1937 indictment against Benjamin Heier, resulting from testimony he gave for the defense at the trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann. April 8. The Committee for Industrial Organization closed the General Motors Corporation plant in Oshawa and drew from Mitchell F. Hepburn, Premier of Ontario, formal notice that methods which had "brought the United States almost into a state of anarchy" would not be tolerated in Ontario. May 6. The dirigible balloon, Hindenburg. on its first 1937 trip from Germany was destroyed by fire and explosions, at 7:23 P.M., as it was about to tie up at the U. S. Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, N. J.; 36 of the 97 passengers were fatally burned, including the commander, Capt. Ernst Lehmann. May 12, George VI and his wife, Elizabeth, were crowned in Westminster Abbey, London, as King and Emperor and Queen and Empress. May 21. A Soviet airplane made a landing at the North Pole and established a permanent weather and scientific station for regular air communication between Russia and America by way of the polar region. After flying over the Pole at 11:10 A.M. the plane went on 15 miles further where it landed on a smooth area of an ice floe at 11:35 A.M. It had come 560 miles from Rudolf Island. The ice floe was 10 feet thick and kept on drifting. Supply planes followed later. The plane was piloted by M. V. Vodopyanoff. With him was Professor Otto J. Schmidt, head of the Northern Sea route. May 24. The International Paris Exposition of 1937 was opened by President Albert Lebrun, accompanied by Premier Leon Blum, May 28. The official London Gazette an nounced that the King had granted letters patent to the Duke of Windsor "to hold and enjoy for himself only the title, style or attribute of Royal Highness, so however that his wife and descendants, if any, shall not hold said title, style, or attribute." June 3. In Monts, France, the Duke of Windsor married Mrs. Wallis Warfield at the Chateau de Cande. The French civil ceremony was performed by the Mayor of Monts. This was followed by the marriage service of the Church of England, by the Rev. R. Jardine, vicar of St. Paul's, Darlington, England. In assembly, in Philadelphia, the Presbyterian Church of America, 65 to 24. rejected an overture calling upon its members to recognize and practice "total abstinence" from intoxicants as the "only true principle of temperance.' June 12. The Pan-American Exposition opened in Dallas, Tex. A $75,000 jeweled lock at the main gate, symbolic of international friendship, was opened by 21 girls, who inserted keys in the names of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Mexico, Texas and the United States. June 20. In Pennsylvania, the Bethlehem Steel Corporation started evacuation of its Cambria plant under orders of Governor Earle, who had declared martial law. Meantime the C.I.O. had called off the strike. July 2. Amelia Earhart Putnam. on an equatorial air trip around the world, who had left Lae, New Guinea, on July 1. radioed at 3.20 P.M. (E. D. T.) that she was over the Pacific with a half hour's fuel supply and not in sight of land, "position doubtful." That was the last message. U. S. government war ships and airplanes searched in vain for the plane and its two occupants. Aug. 3. Wreckage of a Pan American-Grace Airways flying boat, due from Cali. Colombia, with 11 passengers and a crew of 3, was found by a navy plane 20 miles at sea from Cristobal. Among the passengers were Rex Martin and G. O. Caldwell of the Bureau of Air Commerce, and T. J. Wakely jr., of the Nat'l. City Bk. branch in Santiago, Chile. Aug. 12. President Roosevelt nominated Senator Hugo Black of Alabama, to be As 1937 sociate Justice of the Supreme Court, filling the vacancy caused by the retirement of Justice Van Devanter. The nomination was approved 13 to 4 (King, D., Burke, D., Austin, R., Steiwer, R.) by the Senate judiciary Committee; it was confirmed by the Senate, 63 to 16, on Aug. 17. Aug. 12. A Russian airplane under command of Sigismund Levanevsky, left the Moscow flying field at 10:13 A.M., bound for Alaska, and the U. S. After passing over the Pole it radioed that one of its engines was dead, due to a damaged oil pipe. Sir Hubert Wilkins and other aviators flew over the Arctic regions for days in vain search for the missing plane and its occupants. In Moscow, on Feb. 27, 1939, Mikhall M. Voznesensky, ex-radio operator at the Rudolf Island station, was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for disrupting radio communications by a sit-down strike at the time Levanevsky and companions were on their flight and during the period of relief expeditions. Aug. 22. Near Cody, Wyo., 14 men were burned to death and 50 injured when fire fighters were trapped by flames in the Shoshone