Events from the year 1932 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government
President: Herbert Hoover (R-California) Vice President: Charles Curtis (R-Kansas) Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes (New York) Speaker of the House of Representatives: John Nance Garner (D-Texas) Senate Majority Leader: James Eli Watson (R-Indiana) Congress: 72nd
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 7 – The Stimson Doctrine is proclaimed, in response to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. 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. February 22 (Washington's Birthday) – The Purple Heart is revived by War Department General Order No. 3 as a decoration of the U.S. military awarded in the name of the president to those wounded or killed while serving with the U.S. Armed Forces; retrospective awards are made. 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. March 25 – Tarzan the Ape Man opens, with Olympic gold medal swimmer Johnny Weissmuller in the title role; he will star in a total of twelve Tarzan films.
April–June
April 6 – U.S. president Herbert Hoover supports armament limitations. May 2 – Comedian Jack Benny's radio show airs for the first time. 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. c. June – The Republican Citizens Committee Against National Prohibition is established for the repeal of prohibition in the U.S. 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. The 6.4 Eureka earthquake affects the north coast of California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). Three people are injured and one 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–August 14 – The 1932 Summer Olympics take place in Los Angeles. July 30 – 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 – 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.