1932 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government">Federal government of the United States">Federal Government

• President: Herbert Hoover
• Vice President: Charles Curtis
• Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: John Nance Garner
• Senate Majority Leader: James Eli Watson
• Congress: 72nd

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January–March

• January 1 - The United States Post Office Department issues a set of 12 stamps commemorating the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birth.
• January 12 - Hattie W. Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate.
• February 2 – The Reconstruction Finance Corporation begins operations in Washington, D.C.
• February 4 – The 1932 Winter Olympics open in Lake Placid, New York.
• February 15 - Clara, Lu & Em, generally regarded as the first daytime network soap opera, debuts in its morning time slot over the Blue Network of NBC Radio, having originally been a late evening program.
• March 1 - Charles Lindbergh, Jr., the infant son of Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Charles Lindbergh, is kidnapped from the family home near Hopewell, New Jersey.
• March 7 - Four people are killed when police fire upon 3,000 unemployed autoworkers marching outside the Ford River Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan.

  April–June

• April 6 – U.S. president Herbert Hoover supports armament limitations.
• May 12 - Ten weeks after his abduction, the infant son of Charles Lindbergh is found dead just a few miles from the Lindberghs' home.
• May 20–21 - Amelia Earhart flies from the US to Derry, Northern Ireland in 14 hours 54 minutes.
• May 29 - The first of approximately 15,000 World War I veterans arrive in Washington, D.C. demanding the immediate payment of their military bonus, becoming known as the Bonus Army.
• June 6 -
• * The Revenue Act of 1932 is enacted, creating the first gas tax in the United States at 1 cent per US gallon sold.
• * The 6.4 Eureka earthquake affected the north coast of California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII. Three people were injured and one was killed.
• June 29 - The comedy serial Vic and Sade debuts on NBC Radio.

  July–September

• July 8 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, bottoming out at 41.22.
• July 28 - U.S. President Herbert Hoover orders the U.S. Army to forcibly evict the Bonus Army of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, D.C.. Troops disperse the last of the Bonus Army the next day.
• July 30
• *The 1932 Summer Olympics open in Los Angeles.
• *Walt Disney's Flowers and Trees, the first animated cartoon to be presented in full Technicolor, premieres in Los Angeles, California. It releases in theaters, along with Eugene O'Neill's experimental play Strange Interlude, and will go on to win the first Academy Award for Best Animated Short.
• August - A farmers' revolt begins in the Midwestern United States.
• August 7 - Raymond Edward Welch becomes the first one-legged man to scale New Hampshire.
• August 10 - A 5.1 kg chondrite-type meteorite breaks into at least 7 fragments and strikes earth near the town of Archie in Cass County, Missouri.
• August 31 - A total solar eclipse is visible from northern Canada through northeastern Vermont, New Hampshire, southwestern Maine, and the Capes of Massachusetts.

  October–December

• October 2 - The New York Yankees defeat the Chicago Cubs, 4 games to 0, to win their 4th World Series Title.
• October 15 – The Michigan Marching Band debuts Script Ohio at the Michigan versus Ohio State game in Columbus.
• October 23 - Fred Allen's radio comedy show debuts on CBS.
• November 1 - The San Francisco Opera House opens.
• November 7 - Buck Rogers in the 25th Century airs on American radio for the first time.
• November 8 - U.S. presidential election, 1932: Democratic Governor of New York Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats Republican President Herbert Hoover in a landslide victory.
• November 16 - New York City's Palace Theatre fully converts to a cinema, which is considered the final death knell of vaudeville as a popular entertainment in the United States.
• November 24 - In Washington, D.C., the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory officially opens.
• December 27 - Radio City Music Hall opens in New York City.

  Undated

• Unemployment in the USA - c. 33% - 14 million.
• The Republican Citizens Committee Against National Prohibition is established for the repeal of prohibition in the U.S.
• Maxwell House Haggadah first distributed.