National Forest. The flames trapped Earl Davis, U. S. Bureau of Public Roads foreman, nine other bureau employees and about 40 CCC members. Sept. 19. More than 125,000 Mormon church members of the Salt Lake City region ate but one meal in order that the financial equivalent to the other meals might go to needy brothers and sisters. Oct. 1. In a radio address broadcast from a friend's house in Chevy Chase, Md., exSenator Hugo L. Black of Ala. (recently appointed by President Roosevelt to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court) declared that he joined the Ku Klux Klan "about 15 years ago" "later resigned" and never rejoined." He dropped the Klan he asserted "before becoming a Senator." He denied bias against Negroes, Jews or Roman Catholics, or against any race or creed. Oct. 12. In Beirut, Syria, J. Theodore Marriner, 45, the U. S. Consul General, was shot dead by an Armenian, Mejardich Karayan, who has a family living in the United States, and who told police his moLive had been revenge for a vice consul's refusal to grant him a visa. He was executed. Oct. 14. In Bartow, Fla., the jury by court order, acquitted the Tampa policemen (C. A. Brown, Jr., C. W. Carlisle, John Bridges, Arlie Gilliam, kleagle of the Orlando Klan; F. W. Switzer and Sam E. Crosby), who were on trial for second-degree murder following the fatal flogging of Joseph Shoemaker when he refused a Ku Klux Klan warning to leave town. The judge ruled that the State had not proved "the actual or constructive presence" of any of the men at the scene of the crime. Oct. 17. A 21-passenger United Air Lines plane, west-bound, which left Cheyenne, Wyo., with 19 persons aboard, at 6:25 P.M.. and was due in Salt Lake City at 8:42 P.M., crashed at 10,000 ft. altitude, into Chalk Mt., in the Uinta Range, south of Knight, Wyo. It was 15 miles south of its regular course, in a rain-snow storm. All were killed. Oct. 30. In California, the State Supreme Court, 5 to 1, rejected Thomas J. Mooney's plea for a writ of habeas corpus. Nov. 3. A resolution condemning the impending visit of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor to the United States with the announced purpose of studying labor conditions was adopted unanimously by the Baltimore Federation of Labor, a unit of the A. F. of L. The stated objection was labor hostility to Charles E. Bedaux, laborefficiency expert, sponsor of the tour, author of a production-speed-up system. Nov. 10. In Brazil, at Rio de Janeiro. President Getulio Vargas's Cabinet approved and put into immediate effect a new Constitution. Nov. 16. An airplane from Cologne bound for London hit in a fog, at 2:30 P.M., a factory chimney in descending near Ostend. Belgium: 8 passengers and 3 of the crew were killed. The passengers killed included Dowager and Grand Duchess Eleanore of Hesse bei Rhein, widow of the Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig, who died Oct. 9; Grand 1937 Duke George, 31, her son; Grand Duchess Cecilia, 26; Grand Duke George's wife, Nov. 24. The 9-power treaty conference, in Dec. 10. In a collision of two trains in Scot- -In Soviet Russia, the Congress, first under the new constitution, was chosen by secret popular vote. Dec. 20, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled, 7 to Dec. 23. The Cuban Amnesty bill was signed, 1938 Jan. 5. A U. S. bombing plane vanished off San Pedro, Calif., with 7 Navy men aboard; cadet flier S. P. Hawkins was lost in the search. Jan. 9. An Argentine plane crashed in Uru- Jan. 16. Insurgent planes from Majorca began Jan. 12. The first session of the U. S. S. R.'s King Carol of Rumania by proclamation abol- 1938 ashore, May 29, on Long Island Sound near New Rochelle. Mar. 2. Storms and floods in Southern California caused 81 deaths, of which 31 were in the Los Angeles area. Mar. 13. In Austria, after the resignation of Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg and President Wilhelm Miklas, the new Chancellor, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, proclaimed the political and geographic union of Germany and Austria. This was ratified by a popular vote, excluding Jews, in Austria on April 10. Meantime, Chancellor Adolf Hitler, at the head of German troops, which began to cross the frontier on March 11, had taken possession of Austria. The Italian Grand Council, headed by Premier Benito Mussolini, voted approval. In Moscow, in the treason trials, all of the 21 defendants were found guilty, of whom 18, including N. Bukharin, A. I. Rykoff, H. G. Yagoda, N. N. Kreitinsky, G. T Grinko and A. P. Rosengoltz, were sentenced to death and were shot; imprisonment was meted to C. G. Rakovsky (20 yrs.); S. A. Bessonor (15 yrs.), and Dr. D. D Pletnev (25 yrs.) In the Kazakhstan Republic 19 "traitors" were convicted and shot, including