June 1937

• In newspapers across the U.S., Oldsmobile announced the first automatic transmission available to the public, to be a feature in the 1938 model Oldsmobile Eight. The advertisement offered demonstrations the Automatic-Safety-Transmission at local dealers and boasted "First News of the Most Sensational Transmission Development in 20 years... An Astonishing New Automatic Gear-Shift That Sets a New World Standard of Driving Ease, Performance and Economy... New! Nothing Else Like It in the World!"[https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-akron-beacon-journal-the-oldsmobile/162866192/ "Oldsmobile Announces the New Automatic-Safety-Transmission"], advertisement, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, June 1, 1937, p.8
• Aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, departed the United States in her Lockheed Model 10 Electra twin-engine airplane to begin her mission to become the first woman to circumnavigate the Earth."Miss Earhart Ready for Take-Off Today", by C. B. Allen, The Miami Herald, June 1, 1937, p.1 Earhart and Noonan took off from Miami at 5:55 in the morning local time toward San Juan, Puerto Rico, leaving the United States for the last time, and landed at 12:30 in the afternoon."World Hop Launched by Amerlia— Flies From Miami to San Juan in 7 Hours, 34 Minutes", AP report in St. Louis Star-Times, June 1, 1937, p.1 By the end of the month, they were in New Guinea at Lae.
• Bill Dietrich of the Chicago White Sox pitched an 8-0 no-hitter against the St. Louis Browns. The feat was the only no-hitter of the 1937 MLB season and the first in the Major Leagues since August 31, 1935.[https://www.retrosheet.org/nohit_chrono.htm "No Hitters Chronologically"], Retrosheet.org{{cite web |url=https://www.espn.com/mlb/history/nohitters/_/year/1937 |title=1937 MLB No-Hitters |website=ESPN |access-date=September 9, 2015 }}
• In Italy, the Ministry of Popular Culture ordered all foreign words and names to be Italianized. Louis Armstrong, for example, was to be known as Luigi Fortebraccio.{{cite web|url=http://musicandhistory.com/music-and-history-by-the-year/198-1937.html |title=1937 |website=MusicAndHistory |access-date=September 9, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120829172721/http://www.musicandhistory.com/music-and-history-by-the-year/198-1937.html |archive-date=August 29, 2012 }}
• Born:
• Morgan Freeman, American actor, director and narrator, 2004 Academy Award winner for Best Supporting Actor; in Memphis, Tennessee{{Cite book|last=Tracy|first=Kathleen|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/69672088|title=Morgan Freeman : a biography|date=2006|publisher=Barricade Books|isbn=978-1-56980-307-3|location=Fort Lee, N.J.|pages=7–9, 14|oclc=69672088|access-date=March 20, 2021|archive-date=March 20, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210320141259/https://www.worldcat.org/title/morgan-freeman-a-biography/oclc/69672088|url-status=live}}
• Rosaleen Linehan, Irish actress; in Dublin

• Rioting broke out around İskenderun and Antioch after the Syrian parliament refused to ratify the League of Nations' decision to make the İskenderun district autonomous.{{cite news |date=June 6, 1937 |title=Rush French Troops to Quell Turk-Arab Riots in Syrian City |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=2}}
• Willis Van Devanter, who had served on the U.S. Supreme Court since 1911, retired at the age of 78 after a new law had passed providing for full pay in retirement for any justice who retired after reaching 70.{{cite web| title=Van Devanter, Willis| url=https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/van-devanter-willis| publisher=Federal Judicial Center| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=February 15, 2022}}
• German War Minister Werner von Blomberg began a three-day visit to Italy to discuss military ties between the two nations.{{cite web |url=http://www.chroniknet.de/daly_de.0.html?datum=2.6.1937&year=1937&month=6&day=2 |title=Tageseinträge für 2. Juni 1937 |website=chroniknet |access-date=September 9, 2015}}
• The first Printer's Devilry puzzle, a form of crossword invented by "Afrit" (Alistair Ferguson Ritchie) was published, making its initial appearance in The Listener, a British weekly magazine.{{cite web|url=http://www.listenercrossword.com/Setters/A/Afrit.html|title=Afrit|website=Listener Crossword|accessdate=20 February 2017}}

File:Dizzy Dean Time.jpg

• St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Dizzy Dean was suspended by National League President Ford C. Frick for referring to Frick and umpire George Barr as "the two biggest crooks in baseball today."{{cite news |date=June 3, 1937 |title=Frick Suspends Dizzy Dean for Not Apologizing |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=31}} Dizzy Dean refused to sign a letter of apology and threatened to sue Ford Frick for $250,000,{{cite news |date=June 4, 1937 |title=Dean Threatens to Sue Frick for $250,000 | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=31 }} but did issue a "letter of explanation" and was reinstated on June 5.{{cite news |date=June 5, 1937 |title=League Lifts Suspension; Dean Pitches Today | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|pages=17, 19 }} He lost $500 during the course of his suspension.{{cite web |url=http://www.onthisdayincardinalnation.com/2014/05/may-19-1937-battle-at-sportsmans-park.html |title=May 19, 1937: The Battle at Sportsman's Park |last=Forrester |first=Wade |date=May 19, 2014 |website=On This Day in Cardinal Nation |access-date=September 9, 2015 }}
• Born:
• Jimmy Jones, U.S. singer-songwriter; in Birmingham, Alabama (d. 2012)
• Sally Kellerman, American actress and singer; in Long Beach, California (d. 2022)
• Don Turnbull, English journalist, editor and game designer; in Preston, Lancashire(d. 2003)
• Died: Louis Vierne, 66, French organist and composer collapsed from a stroke while performing a concert at the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral. As he was playing the closing section of "Stèle pour un enfant défunt" from his Triptyque Opus 58, Vierne suddenly fell forward, then off of the bench.{{cite journal| last=Foerch| first=Christian| title=A Beautiful Stroke? A Side Note on the 75th Anniversary of the Spectacular Death of the French Organist and Composer Louis Vierne (1870–1937)| journal=Cerebrovascular Diseases (Basel, Switzerland)| publisher=Department of Neurology, Goethe University| location=Frankfurt am Main| date=2012| volume=34| issue=4| pages=322–325| doi=10.1159/000342648| pmid=23146962| doi-access=free}}"Vierne, Famous Organist, Dies at Recital in Paris", Chicago Daily Tribune, June 3, 1937, p.24

File:King Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson on holiday in Yugoslavia, 1936.jpg

• The Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, and Wallis Warfield Simpson were married at the Château de Candé in Monts, Indre-et-Loire in France. Reportedly, the religious ceremony by an Anglican priest came "after the wedding party had come in from highballs and cocktails on the terrace," and no member of the British royal family was present at the ceremonies."Duke of Windsor Weds Wallis Warfield in Plain Dual Ceremony— Ex-King Happy as He Takes Bride.", The Evening Star (Washington DC) June 3, 1937, p.1
• American Communist Juliet Stuart Poyntz, who had worked secretly for the Soviet Union as a spy against the U.S., vanished shortly after she severed relations with the Soviets. She was last seen in public as she was leaving her apartment at the American Woman's Association clubhouse at 353 West 57th Street in New York CityGary Kern, A Death in Washington: Walter Krivitsky and the Stalin Terror (Enigma Books, 2004) p.163 and was apparently kidnapped while outside her apartment building.{{cite book|last1=West|first1=Nigel|title=Encyclopedia of Political Assassinations|date=15 August 2017|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-1-538-10239-8|page=187|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SZMtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA200}} Her disappearance was not reported in the press until December 18."Noted Woman Red-Laborite Vanishes Here", Daily News (New York), December 18, 1937, p.3"Woman Communist Missing 7 Months; Disappearance of Miss Poyntz Made Known as Robinson Clue Is Sought Here", The New York Times, December 18, 1937, p.10
• Born: Solomon P. Ortiz, U.S. Representative for Texas for 28 years from 1983 to 2011 politician, in Robstown, Texas
• Died: Emilio Mola, 49, Spanish Nationalist commander and one of the four leaders of the military uprising that began the Spanish Civil War, was killed along with five other people when their airplane crashed. Flying in a fog, the Airspeed Envoy struck the side of a mountain near the town of Briviesca."General Mola, Second Fascist Chief in Spain, Killed in Plane Crash— Ship Hits Basque Mountain in Thick Fog; Four Die with Him", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 3, 1937, p.1 The other three uprising leaders had been José Sanjurjo (who died in a crash in 1936); Manuel Goded (who was captured and executed by the Nationalist government in 1936) and Francisco Franco, who would control Spain for the next 38 years.{{cite book |first= Stanley G.|last= Payne |author-link=Stanley G. Payne |url= http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/twentieth-century-european-history/spanish-civil-war |title=The Spanish Civil War |year=2012 |isbn = 978-0-521-17470-1 | publisher = Cambridge University Press }}

