1932
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| Decades: | 1900s 1910s 1920s – 1930s – 1940s 1950s 1960s |
| Years: | 1929 1930 1931 – 1932 – 1933 1934 1935 |
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| Gregorian calendar | 1932 MCMXXXII |
| Ab urbe condita | 2685 |
| Armenian calendar | 1381 ԹՎ ՌՅՁԱ |
| Assyrian calendar | 6682 |
| Bahá'í calendar | 88–89 |
| Bengali calendar | 1339 |
| Berber calendar | 2882 |
| British Regnal year | 21 Geo. 5 – 22 Geo. 5 |
| Buddhist calendar | 2476 |
| Burmese calendar | 1294 |
| Byzantine calendar | 7440–7441 |
| Chinese calendar | 辛未年十一月廿四日 (4568/4628-11-24) — to — 壬申年十二月初五日(4569/4629-12-5) |
| Coptic calendar | 1648–1649 |
| Ethiopian calendar | 1924–1925 |
| Hebrew calendar | 5692–5693 |
| Hindu calendars | |
| - Vikram Samvat | 1988–1989 |
| - Shaka Samvat | 1854–1855 |
| - Kali Yuga | 5033–5034 |
| Holocene calendar | 11932 |
| Igbo calendar | |
| - Ǹrí Ìgbò | 932–933 |
| Iranian calendar | 1310–1311 |
| Islamic calendar | 1350–1351 |
| Japanese calendar | Shōwa 7 (昭和7年) |
| Juche calendar | 21 |
| Julian calendar | Gregorian minus 13 days |
| Korean calendar | 4265 |
| Minguo calendar | ROC 21 民國21年 |
| Thai solar calendar | 2475 |
Year 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar.
January
- January 1 – The United States Post Office Department issues a set of 12 stamps commemorating the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birth.
- January 3 – The British arrest and intern Mohandas Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel.
- January 7 – The Stimson Doctrine is proclaimed, in response to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
- January 8 – In Great Britain the Archbishop of Canterbury forbids Anglican church remarriage of divorced persons.
- January 12 – Hattie W. Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate.
- January 14 – Maurice Ravel's Concerto in G debuts with piano soloist Marguerite Long and Ravel conducting the Lamoureux Orchestra.
- January 15 – About 6 million are unemployed in Germany.
- January 22 – The 1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising begins, it is suppressed by the government of Maximiliano Hernández Martínez
- January 24 – Marshal Pietro Badoglio declares the end of Libyan resistance.
- January 26 – The British submarine M2 sinks with all 60 hands.
- January 28 – Conflict between Japan and China in the Battle of Shanghai.
- January 29 – The minority government of Karl Buresch in Austria ends the governmental crisis.
- January 30 – Brave New World, a novel by Aldous Huxley, is first published.
- January 31 – Japanese warships arrive in Nanking.
February
- February 2
- A general disarmament convention begins in Geneva.
- The League of Nations again recommends negotiations between the Republic of China and Japan.
- The Reconstruction Finance Corporation begins operations in Washington, D.C.
- February 4
- The 1932 Winter Olympics open in Lake Placid, New York.
- Japan occupies Harbin, China.
- February 11 – Pope Pius XI meets Benito Mussolini in Vatican City.
- 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.
- February 18 – Japan declares Manzhouguo (Japanese name for Manchuria) formally independent from China.
- February 22 – The first Purple Heart was awarded.
- February 25 – Adolf Hitler obtains German citizenship by naturalization, opening the opportunity for him to run in the 1932 election for Reichspräsident.
- February 27 – The Mäntsälä Rebellion occurs in Finland.
March
- 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.
- Japan proclaims Manchuria an independent state and installs Puyi as puppet emperor.
- March 2 – The Mäntsälä Rebellion ends in failure; Finnish democracy prevails. The Lapua Movement is condemned by conservative Finnish President Pehr Evind Svinhufvud in a radio speech.
- March 7 – Four people are killed when police fire upon 3,000 unemployed autoworkers marching outside the Ford River Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan.
