Top News Stories from 1932

World Events

World Statistics

Population: 4.378 billion
population by decadeMore World Statistics...

U.S. Events

U.S. Statistics

President: Herbert C. Hoover
Vice President: Charles Curtis
Population: 124,840,471
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Economics

Federal spending: $4.66 billion
Consumer Price Index: $13.7
Unemployment: 24.1%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.02 ($0.03 as of 7/6/32)

Sports

World Series
NY Yankees d. Chicago Cubs (4-0)
Stanley Cup
Toronto d. NY Rangers
Wimbledon
Women: Helen Moody d. H. Jacobs (6-3 6-1)
Men: Ellsworth Vines d. H. Austin (6-4 6-2 6-0)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Burgoo King
NCAA Football Champions
USC (CFRA, NCF, HF) (10-0-0) & Michigan (DS) (8-0-0) 1932 Summer Olympics

Entertainment

Entertainment Awards

Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
Drama: Of Thee I Sing, George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, and Ira Gershwin
Academy Award, Best Picture: Grand Hotel (MGM)
Nobel Prize for Literature: John Galsworthy (UK)
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Events

  • Jazz composer Duke Ellington writes "It Don't Mean a Thing, If It Ain't Got That Swing," a song that presaged the swing era of the 1930s and 1940s.
  • Manhattan's Radio City Music Hall opens.

Science

Nobel Prizes in Science

Chemistry: Irving Langmuir (US), for work in realm of surface chemistry
Physics: In 1933, the prize for 1932 was awarded to Werner Heisenberg (Germany), for creation of the quantum mechanics
Physiology or Medicine: Sir Charles Sherrington (UK) and Edgar D. Adrian (US), for discoveries of the function of the neuron
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