• The first modern shopping cart, invented by supermarket owner Sylvan Goldman, was introduced at the Humpty Dumpty he owned in Oklahoma City.{{cite web |url=https://www.wired.com/2009/06/dayintech_0604/ |title=June 4, 1937: Humpty Dumpty and the Shopping Cart |last=Sjoden |first=Kerstin |date=June 4, 2009 |website=Wired |access-date=September 9, 2015 }}[https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-oklahoma-news-the-first-shopping-car/163170987/ "No More Heavy Baskets to Carry"], advertisment for Humpty Dumpty supermarkets, The Oklahoma News (Oklahoma City, OK), June 25, 1937, p.27 While vertical metal baskets on a frame with wheels had been introduced in some stores in 1933, Goldman's cart was the first of the shape and size that would become the standard that would still be used almost 90 years later.
• The Battle of Pochonbo took place in the northern section of Japanese-occupied Korea as a unit of 150 members of the Northeast Counter-Japanese United Army guerrilla group crossed the border from China and attacked a detachment of the Japanese Imperial Army at Pochon-up and briefly occupied the town before being forced to retreat.{{cite web|title=The Battle of Pochonbo|url=http://www.kfausa.org/battle-pochonbo/|website=kfausa.org|publisher=The Korean Friendship Association|accessdate=23 December 2014}} According to North Korea, the 25-year-old commander of the Sixth Division of the Counter-Japanese guerrillas, Kim Il Sung, led the group into battle and destroyed different Japanese-operated municipal services. Kim would later become the Great Leader of North Korea upon its founding in 1945.
• Prince Fumimaro Konoe became the new Prime Minister of Japan, replacing General Senjūrō Hayashi and serving until 1939.{{Cite book|first=Eri|last=Hotta|title=Japan, 1941: Countdown to infamy|year=2013|isbn=978-0307739742|edition=First Vintage books|location=New York|page=28|oclc=863596251}}
• Nazi Germany's Navy, the Kriegsmarine, held its first maneuvers off Heligoland since the island was refortified in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles. Only a skeleton fleet participated because so many ships were deployed in Spain.{{cite news |date=June 5, 1937 |title=10,000 Workers See Nazi Navy Maneuvers Off Heligoland Isle | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=6 }}
• Born:
• Mortimer Zuckerman, Canadian-born U.S. media mogul, journalist, and billionaire; in Montreal{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N-MCAAAAMBAJ&q=Esther+Abraham+Zuckerman&pg=PA41 |title=New York Magazine |date= October 5, 1992|work=google.ca}}
• Gorilla Monsoon (ring name for Robert James Marella), American professional wrestler and commentator; in Rochester, New York(d. 1999)Tim Hornbaker, [https://archive.org/details/legendsofprowres0000horn/page/253/mode/1up Legends of pro wrestling : 150 years of headlocks, bodyslams, and piledrivers] (Sports Publishing, 2012) p.253
• Died: Helmut Hirsch, 21, German Jew convicted of conspiring in a bombing plot against the government, was executed by guillotine.

• War Admiral, who had captured the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness in May, won the Belmont Stakes by three lengths to become only the fourth thoroughbred horse to win the U.S. Triple Crown."War Admiral Easily Wins Belmont Cup— Riddle Colt Is Fourth 3-Year-Old To Wear Triple Crown", AP story by Alan Gould, The Sunday Sun (Baltimore), June 6, 1937, p.1
• French troops were rushed to the İskenderun region to control the rioting between Arabs and Turks.
• Died: John Challen, 72, Welsh cricketer and footballer for the Wales national teams from 1887 to 1890{{cite news |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000328/19370617/156/0008 |title=Births, Marriages, Deaths |work=North Devon Journal |location=Barnstaple |page=8 |date=17 June 1937 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }}

• The city of Rabaul, capital of the Territory of New Guinea, was destroyed by an eruption of the Tavurvur volcano and 507 people were killed."HOT LAVA STREAMS TAKE TOLL OF 500— Guinea Volcano Erupts", Edmonton Bulletin, June 7, 1937, p.1 Most of the island's residents had been evacuated by ships from several nations prior to the blast.
• The Soviet Union inaugurated North Pole-1 (Severnia Polyos-1), the world's first "drifting ice station", beginning operations (including an airstrip) on a floating ice floe located only {{convert|12|mi}} from the North Pole.{{cite web |url=http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=66677 |title=North Pole Drifting Stations (1930s-1980s) |access-date=2012-01-08 |publisher=Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution |date=2011-08-17}}
• In the Spanish Civil War the Segovia Offensive, started on May 31 by the Spanish Republic's Army to divert the Nationalist rebels, was abandoned after the loss of 3,000 troops, 1,000 of whom were in the XIV International Brigade.Antony Beevor, The Battle for Spain. The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 (Penguin Books, 2006) p.276
• The Coppa Italia, the premier tournament of Italian soccer football, was won by Genova 1893 (now Genoa CFC) over A. S. Roma, 1 to 0, at the Stadio Comunale Giovanni Berta (now the Stadio Artemio Franchi) in Firenze."[https://www.rsssf.org/tablesi/italcup37.html Coppa Italia 1936/37]", by Dinant Abbink (Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation, 2020) finished sixth in the 1936-37 Serie A league and A. S. Roma 10th, while Serie A champion Bologna FC 1909 had been eliminated in the first round.
• Born: Yan Shunkai, Chinese comedian, actor and film director; in Shanghai (d.2017){{cite news|title=Chinese comedian Yan Shunkai dies at 80|url=http://www.china.org.cn/arts/2017-10/18/content_41753247.htm|access-date=10 April 2018|work=Chinadaily|date=18 October 2017}}

• Benito Mussolini and Galeazzo Ciano became the first recipients of the Order of the German Eagle.{{cite news |date=June 8, 1937 |title=Hitler Bestows Highest Medal on Friend Duce | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=15 }}
• Born:
• Roberto Blanco, Tunisian singer and actor; in Tunis
• Neeme Järvi, Estonian conductor; in Tallinn

File:Jack Conway Jean Harlow Clark Gable Saratoga 1937.jpg

• Died: Jean Harlow (stage name for Harlean Harlow Carpenter), 26, American actress, died from kidney failure, nine days after having become ill during the filming of a scene in her final movie, Saratoga.{{cite news |date=June 8, 1937 |title=Jean Harlow, Screen Star, Dies After Spectacular Rise to Fame— Week's Illness Fatal in Valiant Fight to Live |author=Edwin Schallert |work=Los Angeles Times|page=I-1}}

• In London, representatives of Argentina, Australia, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, South Africa, Germany and the United States reached an agreement to stop the dangerous reduction of the world's whale stocks through whaling.{{cite web |url=http://www.chroniknet.de/daly_de.0.html?datum=8.6.1937&year=1937&month=6&day=8 |title=Tageseinträge für 8. Juni 1937 |website=chroniknet |access-date=September 9, 2015 }}
• In San Juan, Puerto Rico, an assassination attempt on the life of U.S. District Judge Robert A. Cooper, the day after he had sentenced Pedro Albizu Campos and eight other Puerto Rican nationalists to long terms at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta. The assailants fired at least 12 bullets at Cooper's car as he was driving past them, though neither Cooper nor his bodyguard Francisco Davila were injured."Bullets Miss U. S. Judge in San Juan— Attempt Made on Life of Robert A. Cooper Who Sentenced Campos", The Plain Dealer (Cleveland), June 9, 1937, p.1[http://www.pr-secretfiles.net/binders/SJ-100-3_23_023_157.pdf "FBI Files"; "Puerto Rico Nationalist Party"; SJ 100-3; Vol. 23; pages 104-134.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101090251/http://www.pr-secretfiles.net/binders/SJ-100-3_23_023_157.pdf |date=2013-11-01 }}
• The German Postal Ministry decreed that all non-Aryans must retire.
• A total solar eclipse that had the longest (at more than seven minutes) totality since the year 1098, was visible over the Pacific Ocean. Occurring between 18:04 to 23:17 UTC, it had the distinction of beginning at sunrise on Wednesday, June 9, local time over the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, and ending at sunset on Tuesday, June 8, local time in Peru.{{cite web|title=Total Solar Eclipse of 1937 Jun 08|url=https://eclipsewise.com/solar/SEprime/1901-2000/SE1937Jun08Tprime.html|publisher=EclipseWise.com|access-date=3 August 2024}}{{Cite journal| last=Beckwith |first =Ethelwynn Rice |date=November 1937 |title=Three Minutes in Peru |url=https://archive.org/details/oberlinalumnimag1937ober_l2w7/page/2/mode/2up?q=Ethelwynn+Rice |journal=Oberlin Alumnae Magazine |pages=2–3 |via= Internet Archive }}
• The Carl Orff composition Carmina Burana premiered in Frankfurt.
• The French war film La Grande Illusion (The Grand Illusion) directed by Jean Renoir was released.
• Born: Toni Harper, American child singer; in Los Angeles (d. 2023)
• Died: Monroe Owsley, 36, American stage and film actor known for Honor Among Lovers with Claudette Colbert, died of a heart attack.{{cite news|title=Death Calls Actor Owsley|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/380728050|work=The Los Angeles Times|date=June 9, 1937|location=California, Los Angeles|page=II-1|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = March 9, 2018}}