- March 9 – Éamon de Valera is elected President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State. It is the first change of government in the Irish Free State since its foundation 10 years previously.
- March 14 – George Eastman, founder of Kodak, commits suicide.
- March 18 – Peace negotiations between China and Japan begin.
- March 19 – The Sydney Harbour Bridge opens.
- March 20 – The Graf Zeppelin begins a regular route to South America.
- March 21– A series of deadly tornadoes in the south kills more than 220 people in Alabama, 34 people in Georgia, and 17 in Tennessee during a two-day period.
- March 25 – Tarzan the Ape Man opens, with Olympic gold medal swimmer Johnny Weissmuller in the title role (Weismuller will star in a total of 12 Tarzan films).
April
- April
- 10,000 disgruntled Newfoundlanders march on their legislature to show discontent with their current political situation; this is a flash point in the demise of the Dominion of Newfoundland.
- Kreuger & Toll, the company of the "Match King" Ivar Kreuger, collapses.
- April 5 – Prohibition is lifted in Finland at 10 in the morning (local time), resulting in a new mnemonic " 543210".
- April 6
- U.S. president Herbert Hoover supports armament limitations.
- The trial against fraudulent art dealer Otto Wacker begins in Berlin.
- April 10 – Paul von Hindenburg is elected president of Germany.
- April 14 – John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton focus a proton beam on lithium and split its nucleus.
- April 17 – Haile Selassie announces an anti-slavery law in Abyssinia.
- April 19 – German art dealer Otto Wacker is sentenced to 19 months in prison for selling fraudulent paintings he attributed to Vincent van Gogh.
- April 25 – Two of the companions of Islam's Last Prophet Muhammad are moved from their graves upon informing of water in the graves in the dream of King Faisal of Iraq in Salmaan Paak, Iraq. Their names are Hazrat Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman and Hazrat Jabir ibn Abd-Allah.
May
- May 2 – Comedian Jack Benny's radio show airs for the first time.
- May 6 – Paul Gorguloff shoots French president Paul Doumer in Paris; Doumer dies the next day.
- May 10 – Albert Lebrun becomes the new president of France.
- 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 13 – The Premier of New South Wales, Jack Lang, is dismissed by the State Governor, Sir Phillip Game.
- May 15 – Japanese troops leave Shanghai; the May 15 Incident, the assassination of Japanese prime minister Tsuyoshi Inukai, occurs.
- May 16 – Massive riots between Hindus and Muslims in Bombay leave thousands dead and injured.
- May 20– May 21 – Amelia Earhart flies from the USA to Derry, Northern Ireland in 14 hours 54 minutes.
- May 20 – Federación Obrera de la Industria de la Carne initiates a major strike in the Argentinian meat-packing industry.
- May 26 – Judgement in Donoghue v Stevenson handed down in the House of Lords, creating the neighbour principle in English law.
- 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.
- May 30 – German chancellor Heinrich Brüning resigns. President Hindenburg asks Franz von Papen to form a new government.
June
- June – The Chaco War begins between Bolivia and Paraguay.
- June 4 – A military coup occurs in Chile.
- June 6 – The Revenue Act of 1932 is enacted, creating the first gas tax in the United States at 1 cent per US gallon (0.26 ¢/L) sold.
- June 14 – Bans against the SS and SA are overturned in Germany.
- June 20 – The Benelux customs union is negotiated.
- June 24 – After a relatively bloodless military rebellion, Siam becomes a constitutional monarchy.
- June 29 – The comedy serial Vic and Sade debuts on NBC Radio.
July
- July 5 – Antonio de Oliveira Salazar becomes the fascist prime minister of Portugal (for the next 36 years).
- July 7 – The French submarine Prométhée sinks off Cherbourg; 66 are killed.
- July 8 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, bottoming out at 41.22.
- July 9 – The Constitutionalist Revolution starts in Brazil, with the uprising of the state of São Paulo.
- July 12
- July 17 – Altona Bloody Sunday: In Altona, Germany, armed communists attack a National Socialist demonstration; 18 are killed. Many other political street fights follow.
