January 1937

January 6, 1937 (Wednesday)

• The
  Sovnarkom on September 25, with an editorial in the Communist Party newspaper declaring that "enemies of the people gave the census counters invalid instructions that led to the gross under-counting of the population, but the brave NKVD under the leadership of Nikolai Yezhov destroyed the snake's nest in the statistical bodies."^[49]
• U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered the annual State of the Union address to Congress. "The statute of NRA has been outlawed", the president said. "The problems have not. They are still with us." Roosevelt said that means "must be found to adapt our legal forms and our judicial interpretation to the actual present national needs of the largest progressive democracy in the modern world."^[50]
• The U.S. Congress passed a resolution strictly forbidding the export of arms to Spain.^[51]
• Born:
  • Paolo Conte, Italian singer and pianist; in Asti^[52]
  • Washington, DC (d.2021)^[53]
  • Underwood Dudley, American mathematician and author known for the book Crank Mathematics, a criticism of pseudomathematics; in New York City
• Died:
  • Saint André of Montreal (André Bessette), 91, Canadian religious leader^[54] canonized as a Roman Catholic saint in 2010^[55]
  • Howard Vaughton, 75, English footballer who played for the England national team in 1882^[56]

January 7, 1937 (Thursday)

• At an elaborate wedding ceremony in The Hague, Princess Juliana (who would later become Queen Juliana of the Netherlands) , the only child of Queen Wilhelmina, married a German noble, Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld.^[57]
• The German opera The Eternal Road, written by Kurt Weill and with a libretto by Franz Werfel, was given its first performance, premiering at the Manhattan Opera House in New York City.^[58]
• Born:
  • President of the Comoros from 1976 to 1978; in Mahajanga, French Madagascar
    (executed 1978)
  • Carlos Westendorp, Spanish diplomat and Spain's Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1995 to 1996, formerly Secretary of State for the European Union from 1991 to 1995; in Madrid^[59]

January 8, 1937 (Friday)

• U.S. President Roosevelt signed an amendment to the
  embargo on the shipment of weapons to Spain.^[60] His signature came too late to stop the vessel Mar Cantabrico, which had already left New York with just such a cargo.^[61]
• Born:
  • Shirley Bassey, Welsh singer; in Tiger Bay, Cardiff
  • British India^[62]
    (d. 2023)
  • Richard Miles, American diplomat; in Little Rock, Arkansas^[63]

January 9, 1937 (Saturday)

• After being expelled from Norway on December 9 and deported on the oil tanker Ruth, former Soviet Russian activist Leon Trotsky and his wife Natalia Sedova arrived in Mexico, where he would spend the rest of his life until his assassination in 1940.^[64]
• Italy banned interracial marriage between its won citizens and women in its African colonies, specifically "Regular or irregular unions between Italians and Abyssinian women," referring to women in Ethiopia. Other decrees were that Jewish communities in Africa must open their business premises on Saturdays and shut them on Sundays," an application of Italy's existing Shop Hours Act to the colonies in Libya, Somalia and Ethiopia.^[65]
• The American Board of Surgery was established in Philadelphia for the purpose of certifying surgeons who have met a defined standard of education, training and knowledge.
• Born:
  • Consilio Fitzgerald, Irish Catholic nun and founder in 1966 of the Cuan Mhuire drug and alcohol rehabilitation center; in Brosna, County Kerry
  • Michael Nicholson, British journalist, war correspondent and newscaster for ITV; in Romford, Essex (d. 2016)
  • Malcolm Cecil, British jazz musician and record producer; in London (d.2021)

January 10, 1937 (Sunday)