• The Amateur Rowing Association (ARA) of Great Britain, under criticism for excluding the Australian National Team from the Grand Challenge Cup a year earlier because the crew, all policemen, were excluded from the ARA definition of amateurism because they had been employed for wages, permanently repealed its exclusionary policy."Amateur Rowing Ban Lifted at Last", by Charles Bray, Daily Herald (London) June 12, 1937, p.17 In 1886, the ARA had barred any person "who is or has been by trade or employment for wages a mechanic, artisan or labourer." The Henley Royal Regatta followed suit the next day, as both organizations changed their rules to bar only people who had accepted financial compensation for competing in sport.
• The funeral of Jean Harlow was held at a chapel in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. William Powell, Lionel Barrymore, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy and Norma Shearer were among the mourners in attendance.{{cite news |date=June 10, 1937 |title=Jean Harlow's Bier a $100,000 Floral Mound | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=1 }}
• The Citizens' War Memorial was unveiled in Christchurch, New Zealand.
• The Girl Guides temporarily formed a new chapter, the "1st Buckingham Palace Company", with 20 girls who were children of people who worked at the Royal Household and Palace, including 11-year-old Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King George VI.{{cite web| title =40 facts about Buckingham Palace| publisher =British Monarchy Media Centre| url =http://www.royal.gov.uk/LatestNewsandDiary/Factfiles/40factsaboutBuckinghamPalace.aspx| accessdate =2006-12-12}} At the same time, the 14-member Brownie Pack chapter for younger girls, including 6-year-old Princess Margaret.
• Born: Harald Rosenthal; German hydriobiologist; in Berlin
• Died:
• Carlo Rosselli, 37, the former leader of Italy's Unitary Socialist Party and a critic of Italy's Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, was shot to death along with his brother Nello Rosselli, 36."Murder of Italians Was 'Political'— Death of Anti-Fascist Exile Linked With the Matteotti Assassination", Evening Standard (London), June 12, 1937, p.4 The gunmen were members of the French fascist group La Cagoule, apparently after being hired by the Mussolini government./ref>{{cite journal|author=Stanislao G. Pugliese |jstor=260963 |title=Death in Exile: The Assassination of Carlo Rosselli|journal=Journal of Contemporary History|volume=32|issue=3 |year=1997|pages=305–319 |doi=10.1177/002200949703200302|s2cid=154546885 }} The two were visiting the French resort town of Bagnoles-de-l'Orne when they were killed.{{cite book|last1=Pugliese|first1=Stanislao G.|title=Carlo Rosselli: Socialist Heretic and Antifascist Exile |url=https://archive.org/details/carlorossellisoc00pugl |url-access=registration |date=1999 |publisher=Harvard University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/carlorossellisoc00pugl/page/221 221]|isbn=978-0-674-00053-7 }}
• Francisco Olazábal, 50, Mexican-American Christian evangelist and faith healer, died eight days after being fatally injured in a car accident."Rev. Olazabal Dies; Healing Clergyman", Brooklyn Eagle, June 10, 1937, p.17{{Cite journal|title = "El Azteca": Francisco Olazábal and Latino Pentecostal Charisma, Power, and Faith Healing in the Borderlands|last = Espinosa|first = Gaston|date = 1999|journal = Journal of the American Academy of Religion|doi = 10.1093/jaarel/67.3.597|jstor=1466209|volume=67|pages=597–616}}

• German-born biochemist Hans Krebs and his colleague William Arthur Johnson first described the citric acid cycle— commonly called the "Krebs cycle" — in a short manuscript sent to Nature, the British weekly scientific journal. The editor of Nature rejected the submission and suggested that he "submit it for early publication to another periodical."{{cite journal|last1=Borrel|first1=Brendan|title=Nature rejects Krebs's paper, 1937|journal=The Scientist|date=1 March 2010|url=http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/28819/title/Nature-rejects-Krebs-s-paper--1937/|access-date=29 July 2014}} Krebs wrote a longer version of his paper which was published two months later by the Dutch journal Enzymologia.
• Nazi Germany announced an ambitious 15-year development plan for the city of Hamburg that envisioned the construction of a 60-story skyscraper and a suspension bridge across the Elbe.{{cite news |date=June 11, 1937 |title='Rebuild Hansa City Hamburg, Show Our Might,' Hitler Says | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=1 }}
• Born:
• Luciana Paluzzi, Italian film actress; in Rome
• Richard Foreman, American avant-garde playwright; as Edward L. Friedman in New York City (d.2025){{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/04/theater/richard-foreman-dead.html|title = Richard Foreman, Iconoclastic Playwright and Impresario, Dies at 87|last = Gates|first = Anita|date = January 4, 2025|accessdate = January 4, 2025|newspaper = The New York Times|url-access = limited}}
• Died:
• Sir Robert Borden, 82, Prime Minister of Canada from 1911 to 1920
• Dennis Kincaid, 31, British novelist and civil servant, known for The Grand Rebel: An Impression of Shivaji, Founder of the Maratha Empire (1936), drowned while swimming in the ocean during a rough sea.{{cite web|url=http://newsarch.rootsweb.com/th/read/INDIA/2008-01/1200033337 |title=Obituaries: Mr. Dennis Kincaid |work=The Times (London) |date=June 11, 1937}}
• Jane Foss Barff, 73, Australian women's rights advocate.{{Cite book|title = Barff, Jane Foss (1863–1937)|url = http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/barff-jane-foss-12784|publisher = National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|location = Canberra|first = Ursula|last = Bygott}}

• The secret Moscow trial known as the Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization began.{{cite news |date=June 11, 1937 |title=Russia Shaken; Call Troops |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=1}}
• The comedy film A Day at the Races, starring the Marx Brothers, was released.{{cite web |title=A Day at the Races |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/6823 |work=AFI Catalog of Feature Films |publisher=American Film Institute |access-date=2 May 2024}}
• Born:
• Robin Warren, Australian pathologist and Nobel laureate; in Adelaide, South Australia (d. 2024){{cite web |title=J. Robin Warren – Facts |website=NobelPrize.org |publisher=Nobel Prize Outreach AB |year=2024 |access-date=2 May 2024 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2005/warren/facts/}}
• Don Fleming, American college and professional football player; in Bellaire, Ohio (killed in construction accident,. 1963){{cite web |title=Don Fleming Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Draft, College |publisher=Sports Reference LLC |url=https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/F/FlemDo20.htm |access-date=2 May 2024}}
• Died:
• R. J. Mitchell, 42, British aircraft designer known for the Supermarine flying boats, died from colorectal cancer.{{cite web |url=http://www.rjmitchell-spitfire.co.uk/aboutrjmitchell/biography.asp?sectionID=1 |title= RJ Mitchell. A life in aviation.|author=Gordon Mitchell |year=2009 |access-date=16 November 2009}} Mitchell would later be the subject of the 1942 British film The First of the Few.
• Máté Zalka, 41, Hungarian writer and revolutionary, was killed in the Spanish Civil War while fighting for the International Brigades in aid of the Spanish Second Republic.

