January 1932

The following events occurred in January 1932:

January 1, 1932 (Friday)

• The USC Trojans beat the Tulane Green Wave 21-12 in the 18th Rose Bowl Game.
• Mahatma Gandhi issued a statement notifying Indians to be ready to resume the civil disobedience campaign.^[1]
• Born: Tzaims Luksus, artist and fashion designer, in Chicago, Illinois
• Died: C. P. Scott, 85, British journalist, publisher and politician

January 2, 1932 (Saturday)

• Japanese forces in Manchuria captured Jinzhou.^[2]
• Two trains on the Kazan line near Moscow collided, killing 68 and injuring 131. The Soviet government initially suppressed news of the disaster.^[3]
• The shootout known as the Young Brothers Massacre occurred outside of Brookline, Missouri. The criminal family of Paul, Harry and Jennings Young gunned down six law enforcement officials who had gone to the family farm to arrest them for trying to sell a stolen car.^[4]
• Born: Jean Little, Canadian author, in Taiwan

January 3, 1932 (Sunday)

• A national manhunt commenced for the Young brothers.^[5]
• Born: Dabney Coleman, actor, in Austin, Texas

January 4, 1932 (Monday)

• Mahatma Gandhi was arrested and imprisoned in Yerwada Central Jail again.^[6]
• Jawaharlal Nehru was sentenced to two years hard labour.^[6]
• The Department of Commerce Building opened in Washington, the largest office building in the world at the time. From the beginning it was informally known as "Hoover's building" but in 1981 this became official when it was renamed the Herbert C. Hoover Building.^[7][8]
• In Aklavik in the Northwest Territories of Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police formed a seven-man posse to go after Albert Johnson, who by now had been dubbed in the media as the "Mad Trapper of Rat River".^[9]

January 5, 1932 (Tuesday)

• The Young brothers fatally shot each other in an apparent suicide pact after being surrounded by law enforcement in Houston, Texas.^[10]
• Poland and Greece signed a friendship treaty.^[11]
• Born: Johnny Adams, singer, in New Orleans, Louisiana (d. 1998); Umberto Eco, scholar and author, in Alessandria, Italy (d. 2016)

January 6, 1932 (Wednesday)

• Joseph Lyons became the 10th Prime Minister of Australia.
• Born: Stuart A. Rice, chemist, in New York City
• Died: Julius Rosenwald, 69, American businessman and philantrhropist

January 7, 1932 (Thursday)

• The U.S. government enunciated the Stimson Doctrine, telling Japan that it would not recognize Manchuria as Japanese territory.^[12]
• German Chancellor Heinrich Brüning asked Adolf Hitler to support a one-year extension of the presidential term of Paul von Hindenburg. The term was set to expire in May but Brüning wanted to save the country from the turmoil of a presidential election.^[13]
• Died: André Maginot, 54, French soldier and politician
• Died: Sir Mian Muhammad Shafi K.C.S.I, 62, of the prominent Arain Mian family of Baghbanpura, Lahore

January 8, 1932 (Friday)

• Sakuradamon Incident: Emperor Hirohito survived an assassination attempt when a bomb was thrown at his carriage. The assailant was identified as Korean independence activist Lee Bong-chang.^[14]
• Ailing French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand announced he was stepping down and retiring from politics.^[15]
• Navy Lieutenant Thomas H. Massie and socialite Grace Fortescue were arrested and charged with first degree murder in the death of Joe Kahahawai, a boxer who had been tried in the rape of Massie's wife in a case that ended in a hung jury. The murder led to the criminal case known as the Massie Trial.^[16][17]
• Died: Eurosia Fabris, 65, Italian beatified Catholic; Joseph Kahahawai, 22, Native Hawaiian boxer (murdered)

January 9, 1932 (Saturday)

• German Chancellor Heinrich Brüning announced that Germany would refuse to pay any more reparations, saying the present economic situation made it "impossible".^[18]
• The comedy film This Reckless Age starring Charles "Buddy" Rogers was released.
• The RCMP arrived at Albert Johnson's cabin and surrounded it, ordering him to give himself up. Johnson never spoke a word but opened fire from holes in the cabin walls when officers approached, and a standoff began.^[9]

January 10, 1932 (Sunday)

