The following events occurred in July 1937:
July 1, 1937 (Thursday) Elections were held in the Irish Free State for the 138 seats of the Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas. The Fianna Fáil party of Prime Minister Éamon de Valera won 69 seats, exactly half but one short of the 70 needed for a majority, while the Fine Gael party of W. T. Cosgrave won 48. A constitutional referendum was held in Ireland at the same time, as 56.5% of voters approved the new constitution that would come into effect on December 29 and transform the Irish Free State into the Republic of Ireland, with a president replacing the Governor-General and completing the separation of the Free State from the United Kingdom. In the Spanish Civil War, the rebel Nationalists of Francisco Franco won the Biscay Campaign against the Republicans of the Spanish Second Republic. In Peru, archeologists Julio C. Tello and Toribio Mejía Xesspe rediscovered the ruins of Cerro Sechín in the Casma Province, more than 2500 years after it had flourished in the 16th century BC."Cerro Sechin: Medical Anthropology's Inauguration in Peru?", by Francis X. Grollig, in Advances in Andean Archaeology, ed. by David L. Browman (De Gruyter, 2011) p.352 Roman Catholic bishops in Spain issued a joint letter pledging their support for the Nationalists. German authorities arrested Martin Niemöller. The MacGregor Arctic Expedition began as an 11-man crew, led by U.S. Weather Bureau meteorologist Clifford J. MacGregor, set sail from Port Newark in the U.S. state of New Jersey, on the schooner A.W. Greely, bound for Nova Scotia in Canada. Died: William King, 46, player for the U.S. national rugby union team in 1912 and 1913
July 2, 1937 (Friday) Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan, continuing their attempt to fly around the world, departed from the Territory of New Guinea town of Lae with a destination of Howland Island, a distance of , with an expected flying time of 20 hours."Miss Earhart Starts Hop For Hawaiian Island", United Press report in Cedar Rapids (IA) Gazette, July 2, 1937, p.4 The two never arrived, disappearing somewhere over the Pacific Ocean . In England, the Holditch Colliery disaster killed 30 coal miners, mine inspectors and managers at the Brymbo Colliery in Chesterton, Staffordshire, in England."27 Die in Pit; Mother of 11 Widowed", Daily Mirror (London) July 3, 1937, p.1 Don Budge of the United States defeated Gottfried von Cramm of Germany in the gentlemen's singles final at Wimbledon. The first 24-hour guard for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery was posted at midnight; the changing of the guard has continuously been upheld uninterrupted since. At the direction of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, the Politburo of the Ukrainian Communist Party adopted Decision No. P51/94, titled "on anti-Soviet elements", and "suggesting" that "the secretaries of all provincial and district committees, as well as the representatives of the NKVD of all provincial and district committees and republics, should immediately arrest the criminals who return to their native regions and those who show the most hostile attitude," followed by a directive for the "planned shooting" of 500 criminals dissidents, and the deportation of 1,300 dissidents and 1,700 criminals, including family members to b deported. The oldest of Indonesia's wayang wong dance troupes, Ngesti Pandawa, was founded by Sastro Sabdo in Madiun, East Java. In Nampa, Idaho, in the U.S., a child set off a fireworks display in the shop window at a drugstore, killing six people and injuring 14 others."Fireworks Blast Kills 5, Hurts 18; Child Touches Off Explosion in Drug Store", Associated Press report in The Evening Sun (Baltimore), July 2, 1937, p.1 Born: Richard Petty, American stock car driver, NASCAR Series champion seven times (1964, 1967, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1979), holder of the NASCAR record for most races won (200); in Level Cross, North Carolina"Richard Petty", NASCAR Hall of Fame Inductees
July 3, 1937 (Saturday) Dorothy Round of the United Kingdom defeated Jadwiga Jędrzejowska of Poland, 6–2, 2–6, and 7–5, to win the ladies' singles final at Wimbledon. The Marine Parkway Bridge opened in Brooklyn, New York. Nikolay Oleynikov, the editor of Soviet children's magazine Sverchok (Cricket), was arrested on charges of being a counter-revolutionary against the Communist Party and the government of the USSR. After four months of imprisonment and torture, he was executed by firing squad on November 24, 1937. On the same day, Aleksandr Arosev, the former Soviet ambassador to Czechoslovakia and Chairman of the Society of Foreign Cultural Relations, was arrested on charges of counter-revolutionary activity; he would be executed on February 10, 1938. Born: Li Kwan-ha, the first ethnic Chinese Commissioner of Police for British Hong Kong, from 1989 to 1994; in Xinhui, Guangdong province, Republic of China (d.2017) Died: May Sybil Leslie, 49, English chemist known for her work with Marie Curie and Ernest Rutherford in measuring the decay of the radioactive elements thorium and actinium. Jacob Schick, 59, U.S. inventor of the electric razor, died of complications following kidney surgery. Lev Sosnovsky, 51, Soviet journalist and former press secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party, was executed eight months after his arrest on charges of being a member of a "Trotskyist terrorist organization"