  Ongoing

• Lochner era
• U.S. occupation of Haiti
• Prohibition
• Great Depression
• Dust Bowl

  Births

January

• January 1
• *Tzaims Luksus, American artist and fashion designer
• *Jackie Parker, American football player and coach
• January 3 – Dabney Coleman, American actor
• January 5 – Johnny Adams, American singer
• January 6 – Stuart A. Rice, American chemist
• January 9 – Robert F. Taft, American Jesuit priest
• January 15 – Cleven "Goodie" Goudeau, American art director and cartoonist
• January 16 – Dian Fossey, American primatologist
• January 19 – Harry Lonsdale, American chemist, businessman and politician
• January 22 – Piper Laurie, American actress

  February

• February 2 – Robert Mandan, American actor
• February 3 – Peggy Ann Garner, American actress
• February 4 – Herman D. Farrell Jr., American politician
• February 7
• * Gay Talese, American literary journalist
• * Alfred Worden, American astronaut
• February 8 – John Williams, American film music composer
• February 10
• * Rockin' Dopsie, American zydeco singer and accordion player
• * Robert Taylor, American computer scientist
• February 11 – Jerome Lowenthal, American pianist
• February 12 – Julian Simon, American economist and author
• February 13 – Susan Oliver, American actress
• February 14 – Leo Thorsness, American war veteran and politician
• February 16
• * Harry Goz, American actor
• * Gretchen Wyler, American dancer, actress and animal rights activist
• February 22 – Ted Kennedy, American politician
• February 23
• * Majel Barrett, American actress
• * Bill Bonds, American television newscaster
• February 24 – Zell Miller, American politician
• February 25 – Faron Young, American country singer
• February 26 – Johnny Cash, American country singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor and author
• February 27 – Elizabeth Taylor, English-American film actress
• February 29 – Gene H. Golub, American mathematician

  March

• March 2
• * Sterling Stuckey, American historian
• * Frank E. Petersen, African-American Marine Corps aviator
• March 4 – Ed Roth, American car designer
• March 5 – Earl Woods, African-American army officer
• March 7 – Ed Thrasher, American art director and photographer
• March 11 – Leroy Jenkins, African-American jazz musician and composer
• March 12 – Andrew Young, African-American politician, diplomat and activist
• March 14
• * Jane Maas, advertising executive and author
• * Mark Murphy, American jazz singer
• March 15 – Alan Bean, American naval officer and naval aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut
• March 16 – Walter Cunningham, American astronaut
• March 17 – Donald N. Langenberg, American physicist and professor
• March 18 – John Updike, American novelist and poet
• March 20 – Tod Dockstader, American composer
• March 21 – Walter Gilbert, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• March 22 – Leo Welch, American blues musician
• March 27 – Junior Parker, African-American blues musician
• March 29 – Al Bianchi, American basketball player
• March 31 – Thomas Beers, co-founder of the needle-pointing business Sudberry House

  April

• April 1
• * Gordon Jump, American actor
• * Debbie Reynolds, American actress, singer and dancer
• April 2 – Edward Egan, American cardinal
• April 4
• * Richard Lugar, American politician
• * Anthony Perkins, American actor
• April 5 – Clemmie Spangler, American billionaire businessman and academic administrator
• April 7
• * Del Monroe, American actor
• * Cal Smith, American country music singer
• April 9
• * Jim Fowler, American zoologist
• * Paul Krassner, American author, journalist, comedian and editor
• * Carl Perkins, American rock singer
• April 10 – Blaze Starr, American burlesque artist
• April 11 – Joel Grey, born Joel Katz, American actor, singer and dancer
• April 12 – Tiny Tim, American musician
• April 13 – Dick Farley, American basketball player
• April 14 – Loretta Lynn, American country singer
• April 21 – Elaine May, American film director
• April 22 – Red Davis, American basketball player
• April 23 – Halston, American fashion designer
• April 26 – Red Morrison, American basketball player
• April 27 – Casey Kasem, American disc jockey and actor

  May

• May 4 – Susan Brown, American actress
• May 7 – Pete Domenici, American politician
• May 8 – Sonny Liston, American boxer
• May 11 – John Vasconcellos, lawyer and politician
• May 16 – Bill Pulte, American real estate developer
• May 17 – Chris Ballingall, American baseball player
• May 22 – Robert Spitzer, American psychiatrist
• May 25
• * Roger Bowen, American comedic actor and novelist
• * John Gregory Dunne, American novelist
• * K. C. Jones, African-American basketball player and coach
• May 29 – Paul R. Ehrlich, American biologist

