May 15, 1932: Japan's Prime Minister Inukai assassinated in TokyoMay 6, 1932: France's President Paul Doumer assassinated in ParisMay 4, 1932: Al Capone enters U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta as Prisoner #40886
The following events occurred in May 1932:
May 1, 1932 (Sunday)
Three people died in May Day riots during workers' demonstrations around the world, though reports of violence were down from previous years.[1]
In Bologna, the first edition of the Sport Lictorian Games begins; 2000 undergraduates, members of the GUF (Fascist University Groups) take part to the contest.[2]
Baltimore repealed its 200-year-old blue law which prohibited Sunday movie showings, sporting events, and men kissing their wives.[3]
The Canada Dry Program, the first radio show to be hosted by Jack Benny, went on the air.[4]
The U.S. Supreme Court decided Nixon v. Condon, ruling that political parties did not have the right to determine who could vote in a primary election to determine the political candidates. On March 7, 1927, the Court had ruled in Nixon v. Herndon that a Texas law that had provided that "in no event shall a negro be eligible to participate in a Democratic party primary election held in the State of Texas" was unconstitutional. The state legislature then passed a new law leaving the matter to the political parties themselves. Dr. Lawrence A. Nixon, an African American physician who had been barred from the 1924 primary, challenged the new law after having been barred from the 1928 primary.
The judge in the Massie Trial sentenced the defendants to 10 years in prison, but Governor Lawrence M. Judd reduced the sentences to just one hour.[5]
The 1932 Pulitzer Prizes were awarded. Of Thee I Sing became the first musical to ever win the Prize for drama.[6] Journalist Walter Duranty of The New York Times won for his coverage of the Soviet Union, an award that became very controversial starting in the 1980s as historians began criticizing Duranty for presenting an uncritical view of Stalin's government and denying widespread reports of the famine there.[7][8]Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth won the Prize for fiction.
A 32-year-old prostitute was found murdered in her apartment in the Atlas area of Stockholm, Sweden. Police spokesmen claimed that the killer had drunk the victim's blood, and the press nicknamed the murderer the Atlas Vampire as a result. The case was never solved.[11]
In Ferrara, the second "Conference of unionist and corporatist studies", promoted by the Fascist government, began. In the debate, socialist ideas emerged; the philosopher Ugo Spirito proposed the “incorporation” of bolshevism by fascism.[13]
French President Paul Doumer was shot and fatally wounded by Russian émigréPaul Gorguloff at a book fair in Paris. Doumer was rushed to hospital but died the next morning.[14]
U.S. President Herbert Hoover vetoed a bill that would have allowed civilians who served in the Quartermaster Corps to stay in old soldiers' homes, explaining it would set a precedent for similar benefits to be expanded to include other civilians.[21]
Four thousand relief workers in New Zealand marched on parliament in Wellington demanding the repeal of the Unemployment Amendment Act, which increased the levy of income other than salaries and wages. Public Works Minister Gordon Coates announced that the crowd would have to wait a day for a government response, which sparked a riot. Over 200 windows were smashed and some shops were looted before police gained control of the city centre.[22]
President Lebrun
Albert François Lebrun became the new President of France following the assassination of Paul Doumer .[23]
In San Diego, the dirigible USS Akron, during an attempted landing, suddenly lurched upward, carrying with it four sailors who were handling its lines. Of the four unfortunate men, one suffered a broken arm, two fell to their deaths, and the fourth, C. M. Cowart, was rescued after dangling for nearly two hours.[25]
Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. on the May 2 cover of Time magazine
The body of Charles Lindbergh, Jr., who had been kidnapped from his home on March 1, was found less than five miles from the Lindbergh home. The condition of the body indicated that the child had been murdered, and quite some time ago.[26]
German Reichstag President Paul Löbe suspended four Nazi legislators from the chamber for 30 days after they had assaulted a journalist in the building's lobby. When the four members refused to leave the building, Löbe shut down the entire Reichstag session.[27]
Former king Alfonso XIII of Spain, visiting his son at port in France in Marseilles, was attacked without warning by a Spanish republican who struck him several times in the face before being apprehended.[29]
Japanese Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi was assassinated by a group of young naval officers and army cadets, while other groups tried to attack the police headquarters and power station of Tokyo.[32]
German pilot Hans Bertram and his mechanic Adolph Klausmann disappeared in northern Australia during a round-the-world goodwill trip.[33]
Fifty-four people were killed when a fire broke out aboard the ocean liner MS Georges Philippar, which was out to sea, 145 miles (233 km) off of the coast of Africa near Cape Guardafui, Italian Somaliland. The other passengers were rescued by ships in the area.[34]
Died:Albert Londres, 47, French journalist, was killed in the Georges Philippar fire.