• With the Spanish Nationalists of Francisco Franco conducting bombing raids and advancing to capture Spain's capital, the Spanish government ordered an evacuation of all noncombatant citizens remaining in Madrid.^[66][17]
• The report of the Brownlow Committee (officially the President's Committee on Administrative Management), appointed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to recommend for reorganization of the executive branch of the U.S. government, was presented by the President to seven congressional leaders who had been summoned to the White House for a Sunday meeting.^[67][68] Composed of three professors of political science — Louis Brownlow and Charles Merriam of the University of Chicago and Luther Gulick of Columbia University— the Committee declared that "The President needs help,"^[69] and delivered recommendations that Roosevelt discussed with his cabinet the next day and then to Congress on Tuesday.
• France massed troops in French Morocco and threatened to occupy the Spanish side if the Nationalists refused to quickly oust the Germans reported in the territory. France feared that Germany was building up troops there under the guise of "volunteers" in preparation for a surprise attack on French Morocco.^[70]
• Britain warned its citizens that anyone volunteering to fight for either side in the Spanish Civil War would be subject to prosecution under the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870.^[71]
• Died:
  • Julius Stieglitz, 69, American organic chemist known for his discovery of the Stieglitz rearrangement^[72]
  • Clarence Eddy, 85, American composer^[73]
  • Martemyan Ryutin, 46, former member of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee and opponent of Soviet premier Joseph Stalin, was executed after being convicted of treason along with Ivar Smilga, 45, Pyotr Zalutsky, 49, and other members of the United Opposition people implicated in the Ryutin affair of 1932.^[74][75]

January 11, 1937 (Monday)

• Adolf Hitler assured France that Germany had no intention of seizing the Kingdom of Morocco, at the time a French protectorate.^[76]
• Police in
  United Automobile Workers labor union on December 30. Strikers occupying the building pelted the police with bottles and bolts, and 14 miners were wounded by police gunfire before the police backed off.^[77] General Motors and the UAW would reach an agreement and the strike would end after 44 days on February 11.^[78]
• The United States invalidated all passports to Spain, in order to deter Americans from volunteering for the Spanish Civil War.^[79]
• The athletic directors of Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University and Yale University, institution in the northeastern United States known for their academic excellence and informally referred to as the Ivy League, voted to reject a proposal to create an athletic conference.^[80]
• Born:
  • Miguel Telles Antunes, Portuguese paleontologist for whom Lourinhasaurus antunesi, the Lourinhasaurus dinosaur is named. Other extinct species bearing his name are the weasel shark Paragaleus antunesi, the horse Equus caballus antunesi and the bird Fluviatilavis antunesi.
  • Chiemi Eri, Japanese actress and singer; in Tokyo (d. 1982)^[81]
• Died:
  • Maggie Browne (pen name for Margaret Hamer Andrewes), 72, English author of children's books, including Wanted, a King.
  • William Stewart, 68, Scottish footballer who played primarily as a midfielder for Everton F.C. and Preston North End F.C. in the 19th century, as well as for the only British pro baseball league, the short-lived National League of Baseball of Great Britain, in 1890 as a right fielder for Preston North End Baseball Club

January 12, 1937 (Tuesday)

• U.S. President Roosevelt informed Congress of the largest plan up to that time for reorganization of the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, based on the report of the Brownlow Committee.^[82]
• The sinking of the Finnish cargo ship Johanna Thorden in the Pentland Firth in northern Scotland drowned 30 of the 38 crew.^[83]
• Newhall, California, killing five of the 13 people aboard. The Boeing 247 was on a flight from Salt Lake City to Burbank, California, when it struck the mountain in bad weather. The documentary filmmakers Martin and Osa Johnson were on board and both were seriously injured, with Martin dying the next day. One of the survivors, passenger Arthur A. Robinson, hiked 5 miles (8.0 km) down the mountainside and alerted rescuers searching for the accident site.^[84]
• Born:
  • Edgware, Middlesex^[85]
  • Reuben Snake (Kee-Kah Wah-Un-Gah), Native American Winnebago leader within the American Indian Movement, who nicknamed himself "Your Humble Serpent", known for lobbying for the passage of the 1994 American Indian Religious Freedom Act; in Winnebago, Nebraska (d. 1993)^[86]
• Died:
  Dorde Vajfert (born Georg Wiefert), 86, Serbian industrialist and banker^[87]

• At the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, a crowd of 50,000 onlookers watched as authorities burned 10,000 ounces (280,000 g) of drugs and then executed 5 drug traffickers.^[88][89]
• The Royal Navy destroyer HMS Achates evacuated 212 civilians, including 58 women and children, from Gibraltar.^[24]
• Pope Pius XI left his sickbed for the first time in a month.^[90]
• Born:
  • Mele, New Hebrides
    (now Vanuatu)
  • George Barr, American science fiction and fantasy artist; in Tucson, Arizona
  • George Reisman, American economist; in New York City