• The Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Trial ended swiftly with eight Soviet generals shot for treason the day after being found guilty of accusations of espionage.{{cite news |date=June 12, 1937 |title=Russia Orders Eight General Shot |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=1}} Those executed were Marshal of the Soviet Union Mikhail Tukhachevsky; General Boris Feldman; Colonel General Vitaly Primakov; General Vitovt Putna; General Ieronim Uborevich; General Iona Yakir; General Roberts Eidemanis; and General August Kork."The Case of the So-Called 'Anti-Soviet Trotskyite Military Organization' in the Red Army," Political Archives of the Soviet Union, vol. 1, No. 3., 1990
• The Battle of Bilbao started in the Spanish Civil War as the Nationalists launched an assault on the city. The attack prompted the evacuation of 1,500 children on the oceean liner Habana, with an escort by the Royal Navy warship HMS Hood to transport "los niños de la guerra" to the United Kingdom. Within seven days, Bilbao would be under Nationalist control.{{cite book |author-link=Gabriel Jackson (hispanist) |first=Gabriel |last=Jackson |title=The Spanish Republic and the Civil War, 1931–1939 |year=1965 |page=384 }}
• The Spanish Republicans launched the Huesca Offensive in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to divert the Spanish Nationalists attack on Bilbao.Beevor, Antony. The Battle for Spain. The Spanish Civil War. Penguin Books. London. 2006. pages 347 and 429
• Sidney Kingsley's popular Broadway play Dead End, which introduced the "Dead End Kids" franchise of 89 films, closed after 687 performances.{{Cite web|title=Dead End: A Play in Three Acts - 1936, Page 13 by Sidney Kingsley|url=https://www.questia.com/read/28548015/dead-end-a-play-in-three-acts|access-date=|website=}}{{dead link|date=July 2021}}
• Golfer Ralph Guldahl won the U.S. Open, defeating Sam Snead by two strokes.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=MicbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GEwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6127%2C5033456 |work=Pittsburgh Press |agency=United Press |last=McLemore |first=Henry |title=Guldahl's record 281 eins U.S. Open title |date=June 13, 1937 |page=1, sports}}
• The Greater Texas & Pan-American Exposition opened in Dallas, Texas.
• The body of Henry Clay Torrence of Richmond, California, was recovered on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. Torrence was the first person to die by falling from the Golden Gate Bridge after its opening, but whether his death was an accident, suicide or murder is unknown.{{cite book |last=Bateson |first=John |year=2012 |title=The Final Leap: Suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge |via=Internet Archive |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780520272408/page/33 |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |publisher=University of California Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780520272408/page/33 33-34] |isbn=978-0-520-27240-8 |url-access=registration |access-date=2 May 2024}}
• Born:
• Mujaddid Ahmed Ijaz, Pakistani-born American experimental physicist known for the discovery of new isotopes; in Baddomalhi, Punjab Province, British India (d. 1992 of cancer){{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/14/obituaries/mujaddid-ahmed-ijaz-nuclear-scientist-55.html |title=Obituary: Mujaddid Ahmed Ijaz, Nuclear Scientist |newspaper=The New York Times |date=July 14, 1992 |access-date=May 1, 2014}}
• Vladimir Arnold, Ukrainian mathematician known for the Kolmogorov–Arnold representation theorem, the Arnold conjecture and for Arnold invariants; in Odessa, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (d. 2010 of pancreatitis)
• Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe, American physician and consumer advocate against unsafe pharmaceuticals; in Cleveland (d.2024){{cite news|title=Sidney Wolfe, relentless consumer activist and FDA foe, dies at 86 |last1=Rosenwald |first1=Michael |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/01/01/sidney-wolfe-public-citizen-dies/ |newspaper=Washington Post |date=January 1, 2024 |url-access=subscription}}
• Died:
• Royal Navy Captain Cecil Ryther Acklom, 65, Romanian-born British Navy officer knowwn for the development of the torpedo
• Maria Ulyanova, 59, Soviet Russian revolutionary and younger sister of Vladimir Lenin, died of heart disease.

• The Spanish Nationalists under the command of Generalissimo Francisco Franco came within {{convert|2|mi}} of Bilbao, capturing a range of hills east of the city.{{cite news |last=Stephens |first=Pembroke |author-link=Philip Pembroke Stephens |date=June 14, 1937 |title=Rebels Capture Last Ridge; Fire Down on Bilbao |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=7}} The Nationalists captured Las Arenas the next day, cutting Bilbao off from the sea.{{cite news |last=Darrah |first=David |date=June 15, 1937 |title=Rebels Cut Off Bilbao Harbor; Fight for City | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=1 }}
• Keio University defeated Kobe University of Commerce, 3 to 0, to win Japan's Emperor's Cup soccer football championship.[http://www.jfa.jp/match/emperorscup_2018/history.html Japan Football Association]{{in lang|ja}}
• Died: William F. Lloyd, 72, Prime Minister of the Dominion of Newfoundland from 1918 to 1919{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/55560633/former-premier-of-nfld-passes/ |title=Former Premier of Nfld., Passes— Sir William F. Lloyd Dies in St. John's; Prominent in Colony's Public Life |newspaper=Star-Phoenix|location=Saskatoon, Saskatchewan |page=7 |date=June 14, 1937|access-date=July 17, 2020|via=Newspapers.com}}

• Brazil set aside land for the first of 76 national parks, as a decree of President Getúlio Vargas created the Itatiaia National Park from parts of the states of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais.{{citation |url=http://docplayer.net/786082-The-national-parks-of-brazil.html |author=Ariane Janér |title=The National Parks of Brazil |publisher=EcoBrasil - Brazilian Ecotourism Association|year=2010}}
• The Irish Parliament was dissolved and new elections called for July 1.{{cite web |url=http://www.chroniknet.de/daly_de.0.html?datum=14.6.1937&year=1937&month=6&day=14 |title=Tageseinträge für 14. Juni 1937 |website=chroniknet |access-date=September 9, 2015 }}
• The Social Credit backbenchers' revolt in Alberta came to an end when Premier William Aberhart finally got a budget passed in the legislature by a vote of 40–7.{{cite news |date=June 15, 1937 |title=Social Crediters Unite to Pass Alberta Budget As R.C.M.P. Ouster Fails |journal=Winnipeg Tribune |page=3 }}
• The Happy Gang, a popular radio show that would run for 22 years on the CBC Radio Network premiered on the radio station CRCT, before moving in October to the other CBC affiliates. The first cast had host Bert Pearl ("that slap-happy chappy, the Happy Gang's Own Pappy"), trumpeter Bob Farnon, violinist Blain Mathé and organist Kay Stokes, the only cast member who would remain with the show during its entire run.[http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-happy-gang-emc/ "The Happy Gang"]. The Canadian Encyclopedia.
• Born: Jørgen Leth, Danish documentary filmmaker and sports commentator; in AarhusKirkebog for Sankt Johannes Sogn, ("1937-1937" s. 71; opslag 74, nr. 353) på Arkivalieronline, Statens Arkiver.