May 17, 1932 (Tuesday)
British Indian troops put down four days of Hindu-Muslim race rioting in Bombay by firing on the crowds. A total of 88 people died in the riots.[35]
John Hughes Curtis, a boat-builder who offered his services to Charles Lindbergh, pretending to be in touch with his son's kidnappers, was arrested for obstruction to justice, after having confessed that it all had been a hoax.[36]
Italy's leader Benito Mussolini opened the first International Convention of Trans-Oceanic Flyers in Rome, as 51 aviators met to discuss the prospects of commercial air travel across the ocean.[45] The news about the Lindbergh kidnapping and the death of the Hungarian aviator Gyorgy Endresz and of his partner in a landing crash at the Littorio Airport darken the event.[46]
By a vote of 228 to 69, the U.S. House of Representatives rejected a bill that would have legalized beer with a 2.75% alcohol content and placed a federal tax on the beverage.[47]
In Geneva, Albert Einstein urged all pacifists in the world to demand complete disarmament over the next five years.[48]
Germany's Nazi legislators introduced a motion to the Reichstag's committee on foreign affairs requesting that the government warn the "Polish republic that any attack against Danzig would be considered by Germany as an attack on the vital rights of Germany and would be answered as such." The motion passed, 11 to 10.[49]
A brawl broke out in the Prussian Landtag in which eight deputies were wounded in fighting between Nazis and Communists. The fighting started when Wilhelm Pieck of the Communists called out that there were murderers among the Nazi seats of the chamber.[51]
Official visit in Rome of the Turkish Prime Minister Ismet Inonu and of the Foreign Minister Tevfik Rustu Aras.Turkey and Italy extended their non-aggression pact of 1928 for another five years and made arrangements to improve trade relations.[52]
A policeman and a communist were killed during a food riot in Hamburg.[53]
The National Police Gazette, which had gone into bankruptcy in February, was purchased for $545 by an anonymous party who intended to resume publication.[54]
Died: Japanese Army General Yoshinori Shirakawa, 64, died of wounds sustained from a bomb thrown at a reviewing stand in Shanghai on April 29.
May 27, 1932 (Friday)
The steamer Grecian sank off Block Island, Rhode Island with the loss of four crew, after colliding in a fog with the liner City of Chattanooga.[55][56]
Germany's Nazi Party won 24 out of 48 seats in state elections in Oldenburg, obtaining an absolute majority in a German state for the first time.[59][60]
Veterans of the First World War known as the Bonus Army Marchers began gathering in Washington, D.C., urging Congress to pass a bill allowing them to borrow against their future bonus.[61][62]
For the first time, petroleum was discovered on the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf. The news of the first well in Bahrain shocked the oil industry, and suggested the possibility of much greater reserves on the mainland of the Arabian Peninsula.[69]
^Grant, Thomas D. (2004-07-31). Stormtroopers and Crisis in the Nazi Movement: Activism, Ideology and Dissolution. New York: Routledge. ISBN978-1-134-64501-5.
^"'Veteran Bonus' Army Arrives in Washington". Chicago Daily Tribune. May 30, 1932. p. 6.
^Sterling, Mary Elling (2004). The Thirties. Teacher Created Resources. p. 31. ISBN978-1-57690-025-3.
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