• British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald tried to prevent the cancellation or postponement of the Lausanne Conference on German reparations scheduled to open on January 25, saying it was "even more necessary than ever".^[19]
• 28 were injured in Karachi when police charged a crowd of independence demonstrators.^[20]
• More Hawaiians turned out for the funeral of murdered boxer Joseph Kahahawai than for any funeral since Liliuokalani, last queen of Hawaii, in 1917.^[17]
• The RCMP dynamited Albert Johnson's cabin. Unsure if Johnson was still alive, a flashlight tied to a stick was shone in the doorway. When gunfire shot out the flashlight, the police officers recognized that they were short on supplies and decided to return to Aklavik.^[9]

January 11, 1932 (Monday)

• Adolf Hitler and Alfred Hugenberg informed Chancellor Brüning that they would not agree to the proposed one-year extension of Hindenburg's presidential term.^[21]
• The Indian government issued an emergency decree forbidding all meetings of groups consisting of more than five people.^[22]
• Born: Takkō Ishimori, voice actor, in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan (d. 2013)

January 12, 1932 (Tuesday)

• The cabinet of Pierre Laval resigned In France, throwing the Lausanne Conference into even more uncertainty.^[23]
• Bulgaria joined Germany in declaring that it, too, was unable to pay any more reparations.^[24]

January 13, 1932 (Wednesday)

• The Sukkur Barrage opened in India.^[25]
• Born: Joseph Zen, Catholic Bishop of Hong Kong, in Shanghai
• Died: Ernest Mangnall, 66, English football manager; Sophia of Prussia, 61

January 14, 1932 (Thursday)

• Piano Concerto in G Major by Maurice Ravel was performed for the first time in the Salle Pleyel in Paris.^[26]

January 15, 1932 (Friday)

• Cinco Danzas Gitanas op.55 for piano by Spanish composer Joaquín Turina was first performed in Madrid.^[26]
• Born: Cleven "Goodie" Goudeau, art director and cartoonist, in Hillister, Texas (d. 2015)

January 16, 1932 (Saturday)

• Reichstag member Hermann Göring presented an ultimatum on behalf of Hitler and the entire Nazi Party to Chancellor Brüning, saying that they would withdraw their opposition to the extension of Hindenburg's presidential term if Brüning would resign.^[27]
• Hitler was acquitted in Berlin court of a charge of libel brought against him by Walter Stennes, but Der Angriff editor Julius Lippert was ordered to pay a fine of 300 marks for accusing Stennes of being a police spy.^[27][28]
• The ruins of Albert Johnson's cabin were found deserted. An Arctic manhunt for the "Mad Trapper" was now on.^[9]
• Born: Dian Fossey, zoologist, in San Francisco, California (d. 1985)

January 17, 1932 (Sunday)

• The Soviet government finally released information about the January 2 train disaster after wild rumors exaggerating the death toll became too widespread to ignore. Eleven rail workers stood accused of criminal negligence.^[3]
• The Bertolt Brecht play The Mother, based on the Maxim Gorky 1906 novel of the same name, premiered at the Komödienhaus am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin.^[29]
• Born: Sheree North, actress, dancer and singer, in Los Angeles (d. 2005)

January 18, 1932 (Monday)

• 2 were killed and 7 injured in fighting between Nazis and Communists in the Berlin borough of Reinickendorf. Police made 50 arrests.^[30]
• Born: Robert Anton Wilson, writer, in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2007)

January 19, 1932 (Tuesday)

• Ireland was hit with its worst flooding in thirty years.^[31]
• Jury selection began in the Winnie Ruth Judd murder trial in Phoenix, Arizona.^[32]

January 20, 1932 (Wednesday)

• The Lausanne Conference was postponed.^[33]
• Imperial Airways began regular service between London and Cape Town, South Africa, with a timetable allowing ten and a half days for the 8,000 mile flight.^[34]

January 21, 1932 (Thursday)

• The National Diet of Japan was dissolved and new elections were called.^[35]
• Finland and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact.^[36]
• The Volcán de Fuego erupted in Guatemala.^[37]
• Died: Lytton Strachey, 51, British writer and critic

January 22, 1932 (Friday)