• An avalanche killed 16 people on a German expedition making an ascent of the Himalayan mountain of Siniolchu in Sikkim, now part of India. The Deutsche Himalaja-Stiftung team, led by Karl Wien, was camping for the night when, at 12:10 in the morning local time, a cornice broke above Wien's camp, burying tents in snow {{convert|10|ft}} high. Seven German climbers and nine Sherpa guides were crushed to death.Ed Douglas, Himalaya: A Human History (W. W. Norton, 2021)
• A total reward of $1,500 was ordered by U.S. Attorney General Homer Cummings for members of the Brady Gang of armed robbers, led by Al Brady. The Justice Department offered $500 apiece for any information furnished to the FBI resulting in the apprehension of Brady, James Dalhover or Clarence Lee Shaffer Jr. The Brady gang was traced four months later to Bangor, Maine, where Everett Hurd, owner of Dakin's Sporting Goods Store, had been approached by the gang for the purchase of several Thompson submachine guns and 500 rounds of .30-caliber ammunition. On October 12, 1937, because of Hurd's tip, FBI agents were ready when Brady, Dalhover and Shaffer returned to the store to collect their purchase. Dalhover was captured alive while Brady and Shaffer were killed in a shootout.Michael Newton, ""Don't Shoot, G-Men!": The FBI Crime War, 1933-1939 (McFarland, 2021) pp.183, 207
• Switzerland recognized the Italian conquest of Ethiopia.{{cite web |url=http://www.indiana.edu/~league/1937.htm |title=Chronology 1937 |date=2002 |website=indiana.edu |access-date=September 9, 2015 |archive-date=April 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200402163031/http://www.indiana.edu/~league/1937.htm |url-status=dead }}
• Born:
• Waylon Jennings, American country music singer and actor, known for the theme from The Dukes of Hazzard; near Littlefield, Texas (d. 2002){{cite book |last1=Jennings |first1=Waylon |last2=Kaye |first2=Lenny |title=Waylon: An Autobiography |publisher=Warner Books |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-446-51865-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/waylonautobiogra00jenn}}
• Herbert Feuerstein, Austrian-born German comedian, magazine editor and television actor; in Zell am See (d. 2020){{Cite news|title=Kabarettist und Entertainer: Herbert Feuerstein im Alter von 83 Jahren gestorben|language=de|work=FAZ |url=https://www.faz.net/1.6990534|access-date=7 October 2020|issn=0174-4909}}
• K. A. Siddiqui, Pakistani botanist and genetic engineer; in Indore, Central Provinces and Berar, British India (d.2009)
• Alan Thornett, British Trotskyist activist; in Oxfordshire, England
• Died: William P. Connery Jr., 48, U.S. Representative for Massachusetts since 1923, and chairman of the House Labor Committee, died from food poisoning."Connery Dies of Food Poison", by Charles S. Groves, The Boston Globe, June 16, 1937, p.1

• Spanish Prime Minister Juan Negrín banned the Communist political party POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista or Workers' Party for Marxist Unification). Party Chairman Andreu Nin, who had served as the Justice Minister for Revolutionary Catalonia during its brief existence as an autonomous state within Spain, was arrested along with other leaders. After his arrest, Nin was turned over to Soviet agents within Spain and was not seen in public again.{{cite web |url=http://spartacus-educational.com/SPAchronology.htm |title=Spanish Civil War: Chronology |last=Simkin |first=John |date=2014 |website=Spartacus Educational |access-date=September 9, 2015 }}
• Germany and Italy rejoined neutral ship patrols around Spain.{{cite news |date=June 17, 1937 |title=Germany and Italy Rejoin Neutrals' Ship Patrol Around Spain | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=4 }}
• Born:
• Simeon Sakskoburggotski, who ruled Bulgaria as King Simeon II from 1943 to 1946, and later was elected as Prime Minister to serve from 2001 to 2005; in Sofia
• August Busch III, American businessman and chairman of the board of the Anheuser-Busch beer brewing company from 1977 to 2006, as well as being the great-grandson of the company's founder Adolphus Busch; in St. Louis, Missouri
• Charmian May, English actress; in Purbrook, Hampshire (d. 2002)
• Marilyn Van Derbur, American TV hostess and motivational speaker who was crowned as Miss America 1958; in Denver, Colorado{{cite book|author1=Jeanne Varnell|author2=M. L. Hanson|title=Women of consequence: Colorado Women's Hall of Fame|date=1999|publisher=Johnson Books|location=Boulder, Colorado|isbn=9781555662141|pages=246–52}}
• Died: Alexander Chervyakov, 45, Soviet Belarusian Communist leader, committed suicide before being arrested as part of the Great Purge.

• An explosion on the Spanish Navy battleship Jaime I killed at least 200 crew while the ship was in harbor at Cartagena.{{cite book |last=Gibbons |first=Tony |title=The Complete Encyclopedia of Battleships and Battlecruisers: A Technical Directory of All the World's Capital Ships From 1860 to the Present Day |location=London |publisher=Salamander Books Ltd. |year=1983 |page=195 |isbn=978-0-86101-142-1}}."Warship Blast Kills 50 Sailors; Spanish Still Unable To Explain Explosion", The Miami Herald, June 20, 1937, p.12
• A state funeral was held in Germany for 31 victims of the May 29 Deutschland incident.{{cite news |last=Schultz |first=Sigrid |author-link=Sigrid Schultz |date=June 17, 1937 |title=Germany to Vury Warship Victims in State Today | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=10 }}
• The adventure film King Solomon's Mines premiered in the United Kingdom.
• The drama film The Road Back starring John King and Richard Cromwell premiered at the Globe Theatre in New York City.{{cite book |last=Holston |first=Kim R. |date=2013 |title=Movie Roadshows: A History and Filmography of Reserved-Seat Limited Showings, 1911–1973 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc. |page=87 |isbn=978-0-7864-6062-5 }}
• The Cuban band Orquesta Casino de la Playa recorded "Bruca maniguá", Arsenio Rodríguez's first hit.{{cite web|last1=Díaz Ayala|first1=Cristóbal|title=Arsenio Rodríguez|url=http://latinpop.fiu.edu/SECCION05R.pdf|website=Encyclopedic Discography of Cuban Music 1925–1960|publisher=Florida International University Libraries|access-date=October 7, 2015|date=Fall 2013}}
• Born:
• Clodovil Hernandes, Brazilian fashion designer, television host and politician who was the first openly gay member of the Brazilian Congress; in Catanduva, São Paulo (d.2009)
• Arthur Schmidt, American film editor and winner of two Academy Awards for editing of Forrest Gump and Who Framed Roger Rabbit; in Los Angeles (d.2023){{cite web |last1=Bartlett |first1=Rhett |title=Arthur Schmidt, Oscar-Winning Film Editor on ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ and ‘Forrest Gump,’ Dies at 86 |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/arthur-schmidt-dead-oscar-winner-film-editor-roger-rabbit-forrest-gump-1235557921/ |website=The Hollywood Reporter |access-date=August 7, 2023}}''
• Died: Marvel Rea, 35, American silent film actress, committed suicide 10 months after having been kidnapped and raped by a gang of three men.

• In Spain, the Nationalists captured the Santo Domingo hills northeast of Bilbao after a week-long assault and surrounded the city completely.{{cite news |last=Stephens |first=Pembroke |date=June 19, 1937 |title=Basque Verdun Falls; Rebels Close on Bilbao | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=1 }}
• Achille Starace, Secretary of the National Fascist Party, decreed that all party members were required to subscribe to Benito Mussolini's newspaper, Il Popolo d'Italia.{{cite news |date=June 19, 1937 |title=Il Duce Decrees Self a $9,375,000 Income Per Year | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=1 }}
• Born:
• Vitaly Zholobov, Soviet Ukrainian cosmonaut on the 1976 Soyuz 21 mission to the Salyut 5 space station, later the Governor of Kherson Oblast from 1985 to 1996; in Zburjevka, Ukrainian SSR
• Gail Godwin, American novelist; in Birmingham, Alabama
• Wray Carlton, American football player, AFL and CFL running back; in Wallace, North Carolina
• Died: Gaston Doumergue, 73, President of France from 1924 to 1931{{cite news|url=http://amisdedoumergue.free.fr/Gaston_Doumergue/historique_files/mort%20doumergue%201937.pdf|title=Un grand français n'est plus : Mort subite à Aigues-Vives de M. Gaston Doumergue|trans-title=A great Frenchman is no more: Sudden death in Aigues-Vives of Mr. Gaston Doumergue|lang=fr|date=June 19, 1937|orig-date=Article written June 18, 1937|work=Le Petit Dauphinois|volume=61|number=170|access-date=September 5, 2023|via=Association les amis de Gaston Doumergue}}