- 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 (starring Norma Shearer and Clark Gable), and will go on to win the first Academy Award for Best Animated Short.
August
- August – A farmers' revolt begins in the Midwestern United States.
- August 1 – The second International Polar Year, an international scientific collaboration, begins.
- August 2 – The first positron is discovered by Carl D. Anderson.
- August 6 – The first Venice Film Festival is held.
- August 6 – In Germany the first worldwide Autobahn opened by Konrad Adenauer: Bundesautobahn 555.
- August 7 – Raymond Edward Welch becomes the first one legged man to scale the 6,288 ft. Mount Washington, NH.
- August 10 – A 5.1 kg chondrite-type meteorite breaks fragments and strikes earth near the town of Archie in Cass County, Missouri.
- August 18 – Auguste Piccard reaches an altitude of 16,197 m (53,140 ft) with a hot air balloon.
- August 18– 19 – Scottish aviator Jim Mollison becomes the first pilot to make an East-to-West solo transatlantic flight, from Portmarnock, Dublin, Ireland to Pennfield, New Brunswick, Canada, in his de Havilland Puss Moth biplane The Heart's Content.
- August 23 – The Panama Civil Aviation Authority is established.
- August 30 – Hermann Göring is elected as chairman of the German Senate.
- August 31 – A total solar eclipse is visible from northern Canada through northeastern Vermont, New Hampshire, southwestern Maine, and the Capes of Massachusetts.
September
- September 9 – Generalitat of Catalonia is restored within the Second Spanish Republic from September 25 until the collapse of the Republic in 1939.
- September 10 – The IND Eighth Avenue Line, at this time the world's longest subway line (31 miles (50 km)), begins operation in Manhattan.
- September 11 – Canadian operations end on the International Railway (New York – Ontario).
- September 20 – Mohandas K. Gandhi begins a hunger strike in Poona prison, India.
- September 23 – The Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd is proclaimed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, concluding the country's unification under the rule of Ibn Saud.
October
- October 1 – Babe Ruth makes his famous called shot in the fifth inning of game 3 of the 1932 World Series.
- October 3 – Iraq becomes an independent kingdom under Faisal.
- October 13– Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes lays the cornerstone for a new U.S. Supreme Court building.
- October 15
- Tata Airlines (later to become Air India) makes its first flight.
- The Michigan Marching Band (then called the Varsity band) debuts Script Ohio at the Michigan versus Ohio State game in Columbus.
- October 19 – Prince Gustav Adolf of Sweden marries Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
- October 23 – Fred Allen's radio comedy show debuts on CBS.
- October 25 21-year old Michael D'Oyly Carte, grandson of theatrical impresario and hotelier Richard D'Oyly Carte, is killed in a car crash in Switzerland
November
- November 1 – The San Francisco Opera House opens.
- November 7 – Buck Rogers in the 25th Century debuts on American radio. It is the first science fiction program on radio.
- November 8 – U.S. presidential election, 1932: Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats Republican President Herbert Hoover in a landslide victory.
- November 9
- Riots between conservative and socialist supporters in Switzerland leave 13 dead, 60 injured.
- A hurricane and huge waves kill about 2,500 in Santa Cruz del Sur in the worst natural disaster in Cuban history.
- 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 19 – The second wife of Joseph Stalin is found dead in her home.
- November 21 – German president Hindenburg begins negotiations with Adolf Hitler about the formation of a new government.
- November 24 – In Washington, D.C., the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens.
- November 30 – The Polish Cipher Bureau breaks the German Enigma cipher.
December
- December 3 – Hindenburg names Kurt von Schleicher as German chancellor.
- December 12 – Japan and the Soviet Union reform their diplomatic connections.
- December 19 – BBC World Service begins broadcasting as the BBC Empire Service.
- December 24 – A methane gas explosion causes the Moweaqua Coal Mine Disaster which claims 54 lives.
- December 25 – An earthquake in the Kansu Province in China kills 70,000.
- December 27 – Radio City Music Hall opens in New York City.
Date unknown
- The Soviet famine of 1932–1933 begins.