January 14, 1937 (Thursday)

• Hermann Göring held conferences in Rome with Benito Mussolini and Galeazzo Ciano to discuss policy toward the Spanish Civil War.^[91]
• The wooden statues that comprise Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox were unveiled in Bemidji, Minnesota, as a commemoration of the North American myth of Paul Bunyan.^[92]
• Born:
  • Princess
    Prime Minister of Transkei bantustan in 1987; in Lusikisiki, Eastern Cape
    province
  • Ken Higgs, English cricketer; in Kidsgrove, Staffordshire (d. 2016)
  • Tom "Mongoo$e" McEwen, American drag racer (d. 2018)

January 15, 1937 (Friday)

• The French Chamber of Deputies voted unanimously to give Prime Minister Léon Blum power to halt the flow of volunteers from or through France to fight in the Spanish Civil War.^[93]
• The Second Battle of the Corunna Road ended indecisively.
• Born:
  • Margaret O'Brien, American child actress known for Journey for Margaret, Meet Me in St. Louis and The Secret Garden; in San Diego^[94]
  • Yōhei Kōno, Speaker of the House of Representatives if Japan from 2003 to 2009, Foreign Minister of Japan 1994-1996 and 1999-2001, Deputy Prime Minister 1994 to 1995; in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture
• Died: Pietro Biginelli, 76, Italian chemist who discovered the Biginelli reaction that creates 3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-ones from ethyl acetoacetate, benzaldehyde and urea.^[95]

January 16, 1937 (Saturday)

• Two days of voting in the Finnish presidential election concluded as voters in Finland selected 300 people to serve in the Electoral College that was scheduled to meet on February 15. Of the 300, 155 were committed to a particular candidate, with the choice for the college being President Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, incumbent Prime Minister Kyösti Kallio, or former President Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg.^[96] Of the three, Kallio would be elected president on February 15.^[96]
• Five senior German Catholic bishops, along with the Vatican Secretary of State,Eugenio Pacelli, unanimously voted to ask Pope Pius XI to take a stand against Nazi Germany's increasing demands against the German Church.^[97] The Pope issued the papal encyclical Mit brennender Sorge ("With deep anxiety") to be used on March 14.
• Soirées musicales, a suite of five pieces composed by Benjamin Britten bringing together music by Gioachino Rossini, was performed for the first time, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra premiering it on BBC Radio's show BBC National Programme.^[98]
• The French Colonial Ministry confirmed reports that it was studying plans to offer land on Madagascar and other French colonies for settlement by Jews.^[99]

January 17, 1937 (Sunday)

• A prison riot broke out near Guelph in Canada. Inmates started fires and fought police for ten hours until order was restored. An estimated $250,000 in damage was done and it was feared that 200 of the prison's 700 inmates had escaped.^[100]
• At a special meeting in Warsaw, the Stronnictwo Ludowe, a political party to champion the rights of farm laborers, voted to present demands to the Polish government and then to organize a strike of the nation's peasants. The strike itself would take place for 10 days in August.
• In Spain, Nationalist General Gonzalo Queipo de Llano led rebel troops to attack the Spanish government stronghold of Málaga, by first seizing Granada, Marbella, and Ronda. By February 8, the Nationalists would take the city and then carry out the massacre of thousands of civilian refugees.
• The Soviet Union sent Britain a note on the Spanish Civil War explaining that the Soviet government, although it "presently does not practice the dispatchment of volunteer detachments, does not consider it expedient to adopt unilateral prohibitive measures."^[101]
• The melodrama film Black Legion, starring Humphrey Bogart, premiered in New York City.
• Born:
  Chief Justice of Nigeria from 2006 to 2007; in Ilorin^[102]
• Died: Richard Boleslawski (stage name for Bolesław Ryszard Srzednicki), 47, Polish director and actor, died of a heart attack.