• In the Spanish Civil War, the Battle of Bilbao ended with the Nationalists capturing the city. At the same time, the Republicans' Huesca Offensive failed to turn back the Nationalists.
• In Trinidad and Tobago, oil workers led by union organizar Tubal "Buzz" Butler walked out on strike. When police attempted to arrest Butler as he was addressing a crowd in Fyzabad, rioting began on the island of Trinidad.[http://www.thegrenadarevolutiononline.com/butlera.html "Tubal Uriah 'Buzz' Butler (1897-1977)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120095156/http://www.thegrenadarevolutiononline.com/butlera.html |date=2021-01-20 }}, The Grenada Revolution Online.
• What would later be dubbed the "Women's Day Massacre" occurred in Youngstown, Ohio in fighting between Youngstown police and strikers during the "Little Steel strike". Two people died and 23 were injured over two days of rioting.[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Violations_of_Free_Speech_and_Rights_of/RLnUJsDAUroC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22June+19,+1937%22+Youngstown&pg=PA13969&printsec=frontcover Violations of Free Speech and Rights of Labor], Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Labor, United States Senate, Seventy-sixth Congress, Third Session, Pursuant to S. Res. 266 · Volumes 42-47 (U.S. Congress, 1937) p.13969
• The Australian Academy of Art, an attempt by the conservative Australian government to give official endorsement of specific genres of art, was founded at a hotel in Canberra by delegates from Australia's states, led by future prime minister Robert Menzies.{{Cite news |date=21 June 1937 |title=Academy of Art Formed at Canberra. Royal Charter Sought |pages=10 |work=Sydney Morning Herald}} The Academy would be dissolved in 1946.
• Pennsylvania Governor George H. Earle declared martial law in Johnstown in order to prevent violence at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation's mill at Cambria during an ongoing strike. Earle sent 500 Pennsylvania State Troopers and Highway Patrol to close the mill and evacuate the people inside, then enforce the law within the city. The United Mine Workers voluntarily called off a planned Sunday march of 40,000 miners."Troops Close Johnstown Mill; Lewis Cancels Miners' March", by Robert Lytle, The Pittsburgh Press, June 20, 1937, p.1{{cite news |date=July 5, 1937 |title=Spirit of 1937 |journal=Life |page=13 }}
• Born: Bak Lung-won, the White Dragon King (Bak Lung-wong), Thailand-born Hong Kong Taoist said to have the power to bless the careers of his clients toward success, including Jackie Chan, Tony Leung and Shu Qi; as Chow Yam-nam, in Pattaya (d.2013){{cite web |url=http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=21&art_id=136641&sid=40177063&con_type=1&d_str=20130819&fc=10 |title=Sun sets on day of the White Dragon|publisher=The Standard|date=2013-08-19 | accessdate=2013-08-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130818202154/http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=21&art_id=136641&sid=40177063&con_type=1&d_str=20130819&fc=10 |archive-date=2013-08-18}}
• Died:
• J. M. Barrie, 77, Scottish author and dramatistl known for creating Peter Pan{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gFBAAAAAIBAJ&pg=5491%2C3212516 |title=Death of Sir J. M. Barrie. King Grieved at Loss of an Old Friend. Funeral on Thursday at Kirriemuil. "The End Was Peaceful" |work=The Glasgow Herald |date=21 June 1937 |page=13 |access-date=14 April 2018}}
• Yakov Doletsky, 48, Polish-born Soviet journalist who served s the executive director of the Soviet news agency TASS from 1925 to 1937, committed suicide after learning that he was to be arrested as part of Stalin's Great Purge.{{cite web |last1=Doletskaya |first1=Alena |title=Как мы делали фильм для антисталинского проекта (How we made a film for an anti-Stalin project) |url=https://snob.ru/profile/5313/blog/19281 |website=Сноб |access-date=12 October 2020}}[http://www.alexanderyakovlev.org/almanah/almanah-dict-bio/1014285/4 Альманах. Россия — XX век. Биографический словарь|Doletsky (Fenigstein) Yakov Genrikhovich, Almanac, Russia 20th Cent.]

• The longest transpolar flight up to that time, from Moscow to the United States over the North Pole, was completed as Valery Chkalov, Georgy Baydukov and Alexander Belyakov landed their Tupolev ANT-25 airplane at an airfield at the Vancouver Barracks at Vancouver, Washington."Flyers From Moscow Land At Vancouver, Wash., After 5300-Mile Trip Across Pole", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 21, 1937, p.1 Though their original destination was Oakland, California, the Soviets' landing demonstrated that a north-south flight over the North Pole between two northern nations was shorter than a flight on an east-west route. The flight was made to test the prospects of trans-polar air travel.{{cite web |url=http://www.chroniknet.de/daly_de.0.html?datum=20.6.1937&year=1937&month=6&day=20 |title=Tageseinträge für 20. Juni 1937 |website=chroniknet |access-date=September 9, 2015 }}
• All Catholic schools in the Nazi German state of Bavaria were declared abolished by order of the Gauleiter (state premier) Adolf Wagner."Bavaria Abolishes All Catholic Schools", The Montreal Daily Star, June 21, 1937, p.1{{cite book |date=1989 |editor-last=Mercer |editor-first=Derrik |title=Chronicle of the 20th Century |location=London |publisher=Chronicle Communications Ltd. |page=484 |isbn=978-0-582-03919-3 }}
• The Geibeltbad Pirna, at the time the largest (2,000 square meters or 21,500 square feet) outdoor swimming pool in the world, opened near Dresden, Germany. The Geibeltbad had a capacity for as many as 2,500 people.
• A crowd of 101,000 fans attended the 1937 German football championship to watch FC Schalke 04 defeat 1. FC Nürnberg, 2 to 0, to win the Viktoria Trophy of German soccer football (fußball).[http://www.weltfussball.de/spielbericht/deutsche-meisterschaft-1937-finale-fc-schalke-04-1-fc-nuernberg/ German championship 1937 – Final] {{in lang|de}} Weltfussball.de, accessed: 29 December 2015
• Born: Rosa Luna, Uruguayan dancer (d. 1993)
• Died: Henny Magnussen, 58, the first woman barrister in Denmark, died from heart disease.{{cite web|url=http://www.kvinfo.dk/side/597/bio/1003/origin/170/|title=Henny Magnussen (1878 - 1937)|author=Hilden, Adda|publisher=Kvinfo|accessdate=11 September 2018 |language=Danish}}

• Léon Blum resigned as Prime Minister of France when the Senate refused to give him special powers to deal with the country's financial crisis.{{cite news |date=June 21, 1937 |title=French Cabinet Out; Dictator Plea Rejected | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=1 }}
• The Wimbledon tennis tournament was televised for the first time, as BBC Television commentator Freddie Grisewood gave commentary on the opening matches for the few people in London who had a television set.{{cite news |date=June 22, 1937 |title=Wimbledon's Tennis Games Portrayed in London by Television | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=1 }} Using three television vans to supply the equipment, the BBC was able to show a live event outside of its studios for the first time.{{cite web | url=http://www.teletronic.co.uk/tvera.htm | title=The History of the BBC: The First TV Era | accessdate=2007-09-21 | publisher=teletronic.co.uk | archive-date=13 August 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813233820/http://www.teletronic.co.uk/tvera.htm | url-status=dead }} For 25 minutes, Grisewood spoke as viewers saw parts of two opening matches, starting with Bunny Austin of England against George Lyttleton Rogers of Ireland, followed by Jack Crawford of Australia against Roderich Menzel of Czechoslovakia."Saw Wimbledon Tennis From Office", Daily Herald (London), June 22, 1937, p.11 Crawford and Austin won their matches and advanced to the second round.
• Ohio Governor Martin L. Davey ordered 4,500 National Guardsmen to Youngstown to stop rioting during the Little Steel strike against Republic Steel.
• Born: Sizakele Sigxashe, South African anti-apartheid activist and first director of the nation's National Intelligence Agency; in{{Cite web |title=Dr Sizakele Sigxashe (Posthumous) |url=https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/national-orders/recipient/dr-sizakele-sigxashe-posthumous |access-date=2023-11-14 |website=The Presidency}}
• Died: Janis Pauluks, 71, Prime Minister of Latvia for six months in 1923

• Joe Louis won boxing's World Heavyweight Championship with an eighth-round knockout of title holder James J. Braddock at Comiskey Park in Chicago.{{cite news |last=Ward |first=Arch |date=June 23, 1937 |title=Louis Wins Title: Knockout | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=1 }}

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• Camille Chautemps became Prime Minister of France for the third time.
• An espionage tribunal was established in the Spanish Republic with the primary task of putting members of POUM on trial.{{cite book |date=1982 |editor-last=Cortada |editor-first=James W. |title=Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939 |location=Westport, Connecticut |publisher=Greenwood Press |page=508 |isbn=0-313-22054-9 }}
• Two Soviet gun boats were reported to have attacked Manchukuo troops near Heiho, on the Amur River.{{Cite news |date=1937-06-23 |title=SOVIET-MANCHU CLASH |work=Tribune |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article249915390 |access-date=2024-01-02}}
• Born: Chris Blackwell, British record producer, 2001 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee who founded Island Records and popularized reggae music; in Westminster, London{{cite book|title=The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-939-0|pages=258/9}}
• Died: Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo, 36, Malagasy author and Africa's first modern poet, committed suicide by swallowing pottasium cyanide.{{cite news |last=Lubabu |first=Tshitenge | title=Madagascar: 22 juin 1937, le poète Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo décrit son suicide|publisher=Jeune Afrique |date=29 June 2012 |url=http://www.jeuneafrique.com/Article/ARTJAWEB20120628193724/ | access-date = 31 July 2013 |language = fr}}

