April 1932

April 1, 1932 (Friday)

• The musical operetta When the Little Violets Bloom by Robert Stolz premiered in The Hague.
• The Dagenham Girl Pipers performed for the very first time to a private audience of journalists.
• Born:
• *Debbie Reynolds, American film, TV and stage actress; in El Paso, Texas
• *Gordon Jump, American TV actor, in Dayton, Ohio

  April 2, 1932 (Saturday)

• Former German Crown Prince Wilhelm endorsed Adolf Hitler for president in the April 10 election. By making a political statement, Wilhelm broke his word to the German government that he would refrain from politics as a condition of his return to Germany from exile.
• John F. Condon received an eleventh ransom note in the Lindbergh kidnapping case. He was directed to a twelfth note that led him to the unidentified man known as "John" and paid $50,000 for another note containing instructions for where the Lindbergh child could be found.
• Born: Michael Vernon, English-born Australian consumer activist, in Portsmouth
• Died:
• *Edward Marjoribanks, 32, British member of parliament, committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest
• *Bill Pickett, 61, African-American rodeo and Wild West show performer, died after being kicked in the head by a horse

  April 3, 1932 (Sunday)

• Germany's "Easter truce" forbidding political activities expired at noon with violent clashes around the country.
• A search was made for the Lindbergh baby near Martha's Vineyard in accordance with the directions given by "John", but nothing was found and the case went cold.

  April 4, 1932 (Monday)

• Vojislav Marinković became Prime Minister of Yugoslavia.
• The Massie Trial began in Honolulu, Hawaii with jury selection.
• Vitamin C was isolated by American biochemist Charles Glen King at the University of Pittsburgh at the same time as, and independent of, Hungarian biochemist Albert Szent-Györgyi at the University of Szeged.
• Born:
• *Anthony Perkins, American film and stage actor; in New York City
• *Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Russian filmmaker; in Zavrazhye, Russian SFSR
• Died: Wilhelm Ostwald, 78, Baltic German chemist and 1909 Nobel laureate and developer of the field of physical chemistry

  April 5, 1932 (Tuesday)

• In St. John's, Newfoundland, a parade of demonstrators calling on the Legislature to investigate certain charges against the Richard Squires government turned into a violent riot. All the windows of the Colonial Building were smashed and Squires had to leave the building under protection.
• The documents seized by German police in last month's raids on Nazi headquarters were presented to the government. According to authorities, they showed Nazi plans to start a civil war in which a secret army would seize arms and ammunition and cut off water supplies to city centers.
• Chancellor Heinrich Brüning told an audience in Stuttgart that the re-election of Hindenburg would pave the way for a settlement of the reparations problem, while the election of Hitler would cause the German mark to drop with a crash "in no time."
• The first government-owned Alko stores, for the sale of alcohol, opened in Finland, originally under the name Oy Alkoholiliike Ab, to sell government-manufactured and government-imported products. , by Antti Halonen, Ilta-Sanomat, September 22, 2017
• Died: María Blanchard, 51, Spanish Cubist painter, from tuberculosis

  April 6, 1932 (Wednesday)

• Parts of Bucharest were submerged by flooding.
• Four powers opened the Danube Conference in London, discussing the perilous economic situation of the countries that once made up Austria-Hungary.
• With the Lindbergh kidnapping ransom payment still a secret from the public, U.S. Treasurer W. O. Woods sent an official circular to banks telling them to watch for certain large amounts of bills in specific denominations, but did not say that it was connection with the Lindbergh case.
• Died: Archduchess Maria Dorothea of Austria, 64

  April 7, 1932 (Thursday)

• Negotiations were held in the British consulate in Shanghai between representatives of China and Japan over setting a timetable through the League of Nations for Japanese withdrawal, but the Japanese insisted that the League was not qualified to handle the issue.
• The Danube Conference broke down, with Italy and Germany at odds with the French proposal that would have seen them lose their favored nation trading status with the Danubian nations.
• U.S. presidential candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a famous campaign speech over the radio in which he said that prosperity depended on plans "that build from the bottom up and not the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid."
• Died: Grigore Constantinescu, 57, Romanian priest and journalist

  April 8, 1932 (Friday)

• Martial law was declared in Chile to curb public disorder related to the country's financial crisis.
• Born: Iskander, Sultan of Johor and elected monarch head of state of Malaysia from 1984 to 1989; in Johor Bahru, British Malaya