exKolumbetoff president U. and ex-chief prosecutor S. Yeskarayeff. Mar. 18. Mexico nationalized the petroleum industry. Mar. 21. President Roosevelt removed Arthur March 28. New Reform Government of Re- Apr. 11. Richard Whitney, 49, ex-president of the N. Y. Stock Exchange, and head of the collapsed bond brokerage firm of Richard Whitney & Co., Broad St., N. Y. City, was sentenced to 5 to 10 years in State Prison, on each of two indictments, to which he had pleaded guilty, which charged him with having misused $105,000 of the trust fund established by his father-in-law, the late George R. Sheldon, and with the theft of $109,000 from the fund of the N. Y. Yacht Club, of which he was treasurer. The sentences run concurrently. He entered Sing Sing prison on April 12. Apr. 25. Britain (The United Kingdom) and Eire (Ireland) signed an accord under which Britain gives up naval control (Admiralty property and rights) of the ports of Cobh (Queenstown), Bere Haven, and Lough Swilly; and Eire agrees to pay £10,000,000 by Nov. 20, 1938, in final settlement of Britain's claim to land annuities, default of which since 1932 led to the tariff war that has hurt Irish agriculture. These tariffs are now thereby abolished; Eire agrees to continue until 1987 annual payments covering damage to property during the land troubles, as provided in the Anglo-Irish agreement of 1925. The Dail Eireann approved, on April 29, the pact. May 4. The steamship (motorship) Lafayette, was destroyed by fire at Havre, France. She had arrived from New York on April 28, was in the drydock for an overhauling, and was scheduled to leave for New York. There was a strike on one of the company's other ships, the Champlain, and a sailor confessed to setting small fires on her on May 10. May 14. King Solomon's long-vanished seaport, where he built and operated ships and smelted copper, at the northern end of the eastern arm of the Red Sea, has been found buried under the sands near Aquaba, about half a mile from the present shore line. June 19. In a train wreck, due to a bridge collapse in a flooded creek in Montana, east of Miles City, 47 persons were killed. July 17. Douglas G. Corrigan, of Los Angeles, flew from Brooklyn across the Atlantic to Dublin, without permit or passport. July 26. In N. Y. City, John W. Wards, 26, a former bank clerk, ended an 11-hour stay on an 18-inch ledge and dived headlong to death at 10:38 P.M. from the 17th floor of the Hotel Gotham, in N. Y. City. July 29. The hydroplane Hawaii Clipper, with 15 aboard, for Manila, vanished when about 565 miles from there; 15 persons were lost. 1938 Sept. 5. In Santiago, Chile, more than 60 persons were killed and many wounded in a National Socialist uprising of students and others, who seized the university and barricaded themselves, also in the Workers Insurance Building, opposite the Presidential Palace. Sept. 21. High winds and consequent floods Nov. 7. Ernst vom Rath, third secretary of Nov. 30. The one-day general strike against was Dec. 6. France and Germany signed a pact for 1938 Lima, Peru. It closed on Dec. 27. Dec. 15. The Insurgent (Franco) Govern- Dec. 16. F. Donald Coster, head of the McKesson & Robbins, wholesale drug concern, who had been identified as Philip Musica, an ex-convict, shot himself to death in his home, Fairfield, Conn. Dec. 26. In Spain, the Insurgents captured the town of Borjas Blancas; on the 27th they took Alos de Balaguer; on the 31st they shelled Madrid, killing 44 persons. In China, the Japanese invaded South Shansi Province. 1939 Jan. 7. Thomas J. Mooney was pardoned by the Governor of California. He was serving a life sentence, consequent on the dynamiting. July 22, 1916, of the San Francisco Preparedness Day parade; Warren Billings, a life-termer in the same case, was set free on Oct. 17 by Gov. Olson, his sentence havin been commuted. Jan. 23. The Chaco Peace Conference adjourned permanently. Its first meeting was in Buenos Aires on July 1, 1935. The Treaty as to boundaries was made on July 21, 1938; the arbitral award, Oct. 10, 1938; the Bolivia-Paraguay pact for withdrawal of military forces, Dec. 28, 1938. Jan. 24. Earthquakes in central Chile caused Jan. 26. The Loyalist Spanish government Martin T. Manton, of New York, a Feb. 27. In Palestine, at Haifa and else- March 14. The Republic of Czecho-Slovakia April 18. The steamship, Paris, was ruined April 27. The British House of Commons authorized compulsory military training (conscription). April 30. The New York World's Fair opened, on the Flushing Meadows; closed Oct. 31; reopened May 11, 1940; closed Oct. 21. May 3. The Soviet Government announced that Maxim Maximovitch Litvinov, 59. 