- Women's suffrage is granted in Brazil.
- The heath hen becomes extinct.
- Mars Bars are sold for the first time.
- Zippo lighters are developed.
- Zero-length springs are invented, revolutionizing seismometers and gravimeters.
- The Kennedy-Thorndike experiment shows that measured time as well as length are affected by motion, in accordance with the theory of special relativity.
- James Chadwick discovers the neutron.
- Geneticist J. B. S. Haldane publishes The Causes of Evolution, thereby unifying the findings of Mendelian genetics with those of evolutionary science.
- Prontosil, the first oral antibiotic, is discovered by Gerhard Domagk, but no publication occurs until 1935.
- Walter B. Pitkin publishes Life Begins at Forty.
- The Republican Citizens Committee Against National Prohibition is established for the repeal of prohibition in the U.S.
- Yezd Atash Behram becomes established in Yazd, Iran.
- Unemployment in the USA – ca. 33% – 14 million. A similar level of unemployment now affects Germany. Many people in depressed countries do not receive unemployment benefit due to governments not being able to afford benefit payments.
- End of Weimar Republic.
Births
January
- January 1 – Tzaims Luksus, American artist and fashion designer
- January 3 – Dabney Coleman, American actor
- January 5
- Johnny Adams, American singer (d. 1998)
- Umberto Eco, Italian scholar and author
- January 6 – Stuart A. Rice, American chemist
- January 13 – Joseph Cardinal Zen, Catholic Bishop of Hong Kong
- January 16 – Dian Fossey, American zoologist (d. 1985)
- January 17 – Sheree North, American actress and singer (d. 2005)
- January 18 – Robert Anton Wilson, American author (d. 2007)
- January 22 – Piper Laurie, American actress
- January 25 – Nikolay Anikin, Soviet cross-country skier (d. 2009)
- January 26 – Coxsone Dodd, Jamaican record producer (d. 2004)
- January 29
- George Allen, English footballer
- Tommy Taylor, English footballer (d. 1958)
- January 30
- Kazuo Inamori, Japanese businessman
- Knock Yokoyama, Japanese comedian and politician (d. 2007)
February
- February 1 – John Nott, British polictian
- February 3 – Peggy Ann Garner, American actress (d. 1984)
- February 6 – François Truffaut, French film director (d. 1984)
- February 7 – Gay Talese, American author
- February 8
- Jean Saunders, English writer
- John Williams, American composer and conductor
- February 9 – Gerhard Richter, German painter
- February 11
- Jerome Lowenthal, American pianist
- Dennis Skinner, British politician
- February 12 – Julian Lincoln Simon, American economist and author (d. 1998)
- February 14 – Alexander Kluge, German author and film director
- February 16
- February 18 – Miloš Forman, Czech film director
- February 20 – Adrian Cristobal, Filipino writer (d. 2007)
- February 22
- Edward Kennedy, American politician (d. 2009)
- Robert Opron, French automotive designer
- February 23 – Majel Barrett, American actress (d. 2008)
- February 24 – Michel Legrand, French composer
- February 25 – Faron Young, American country singer (d. 1996)
- February 26 – Johnny Cash, American country singer (d. 2003)
- February 27 – Dame Elizabeth Taylor, British-American actress (d. 2011)
- February 28 – Don Francks, Canadian actor
March
- March – Dennis O'Neill, young victim of manslaughter by foster parents (d. 1945)
- March 4
- March 6 – Bronisław Geremek, Polish social historian and politician (d. 2008)
- March 7 – Momoko Kōchi, Japanese actress (d. 1998)
- March 12 – Andrew Young, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
- March 16 – Don Blasingame, Major League Baseball player and Japanese baseball manager (d. 2005)
- March 17 – Donald N. Langenberg, American physicist
- March 18 – John Updike, American author (d. 2009)
- March 21 – Walter Gilbert, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 30 – Ted Morgan, French-born biographer and journalist
