^[74]
• King Victor Emmanuel III and Queen Elena of Italy made an official visit to Budapest.^[75]
• Angry about being called for a balk during the sixth inning of a game against the New York Giants, Dizzy Dean of the St. Louis Cardinals began throwing at Giants batters in the top of the ninth. When Dean went to cover first base on a bunt by Jimmy Ripple, the two got into a fistfight that started a bench-clearing brawl.^[76]

• George VI conducted a fleet review.^[77] This was the occasion of the famous Thomas Woodrooffe incident, when the BBC Radio commentator went on the air drunk and repeatedly slurred the phrase, "the fleet's lit up."^[78]
• The Soviet Union executed 44 people as spies for Japan.^[57][79]
• Denny Shute won the 20th PGA Championship at Pittsburgh Field Club in Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania.
• Died: Walter Davis, 48, Welsh footballer

• The bodies of the 26 German victims of the Hindenburg tragedy arrived in Cuxhaven by ship. A state funeral was held in a local hall.^[80][81]
• The Soviet Union established the North Pole-1 station in the Arctic Ocean.
• Born:
  • Sofiko Chiaureli, Soviet Georgian actress; in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR (d. 2008)
  • John Fairfax, British ocean rower and adventurer; in Italy (d. 2012)
  • Mengistu Haile Mariam, President of Ethiopia; in Addis Ababa

• The Soviet Union claimed the North Pole as its territory.^[59]
• Soviet military leader Mikhail Tukhachevsky was arrested and charged with conspiring against the government and spying for Nazi Germany.^[82]

• 3,840 children evacuated from the Spanish Civil War arrived in Southampton.^[83]
• Leon Trotsky outlined a Fourth International to oppose Joseph Stalin.^[57]
• Died: John D. Rockefeller, 97, American business magnate and philanthropist

• Republican warplanes bombed a patrol boat of the Italian Navy, killing several sailors.^[59]
• Soviet politician Jānis Rudzutaks was arrested and accused of Trotskyism and espionage for Nazi Germany.^[82]
• The U.S. Supreme Court decided Helvering v. Davis and Steward Machine Co. v. Davis.
• Born: Roger Peterson, pilot of the aircraft on "The Day the Music Died"; in Alta, Iowa (d. 1959)
• Died: Luis F. Álvarez, 84, Spanish American physician

• The Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (International Exposition dedicated to Art and Technology in Modern Life) opened in Paris.
• Detroit Tigers star Mickey Cochrane suffered a career-ending, near-fatal injury when he was hit by a beanball pitched by Bump Hadley of the New York Yankees.^[84]
• An editorial in Mussolini's Il Popolo d'Italia warned the Jews of Italy to cease making criticisms of Germany, because such opposition was "irreconcilable with the friendship that binds us to Germany and which has objectives far more vast and fundamental than the Jewish question."^[85]
• Born: Mark Shields, American journalist and political commentator (d. 2022)
• Died: Henry Ossawa Tanner, 77, African-American artist

• Egypt joined the League of Nations. This would prove to be the last country to do so.^[59]
• The Little Steel strike began in the United States.
• The London bus strike ended.^[57]
• The boxing film Kid Galahad starring Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, and newcomer Wayne Morris in the title role was released.

• The Golden Gate Bridge opened in San Francisco.
• The Gestapo ordered 200 German Catholic newspapers to shut down for publishing articles critical of Nazi institutions.^[86]
• The Minseito and Seiyukai parties jointly demanded the Japanese cabinet's resignation.^[87]

• Neville Chamberlain became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom when Stanley Baldwin retired. Chamberlain signalled an intention to continue Baldwin's policies by making very few changes to the cabinet.^[57]
• In the final act of the Baldwin government, The London Gazette announced that Wallis Warfield would not be elevated to royal status upon her marriage to the Duke of Windsor, and would only be entitled to be addressed in the forms appropriate to a woman who was married to a duke but was not of royal blood. The ruling also applied to any children she might have with the Duke.^[88]
• The Volkswagen company was founded.
• Born: Robert Chrisman, American poet, scholar and publisher; in Yuma, Arizona (d. 2013)
• Died: Alfred Adler, 67, Austrian medical doctor and psychotherapist

• Deutschland incident: Republican planes bombed the German cruiser Deutschland.^[59]
• Several Hong Kong Chinese newspapers published an identical leading article, appealing to Britain not to enter into negotiations with Japan. The article stated that China would maintain her sovereignty at all costs.^[89][90]

• Memorial Day massacre: In Chicago, police fired on marching union members at the Republic Steel plant, killing 10.^[59]
• The steamship Ciudad de Barcelona carrying volunteers of the International Brigades was torpedoed and sunk by an Italian submarine off the coast of Malgrat de Mar.^[91]

• German warships bombarded the city of Almería in retaliation for the Deutschland incident.
• The Republicans launched the Segovia Offensive.
• Italy and Germany decided to withdraw from the non-intervention cordon around Spain.^[57]
• Senjūrō Hayashi resigned as Prime Minister of Japan.^[92]
• Wilbur Shaw won the Indianapolis 500.
• Born: Louis Hayes, American jazz drummer; in Detroit, Michigan
• Died: Yan Gamarnik, 42, Soviet military commander, died by suicide.