  June

• June 4 – John Drew Barrymore, American actor
• June 6 – David Scott, American astronaut
• June 10
• * Bennett Johnston, American politician
• * Gardner McKay, American actor
• June 12 – Rona Jaffe, American novelist
• June 15 – Mario Cuomo, American politician
• June 18 – Dudley R. Herschbach, American chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986
• June 21
• * Gene White, defensive back in the National Football League
• * O. C. Smith, American musician
• June 23 – Jim Granberry, American politician
• June 24 – Scott Marlowe, American actor
• June 25
• * Julian Robertson, American billionaire former hedge fund manager
• * Hank Cicalo, American recording engineer
• June 26
• * Don Valentine, American influential venture capitalist
• * Marvin York, American politician
• June 27
• * Eddie Kasko, American Major League Baseball
• * Anna Moffo, American operatic soprano
• June 28 – Pat Morita, Asian-American actor
• June 29 – Alice Langtry, American politician

  July

• July 1
• * Rod Driver, American professor of mathematics
• * Joseph Duffey, American academic, educator and political appointee
• July 2 – Dave Thomas, American fast-food entrepreneur
• July 3 – William J. Taylor, American politician
• July 4 – Otis Young, African-American actor
• July 5
• * Alan Cooke Kay, American lawyer and judge
• * Victor Saul Navasky, American journalist, editor and academic
• July 8 – John Pascal, American writer
• July 9 – Donald Rumsfeld, American politician, 13th & 21st United States Secretary of Defense
• July 12
• * Otis Davis, African American 400 m runner
• * Monte Hellman, American film director, producer, writer and editor
• July 16
• * Tim Asch, American anthropologist, photographer and ethnographic filmmaker
• * Gary Bergen, American basketball player
• * Bill Byrge, American character actor and comedian
• * Max McGee, American football player
• * Ron Marciniak, American football guard in the National Football League
• * Dick Thornburgh, American lawyer and Republican politician
• July 17 – Karla Kuskin, American children's writer and illustrator
• July 20 – Dick Giordano, American comic book artist and editor
• July 21
• * Norman Geisler, American Christian author, theologian and philosopher
• * Ernie Warlick, American football player
• July 29 – Nancy Landon Kassebaum, American politician
• July 31 – John Searle, American philosopher

  August

• August 1 – Meir Kahane, American-born Israeli rabbi and ultra-nationalist writer and political figure
• August 2
• * John Cohen, American folk musician and photographer
• * Lamar Hunt, American sports promoter
• August 3 – Bob Carney, American basketball player
• August 5 – Ja'Net DuBois, American actress, singer, dancer
• August 7 – Maurice Rabb Jr., African-American ophthalmologist
• August 8
• * John Culver, American politician
• * Mel Tillis, American country singer
• August 12 – Charlie O'Donnell, American game show announcer
• August 14 – James V. Hansen, American politician
• August 15
• * Abby Dalton, American actress
• * Robert L. Forward, American science fiction author and physicist
• * Jim Lange, American-Canadian disc jockey and game show host
• August 21 – Melvin Van Peebles, African-American actor, filmmaker, playwright, novelist and composer

  September

• September 1 – Sunny von Bülow, American socialite
• September 3 – Eileen Brennan, American actress and singer
• September 5 – Carol Lawrence, American actress, singer and dancer
• September 6 – Marguerite Pearson, American baseball player
• September 8 – Patsy Cline, American country singer
• September 11 – Bob Packwood, American politician
• September 13 – Whitey Bell, American basketball player
• September 26
• * Donna Douglas, American actress
• * Richard Herd, American actor
• September 27 – Oliver E. Williamson, American economist