- March 31 – Nagisa Oshima, Japanese film director (d. 2013)
April
- April 1
- Gordon Jump, American television actor (WKRP in Cincinnati) (d. 2003)
- Debbie Reynolds, American actress
- April 2 – Michael Vernon, Australian consumer activist (d. 1993)
- April 4
- April 8 – Sultan Iskandar of Johor, also the 8th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia (d. 2010)
- April 9
- April 10 – Omar Sharif, Egyptian actor
- April 11 – Joel Grey, American actor
- April 12
- April 14 – Loretta Lynn, American country singer
- April 21 – Elaine May, American movie director
- April 23 – Halston, American fashion designer (d. 1990)
- April 25 – William Roache, British actor
- April 26 – Michael Smith, English-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2000)
- April 27
- Casey Kasem, American disc jockey and voice actor
- Gian-Carlo Rota, Italian-born mathematician and philosopher (d. 1999)
- April 28 – Brownie Ledbetter, American civil rights activist (d. 2010)
May
- May 7
- Jordi Bonet, Canadian artist (d. 1979)
- Jenny Joseph, English poet
- May 8
- Phyllida Law, Scottish actress
- Sonny Liston, American boxer (d. 1970)
- May 9 – Geraldine McEwan, British actress
- May 17 – Chris Ballingall, American baseball player
- May 19 – Alma Cogan, English singer (d. 1966)
- May 25
June
- June 4
- June 9 – Jack Imel, American singer
- June 12 – Rona Jaffe, American novelist (d. 2005)
- June 13 – Rainer Kurt Sachs, German-American physicist and biologist
- June 15 – Mario Cuomo, American politician
- June 18
- Dudley R. Herschbach, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- Geoffrey Hill, English poet
- June 19 – José Sanchis Grau, Spanish comic writer (d. 2011)
- June 21 – OC Smith American musician (d. 2001)
- June 22
- Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari, princess of Iran, Queen Consort of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (d. 2001)
- Prunella Scales, English actress
- June 25 – Peter Blake, English artist
- June 27 – Anna Moffo, American operatic soprano (d. 2006)
- June 28 – Pat Morita, Asian-American actor (d. 2005)
July
- July 2
- July 4 – Otis Young, African-American actor (d. 2001)
- July 7 – Eileen Lemass, Irish politician
- July 9 – Donald Rumsfeld, former U.S. Secretary of Defense
- July 12 – Otis Davis, American runner
- July 13 – Per Nørgård, Danish composer
- July 16
- July 17 – Yukio Aoshima, Japanese politician and comedian (d. 2006)
- July 20
- July 21 – Ernie Warlick, American football player
- July 29 – Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker, U.S. Senator
- July 31 – John Searle, American philosopher
August
- August 1
- Meir Kahane, American-born Israeli rabbi and ultra-nationalist figure (d. 1990)
- Meena Kumari, Indian actress (d. 1972)
- August 2
- Lamar Hunt, American sportsman (d. 2006)
- Peter O'Toole, Irish actor
- August 6 – Howard Hodgkin, British painter and print-maker
- August 7
- August 8 – Mel Tillis, American country singer
- August 11 – Fernando Arrabal, Moroccan-born writer
- August 12
- August 17 – V. S. Naipaul, West Indian-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- August 18 – William R. Bennett, Premier of British Columbia
- August 20 – Vasily Aksyonov, Russian writer (d. 2009)
- August 24 – W. Morgan Sheppard, British actor
- August 25 – Luis Félix López, Ecuadorian writer and politician (d. 2008)
September
- September 1
- Sunny von Bülow, American socialite (d. 2008)
- Derog Gioura, Nauruan politician and former President of Nauru
- September 3 – Eileen Brennan, American actress
- September 4 – Dinsdale Landen, British actor (d. 2003)
- September 5 – Carol Lawrence, American actress and dancer
- September 6 – Marguerite Pearson, American professional baseball player (d. 2005)
- September 7 – Paul Getty, American-born philanthropist (d. 2003)
- September 8 – Patsy Cline, American singer (d. 1963)