January 18, 1937 (Monday)

• The
  Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Cairo, Illinois.^[105]
• German Führer Adolf Hitler authorized the creation of Adolf Hitler Schools, special new schools for gifted boys 12 to 18 that would prepare them for the NS-Ordensburgen.^[106]
• All 25 crew of the German Navy transport Welle, a converted trawler, were killed when the ship foundered in the Bay of Kiel off of the coast of Fehmarn.^[107]
• General Motors de México (GMM) a subsidiary of the U.S. automobile manufacturer, produced the first Chevrolet truck assembled in Mexico.
• The CBS radio show Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories, starring Edith Spencer in the title role, premiered at 1:45 p.m. Eastern Time as a 15-minute soap opera.^[108] Sponsored by Spry Vegetable Shortening, the show would run on CBS radio until November 16, 1956.^[109]
• Born:
  • John Hume, Northern Irish politician and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, in Derry, County Londonderry (d. 2020)
  • Akita City
    (d. 2009)
• Died:
  • Saint Jaime Hilario Barbal, 39, Spanish Roman Catholic martyr who was arrested on charges of being a member of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, was executed by a Spanish government firing squad.^[110] He would be canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church on November 21, 1999.^[110]
  • Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History,^[112] and the town of Hayden, Arizona
    , are named in his honor.
  • Malcolm C. Rorty, 61, American economist and statistician, co-founder of the Econometric Society and the National Bureau of Economic Research

January 19, 1937 (Tuesday)

• Howard Hughes set a new transcontinental aviation record by flying from Los Angeles to New York in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.^[113]
• The British Parliament convened for its first session of the New Year. Anthony Eden gave a speech on the foreign situation saying that the future of the continent lay with Germany, who "has it in her power to influence a choice which will decide not only her fate, but that of Europe. If she chooses co-operation with other nations, full and equal co-operation, there is nobody in this country who will not assist wholeheartedly to remove misunderstandings and to make the way smooth for peace and prosperity."^[114]
• The conservation organization Ducks Unlimited was founded by publisher Joseph P. Knapp, Robert Winthrop, E. H. Low and other philanthropists.
• The Academy Award-winning film The Good Earth,'based on the 1931 novel by Pearl S. Buck and the 1932 stage adaptation by Owen and Donald Davis. Directed by Sidney Franklin, the film starred white actors Paul Muni and Luise Rainer, in makeup, as a Chinese husband and wife, but cast two Chinese-American actors, Keye Luke and Roland Liu as their sons.
• Radio Nacional de España (RNE), the official radio broadcaster of the Fascist-governed areas of Spain, was launched by the Spanish Nationalist government in Salamanca, originally as an operation of Generalissimo Francisco Franco's State Delegation for Press and Propaganda.
• In Venezuela, the city of Ciudad Ojeda was founded on the shore of Lake Maracaibo for oil company workers and their families who had lived in employee housing at Lagunillas de Agua, by order of President Eleazar López Contreras.^[115] As of 2005, the city had almost 129,000 residents.
• Baseball Hall of Fame.^[116]
• In the U.S. state of Tennessee, the marriage of a 22-year-old man to a 9-year-old girl horrified newspaper and magazine readers and called attention to the lack of laws setting a minimum wage for marriage. At the time, Tennessee law provided only that the parents of a child had to provide consent to the marriage.^[117]
• Born:
  • Giovanna Marini, Italian singer and songwriter; in Rome
  • Hassan Habibi, vice president of Iran from 1989 to 2001; in Tehran (d.2013)
  • Laurence Deonna, Swiss journalist and war correspondent; in Geneva (d.2023)
  • Günter Litfin, German tailor who was the first person to be killed by East German border police at the Berlin Wall; in Berlin, Nazi Germany (killed, 1961)

January 20, 1937 (Wednesday)

• For the first time in the U.S., the presidential inauguration day took place on January 20 rather than on March 4, with the change mandated by the Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In addressing the crowd, Roosevelt said, "I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished," and called upon Americans to fight poverty.^[118]
• Ingrid Christensen of Norway became the first woman in recorded history to set foot on the mainland of Antarctica, followed by compatriots Lillemor Rachlew, Solveig Widerøe and Augusta Sofie.^[119] In 1935, Caroline Mikkelsen had stepped onto one of the Tryne Islands in Antarctic territory.
• British Army officer Norman Baillie-Stewart, convicted of espionage in 1933, was released from Maidstone Prison in England and emigrated to Nazi Germany.^[120]
• Born:
  • Stuart F. Feldman, American lobbyist and co-founder of Vietnam Veterans of America; in Philadelphia (d.2010)
  • Bailey Howell, American basketball player; in Middleton, Tennessee inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
  • Richard Graff, American winemaker; in Danville, California (killed 1998 in a plane crash)

