The Neutrality Act of 1937, a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress, took effect to extend previous laws.[3] Under the new rules, which applied for the first time to participants in civil wars, U.S. citizens were forbidden from traveling on ships of "belligerent nations" that were either engaged in war against another nation, or had an ongoing civil war.[4] U.S. ships were prohibited from transporting passengers or certain categories of freight to belligerents. The law had an exception, however, where the U.S. president could permit the sale of materials and supplies to belligerents in Europe as long as the recipients arranged for the transport and paid immediately with cash, making it possible to provide aid to the United Kingdom and to France involvement in a war with Germany.[5] In addition, oil and nonmilitary vehicles were could be sold to nations involved in a war.[6]
Bus travel in London came to a halt as 26,000 bus drivers went on strike.[8]
New York's Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia backed the refusal by License Commissioner Paul Mossto renew the licenses of all 14 burlesque theaters in the city[9] shutting down the sites of most vaudeville and stand-up comedy routines[10] La Guardia pledged "a bitter fight to the finish" against the "filth" of the houses, including displays of female nudity.[11] On May 3, Isidore Herk, owner of the Gaiety Theatre in Times Square, proposed a compromise of self-censorship where the shows allowed at his three theaters would be cleaned up and remove the word "burlesque" from its advertisements.[12], a suggestion that allowed his burlesque houses to remain open.
Manchester City F.C. finished the season in first place in the highest division of England's Football League, with a record of 22 wins and 13 draws for 57 points. Charlton Athletic F.C. was second with 21 wins and 12 draws for 54 points.[13]
Sunderland, the defending 1936 league champion, which had finished eighth in the First Division for 1936-37, defeated 14th place Preston North End, 3-1 in the FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium before a crowd of 93,435 people."Sunderland Wins Soccer Final, 3-1; Beats Preston Before Crowd of 93,495 to Gain English Cup for First Time", The New York Times, May 2, 1937, p.S-12
Snitz Edwards, (stage name for Edward Neumann), 69 , Hungarian-born American character actor on stage and film[16]
Fanny Marc (Estelle Odile Fanny Legendre), 79, French sculptor[17]
May 2, 1937 (Sunday)
Austrian police raided the headquarters of the Nazi Party in Vienna, finding evidence of collaboration between German and Austrian Nazis, as well as propaganda hostile to the Austrian government.[18]
In Moscow, an estimated 50,000 people attended the remaining churches in the city for services on the Russian Easter, despite the largest anti-religious drive since 1930.[19]
In Cuba, former President Mario García Menocal, who served from 1913 to 1921, announced that he was creating a new political party to oppose military interference in civil affairs, in a move seen as a threat to the military-supported regime of PresidentFederico Laredo Brú and its control of the Cuban Congress.[20]
Eleven of the crew of the freighter Alecto were drowned after the ship collided with the freighter Plavnik and sank in the North Sea while both saidled in a fog.during a fog.[21]
Lorenzo Music (Gerald David Music), American actor, television producer and musician, co-creator of The Bob Newhart Show in 1972, as well as being the voice of Garfield the cat in cartoons and the voice of the unseen character of Carlton the Doorman in Rhoda; in Brooklyn, New York City (d. 2001)[23]
Lev Karakhan, the Soviet Union's Ambassador to Turkey since 1934, was arrested on orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to return to Moscow.[24] Stalin had ordered the recall of Karakhan on April 26 [25]. Karakhan was arrested and charged with participation in a "pro-fascist conspiracy" to overthrow the Soviet Government. He would be executed on September 20 after being tried before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union.[26]
The divorce of Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson from her husband, shipbrokerErnest Simpson, became final[27], clearing the way for her to marry the Duke of Windsor, who had been King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions. The marriage took place one month later in France on June 3.