1939 Commissar for Foreign Affairs, since 1929, had retired at his own request and had been succeeded by Vyacheslav M. Molotov, 49, President of the Council of People's Commissars. May 7. An open military as well as a political alliance between Germany and Italy was announced in Berlin and Rome; on May 22, in Berlin, Germany and Italy signed, in the presence of. Chancellor Hitler, a 10-year military pact, article III of which says: "If contrary to the wishes and hopes of the contracting parties it should happen that either of them should become involved in military entanglements with one other power or with other powers, the other contracting party will immediately rally to his side as ally and support him with all his military resources on land, at sea, and in the air." May 11. In Chicago, an elevator fire destroyed several lives and 4,100,000 bushes of grain. May 11. Fighting began between Japanese (Manchukuo) and Mongol (Soviet) troops on the border southeast of Lake Bor. This frontier fight lasted for six months and cost over 20,000 lives before the border agreement was reached. May 17. The Canada-United States tour of King George and Queen Elizabeth began when the Royal party landed in Quebec from the steamship, Empress of Australia. They went to the west coast and back, they entered the United States at Niagara Falls, June 7, visited the Roosevelts in Washington, June 8-9; saw New York City and the World's Fair June 10; were lodged by the Roosevelts at Hyde Park, June 10-11; returned to Canada by Rouse's Point, continued by train to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, and got back to London, June 22. May 22. Thomas J. Pendergast, 67, a Democratic leader, pleaded guilty, in the U. S. Court, Kansas City, Mo., to income tax evasion, and was sentenced to 1 year 3 months in prison and a fine of $10,000. E. O'Malley, ex-State Insurance Superintendent, who also pleaded guilty to tax evasion, was sentenced May 27 to a year and a day in prison. R. June 1. The Townsend old-age pension bill was defeated in the U. S. House. 302 to 97. Those in favor of the plan included 40 Democrats, 55 Republicans, 1 Farmer-Laborite, and 1 Progressive. was was July 26. The Leeds-Liverpool Canal blocked by a terrorist bomb explosion. Aug. 13. A 13-car passenger train from Chicago, bound for the West Coast, wrecked in a canyon of the Humboldt River, west of Elko, Nav.; 24 killed, over 100 hurt. The accident was attributed by the Interstate Comerce Commission to sabotage. Aug. 15. The United States Government paid $44,728,300 for the properties of the Tennessee Electric Power Co. The distribution facilities were sold to 35 cities, towns, and electric cooperatives for an added $34,321,700. In Palestine, bombing and shootings killed scores in a month in the Jerusalem area. Aug. 21. While the British and French military missions still were in Moscow, the German Government announced that the trade agreement of Aug. 19 between the Reich and Soviet Russia had been followed by an agreement to conclude a mutual nonaggression pact. The pact was put in official form under date of Aug. 23, in Moscow, and was signed there early on Aug. 24. The treaty runs for 10 years. Each country is bound to refrain from any act of force against the other and will not support warlike acts against either by a third power. The Sept. 1. Germany began to send armed troops across the border into Poland, and into Pomerania, Silesia and East Prussia. City of Danzig joined the Reich. Sept. 3. Prime Minister Chamberlain announced in Parliament that a state of war between Great Britain and Germany had begun at 11 A.M. (6 A.M. New York time). Australia and New Zealand followed suit. France also declared a state of war. Canada did likewise. In a radio proclamation to the world, Prime Minister Chamberlain stated that the "reasonable proposals" 1939 which Chancellor Hitler had broadcast on Aug. 31 were never shown to the Poles or to Britain or France. Hitler, he declared, "can be stopped only by force." The "state of war" had come to pass, he asserted, because Germany had refused a British ultimatum delivered to Berlin two hours earlier demanding recall of German soldiers from Polish territory. Cracow was captured on Sept. 6; Gdynia, Sept. 14; Russia invaded Poland, Sept. 16; Warsaw was taken by the Germans, Sept. 27. Sept. 22. Several hundred persons were killed. 