July 4, 1937 (Sunday) Sir Oswald Mosley led 7,000 Blackshirts, members of his British Union of Fascists in a march from Kentish Town into London's to Trafalgar Square. A group of anti-fascists tried to push past the 2,383 police on hand, but order was generally maintained amid 27 arrests. An assassination attempt failed to harm Portugal's prime minister and dictator, António de Oliveira Salazar, who was stepping out of his limousine to attend Sunday mass at a chapel on Barbosa du Bocage Avenue in Lisbon. Although the bomb had been set in an iron case away, the blast did not injure Oliveira. Emídio Santana, an anarchist and founder of the National Syndicate of Metallurgists and leader of the attempted murder, fled to the United Kingdom but was turned back over to Portugal for trial, where he received a prison sentence. Representatives of Iran and Iraq signed the Treaty of Tehran, granting Iran some rights to use the Shatt al-Arab strait leading to the Persian Gulf. Born: Queen Sonja of Norway, queen consort since 1991 as wife of King Harald V; in Oslo
July 5, 1937 (Monday) Hormel Foods Corporation began selling the canned meat product Spam. The highest recorded temperature, up to that time, in Canada was measured at Yellow Grass and Midale, both in Saskatchewan as being . The record would stand for almost 84 years before being surpassed on June 27, 2021, at Lytton, British Columbia by a temperature of which hit . Two airlines, Imperial Airways of the UK and Pan American Airways of the U.S., both began test flights with long-range flying boats across the Atlantic Ocean."Big Flying Boats Complete Two-Way Atlantic Test Flights— Route Is Chartered for Commercial Ventures", The Ottawa Evening Citizen, July 6, 1937, p.1 Imperial's Short Empire airplane, Caledonia, departed from Foynes, County Limerick in Ireland toward Botwood, Newfoundland, flying trip in 15 hours and 9 minutes. Pan American's Clipper III, a Sikorsky S-42, had departed Botwood and landed in Foynes, after flying eastward in 12 hours and 40 minutes with the benefit of tailwinds. Neither airplane carried passengers or mail, and the two craft passed each other over the ocean. The flight demonstrated that airline passenger service between North America and Europe had become feasible. The Battle of Albarracín began in Spain and would continue for more than five weeks until being won by the Nationalists of Francisco Franco on August 11. Born: Wolf von Lojewski, German journalist, anchor for the TV news program heute-journal on ZDF; in Berlin Jo de Roo, Dutch bicyclist and winner of the Giro di Lombardia in 1962 and 1963; in Schore, Nita Melnikoff Lowey, U.S. Representative for New York for 22 years from 1989 to 2021 and the first woman to chair the House Appropriations Committee; in The Bronx (d.2025)
July 6, 1937 (Tuesday) The Battle of Brunete, a Spanish Civil War battle that which would lead to the deaths of as many as 22,000 dead and wounded over three weeks, was started by the Spanish Republic's forces to protect Madrid from capture by the Nacionalista rebels. When the battle began, the Nacionalistas were only from the Spanish capital.Hugh Thomas, The Spanish Civil War (London: Penguin Books, 1974) p.588 Born: Michael Sata, President of Zambia from 2011 to 2014; in Mpika, Northern Rhodesia (d. 2014) Vladimir Ashkenazy, Soviet Russian pianist and conductor; in Gorky, Soviet Union Ned Beatty, American actor; in Louisville, Kentucky (d. 2021) Gene Chandler (stage name for Eugene Dixon), American singer, songwriter and music producer known for the hit "Duke of Earl; in Chicago Died: Carlos Eugenio Restrepo, 69, President of Colombia from 1910 to 1914 Paul Dashiell, 69, American sports administrator who reformed U.S. college football while chairman of the Intercollegiate Rules Committee
July 7, 1937 (Wednesday) The Marco Polo Bridge Incident occurred in China, after the commander of the Wanping Fortress refused to allow Japanese troops to enter in order to search for a missing soldier, Private Shimura Kikujiro. With Wanping only from Beijing, fighting began the next morning at 4:50. The three-day battle marked the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War as China's Colonel Ji Xingwen ordered troops to prevent the Japanese from crossing the Marco Polo Bridge to attack. Britain's Peel Commission, chaired by Viscount Peel, published a report on the situation in Mandatory Palestine, recommending an end to the British mandate and a partition of the property into an Arab state and a Jewish state. The American League defeated the National League 8–3 in the 5th Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C.. Born: Tung Chee-hwa, Chinese politician and the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong after its transfer from British to Chinese control, from 1997 to 2005; in Shanghai Carroll Hubbard, U.S. Congressman for Kentucky for 18 years from 1975 to 1993, who was later incarcerated for two years for violations of U.S. federal campaign finance laws; in Murray, Kentucky (d. 2022) Nanami Shiono, Japanese historian and novelist; in Tokyo
July 8, 1937 (Thursday) Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan signed the Treaty of Saadabad, a non-aggression pact, at the Saadabad Palace in the Iranian capital, Tehran. The Teatro Gran Rex, the largest cinema in Argentina, opened in Buenos Aires. After being summonded to Moscow from Paris, Comintern executive Edward Prochniak, an official with the Communist Party of Poland was arrested upon arrival and charged with being an agent of a Polish anti-Soviet organization. Prochniak was imprisoned for six weeks and would be executed on August 21.
July 9, 1937 (Friday) A fire destroyed the film archive of 20th Century-Fox at its film storage facility in Little Ferry, New Jersey, destroying most of the silent films that had been produced by Fox Film Corporation. The blaze, caused by the spontaneous combustion of flammable nitrate film during hot weather, killed one person and injured two others. A film historian would describe the blaze as "the most tragic" nitrate fire in history in terms of the loss of irreplaceable films. Chinese diplomat Chen Jie, secretary of the Foreign Ministry, met with Japanese diplomat Hidaka Shinkuoru in an effort to stop an impending war between the two nations with both sides de-escalating the crisis that began earlier in the week with the Marco Polo Bridge incident. Chen's meeting was unsuccessful and a full-scale war broke out shortly afterward.