- September 11 – Peter Anderson, English footballer
- September 18 – Nikolai Rukavishnikov, Russian cosmonaut (d. 2002)
- September 22 – Algirdas Brazauskas, President of Lithuania (d. 2010)
- September 25
- Glenn Gould, Canadian pianist (d. 1982)
- Charles Stanley, American televangelist
- Adolfo Suárez, 1st Spanish Prime Minister after the dictatorship of Franco
- September 26
- Richard Herd, American actor
- Joyce Jameson, American actress (d. 1987)
- Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India
- September 27 – Oliver E. Williamson, American economist
- September 28 – Victor Jara, Chilean politician and singer-songwriter (d. 1973)
- September 29 – Mehmood, Indian actor (d. 2004)
- September 30 – Shintarō Ishihara, Japanese author and politician
October
- October 4 – Milan Chvostek, Canadian television director
- October 5 – Michael John Rogers, English ornithologist (d. 2006)
- October 8 – Ray Reardon, Welsh snooker player
- October 9 – David Plowden, American photographer
- October 10 – Harry Smith, English footballer
- October 11 – Dottie West, American singer/songwriter (d. 1991)
- October 12 – Dick Gregory, American comedian and activist
- October 13 – Jean Edward Smith, American political scientist and biographer
- October 18 – Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuanian politician
- October 19 – Robert Reed, American actor (d. 1992)
- October 20
- Rosey Brown, American football player (d. 2004)
- William Christopher, American actor
- October 24
- Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2007)
- Robert Mundell, Canadian economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- October 25 – Harry Gregg, Irish footballer and football manager
- October 27
- October 28
November
- November 3 – Albert Reynolds, eighth Taoiseach of Ireland
- November 4
- November 11 – Germano Mosconi, Italian journalist
- November 10
- November 12 – Jerry Douglas, American actor
- November 13 – Richard Mulligan, American actor (d. 2000)
- November 15
- Petula Clark, British singer, actress, and songwriter
- Clyde McPhatter, American singer (d. 1972)
- November 18 – Yoyoy Villame, Filipino singer and actor (d. 2007)
- November 20 – Richard Dawson, British-born comedian and game show host (d. 2012)
- November 22
- Robert Vaughn, American actor
- Keith Wickenden, British politician (d. 1983)
- November 27 – Benigno Aquino, Jr., Filipino politician and senator (d. 1983)
- November 29 – Jacques Chirac, President of France
December
- December 1 – Dame Heather Begg, New Zealand mezzo-soprano (d. 2009)
- December 2
- Sergio Bonelli, Italian comic book author and publisher
- Manuel Puig, Argentinian writer (d. 1990)
- December 4 – Roh Tae-woo, President of South Korea
- December 5
- Sheldon Lee Glashow, American physicist
- Little Richard, American singer and evangelist
- December 7
- Paul Caponigro, American photographer
- Rosemary Rogers, Sri Lankan-born American novelist
- December 9
- December 11 – Enrique Bermúdez, Nicaraguan Contra leader (d. 1991)
- December 21 – Edward Hoagland, American essayist
- December 24 – Earl Dodge, American temperance movement leader (d. 2007)
- December 28
- December 29 – Inga Swenson, American actress and singer
Date unknown
- Basil Blackshaw, Irish artist
- Mohamed Hamri, Moroccan artist (d. 2000)
- Irene Jai Narayan, Fiji politician (d. 2011)
- Blaze Starr, American dancer
Deaths
January–June
- January 7 – Andre Maginot, French soldier and politician (b. 1877)
- January 8 – Eurosia Fabris, Italian Catholic Blessed (b. 1866)
- January 13– J. Ernest Mangnall, English football manager (b. 1866)
- January 21 – Giles Lytton Strachey, British writer and biographer (b. 1880)
- January 24 – Sir Alfred Yarrow, English shipbuilder and philanthropist (b. 1842)
- January 26 – William Wrigley Jr., American chewing gum industrialist (b. 1861)
- February 8 – Yordan Milanov, Bulgarian architect (b. 1867)