• Hitler sent the strongest units of the Kriegsmarine toward Valencia for a "demonstration" after dropping out of the international neutral ship patrol for the second time, since Britain and France refused to allow Germany to secure satisfaction for an alleged Spanish submarine attack on the cruiser {{warship|German cruiser|Leipzig||2}}. The government of the Second Spanish Republic warned that it would fight back if any power shelled a city within the Republic.{{cite news |last=Darrah |first=David |date=June 24, 1937 |title=Hitler Orders Fleet to Move Near Valencia |journal=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=4 }}{{cite news |last=Brewer |first=Sam |date=June 24, 1937 |title=Valencia Dares Hitler and Duce to Shell Cities | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=5 }}
• The All India Football Federation (AIFF), governing body of soccer football in India, was founded in Shimla (at the time the summer capital of British India, located in the Punjab Province, by representatives of nine regional associations the Indian Football Association (IFA, serving the Bengal Province), Army Sports Control Board, North-West India Football Association, Bihar Olympic Association, Western India Football Association (WIFA, serving the Bombay Province, Madras Football Association, United Provinces Sports Control Board, Mysore Football Association, and Ajmer and Mewar Football Association.{{cite news|last1=Kapadia|first1=Novy|title=The Birth of the All India Football Federation|url=https://www.saddahaq.com/the-birth-of-the-all-india-football-federation|access-date=24 March 2017|work=Saddahaq|date=24 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170325112623/https://www.saddahaq.com/the-birth-of-the-all-india-football-federation|archive-date=25 March 2017|url-status=dead}}
• Born: Martti Ahtisaari, President of Finland from 1994 to 2000, and 2008 Nobel Peace Prize laureate; in Viipuri (d. 2023)

• Paul Robeson made an important speech on the Spanish Civil War at the Royal Albert Hall in London during a benefit to raise funds for Basque refugee children. "There is no standing above the conflict on Olympian heights. There are no impartial observers", Robeson said. "The liberation of Spain from the oppression of fascist reactionaries is not a private matter of the Spaniards, but the common cause of all advanced and progressive humanity."{{cite book |last=Duberman |first=Martin |date=2014 |title=Paul Robeson: A Biography |publisher=Open Road Media |isbn=978-1-4976-3536-4 }}File:Flag of Liechtenstein (1937-1982).svg

File:Flag of Haiti (civil).svg

• The 8th Imperial Conference, which had opened on May 14 with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom hosting the Prime Ministers of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Southern Rhodesia, the Secretary of State for India and the Chief Minister of Burma.{{Cite journal |last=Wilson |first=Robert R. |date=1938 |title=The Imperial Conference of 1937 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-journal-of-international-law/article/imperial-conference-of-1937/75010AB88F3A4D9956AC8CD1EA781250 |journal=American Journal of International Law |language=en |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=335–339 |doi=10.2307/2190981 |jstor=2190981 |issn=0002-9300}}
• The Principality of Liechtenstein added a crown to its national flag so that it would no longer be identical to the flag of Haiti, remedying a problem that had gone unnoticed until both nations had participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics.Complete Flags of the World: The Ultimate Pocket Guide (Jones Gareth DK Publishing Inc, 2014) p.207

• An innovation by promoters of professional wrestling, the "steel cage match" made its debut{{cite web|url=http://www.wwe.com/magazine/articles/momentsthatchangedwwe|title=25 Moments That Changed WWE History|last=Mejia|first=Carlos|publisher=WWE|access-date=2007-11-28|date=2007-08-08}}{{cite web|url=http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/information/cage-match/|title=History of the Steel Cage|publisher=Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution|access-date=2010-04-18}}
• Neville Chamberlain made his first major foreign policy speech as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the British House of Commons, advising against overly criticizing Germany's involvement in the Spanish Civil War because of the danger of a larger European war. "There are sometimes conditions to be found when an incautious move or even a sudden loud exclamation may start an avalanche," he said, adding "That is just the condition in which we are finding ourselves to-day. I believe, although the snow may be perilously poised it has not yet begun to move, and if we can all exercise caution, patience and self-restraint we may yet be able to save the peace of Europe."{{cite web |url=http://www.chroniknet.de/daly_de.0.html?datum=25.6.1937&year=1937&month=6&day=25 |title=Tageseinträge für 25. Juni 1937 |website=chroniknet |access-date=September 9, 2015 }}{{cite web |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1937/jun/25/foreign-office#S5CV0325P0_19370625_HOC_62 |title=Foreign Office |date=June 25, 1937 |website=Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) |access-date=September 9, 2015 }}
• The historical adventure film Wee Willie Winkie, based on a novel by Rudyard Kipling and starring Shirley Temple and Victor McLaglen, premiered in Los Angeles.{{cite book |date=1993 |editor-last=Hanson |editor-first=Patricia King |title=The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films, 1931–1940 |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |publisher=University of California Press |pages=2368–2369 |isbn=0-520-07908-6 }}
• Born:
• Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait from 2020 to 2023; in Kuwait City (d.2023){{Cite web|title=HH Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah is the new Emir of Kuwait|url=https://www.newsofbahrain.com/bahrain/66451.html|access-date=30 September 2020|website=DT News|date=29 September 2020 |language=en-US|archive-date=2 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201002041519/https://www.newsofbahrain.com/bahrain/66451.html|url-status=live}}
• Keizō Obuchi, Prime Minister of Japan from 1998 to 2000; in Nakanojō, Gunma Prefecture (d. 2000){{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/15/world/keizo-obuchi-premier-who-brought-stability-japan-s-economy-faltered-dies-62.html|title=Keizo Obuchi, Premier Who Brought Stability as Japan's Economy Faltered, Dies at 62|last=Sims|first=Calvin|date=May 15, 2000|work=The New York Times|access-date=November 19, 2016}}
• Died: Colin Clive, 37, English film actor known for starring in Frankenstein and its 1935 sequel, Bride of Frankenstein, died of tuberculosis.{{cite news|title=Colin Clive, Actor, Dies in Hollywood|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1937/06/26/archives/colin-clive-actor-dies-in-hollywood-star-of-screen-and-stage-37.html|access-date=September 26, 2017|work=The New York Times|date=June 26, 1937}}

• The eleventh annual English Greyhound Derby was held at a track at the track at London's White City Stadium. It was won by Wattle Bark, who set a new record for fastest speed by running the {{convert|500|yd|m}} in 29.26 seconds.{{cite book|last=Dack|first=Barrie|title=Greyhound Derby, the first 60 years|pages =74–75|year=1990|publisher=Ringpress Books|isbn=0-948955-36-8}}
• Mary Pickford and Charles "Buddy" Rogers were married in a simple ceremony in Los Angeles.{{cite news |date=June 27, 1937 |title=Mary Pickford Wed to Rogers in Simple Rites | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=1 }}
• Born: Robert Coleman Richardson, American experimental physicist; in Washington, D.C. (d. 2013)

• Martin Niemöller gave what would be his last sermon in Nazi Germany, stating, "No more are we ready to keep silent at man's behest when God commands us to speak. For it is, and must remain, the case that we must obey God rather than man."{{cite book |last=Thomsett |first=Michael C. |date=1997 |title=The German Opposition to Hitler: The Resistance, the Underground, and Assassination Plots, 1938–1945 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc. |page=63 |isbn=978-0-7864-0372-1 }}
• Born:
• Mehdi Hasan, Pakistani journalist and news agency chief; in Panipat, Punjab Province, British India (d.2022){{cite news |last1=Sumreen |first1=Siddra |url=https://gnnhd.tv/news/10715/pakistans-renowned-journalist-media-historian-and-professor-dr-mehdi-hassan-passes-away |title=Pakistan's renowned journalist, media historian and Professor Dr Mehdi Hassan passes away |access-date=26 February 2022 |work=GNN |date=23 February 2022}}
• Died:
• Bertha Worms, 69, French-born Brazilian painter[https://enciclopedia.itaucultural.org.br/pessoa22646/bertha-worms Biography, works, and sources] @ the Enciclopédia Itaú Cultural
• Harold Heygate, 52, English cricketer best known for the 1919 "Heygate Incident" where he was a spectator recruited to play for Sussex in a first-cricket game"Death of Mr. H. J. Heygate; An Old Sussex County Cricketer", The Surrey Advertiser and County Times (Guildford, Surrey), July 3, 1937, p.18