• The Salvadoran peasant massacre occurred when a failed peasant-led rebellion was crushed by the government. Estimates of the number killed range from 10,000 to 40,000.^[38]
• The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was created in the United States.^[26]
• 34 reportedly died in the Volcán de Fuego eruption.^[39]
• The Brooklyn major league baseball team, which had never used an official nickname but had been referred to in recent seasons as the Robins, decided to become officially known as the Dodgers.^[40]
• Born: Piper Laurie, actress, in Detroit, Michigan

January 23, 1932 (Saturday)

• Franklin D. Roosevelt announced his candidacy for President of the United States by allowing a letter to be publicized in which he consented to have his name entered in the North Dakota primary.^[41]
• Born: George Allen, footballer, in Birmingham, England; Jack Gilbert Graham, mass murderer, in Denver, Colorado (d. 1957)

January 24, 1932 (Sunday)

• A prison riot broke out at HM Prison Dartmoor in England. 100 convicts gained control of the prison, setting the administrative block on fire and destroying prison records. Prisoners also tried to scale the walls, although no one escaped. Police were called in and the riot was put down within two hours. A total of about 20 people were hospitalized with injuries.^[42]
• Spain dissolved the country's Jesuit order and commanded all of its members to leave the country within ten days.^[43]
• Died: Sir Alfred Yarrow, 90, British shipbuilder

January 25, 1932 (Monday)

• The Soviet Union and Poland signed a non-aggression pact.^[44]
• A gas explosion at a mine in Llwynypia, Wales killed four miners, with the afterdamp killing another five miners and two would-be rescuers.^[45]
• The Defense of Harbin began in Manchuria.
• Dartmoor Prison was surrounded by troops and the nearby roads were barricaded, amid fears of a new outbreak of rioting.^[42][46]
• Born: Nikolay Anikin, skier, in Ishim, Tyumen Oblast, USSR (d. 2009)
• Died: James Paterson, 77, Scottish painter

January 26, 1932 (Tuesday)

• The British submarine HMS M2 sank near the Isle of Portland with the loss of all 60 crew.^[47]
• Adolf Hitler gave a famous speech to the Düsseldorf Industry Club assuring the country's business leaders that they had nothing to fear from a Nazi regime, as he stressed his belief in the importance of private property and the rewarding of enterprise.^[48][49]
• Seven of the eleven rail workers in the January 2 Soviet train disaster were found guilty of negligence and given varying prison terms of up to ten years.^[3]
• Born: Coxsone Dodd, record producer, in Kingston, Jamaica (d. 2004)
• Died: Edward Stinson, 38, American pilot and aircraft manufacturer (injuries from plane crash landing); William Wrigley, Jr., 70, American chewing gum industrialist and owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team

January 27, 1932 (Wednesday)

• The Prince of Wales was giving a speech on the economy in the Royal Albert Hall when a group of women interrupted with shouts of "Withdraw the forces from India!"^[50]

January 28, 1932 (Thursday)

• January 28 Incident: the Japanese bombed Shanghai on the pretext of stopping violent anti-Japanese demonstrations and boycotts.^[51]
• Born: Don McMichael, public servant, in Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia

January 29, 1932 (Friday)

• The Second Rhapsody by George Gershwin was performed in public for the first time, at the Symphony Hall in Boston.^[26]
• Born: Tommy Taylor, footballer, in Smithies, West Riding of Yorkshire, England (d. 1958)

January 30, 1932 (Saturday)

• Chiang Kai-shek sent a telegram to China's military commanders instructing them to prepare to defend China and "to fight for her national existence."^[52]
• The four defendants in the Massie murder case were released on bail.^[53]
• Prohibition ended in Finland.^[25]
• The posse hunting Albert Johnson caught up to him and engaged in a shootout. Johnson killed an officer and escaped again.^[9]
• Born: Kazuo Inamori, businessman and philanthropist, in Kagoshima, Japan; Knock Yokoyama, comedian and politician, in Kobe, Japan (d. 2007)
• Died: William Hodge, 57, American stage actor

January 31, 1932 (Sunday)

• The United States and Great Britain ordered warships to Shanghai to protect citizens of their respective countries living there.^[26][54][55]
• Died: Enrico Butti, 84, Italian sculptor

References