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Timeline: 1932

Jan 7  In response to Japan's military expansion in Manchuria, Secretary of State declares the Stimson Doctrine: the non-recognition of territorial changes executed by force.

Jan 8  The principle leader of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury ury, forbids church remarriage of divorced person.

Jan 28  Japan lands troops at Shanghai on January 28 in response to expressions of hostility by Chinese citizens there. They challenge a Chinese army unit in the vicinity. And a Japanese aircraft carrier shells Chinese targets in support of its troops. Fighting extends into February.

January  The Soviet government is rationing food in cities and has been requisitioning food for export, to pay for industrialization. Peasants hostile to the collectivization program have been burning their crops, destroying their tools and their livestock. Famine exists. It will be estimated that during this year a million peasants die.

Feb 2  A general disarmament convention begins in Geneva. It will last into 1934 and become bogged down over the difference between offensive and defensive weapons.

Feb 2  The Reconstruction Finance Corporation, chartered by the Hoover administration, begins its operation. It is to give $2 billion in aid to state and local governments and made loans to banks, railroads, farm mortgage associations, and other businesses, but it fails to do distribute much of its funds.

Feb 25  Adolf Hitler obtains German citizenship by naturalization, opening the opportunity for him to run in the 1932 election for Reichspräsident.

Mar 2  A fascist movement, dedicated to outlawing communists, takes over the town of Mantsala, not far from Helsinki. The coup fails. The fascists will call for and receive protection of rights guaranteed them by Finland's constitution, which they hope to destroy.

Mar 2  Chinese forces withdraw from the Shanghai area.

Mar 7  In Dearborn, Michigan, four people are killed when police fire upon 3,000 unemployed autoworkers marching outside the Ford automobile factory.

Apr 10  Hindenburg wins re-election as Germany's president with the support of moderates who vote for him in an effort to defeat Hitler.

May 15  Japanese troops leave Shanghai. Chiang Kai-shek will now begin the first phase of his fourth "Communist suppression" expedition near the northern border of Hunan Province, in the south.

May 15  In Japan, naval officers, army cades and right-wing civilians attempt to overthrow the government. They assassinate Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi. They also wanted to kill his guest, Charlie Chaplin, but the failed. During their trail they will proclaim their loyalty to the Emperor, arouse patriotic sympathies and receive light sentences.

May 29  The first of approximately 15,000 unemployed veterans arrive in Washington, D.C. demanding full payment of the bonus promised them for serving in World War.

Jun 1  German chancellor Heinrich Brüning resigns. President Hindenburg asks fellow monarchist Franz von Papen to form a new government. Papen will have little support in parliament or from the public. A crisis in who is to be chancellor is in the making.

Jun 4  Unhappiness with the economy inspires Chile's Air Force. led by Commodre Grove, to overthrow a democratically elected government. A Socialist Republic is proclaimed. Executive power is vested in a junta that includes represention from the other military services.

Jun 6  Congress and the Hoover administration create the nation's the first gas tax.

Jun 15  The Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay begins over a largely uninhabited region, the Gran Chaco, that was never clearly a part of either country but is now believed to have oil. The war will last three years.

Jul 6  Antonio de Oliveira Salazar becomes prime minister of Portugal. He is a defender of the Catholic Chuch and has the backing of monarchists. He tends toward authoritarianism and be in power for the next 36 years.

Jul 8  The Dow Jones Industrial Average bounces off its lowest level: 41.22.

Jul 17  In Altona, a communist suburb of Hamburg, 6,000 Nazis march. A Communist on a rooftop fires into the Nazis, and Nazis shoot back. Eighteen are killed. Street fighting follows in Berlin, Cologne and Munich.

Jul 28  The veterans in Washington, now known as the Bonus Army, have been camping in a park near the capital. Attorney General Mitchell orders the Washington police to evacuate them. The veterans resist and the police fire upon them, killing two. President Hoover then orders the army effect the evacuation.

Sepr 23  The Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd is renamed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Oct 3  Iraq leaves behind rule by Britain, under a League of Nations mandate, and becomes nominally independent and a League member. It's chief of state, King Faisal, a British creation and looked upon by many in Iraq as a foreigner. Faisal will continue to avoid defying the British.

Nov 7  The space comic strip, Buck Rogers, begun in 1929, graduates to radio.

Nov 8  In the U.S. presidential election, the Democrat, New York's governor, Franklin D. Roosevelt receives 57.4 percent of the vote and defeats the incumbent, Herbert Hoover. Hoover wins Maine and Pennsylvania.Socialist Norman Thomas receives 2.2 percent and 8.5 votes for every 1 vote for William Z. Foster, Communist Party candidate. The Democrats become the majority party in Congress: 60-35 in the Senate, 310-113 in the House. The Republicans will have their comeback for 20 years.

Nov 21  German president Hindenburg begins negotiations with Adolf Hitler about the formation of a new government.

Dec 21  Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are together for the first time in their movie, "Flying Down to Rio."

Dec 31  Attacks by Chinese guerrilla forces against the Japanese in various areas of Manchuria have subsided. Japan's is now focusing on bringing the province of Jehol, just north of the Great Wall, under its control.

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