• The Soviet Communist Party's Politburo issue a decree directing the creation of a three-member panel to determine which political prisoners in West Siberia should be executed as part of the Great Purge.{{Cite journal|last=Ellman|first=Michael|date=2010|title=Regional influences on the Formulation and Implementation of NKVD Order 00447|journal=Europe-Asia Studies|volume=62|issue=6|pages=915–931|doi=10.1080/09668136.2010.489254|s2cid=154026107}} The NKVD Order No. 00447 decree, titled "Regarding operations to repress former kulaks, criminals, and other anti-Soviet elements" was issued by NKVD Director Nikolai Yezhov on July 30, 1937.{{Citation | author = Nicolas Werth | title = The NKVD Mass Secret Operation n° 00447 (August 1937 – November 1938) | encyclopedia = Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence | date = 24 May 2010 | access-date = 8 July 2010 | url = http://www.massviolence.org/The-NKVD-Mass-Secret-Operation-no-00447-August-1937 | issn = 1961-9898}} Robert Eikhe, a candidate member of the Communist Party's ruling Politburo, was appointed as the Party's representative with Sergei Mironov to make final aproval over which of 26,000 defendants would be marked for execution.{{cite book |last1=J. Arch Getty |first1=and Oleg V. Naumov |title=The Road to Terror, Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932–1939 |date=1999 |publisher=Yale U.P. |location=New Haven |isbn=0-300-07772-6 |page=469}}
• The new French Finance Minister Georges Bonnet addressed the country's financial crisis by closing the stock market and suspending all commercial payments in gold and foreign currencies until further notice.{{cite news |last=Small |first=Alex |date=June 29, 1937 |title=Crisis as Paris Stops Gold | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=1 }}
• Béla Kun, who had founded the Communist Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919 and served as its first leader, was arrested by the NKVD after being denounced as Trotskyite with anti-Soviet objectives. He would be executed in prison on August 29, 1938.György Borsányi, The Life of a Communist Revolutionary: Béla Kun. Mario D. Fenyo, trans. Boulder, CO: Social Science Monographs/Atlantic Research and Publications, 1993; pg. 1.
• The Soviet Union executed and additional 36 people who were convicted of espionage during the Great Purge..
• Born:
• Ron Luciano, American baseball umpire; in Endicott, New York (d. 1995)
• Charlie Flowers, American college football star and inductee to the College Football Hall of Fame; in Marianna, Arkansas (d.2014){{Cite web |title=Ole Miss Great Charlie Flowers Passes Away |url=https://olemisssports.com/news/2014/12/7/Ole_Miss_Great_Charlie_Flowers_Passes_Away |access-date=2025-01-15 |website=Ole Miss Athletics - Hotty Toddy |language=en}}
• Died: George Warren Russell, 83, New Zealand politician

• The Spanish Nationalists occupied Balmaseda.{{cite news |date=June 30, 1937 |title=Rebels Capture Spanish Town on Santander Road | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=6 }}
• Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King had separate meetings with Hermann Göring and Adolf Hitler in Berlin. Mackenzie King's diary entry that day described Hitler as "a man of deep sincerity and a genuine patriot."{{cite web|url=https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/king/023011-1070.05-e.html |title=Mackenzie King in Berlin |website=Library and Archives Canada |access-date=September 9, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150418111107/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/king/023011-1070.05-e.html |archive-date=April 18, 2015 }}
• The Lewiston–Auburn shoe strike, which had started on March 25, ended after three months without concessions to the strikers.{{cite news|url=http://archive.bangordailynews.com/2002/06/24/1937-shoe-worker-strike-hits-milestone/|title=1937 shoe worker strike hits milestone|date=June 24, 2002|work=Bangor Daily News|publisher=Associated Press|page=B4|accessdate=5 August 2014}}
• Bronko Nagurski, an NFL star in professional football (and later inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame), won the world heavyweight pro wrestling championship at a bout in Minneapolis by defeating champion Dean Detton."Nagurski Pins Detton to Win Wrestling Title", Chicago Daily Tribune, June 30, 1937, p.19

• The first emergency telephone number in the world, 999 was inaugurated by the United Kingdom.[https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-standard-999-british-emergenc/90389961/ "Dial 999 If Your Call Is Urgent"], Evening Standard (London), June 30, 1937, p.22{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2012/jun/29/archive-1937-first-999-call |title=30 June 1937: 999 and the launch of the first emergency telephone calls |date=June 29, 2012 |website=The Guardian |access-date=September 9, 2015 }} While dialing the operator was a means of reaching help for an emergency, the 999 signal activated a buzzer and a red light at the switchboard to get immediate attention.[https://www.britishtelephones.com/histuk.htm UK Telephone History][http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/london/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8675000/8675199.stm "Why 999 for an emergency?], by Gary Holland, BBC London (2010) The U.S. 911 system would not be inaugurated until more than 30 years later in 1968.
• Germany's Reichsminister of Church Affairs, Hanns Kerrl, decreed that the government would control all funds of Protestant churches. Thereafter, ministry officials oversaw all aspects of the churches' financial activities, from revenues collected during church services, and their expenditures including ministers' salaries.{{cite news |last=Schultz |first=Sigrid |author-link=Sigrid Schultz |date=July 1, 1937 |title=Hitler Takes Over Treasury of Protestants | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=1 }}
• The record for highest altitude by a human being was broken as RAF Flight Lieutenant M.J. Adam reached {{convert|53937|ft}} flying a Bristol Type 138 over the United Kingdom.Owen Thetford, Aircraft of the Royal Air Force 1918–57 (London: Putnam, 1957)
• Portugal ceased cooperation with the Non-Intervention Committee patrol agreement, and ordered British observers off its soil.
• To celebrate the anniversary of the 1910 founding of the Boy Scouts of America, the BSA's first National Jamboree opened in Washington D.C., with 25,000 scouts camping out on the grounds of the National Mall. The event closed on July 9.
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., son of the President of the United States, and Ethel du Pont, heiress to the du Pont family fortune, were married in Wilmington, Delaware in the American society wedding of the decade.{{cite book |last=Wead |first=Doug |date=2003 |title=All the Presidents' Children: Triumph and Tragedy in the Lives of America's First Families |url=https://archive.org/details/allpresidentschi00wead|url-access=registration |publisher=Atria Books |page=[https://archive.org/details/allpresidentschi00wead/page/119 119] |isbn=978-0-7434-4633-4 }}
• Born:
• Noel Black, American film and television director, screenwriter and producer; in Chicago (d. 2014){{cite web|work=The New York Times|title=Noel Black, 77, Dies; Directed Dark Comedy Cult Hit|author=Daniel E. Slotnik|date=August 1, 2014|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/02/movies/noel-black-77-director-of-films-and-tv-dramas-dies.html?_r=0}}
• Dinkar Joshi, Indian novelist; in Bhadi Bhandaria, Bombay Province, British India (now Gujarat state){{cite book|last1=Joshi|last2=Patel|title=Glimpses of Indian Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-fw-0iBvmMAC&pg=PA102|date=1 January 2005|publisher=Star Publications|isbn=978-81-7650-190-3|page=102}}
• Larry Henley, American songwriter best known for penning the lyrics of "Wind Beneath My Wings"; in Odessa, Texas (d.2014){{cite book| first= Joseph| last= Murrells| year= 1978| title= The Book of Golden Discs| edition= 2nd| publisher= Barrie and Jenkins Ltd| location= London| pages= [https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr/page/179 179–180]| isbn= 0-214-20512-6| url-access= registration| url= https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr/page/179}}
• Died: Frank A. Vanderlip, 72, American banker known for the founding of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, for serving as the president of the National City Bank of New York (now Citibank from 1909 to 1919, and for introducing the Montessori school to the United States.{{cite news|title=Frank Vanderlip, Banker, Dies At 72. Former Head of National City Had Served as Assistant Secretary of Treasury |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1937/06/30/archives/frank-vanderlip-banker-dies-at-72-former-head-of-national-city-had.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 30, 1937|access-date=September 16, 2012}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Events by month links}}

1937

*1937-06