what happened to the world in 1937

Hello my dear readers, and all other reading steemians. Some intresting trivia pieces of human history I've fished out today from the internet. Firstly, I should confess that I'm preparing my next post for @photo52 challenge and conducted a huge macro photo-session today of vintage coins from our family collection. This 3 penny coin from 1937 is not the oldest, just one of, but it definitely the coolest of them all (well, lets say: it shares one of Top-5 positions). My wife have found this treasure in her English class when she was teen. Needless to say that as we dont live in the UK, such a vintage coin is a rara avis here. When someone loses something, its a chance to find for another, right? She was very very happy to own this tiny piece of the English history...

Sharing the image without a long beautiful story would not be that cool, so as a huge fan of history I decided to educate you (and myself too!) about the year 1937.

Chronology: what happened to the world in 1937

• Coronation of King George VI of Great Britain (and his other realms and territories beyond the sea) at Westminster Abbey, London. You can see his face exactly on the coin.
• Former King Edward VIII and American Wallis Simpson finally married! Simpson got divorced, in order to marry King Edward VIII, but the royal family and the British government thoroughly rejected the idea of her as Queen. Only after he abducted his throne, married promptly to remain together until his death in 1972.
• Spanish nationalists leaded by general Franco have consistently defeated the Republican government in a civil war ... the war will be ended by the next year.
• Josef Stalin’s 'Great Purge' in Russia: hundreds of thousands (innocent) people were shot and sent to concentration camps without proper or with fabricated trials.
• Amelia Mary Earhart mysteriously disappeared over the Pacific Ocean attempting to become the first pilot to fly around the globe at the equator. (She became the 16th woman who got a pilot's license and first woman to fly solo across the North American continent and also first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean).
• 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves' by Walt Disney premiere was shown in Los Angeles. It was the very first technicolor, full-length animated English language feature film. The film had a budget of $1.5 million and was expected to be a failure, but become a beloved classic and made over $6 million by 1939. NB: the first company founded by Disney, nevertheless went bankrupt. Drawing cartoons is a monstrously expensive business!

src #wiki

• German airship 'Hindenburg' disaster. The airship made its maiden test flight in 1936, then performed 17 round trips across the Atlantic ocean (10 trips to U.S. and 7 to Brazil). During its 18-th flight it bursted into flames while attempting to moor at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Amazing that some passengers and crew survived. The incident shattered public confidence in passenger-carrying rigid airships and marked the end of the Airships era. Arrival of international passenger air travel and Pan American Airlines also contributed to Zeppelins downfall.
• The battle of Shanghai lasted 3 months and involved 1 million troops, finished with Imperial Japanese Army claiming victory over the Republic of China.
• Chiang Kai-shek, Chairman of the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China is 'the person of the year', according to 'Time' magazine.

• J.R.R. Tolkien’s first novel 'The Hobbit' was published. It received positive review and was sold out within three months. So, September, 21 is celebrated as the international Hobbit's Day after that.

• Pullman Co formally recognized Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

• Italian regime banned marriages between Italians & Abyssinians.

• Austrian leader Schuschnigg threatened to restore the Hapsburg monarchy in Austria.

• The Buchenwald concentration camp was opened.

• Pope Pius XI published anti-nazi-encyclical Mit brennender Sorge.

• San Francisco’s iconic Golden Gate Bridge officially opened in May.

• Georges Boscham patented the world's first electric guitar, the so-called 'Pan'.

• DuPont Corp patents 'nylon', developed by employee Wallace Carothers.

• Testing and initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Arrowbile, took place at Santa Monica, CA.

• The human-powered aircraft, Pedaliante, flied 1 km (0.62 miles) outside of Milan.

• The 1st animated cartoon electric sign was displayed (at NYC).

• 1st airmail letter to circle globe returned to NYC.

• Henry Ford initiated a 32 hour work week at his motor plants.

• The world's first emergency call telephone service was launched in London using the number 999.

• Spam, the luncheon meat was first introduced to the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation.

• Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 have passed in America, essentially rendering marijuana and all its by-products illegal.

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