1932

Year 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1932

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 Britain the Archbishop of Canterbury forbids 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 HMS 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 ? – Dennis O'Neill, young victim killed by fosterparents.
• 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 – Eamon de Valera is elected President of the Executive Council. It is the first change of government in the Irish Free State in 10 years.
• 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 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 20–21 – 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
  • Norway annexes northern Greenland.
  • Hedley Verity establishes a new first-class cricket record by taking all ten wickets for only ten runs against Nottinghamshire on a pitch affected by a storm.
• July 17 – 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 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 into at least 7 fragments and strikes earth near the town of Archie in Cass County, Missouri.
• August 18 – Auguste Piccard reaches an altitude of 16,197 meters with an air balloon.
• August 30 – Hermann Göring is elected as chairman of the German Senate.
• August 31 – A total solar eclipse is visible from northern Canada through NE Vermont, New Hampshire, SW 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 11 – Canadian operations end on the International Railway (New York – Ontario).
• September 20 – Mohandas Gandhi begins a hunger strike in Poona prison.
• September 23 – The Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd is renamed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

October

• 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.

November

In 1932 the Cipher Bureau broke the German Enigma cipher and overcame the ever-growing structural and operating complexities of the evolving Enigma with plugboard, the main German cipher device during World War II.

• 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: 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 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.

Ongoing events

• 1932–1934 – Famine in the Soviet Union: five million die.

Undated

• The heath hen becomes extinct.
• Female suffrage is granted in Brazil.
• Mars Bar is 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 and thereby unifies the findings of Mendelian genetics with those of evolutionary science.
• 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.
• Prontosil, the first oral antibiotic, is discovered by Gerhard Domagk, but no publication occurs until 1935.
• Yezd Atash Behram becomes established in Yazd, Iran.
• Unemployment in the USA – ca. 33% – 14 million.

Births

January

• January 1 – Tzaims Luksus, American artist and fashion designer
• January 3
  • Dabney Coleman, American actor (Nine to Five)
  • Neil Levang, American musician
  • Coo Coo Marlin, American race car driver (d. 2005)
• January 4 – Jorge Russek, Mexican actor (d. 1998)
• January 5
  • Johnny Adams, American musician (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 18 – Robert Anton Wilson, American author (d. 2007)
• January 22 – Piper Laurie, American actress
• January 25 – Nikolay Anikin, Soviet cross-country skier
• January 26 – Coxsone Dodd, Jamaican record producer (d. 2004)
• January 29
  • Tommy Taylor, English footballer (d. 1958)
  • George Allen, English footballer
• January 30
  • Knock Yokoyama, Japanese comedian and politician (d. 2007)
  • Kazuo Inamori, Japanese businessman

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 – 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 – Harry Goz, American actor (d. 2003)
• February 18 – Miloš Forman, Czech film director
• February 20 – Adrian Cristobal, Filipino writer (d. 2007)
• February 22 – Edward Kennedy, American politician (d. 2009)
• February 22 – Robert Opron, French automotive designer
• February 23 – Majel Barrett, American actress (Star Trek) (d. 2008)
• February 24 – Michel Legrand, French composer
• February 25 – Faron Young, American country singer (d. 1996)
• February 26 – Johnny Cash, American country singer (I Walk The Line) (d. 2003)
• February 27 – Elizabeth Taylor, English-born actress (Cleopatra)
• February 28 – Don Francks, Canadian actor

March

• March ? – Dennis O'Neill young victim of manslaughter by fosterparents (d. 1945)
• March 4
  • Ryszard Kapuściński, Polish journalist (d. 2007)
  • Miriam Makeba, South African singer (d. 2008)
  • Ed Roth, American car designer (d. 2001)
  • Frank Wells, American entertainment businessman (d. 1994)
• March 6 – Bronisław Geremek, Polish social historian and politician (d. 2008)
• 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 25 – Gene Shalit, American film critic
• March 30 – Ted Morgan, French-born author, biographer, and journalist