German opera composer and conductor Manfred Gurlitt, a member of Germany's Nazi Party since 1933, was expelled from the Nazis by court order after failing to reveal that he had a Jewish ancestor. The court declared that Gurlitt was a "Jew of Mixed Race of the 2nd Order" and removed him from his employment.[28]
Cosimo Rennella, Ecuadorian-born Italian flying ace during World War One with seven victories and later a member of the Air Force of Ecuador, died of pneumonia after returning from the United States, where head attended a convention of fellow World War I aces in Dayton, Ohio[30]
Pavel Golovin became the world's first pilot to fly an airplane over the North Pole, as part of a crew of 11 people. After flying over the pole, Golovin landed on an ice floe 13 miles (21 km) southward.[42]Golovin was the world's first pilot to fly an airplane over the North Pole, on 5 May 1937.[43] The first flight over the North Pole had been made in the dirigible Nord by pilot Umberto Nobile and polar explorers Lincoln Ellsworth and Roald Amundsen on May 13, 1926.[44]
Died:Camillo Berneri, 39, Italian anarchist and professor, was forcibly removed from his home by policemen and a group of men wearing red armbands. Taken also was his friend Francesco Barbieri, and the two men were shot to death.[48]
May 6, 1937 (Thursday)
The Hindenburg disaster occurred in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 people. Newsreel footage of the tragedy would be shown around the world, shattering the public's confidence in the dirigible as a method of transportation. Radio reporter Herbert Morrison's live report of the disaster ("Oh, the humanity!") remains one of the most famous broadcasts in history.[49][50]
The U.S. Congress passed neutrality legislation permitting the sale of certain commodities (excluding munitions) while making it illegal for U.S. citizens to travel on belligerent ships.[52]
Died:George Topîrceanu, 51, Romanian poet, short story writer and humorist
May 8, 1937 (Saturday)
Italy recalled its news correspondents from London and banned all British newspapers except for the Daily Mail, The Observer and The Evening News. The move was believed to have been taken in reaction to the British press mocking the recent defeats of Italian troops in the Spanish Civil War.[54]
5,000 women and children began to evacuate Bilbao.[58]
More than 50 were injured in Toulouse when a riot broke out between political factions. The rioting began when rightists paraded to an equestrian statue of Joan of Arc shouting "France for the French", referring to the allegation that the Popular Front government of Prime Minister Léon Blum took orders from Moscow.[59]
May 10, 1937 (Monday)
Frozen food came to Britain when frozen asparagus went on sale for the first time.[60]
May 11, 1937 (Tuesday)
George VI met all the representatives of England's Dominions and colonies and pledged to carry on his father's work "for the welfare of our great empire." The speech made no mention of his brother Edward.[61]
Antisemitic rioting broke out in three towns near Brześć-Litewski, Poland, after a police officer pushed a Jewish butcher and was stabbed to death by the butcher's son. Jewish-owned stores were looted and at least 53 Jews were injured during violence that continued into the next morning.[63][64]
Valencia endured the most intensive Nationalist aerial bombardment yet made on the city, killing more than 30 people.[67] The British embassy there was damaged and two staff members wounded.[68]
Outgoing Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin made the last significant speech of his time in office, in which he asked the youth of Britain to guard against the threats of fascism and communism and said that the League of Nations was of "doubtful" value.[74]
Archbishop of ChicagoGeorge Mundelein made the paper hanger speech, an anti-Nazi speech that condemned the Nazi totalitarianism and spoke about how "a nation of 60 million intelligent people will submit in fear and servitude" to Hitler, whom he called an "alien, an Austrian paper hanger."[75]
The press in Nazi Germany demanded that the Vatican publicly repudiate the Archbishop of ChicagoGeorge Mundelein for his remarks. "The cardinal insulted not only the head of the German state and its ministers but the entire German nation", an editorial in Der Angriff stated. "We make the Catholic church responsible if the speech evokes a new wave of anti-German agitation, and we ask the Vatican if it intends to tolerate this speech without protest."[75]
An editorial in Mussolini's Il Popolo d'Italia warned the Jews of Italy to cease making criticisms of Germany, because such opposition was "irreconcilable with the friendship that binds us to Germany and which has objectives far more vast and fundamental than the Jewish question."[86]
Born:Mark Shields, American journalist and political commentator (d. 2022)
In the final act of the Baldwin government, the London Gazette announced that Wallis Warfield would not be elevated to royal status upon her marriage to the Duke of Windsor, and would only be entitled to be addressed in the forms appropriate to a woman who was married to a duke but was not of royal blood. The ruling also applied to any children she might have with the Duke.[89]
Several Hong Kong Chinese newspapers published an identical leading article, appealing to Britain not to enter into negotiations with Japan. The article stated that China would maintain her sovereignty at all costs.[90][91]
The steamship Ciudad de Barcelona carrying volunteers of the International Brigades was torpedoed and sunk by an Italian submarine off the coast of Malgrat de Mar.[92]
May 31, 1937 (Monday)
German warships bombarded the city of Almería in retaliation for the Deutschland incident.