- February 8 – Mad Dog Coll, American gangster (b. 1908)
- February 10 – Edgar Wallace, English novelist and screenwriter (b. 1875)
- February 15 – Minnie Maddern Fiske, American actress (b. 1865)
- February 16 – Ferdinand Buisson, French pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1841)
- February 17 – Albert Johnson, The mysterious Mad Trapper of Rat River is surrounded by RCMP officers on the Eagle River and killed after a 49 day manhunt through the Yukon Territory
- March 1 – Frank Teschemacher, American musician (b. 1906)
- March 6 – John Philip Sousa, American band leader, conductor, and composer (The Stars and Stripes Forever) (b. 1854)
- March 7 – Aristide Briand, French statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1862)
- March 11 – Dora Carrington, British painter (b. 1893)
- March 14 – George Eastman, American inventor (Kodak) (b. 1854)
- March 18 – Chancellor Olcott, American actor (b. 1858)
- March 31 – Eben Byers, American steel tycoon and socialite (radiation poisoning) (b. 1880)
- April 2 – Bill Pickett, African-American cowboy whose parents were slaves (b. 1870)
- April 4 – Wilhelm Ostwald, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
- April 7 – Grigore Constantinescu, Romanian priest and journalist (b. 1875)
- April 20 – Giuseppe Peano, Italian mathematician (b. 1858)
- April 22 – Ferenc Oslay, Hungarian- Slovene historian, writer and irredenta (b. 1883)
- April 26 – William Lockwood, English cricketer (b. 1868)
- April 27 – Hart Crane, American poet (b. 1899)
- May 3 –
- May 7 – Paul Doumer, President of France (assassinated) (b. 1857)
- May 15 – Tsuyoshi Inukai, Prime Minister of Japan (assassinated) (b. 1855)
- May 17 – Frederick C. Billard, Commandant of the United States Coast Guard (b. 1873)
- May 22 – Lady Gregory, Irish writer and folklorist (b. 1852)
- May 25 – Franz von Hipper, German admiral (b. 1863)
- May 30 – John Hubbard, American admiral (b. 1849)
- June 21 – Major Taylor, American cyclist (b. 1878)
- June 24 – Ernst Põdder, Estonian military commander (b. 1879)
July–December
- July 2 – Manuel II of Portugal, last king of Portugal (b. 1889)
- July 6 – Kenneth Grahame, Scottish author (The Wind In The Willows) (b. 1859)
- July 7 – Henry Eyster Jacobs, American Lutheran theologian (b. 1844)
- July 22
- July 23
- Alberto Santos-Dumont, Brazilian aviation pioneer (b. 1873)
- Tenby Davies, Welsh half-mile world champion runner (b. 1884)
- September 5 – Paul Bern, American screenwriter (b. 1889)
- September 16 – Ronald Ross, English physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1857)
- September 18 – Peg Entwistle, film actress (b. 1908)
- September 20 – Wovoka, Paiute visionary (Ghost Dance) (b. c. 1856)
- September 23 – Jules Chéret, French poster designer (b. 1836)
- September 25 – Joel R. P. Pringle, American admiral (b. 1873)
- October 5 – Christopher Brennan, Australian poet and scholar (b. 1870)
- October 17 – Lucy Bacon, American painter (b. 1857)
- October 26 – Molly Brown, Denver socialite, RMS Titanic survivor (b. 1867)
- November 4 – Belle Bennett, American actress (b. 1891)
- November 15 – Charles Waddell Chesnutt, African American author, essayist, political activist (b. 1858)
- December 8 – Gertrude Jekyll, British garden designer, writer and artist (b. 1843)
- December 9 – Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain, Bangladeshi writer and social worker (b. 1880)
- December 19 – Yoon Bong-Gil, Korean resister against Japanese occupation of Korea (executed) (b. 1908)
- December 28 – Malcolm Whitman, American tennis player (b. 1877)
Date unknown
- Edward Bernstein, German socialist (b. 1850)
Nobel Prizes
- Physics – Werner Karl Heisenberg
- Chemistry – Irving Langmuir
- Physiology or Medicine – Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, Edgar Douglas Adrian
- Literature – John Galsworthy
- Peace – not awarded