  April 9, 1932 (Saturday)

• Reichsbank President and two-time German chancellor Hans Luther was shot at close range at a subway station in Berlin, but the bullet only grazed his arm. Two men were arrested without resistance, who identified themselves as former Nazis who wanted to kill Luther because they disapproved of the Reichsbank's deflation policy.
• The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the New York Rangers 6-4 to complete a three-game sweep and win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
• It was revealed to the public for the first time that a $50,000 ransom had been paid in the Lindbergh kidnapping case but that the child had not been returned.
• Italy's Grand Council of Fascism passed a resolution saying that the "first necessary step toward the economic recovery of the world" was the cancellation of all war debts.
• The first major gangster film, Scarface, was released by Astor Pictures. Financed by Howard Hughes, and produced and directed by Howard Hawks, and starring Paul Muni and Osgood Perkins as Italian members of organized crime in Chicago, the film and the Armitage Trail novel on which it was adapted were thinly veiled depictions of the career of Al Capone and his gang. Muni's character was named "Antonio Camonte", and other characters had names only slightly different than the people on whom they were based. The Hays Office ordered heavy censorship of the more violent scenes in the original version.
• Born:
• *Armin Jordan, Swiss classical music conductor; in Zürich
• *Carl Perkins, U.S. rockabilly singer-songwriter and inductee in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; in Tiptonville, Tennessee
• *Mati Klarwein, German-born French painter; in Hamburg

  April 10, 1932 (Sunday)

• The runoff of the German presidential election was held. Paul von Hindenburg was re-elected for another seven years, winning the majority of votes unlike in the March 13 elections. Hundreds were arrested in election day violence.
• The French foreign office issued a statement insisting that Germany's payments under the Young Plan must be continued.
• Born:
• *Omar Sharif, Egyptian-born film actor; in Alexandria
• *Blaze Starr, American burlesque performer; near Twelvepole Creek, West Virginia
• Died: Fred Pfeffer, 72, American professional baseball player and manager in the 19th century

  April 11, 1932 (Monday)

• Thousands fled the eruptions of fourteen volcanoes along the Andes.
• Opening arguments began in the Massie Trial.
• On baseball's Opening Day, the National League's defending batting champion Chick Hafey was traded by the St. Louis Cardinals to the lowly Cincinnati Reds for Benny Frey, Harvey Hendrick and cash. The Cardinals got rid of Hafey after growing tired of arguing with him over his salary.
• Born: Joel Grey, American actor, singer and dancer, winner of the Academy Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award; in Cleveland

  April 12, 1932 (Tuesday)

• The German stock exchange reopened for the first time in almost seven months.
• The drama film Grand Hotel, featuring an all-star cast including Greta Garbo, John and Lionel Barrymore, Joan Crawford and Wallace Beery premiered at the Astor Theatre in New York City.
• Born:
• *Lakshman Kadirgamar, Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka from 1994 to 2001 and 2004 to 2005; in Colombo, British Ceylon
• *Tiny Tim, American singer; in New York City
• Died: Pierre Batcheff, 24, French film actor, from a drug overdose

  April 13, 1932 (Wednesday)

• President Hindenburg passed an emergency decree through Article 48 ordering the SA, SS and all auxiliary forces of the Nazi Party dissolved immediately.
• Born: Barney Simon, South African playwright, director and author; in Johannesburg

  April 14, 1932 (Thursday)

• The Queen Street Riot occurred in Auckland, New Zealand when thousands of unemployed clashed with police while smashing and looting shops on the city's main commercial thoroughfare. The violence, the worst riot in New Zealand's history, injured 200 people.
• Eleven construction workers were killed when a gas explosion ripped through the new Ohio State Office Building being constructed in Columbus.
• Adolf Hitler released a statement characterizing the government's crackdown on his stormtroopers as "a last blow of despair" and declaring April 24, the date of local elections, as "retaliation day".
• The film Symphony of Six Million starring Ricardo Cortez and Irene Dunne premiered at the Gaiety Theatre in New York City.
• Born: Loretta Lynn, American country music singer-songwriter; in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky

  April 15, 1932 (Friday)

• In Sweden, three directors of enterprises associated with Ivar Kreuger were arrested and charged with fraud.
• German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler was awarded the Goethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Philharmonic.
• Died: Julia Lathrop, 73, American social reformer and the first Director of the United States Children's Bureau from 1912 to 1922