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
  • Anthony Perkins, American actor (Psycho) (d. 1992)
  • Andrei Tarkovsky, Russian film director (d. 1986)
• April 8 – Sultan Iskandar of Johor, also the 8th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia
• April 9
  • Armin Jordan, Swiss conductor (d. 2006)
  • Carl Perkins, American musician (d. 1998)
• April 10 – Omar Sharif, Egyptian actor
• April 11 – Joel Grey, American actor (Cabaret)
• April 12
  • Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lankan politician (assassinated) (d. 2005)
  • Tiny Tim, American musician (Tiptoe Through The Tulips) (d. 1996)
• April 21 – Elaine May, American movie director
• April 23 – Halston, American fashion designer (d. 1990)
• April 25 – William Roache, British actor (Coronation Street)
• April 26 – Michael Smith, English-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2000)
• April 27
  • Casey Kasem, American disc jockey and voice actor (America's Top Forty)
  • Gian-Carlo Rota, Italian-born mathematician and philosopher (d. 1999)
• April 28 – Brownie Ledbetter, American civil rights activist (d. 2010)

May

• May 7
  • Jenny Joseph, English poet
  • Jordi Bonet, Canadian artist
• May 8
  • Phyllida Law, Scottish actress
  • Sonny Liston, American boxer (d. 1970)
• May 9 – Geraldine McEwan, English actress
• May 17 – Chris Ballingall, American baseball player
• May 19 – Alma Cogan, English singer (d. 1966)
• May 25
  • John Gregory Dunne, American writer (d. 2003)
  • Roger Bowen, American actor (d. 1996)
  • K.C. Jones, American basketball player and coach

June

• June 4
  • John Drew Barrymore, American actor (d. 2004)
  • Maurice Shadbolt, New Zealand writer (d. 2004)
• 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 22 – Prunella Scales, English actress
• June 22 – Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari, princess of Iran, Queen Consort of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (d. 2001)
• June 25 – Peter Blake, English artist
• June 27 – Anna Moffo, American soprano (d. 2006)
• June 28 – Pat Morita, Asian-American actor (The Karate Kid) (d. 2005)
• June 29 – Brian Hutton, Baron Hutton, British Law Lord

July

• July 2 – Dave Thomas, American fast-food entrepreneur (Wendy's) (d. 2002)
  • Waldemar Matuska, Czech singer (d. 2009)
• 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 16
  • Tim Asch, Anthropologist, photographer and ethnographic filmmaker
  • Max McGee, American football player (d. 2007)
• July 17 – Yukio Aoshima, Japanese politician and comedian (d. 2006)
• July 20 – Nam June Paik, Korean-born American artist (d. 2006)
• July 21 – Ernie Warlick, American football player
• July 29 – Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker, U.S. Senator

August

• August 1 – 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 – Dr. Maurice Rabb, Jr., African-American ophthalmologist (d. 2005)
• August 7 – Abebe Bikila, Ethiopian long-distance runner (d. 1973)
• August 8 – Mel Tillis, American country singer
• August 11 – Fernando Arrabal, Moroccan-born writer
• August 12 – Charlie O'Donnell, American game show announcer (Wheel of Fortune)
  • – Sirikit, Queen of Thailand 5 May 1950 – present
• 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)

September

• September 1
  • Derog Gioura, Nauruan politician and former President of Nauru
  • Sunny von Buelow, American socialite (d. 2008)
• September 4 – Dinsdale Landen, British actor (d. 2003)
• 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
• September 25
  • Glenn Gould, Canadian pianist (d. 1982)
  • Charles Stanley, American televangelist
• September 26
  • Richard Herd, American actor
  • Dr 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 (The Brady Bunch) (d. 1992)
• October 20
  • Rosey Brown, American football player (d. 2004)
  • William Christopher, American actor (M*A*S*H)
• 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 – Sylvia Plath, American poet and author (d. 1963)
• October 28 – Suzy Parker, American actress (d. 2003)