1,000 buildings were ruined and 5,000 were left homeless by earthquakes in the region of Smyrna, Turkey. Oct. 5. The military court (court martial) on Governors Island that had been trying Grover C. Bergdoll, Philadelphia World War draft dodger, found him guilty of escape and desertion and fixed his sentence at three years in prison at hard labor, in addition to the 5-year term he is working out. Oct. 6 Chancellor Hitler told the Reichstag there was no longer any real excuse for a prolongation of the war to the destruction of more lives and property. He announced Germany's wish for peace and readiness to take part in a conference to draft and guarantee a statute to that end. He closed by saying: "and let those who consider war to be the better solution reject my outstretched hand." On Sept. 7 the first British troops arrived in France. Again, on Oct 10. Hitler said in the Reichstag: "I have given expression to our readiness for peace. Germany has no cause for war against the Western powers. They have recklessly provoked a war on the flimsiest grounds. If they reject our readiness for peace then Germany is determined to take up the battle and fight it out-this way or that.' Nov. 8. The Centennial Fair opened, Wellington, New Zealand. Nov. 16. Al Capone, who had served more than 7 years for federal income tax evasion, was formally released from prison by the United States Department of Justice, and went into a hospital in Baltimore for treatment. Nov. 23. New York and 24 other States observed Thanksgiving Day, as per the Proclamation of President Roosevelt which set it a week ahead of the usual date. In Boston, Governor L. O. Barrows, of Maine, waved aside the bird he was to carve at the Maine banquet of the annual New England conference, drew a can of sardines from his pocket and ate them for dinner." Nov. 29. In General Sessions Court, N. Y. City, a jury convicted Fritz Kuhn, 42. leader of the German American Bund, of grand larceny and forgery. It was alleged he had taken $717 from the Bund to ship across the country furniture of Mrs. Florence Camp. It was also alleged that he had committed larceny and forgery in listing on the bund's book the sum of $500 as having been paid to J. D. C. Murray for legal services. Kuhn was sentenced to 21⁄2 to 5 years in Sing Sing. Nov. 30. Russia invaded Finland. Dec. 11. The U. S. Supreme Court outlawed wire-tapping evidence. Explosions in a cellulose plant near Brachto in Transylvania, killed 50 persons. Dec. 17. The German battleship, Graf Spee. was blown up by her officers just after leaving Montevideo, Uruguay; 2 days later the crew of the 32,581 German passenger line. Columbus, scuttled her 450 miles east of Cape May, N. J. in Dec. 20. Louis (Lepke) Buchalter, convicted in the U. S. Court, N. Y. City, of conspiracy to violate the narcotic laws, was fined $2,500 and was sentenced to 14 years prison followed by 10 years probation. Dec. 22. Two train collisions killed 223 persons in Germany. Dec. 24. The Pope made public a 5-point program for lasting peace. Dec. 27. Earthquakes and floods in northern Anatolia, Turkey, in the Black Sea region, destroyed 50,000 lives, 100,000 homes, and much live stock. Dec. 28. Pius XII returned the visit of King Victor Emmanuel to the Vatican. It was the first Papal appearance in the Quirinal in nore than 70 years. 648 1940 Jan. 14. In N. Y. City the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested 17 members of the Christian Front, on charges of plotting to overthrow the Government. The cases came to naught in the court. Jan. 27. The Spanish Government restored to Feb. 5. At Chungking, Gen. Chiang Kai- March 11. In Brooklyn, in the County Court, March 30. The Japanese-supported govern- April 2. Taking of the 1940 United States April 15. In the Valley of the River Plata, in April 23. Fire and panic in a vine-sheathed Fire in the City Hall, Sandona, Colombia, The U. S. Senate, 45 to 36, passed the bill ter- May 13. Queen Wilhelmina and her daughter -May 15. At the United States Navy Yard, Kit 1940 tery, Me., while four survivors of the Squalus disaster stood at attention on deck, the submarine was recommissioned as the Sailfish. May 17. German armored forces in Belgium conquered Brussels, and, after bitter fighting, they took Louvain and Malines. The Belgium government was shifted to Ostend. on the Channel Coast. Through breaks in the Maginot line in Northern France the invaders reached the vicinity of Avesnes and Vervins. President Roosevelt pardoned and restored all May 18. In France, the Germans, using over An armed posse disguised as policemen broke June 14. The Germans entered Paris, unopposed, all French troops having been withdrawn. Led by tanks, followed by motorized divisions and then by infantry, the Reich Army marched along the Champs Elysees. Many shops were closed and shuttered. The French Government moved from Tours to Bordeaux. -Spanish troops took control of Tangier, in North Africa, opposite the Straits of Gibraltar, with consent of France, Britain and Italy, which was given. Germany said, after the move was made. The United States announced it would insist on its extra-territorial rights in Tangier under its 1906 treaty. June 15. Berlin reported that the Maginot Line had been wholly cut off by a German troops column that penetrated to the French-Swiss border, so that no continuous |