  October

• October 1 – Albert Collins, African-American blues guitarist and singer
• October 4
• * Stan Dragoti, American film director
• * Felicia Farr, American actress and model
• October 9
• * David Plowden, American photographer
• * Judy Tyler, American actress
• October 11 – Dottie West, American country music singer and songwriter
• October 12
• * Jake Garn, American politician
• * Dick Gregory, African American comedian and civil rights activist
• * Ned Jarrett, American racing driver and broadcaster
• October 13
• * Ed Kalafat, American basketball player
• * Jean Edward Smith, American political scientist and biographer
• * John G. Thompson, American mathematician
• October 17 – Paul Anderson, American weightlifter
• October 19 – Robert Reed, American actor
• October 20
• * William Christopher, American actor
• * Rosey Brown, American football player
• October 22 – Barboura Morris, American actress
• October 24 – Foster Diebold, American academic
• October 27 – Sylvia Plath, American poet
• October 28 – Suzy Parker, American fashion model and actress
• October 29 – Dick Garmaker, American basketball player
• October 29 – Velma Barfield, American serial killer who murders at least six

  November

• November 2 – Guy Sparrow, American basketball player
• November 3 – Thomas J. Manton, American politician
• November 4 – Noam Pitlik, American actor and director
• November 6
• * Stonewall Jackson, American country singer
• * Eugene H. Peterson, American clergyman and biblical scholar
• November 8 – Andy Johnson, American basketball player
• November 9 – Frank Selvy, American basketball player
• November 10 – Roy Scheider, American actor and amateur boxer
• November 12 – Jerry Douglas, American actor
• November 13
• * Willie Edwards, murder victim
• * Richard Mulligan, American actor
• November 15 – Clyde McPhatter, American singer
• November 22 – Robert Vaughn, American actor
• November 24 – Johnny Horan, American basketball player
• November 28
• * Midge Costanza, American social and political activist
• * Ethel Ennis, African American jazz singer

  December

• December 5
• * Sheldon Lee Glashow, American physicist
• * Little Richard, African American rock singer and actor
• December 7
• * Ellen Burstyn, American actress
• * Paul Caponigro, American photographer
• December 9 – Bill Hartack, American jockey
• December 12 – Bob Pettit, American basketball player
• December 17 – Kelly E. Taggart, American admiral and civil engineer
• December 19 – Jim Paxson Sr., American basketball player
• December 21 – Edward Hoagland, American essayist
• December 24 – Earl Dodge, American temperance movement leader
• December 25 – Janie Lou Gibbs, American serial killer who murders five of her relatives
• December 28 – Nichelle Nichols, African American actress
• December 29 – Inga Swenson, American actress and singer

  Deaths

• January 26 - William Wrigley, Jr., chewing gum manufacturer
• February 8 - Mad Dog Coll, hitman
• February 15 - Minnie Maddern Fiske, stage actress
• March 1 - Frank Teschemacher, jazz woodwind player
• March 6 - John Philip Sousa, composer and conductor, "the march king"
• March 14 - George Eastman, photographic inventor
• March 18 - Chauncey Olcott, musical theater actor
• March 31 - Eben Byers, steel tycoon and socialite
• April 2 - Bill Pickett, African American cowboy of slave ancestry
• April 22 - J. Warren Keifer, Union army officer and politician
• April 27 - Hart Crane, poet
• May 3 - Charles Fort, researcher of the unusual
• May 30 - John Hubbard, admiral
• June 21 - Major Taylor, African American racing cyclist
• June 27 - Francis P. Duffy, Roman Catholic priest
• July 7 - Henry Eyster Jacobs, Lutheran theologian
• July 22 - Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., Broadway theatrical impresario
• August 2 - Dan Brouthers, baseball player
• September 5 - Paul Bern, screenwriter
• September 22 - Claude C. Hopkins, advertising executive
• September 25 - Joel R. P. Pringle, admiral
• September 27 - John Sharp Williams, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1911 to 1923
• October 17 - Lucy Bacon, painter
• October 26 - Molly Brown, Denver socialite, survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic
• November 4 - Belle Bennett, actress
• November 15 or 17 - Charles W. Chesnutt, African American author, essayist and political activist
• November 22 - William Walker Atkinson, writer and occultist
• November 23 - Henry S. Whitehead, writer of horror fiction and fantasy
• December 28 - Malcolm Whitman, tennis player