August 11 - Edith Wharton, American author (b. 1862)
August 23 - Albert Roussel, French composer (b. 1869)
September 10 - Sergei Tretyakov, Russian writer (b. 1892)
September 26 - Bessie Smith, American singer (b. 1894)
September 29 - Ray Ewry, American athlete (b. 1873)
October 16 - Jean de Brunhoff, French writer (b. 1899)
October 19 - Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson
November 14 - Jack O'Connor, American baseball player (b. 1869)
November 17 - Jack Worrall, Australian cricketer (b. 1860)
November 23 - George Albert Boulenger, Belgian naturalist (b. 1858)
December 28 - Maurice Ravel, French composer (b. 1875)
December 29 - Don Marquis, American author (b. 1878)
Events
January 1 - Safety glass in vehicle windscreens becomes mandatory in Great Britain.
January 19 - Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles, California to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.
January 20 - Franklin Roosevelt is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States. This is the first inauguration scheduled on January 20, following adoption of the 20th Amendment. Previous inaugurations were scheduled on March 4.
January 23 - In Moscow, 17 leading Communists go on trial accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime and assassinate its leaders.
January 25 - The Guiding Light airs on radio for the first time. Also went to television making this show the longest running broadcast program in United States radio and television history.
February 11 - A sit-down strike ends when General Motors recognizes the United Auto Workers Union.
February 16 - Wallace H. Carothers receives a patent for nylon.
February 19 - During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, two Eritrean nationalists attempt to kill viceroy Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades.
February 21 - Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Arrowbile.
February 21 - The League of Nations bans foreign national "volunteers" in the Spanish Civil War.
March 2 - The Steel Workers Organizing Committee signs a surprise collective bargaining agreement with U.S. Steel, leading to unionization of the United States steel industry.
March 18 - The New London School explosion kills three hundred, mostly children.
March 18 - Spanish Civil War: Spanish Republican forces defeat the Italians at the Battle of Guadalajara.
March 18 - The human-powered aircraft, Pedaliante, flies 1 kilometre (0.62 miles) outside Milan.
March 21 - Ponce Massacre: 18 people and a 7-yr-old girl in Ponce, Puerto Rico are gunned down by a police squad acting under orders of US-appointed PR Governor, Blanton C. Winship.
April 9 - The Kamikaze arrives at Croydon Airport in London
April 12 - Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft at Rugby, England.
April 26 - Spanish Civil War: Guernica, Spain is bombed by German Luftwaffe.
April 30 - The Philippines holds a plebiscite for Filipino women on whether they should be extended the right to suffrage; over 90% would vote in the affirmative.
May 3 - Gone with the Wind, a novel by Margaret Mitchell, wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
May 6 - Hindenburg disaster: The German zeppelin Hindenburg catches fire and is destroyed within a minute while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-six people are killed.
May 7 - Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrives in Spain to assist Francisco Franco's forces.
May 12 - Coronation of King George VI of Britain at Westminster Abbey.
May 21 - A Soviet station becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
May 27 - In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County, California.
May 28 - The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, DC, who pushes a button signaling the start of vehicle traffic over the span.
May 28 - Neville Chamberlain becomes British Prime Minister.
June 3 - The Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson.
June 11 - Great Purge: The Soviet Union executes eight army leaders under Joseph Stalin.
June 14 - Pennsylvania becomes the first (and only) state of the United States to celebrate Flag Day officially as a state holiday.
June 14 - U. S. House of Representatives passes the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act.
June 29 - Joseph-Armand Bombardier of Canada receives patent for sprocket and track traction system used in snow vehicles.
July 2 - Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan are last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight.
July 5 - Spam, the luncheon meat, was introduced into the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation.
July 5 - Highest recorded temperature in Canada, at Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan: 45°C (113°F).
July 7 - Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Lugou Bridge
July 22 - New Deal: the United States Senate votes down President Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.
July 24 - Alabama drops rape charges against the so-called "Scottsboro Boys".
July 26 - End of the Battle of Brunete in the Spanish Civil War.
August 1 - Tito reads the resolution "Manifesto of constitutional congress of KPH" to the constitutive congress of KPH (Croatian Communist Party) in woods near Samobor.
August 2 - The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 is passed in America, essentially rendering marijuana and all its by-products illegal.
August 14 - The beginning of air-to-air combat of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II in general, when 6 Imperial Japanese Mitsubishi G3M bombers are shot down by the Nationalist Chinese Air Force while raiding Chinese air bases. 14 August has thus become acknowledged and celebrated as Chinese Air Force Day.
August 24 - In the Spanish Civil War, the Basque Army surrenders to the Italian Corpo Truppe Volontarie following the Santoña Agreement.
August 28 - Toyota Motors becomes an independent company.
November 1 - Stalinists executed by shooting Pastor Paul Hamberg and seven members of Azerbaijan's Lutheran community (including three women).
November 5 - World War II: Adolf Hitler holds a secret meeting and states his plans for acquiring "living space" for the German people.
November 8 - The Nazi exhibition Der ewige Jude ("The Eternal Jew") opens in Munich.
November 9 - Japanese troops take control of Shanghai, China.
December 9 - Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanjing
December 11 - Second Italo-Abyssinian War: Italy leaves the League of Nations.
December 12 - Panay incident: Japanese aircraft shell and sink US gunboat Panay on the Yangtze River in China.
December 13 - Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanjing
December 13 - Nanjing Massacre. Japanese troops begin carrying out several weeks of raping and killing of civilians and suspected Chinese resistance after the fall of Nanjing.
December 16 - Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe attempt to escape from the American federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay; neither is ever seen again.
December 22 - The Lincoln Tunnel opens to traffic in New York City.
December 23 - First flight of the Vickers Wellington bomber.
December 29 - The Irish Free State is replaced by a new state called Ireland with the adoption of a new constitution.
