Top News Stories from 1932
World Events
U.S. Events
U.S. Statistics
President:
Herbert C. Hoover
Vice President:
Charles Curtis
Population:
124,840,471
More U.S. Statistics...
- Congress sets up Reconstruction Finance Corporation to stimulate economy.
- Charles A. Lindbergh 's baby son kidnapped, killed. (Bruno Richard Hauptmann arrested in 1934, convicted in 1935, executed in 1936.)
- Amelia Earhart is first woman to fly Atlantic solo (May 20-21). Background: Amelia Earhart's Legacy Remembered. Also see: Famous Firsts in Aviation
- Veterans, known as the Bonus Marchers , march on Washington—most leave after Senate rejects payment of cash bonuses; others removed by troops under Douglas MacArthur.
Economics
Federal spending:
$4.66 billion
Consumer Price Index:
$13.7
Unemployment:
24.1%
Cost of a first-class stamp:
$0.02 ($0.03 as of 7/6/32)
Sports
World Series
NY Yankees d. Chicago Cubs (4-0)Stanley Cup
Toronto d. NY RangersWimbledon
Women: Helen Moody d. H. Jacobs (6-3 6-1)Men: Ellsworth Vines d. H. Austin (6-4 6-2 6-0)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Burgoo KingNCAA Football Champions
USC (CFRA, NCF, HF) (10-0-0) & Michigan (DS) (8-0-0) 1932 Summer OlympicsEntertainment
Entertainment Awards
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction:
The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
Drama:
Of Thee I Sing, George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, and Ira Gershwin
Academy Award, Best Picture:
Grand Hotel (MGM)
Nobel Prize for Literature:
John Galsworthy (UK)
More Entertainment Awards...
Events
- Jazz composer Duke Ellington writes "It Don't Mean a Thing, If It Ain't Got That Swing," a song that presaged the swing era of the 1930s and 1940s.
- Manhattan's Radio City Music Hall opens.
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry:
Irving Langmuir (US), for work in realm of surface chemistry
Physics:
In 1933, the prize for 1932 was awarded to Werner Heisenberg (Germany), for creation of the quantum mechanics
Physiology or Medicine:
Sir Charles Sherrington (UK) and Edgar D. Adrian (US), for discoveries of the function of the neuron
More Nobel Prizes in 1998...
- Carl David Anderson discovers the positron, a subatomic particle.
- Physicists Sir John Douglas Cockcroft and Ernest Walton split the atom for the first time.
- James Chadwick discovers the sub-atomic neutron.