November

• November 3 – Albert Reynolds, eighth Taoiseach of Ireland
• November 4
  • Thomas Klestil, President of Austria (d. 2004)
  • Noam Pitlik, American actor and director (d. 1999)
• November 11 – Germano Mosconi, Italian journalist
• November 10
  • Roy Scheider, American film actor (Jaws) (d. 2008)
  • Don Henderson, British actor (d. 1997)
• November 12 – Jerry Douglas, American actor
• November 13 – Richard Mulligan, American actor (Soap and Empty Nest) (d. 2000)
• November 15 –
  • Clyde McPhatter, American singer (d. 1972)
  • Petula Clark, British singer, actress, and songwriter (Downtown)
• November 18 – Yoyoy Villame, Philippine Novelty singer and movie actor (d. 2007)
• November 20 – Richard Dawson, British-born comedian and game show host (Family Feud)
• November 22 – Robert Vaughn, American actor (Man from U.N.C.L.E.)
  • November 22 – Keith Wickenden, British politician (d. 1983)
• November 27 – Benigno Aquino, Jr., Filipino politician and senator (d. 1983)
• November 29
  • Jacques Chirac, President of France
  • Diane Ladd, American actress

December

• December 1 – Heather Begg, New Zealand mezzo-soprano (d. 2009)
• December 2 – Manuel Puig, Argentinian writer (d. 1990)
• December 2 – Sergio Bonelli, Italian comic book author and publisher
• December 4 – Roh Tae-woo, President of South Korea
• December 5
  • Sheldon Lee Glashow, American physicist
  • Little Richard, American singer and evangelist (Tutti Frutti)
• December 6 – Don King, American boxing promoter
• December 7
  • Ellen Burstyn, American actress
  • Paul Caponigro, American photographer
• December 9 – Bill Hartack, American jockey
• December 9 – Morton Downey, Jr., American television personality (d. 2001)
• December 11 – Enrique Bermúdez, Nicaraguan Contra leader (d. 1991)
• December 21 – Edward Hoagland, American essayist
• December 24
  • On Kawara, Japanese conceptual artist
  • Earl Dodge, American temperance movement leader
• December 28
  • Dhirubhai Ambani, Indian businessman (d. 2002)
  • Dorsey Burnette, American singer (d. 1979)
  • Roy Hattersley, British politician
  • Nichelle Nichols, American actress and singer (Star Trek)
• date unknown
  • Basil Blackshaw, Irish artist
  • Mohamed Hamri, Moroccan artist (d. 2000)
  • Irene Jai Narayan, Fiji politician
  • 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 – William Gentles, US army private, known for killing Crazy Horse (b. 1857)
• 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 – 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)
• 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 4 – Wilhelm Ostwald, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
• April 20 – Giuseppe Peano, Italian mathematician (b. 1858)
• April 26 – William Lockwood, English cricketer (b. 1868)
• April 27 – Hart Crane, American poet (b. 1899)
• May 3 –
  • Henri de Gaulle, father of Charles de Gaulle (b. 1848)
  • Charles Fort, American researcher of the unusual (b. 1874)
• 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)
• 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 – Errico Malatesta, Italian anarchist (b. 1853)
• July 22 – Florenz Ziegfeld, Broadway impressario (b. 1867)
• 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, American actress (b. 1908)
• September 20 – Wovoka, Paiute visionary (Ghost Dance) (b. c. 1856)
• September 23 – Jules Chéret, French poster designer (b. 1836)
• October 5 – Christopher Brennan, Australian poet and scholar (b. 1870)
• October 17 – Lucy Bacon, American painter (b. 1857)
• October 26 – Molly Brown, Denver socialite, 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 19 – Yoon Bong-Gil, Korean resister against Japanese occupation of Korea (executed) (b. 1908)
• December 28 – Malcolm Whitman, American tennis player (b. 1877)
• 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

Notes

External links

• The 1930s Timeline: 1932 — from American Studies Programs at The University of Virginia