January 21, 1937 (Thursday)

• France placed an embargo on arms and volunteers in the Spanish Civil War.^[17]
• Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók premiered in Basel, Switzerland.
• A
  Gulf Coast was settled after almost three months. Maritime Federation would merge with other labor unions to create the National Maritime Union in May.^[121]
• Cook's Night Out, one of the first cooking shows on television, was first broadcast, as a 15-minute feature on BBC Television from its sole station, in London. The description of the program in Radio Times was "Marcel Boulestin will demonstrate before the camera the making of the first of five dishes, each of which can be prepared as a separate dish, while the whole together make an excellent five-course dinner. In his first talk, M. Boulestin will demonstrate the cooking of an omelette."^[122][123]
• Born:
  • George Flynn, American composer and pianist; in Miles City, Montana^[124]
  • Lomza^[125]
  • Elvira Petrozzi (Mother Elvira), Italian Roman Catholic nun who founded the Communità Cenacolo to minister to drug addicts; in Sora (d. 2023)
  • Max Emanuel Herzog, descendant of Bavarian royalty and heir to the Bavarian royal house since 1996; in Munich
• Died:
  Marie Provost
  , 38, Canadian-born film actress, died following complications from acute alcoholism.

January 22, 1937 (Friday)

• The Ohio River flood left 41,000 people around Cincinnati homeless. The business district of Pittsburgh and part of Louisville, Kentucky were also flooded out.^[126]
• Born:
  • Edgar Award winnner, as well as multiple true crime nonfiction books; in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania^[127]
  • Ryan Davies, Welsh comedian of the duo Ryan and Ronnie; in Glanamman, Carmarthenshire, Wales (died of asthma attack, 1977)^[128][129]

January 23, 1937 (Saturday)

• Japan's Prime Minister Kōki Hirota and his entire Japanese cabinet resigned due to a split between military leaders, and anti-military parliamentary members of the National Diet who thought that the army had too much influence over the government.^[130] Hirota was in sharp disagreement with the War Minister, General Hisaichi Terauchi over a speech made by Kunimatsu Hamada
• The second
  Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center (including economic administrator Georgy Pyatakov and highway administrator Leonid Serebryakov), who were charged with an anti-Stalin conspiracy.^[131]

• Prime Minister Milan Stojadinović of Yugoslavia and Prime Minister Georgi Kyoseivanov signed the "Treaty of Eternal Friendship".^[132]
• The Romanian language opera Horia, written by Nicolae Bretan with libretto by Ghita Popp was performed for the first time, with the premiere taking place at the Romanian National Opera House in Cluj.^[133]
• Died: A. J. Montague, 74, U.S. Congressman for Virginia since 1912 and former Governor of Virginia from 1902 to 1906, died at his home after having been in poor health since winning re-election to a 13th term.^[134]

January 25, 1937 (Monday)

• The
  NBC Radio at 4:45 in the afternoon Eastern time, initially as "a story which details the experiences of a minister in a melting pot community."^[135] The show's title came from the lamp that the show's protagonist, the Reverend John Ruthledge (voiced by Arthur Peterson Jr.), would turn on in his parsonage to let people know that he was always available to counsel them.^[136] The radio show continued until June 29, 1956, running concurrently with a CBS television show which premiered on June 30, 1952, running for 54 years until its final episode on September 18, 2009, 72 years after the premiere of radio show that began the series.^[136][137]
• A bus accident killed 23 of 32 passengers on the in the U.S. state of Florida, most of whom were tourists. The bus, operated by Tamiami Trail Tours, fell into a canal running alongside the Tamiami Trail road in the Florida Everglades.^[138]
• Born: Ange-Félix Patassé, Central African politician; in Paoua, Ubangi-Shari (now the Central African Republic) (d. 2011)
• Died:
  • Dimitri Navachine, 47, Russian economist and Soviet diplomat who guided the Soviet Union's financial matters until defecting to France in 1929, was stabbed to death while walking his dog in Paris.^[139][140]
  • Addison Burkhardt, 57, American playwright, screenwriter and lyricist, died of influenza.^[141]