^Darrah, David (May 1, 1937). "Strike Ties Up London Buses; 26,000 Men Out". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
^"Burlesque Shows of City Are Shut as Public Menace; Moss Refuses Licenses to All, Declaring Their Displays of Nudity Are Disgraceful", The New York Times, May 2, 1937, p.1
^Davis, Andrew, Baggy Pants Comedy: Burlesque and the Oral Tradition(Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) pp. 6, 34, 49, 55, 86, 124. ISBN 978-1-137-37872-9
^"La Guardia Backs Ban on Burlesque; Pledges 'Fight to Finish' to Prevent Reopening of Houses Accused of Glorifying 'Filth'". The New York Times. May 3, 1937. p. 1.
^Eubank, Keith (2004). The Origins of World War II (Third ed.). Harlan Davidson, Inc. p. 87. ISBN978-1-118-81875-6.
^Denny, Harold (May 3, 1937). "50,000 in Moscow at Easter Service; Rites in 25 Churches Carried On in Face of Stern Anti-Religious Campaign". The New York Times. p. 6.
^Phillips, J. D. (May 3, 1937). "Menocal Presses for Shift in Cuba; Regime's Hold on Congress Is Threatened as Ex-President Quits Democratic Party". The New York Times. p. 5.
^"Freighter Alecto Sinks After Collision in Heavy Fog". The New York Times. May 3, 1937. p. 3.
^Christine Künzel (Hrsg.): Die letzte Kommunistin. Texte zu Gisela Elsner. konkret Literatur Verlag, Hamburg 2009. p. 22
^"Armed Revolt Threatens Stalin, Declare Rumors— Intenification of Of Purge Threatens Stalin, Declare Rumors", Deseret News (Salt Lake City UT), June 9, 1937, p.18
^"Envoy to Turkey Recalled by Russia", The Republican (Springfield MA), April 26, 1937, p.13
^"Soviets Slay Eight Former High Leaders— Leon Karakhan, One-Time Envoy To Turkey, Is Among Victims", United Press report in El Paso (TX) Times, December 20, 1937, p.12
^"Wally Wins Absolute Divorce; Duke Ruses To Join Her in France— Ex-King, American-Born Woman Are Free To Marry Whenever They Choose; Date Is Secret", The Capital Times (Madison WI), May 3, 1937, p.1
^"Hans Cieslarczyk". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmermann. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
^Franks, Norman; Guest, Russell F.; Alegi, Gregory (1997). Above the War Fronts: The British Two-seater Bomber Pilot and Observer Aces, the British Two-seater Fighter Observer Aces, and the Belgian, Italian, Austro-Hungarian and Russian Fighter Aces, 1914–1918. London, UK: Grub Street. p. 155. ISBN978-1-898697-56-5.
^"North Pole Crossed by 11 Soviet Flyers; Nearby Landing Made". The Sun (Baltimore MD). Associated Press. May 22, 1937. p. 1.
^"North Pole Crossed by 11 Soviet Flyers; Nearby Landing Made". The Sun (Baltimore MD). Associated Press. May 22, 1937. p. 1.
^"Air Expedition of Soviets Flew Over North Pole; Landed Safely On An Ice Floe 13 Miles From the Pole, Agency Reports". Standard Sentinel (Hazleton PA). Associated Press. May 22, 1937. p. 1.