April 1937


The following events occurred in April 1937:

April 1, 1937 (Thursday)

April 2, 1937 (Friday)

April 3, 1937 (Saturday)

April 4, 1937 (Sunday)

April 5, 1937 (Monday)

April 6, 1937 (Tuesday)

April 7, 1937 (Wednesday)

April 8, 1937 (Thursday)

April 9, 1937 (Friday)

April 10, 1937 (Saturday)

April 11, 1937 (Sunday)

  • The British cabinet held a rare Sunday meeting in which it decided to afford the fullest protection to British shipping outside the three-mile limit in northern Spanish waters. This was understood to include authorizing the Royal Navy to open fire on any Spanish vessels interfering with British cargo ships.
  • The Junkers Ju 89 prototype Nazi German bomber had its first flight, piloted by Peter Hesselbach. The project was discontinued 18 days later because the fuel consumption of the Ju 89 and another heavy bomber, the Dornier Do 19, was too high.
  • Died: John Richard Morgan, 83, Welsh international footballer who represented the Wales national football team from 1877 to 1883

April 12, 1937 (Monday)

  • British engineer Frank Whittle and his team successfully tested a prototype jet engine, the Power Jets W.1, at his factory in Rugby, Warwickshire.
  • The U.S. Supreme Court decided National Labor Relations Board v Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation, ruling 5 to 4 that the U.S. Congress had the power under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution to regulate labor relations within a particular U.S. state for industries that impacted interstate commerce, even if only indirectly. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes wrote the majority opinion, stating that "Employees have as clear a right to organize and select their representatives for lawful purposes as the respondent has to organize its business and select its own officers and agents," and added that "Although activities may be intrastate in character when separately considered," the federal government could regulate them "if they have such a close and substantial relation to interstate commerce that their control is essential or appropriate to protect that commerce from burdens and obstructions."
  • Born:
  • *Marian Marzynski, Polish-born American documentary filmmaker; in Warsaw
  • *Joseph Akahan, Chief of Staff of the Nigerian Army; in Gboko, British Nigeria
  • Died: Abdülhak Hâmid Tarhan, 85, Ottoman Turkish playwright and poet

April 13, 1937 (Tuesday)

April 14, 1937 (Wednesday)

April 15, 1937 (Thursday)

April 16, 1937 (Friday)

April 17, 1937 (Saturday)

April 18, 1937 (Sunday)

April 19, 1937 (Monday)

April 20, 1937 (Tuesday)

April 21, 1937 (Wednesday)

April 22, 1937 (Thursday)

April 23, 1937 (Friday)

April 24, 1937 (Saturday)

  • Britain and France allowed Belgium to withdraw from its security obligation under the Locarno Treaties, excusing Belgium from having to render assistance along with the British and French in the event of German aggression toward Poland. The leaders of both the UK and France publicly declared that Belgium's security was paramount to the Western Allies and that they would defend Belgium's borders against aggression of any sort, whether directed solely at Belgium, or to obtain bases to wage war against "other states".
  • British cryptographer and codebreaker Dillwyn "Dilly" Knox, who had been part of the Room 40 cryptanalysis group in the British Admiralty that had decoded the Zimmermann telegram in 1917, was able to break the Enigma code messages between Nazi Germany and Francisco Franco's Spanish Nationalists. News of the breakthrough was not shared with the Spanish Second Republic, which was fighting against the Nationalists.
  • Born: La Thoại Tân, Vietnamese-born American actor and singer; in Saigon, French Cochinchina
  • Died: Lucy Beaumont, 63, English-born actress who performed on stage and in film in the UK and in the United States

April 25, 1937 (Sunday)

  • The Soviet Union announced the completion of all goals of the five-year plan nine months to a year ahead of schedule. The announcement came despite numerous articles in the state-controlled press stating that many branches of the plan were lagging behind.
  • The Belarusian State Philharmonic, the national orchestra of the nation of Belarus, was founded in Minsk in the Byelorussian SSR.
  • Died:
  • *Clem Sohn, 26, American airshow daredevil known for his stunt of gliding while wearing a wingsuit, and frequently billed as "The Batman", fell to his death while performing at an airshow in Vincennes, France, in front of a large crowd, after neither his parachute nor his emergency parachute opened.
  • *Michał Drzymała, 79, Polish folk hero

April 26, 1937 (Monday)

  • Nazi Germany's Condor Legion carried out the destructive aerial bombing of the small Spanish town of Guernica, killing at least 170 civilians and perhaps as many as 300. The first wave of bombing occurred at 4:30 in the afternoon as a single German Dornier Do 17 dropped 12 50-kg bombs, with the most destructive wave starting at 6:30 p.m. with three bomber squadrons of three Junkers Ju52 planes carrying out heavy bombing for 15 minutes, followed by other airplanes strafing roads leading out of town. Franco claimed three days later that Guernica had been destroyed on the ground by Communist demolition teams.
  • The "Roman salute", a gesture in which the right arm is raised upward at an angle, fully extended, facing forward, with palm down and fingers touching, and revived in the 20th century as a symbol of support of Fascism, was formally approved in a decree by Francisco Franco as a form of salute among his Spanish nationalists. Franco issued his decree from his capital at Burgos. The salute, already used in Italy and Germany, was strictly used in Fascist rallies in insurgent-held Spain. The Spanish Nationalist military hierarchy continued to use the traditional military salutes. After World War II, use of the salute would be discontinued in September 1945.
  • The U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of Herndon v. Lowry, ruling, 5 to 4, that the anti-insurrection law of the U.S. state of Georgia was unconstitutional and a violation of the First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, as well as of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution applying the rights to proceedings in all U.S. states.
  • The long-running but now forgotten NBC Radio program Lorenzo Jones began a run of 18 seasons as a "comedy soap opera" about an inventor of strange gadgets, and with Bette Garde as his devoted wife Belle. The 15-minute show would be a late afternoon mainstay on NBC's daytime schedule until the end of the 1954–55 season.

April 27, 1937 (Tuesday)

April 28, 1937 (Wednesday)

April 29, 1937 (Thursday)

April 30, 1937 (Friday)