January 26, 1937 (Tuesday)

• The Ohio River reached a crest of 79.99 feet (24.38 m) as it reached Cincinnati. Most of the region on the river in southern Ohio, northern Kentucky and southeastern Indiana was without electricity.
• The Japanese military declined to accept General
  Japanese Governor-General of Korea, as Prime Minister. To prevent Ugaki from forming a cabinet, the Imperial Army refused to allow any of its officers to serve as a Minister of War.^[142]
• The
  Free State of Prussia, effective April 1. Geesthacht and Cuxhaven were transferred to Prussia, while Altona, Wandsbek, and Harburg-Wilhelmsburg became part of Hamburg. The Free City of Lübeck was formally annexed to Prussia.^[143]
• Born: Joseph Saidu Momoh, President of Sierra Leone from 1985 to 1992; in Binkolo (d.2003)^[144]

January 27, 1937 (Wednesday)

• The 1935 salaries of Hollywood movie stars were made public as part of a Congressional study on salaries paid by corporations. Greta Garbo topped the list at $332,500, followed by Wallace Beery ($278,749), Joan Crawford ($241,403), William Powell ($238,750) and Clark Gable ($211,553).^[145]
• Britain's Labour Party disassociated itself from the "Socialist League", a group of Labour MPs who sought to move Labour further to the left and had launched a "Unity Campaign" to bring British left-wing organizations into a united front against Fascism. Members of the League were given the choice of either quitting the Labour Party or quitting the Socialist League, and most opted to stay with Labour.^[146]
• Born: John Ogdon, English pianist and composer; in Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire (d. 1989)

January 28, 1937 (Thursday)

• In a National Hockey League game between the Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Black Hawks, Canadiens star Howie Morenz, nicknamed "The Stratford Streak", caught his skate in the boards and broke four bones in his leg.^[147] Morenz was hospitalized and would die five weeks later, on March 8, from a blood clot.^[148][149]
• Born:
  • Ken Hill, British playwright and director known for his musicals, including Phantom of the Opera; in Birmingham (d. 1995 from cancer)
  • British India

January 29, 1937 (Friday)

• The Japanese aircraft carrier Sōryū entered service.
• The drama film The Good Earth, based on the novel of the same name by Pearl S. Buck, premiered in Los Angeles.^[150]
• Born: Bobby Scott, American jazz musician, record producer and songwriter; in Mount Pleasant, New York (d. 1990)
• Died: Aleen Cust, 68, Irish veterinary surgeon

January 30, 1937 (Saturday)

• On the fourth anniversary of becoming the Chancellor of Germany and leading his Nazi Party to control of the nation,
  Reichsbahn", nationalizing Germany's banks and its railways.^[152]
• Paul Freiherr von Eltz-Rübenach, the Reichspostminister (in charge of the postal service) and the Reichsminister für Verkehr (in charge of transportation) became the only remaining official in Hitler's cabinet who was not a member of the Nazi Party. At the cabinet meeting, Hitler personally presented the Golden Party Badge and party membership to those ministers not already enrolled. Eltz-Rübenach, a devout Roman Catholic who was concerned about the government's campaign against religion, declined the offer. He was told to submit his resignation.^[153] and was replaced two days later.
• The Trial of the Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center ended, and 13 of the 17 defendants were sentenced to execution by firing squad.^[154]
• The Associated Press reported a total of 333 known deaths across eight U.S. states from the recent flooding. 225 of the deaths were in Kentucky.^[155]
• Born:
  • Vanessa Redgrave, British actress and political activist; in Greenwich, London
  • Boris Spassky, chess grandmaster and former world champion from 1969 to 1972; in Leningrad, USSR
• Died: Georgy Pyatakov, 46, Ukrainian Communist leader, was executed.

January 31, 1937 (Sunday)

• German fuehrer Adolf Hitler issued a decree forbidding German nationals from accepting a Nobel Prize. The ban came shortly after the Nobel Foundation had awarded the Nobel Peace Price to Carl von Ossietzky, one of Hitler's political opponents.^[156]
• Born:
  • Philip Glass, American composer; in Baltimore, Maryland
  • Suzanne Pleshette, American TV and film actress; in New York City (d. 2008)

References