Year 1932 Fun Facts, Trivia, and History Events

This quick read presents a collection of fun facts, trivia, and history events from the year 1932. Discover the year’s top news stories, most influential people, sports facts, historic firsts, entertainment news, and much more.

Take a journey through history in just minutes.

1. In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, and Babe Ruth were all on center stage. Corn dog casseroles and sugar cream pie were Depression-era staples, and George and Virginia were two of the most popular baby names.
2. Two tons of coal for home heating cost $9.50, a men's tuxedo was $25.00, and a round-trip cruise to Europe cost $108.00.
3. Herbert Hoover (R-California) was the president of the United States, and Charles Curtis (R-Kansas) was the nation’s vice president.
4. The 72nd U.S. Congress was in session.
5. In 1932, America was still in the early stages of the Great Depression (1929-39), which was "the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world up to that time." The GDP was -12.9 percent, inflation was -9.87 percent, and unemployment was a staggering 24.1 percent. Over 15,000,000 Americans were seeking employment and could not find a job.
6. Over 5,000 banks went out of business in 1932. Many families throughout the United States lost their life savings overnight.
7. At the grocery store, American cheese cost 21 cents a pound, assorted candy bars were one cent apiece, and A&P Bokar coffee was 27 cents a pound. Campbell’s tomato soup was seven cents a can, bananas were 17 cents a dozen, and 100 pounds of granulated sugar cost $4.10.
8. American companies and brands established during 1932 included Advance Auto Parts, Amphenol, Beechcraft, Ethan Allen, the Kansas City Steak Company, and York Barbell.
9. Consumer products launched during the year were the 3 Musketeers candy bar, Fritos corn chips, Lay's potato chips, the Mars candy bar, Mentos mints, the PayDay candy bar, and Skippy peanut butter.
10. The Dust Bowl that began in 1930 continued to ravage nearly one-third of the U.S. In 1932, Dust Bowl conditions "fomented an exodus of the displaced from the Texas Panhandle, the Oklahoma Panhandle, and the surrounding Great Plains to adjacent regions.” Over 500,000 Americans were left homeless, and more than 350 homes had to be torn down after one storm alone.
11. January 1: The United States Post Office issued a set of 12 postage stamps that commemorated the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birth.
12. January 2: Six police officers were killed in the line of duty during the Young Brothers massacre—a gun battle that took place at a farmhouse outside of Brookline, Missouri.
13. January 12: The Ed Sullivan Show debuted on CBS radio.
14. February 11: In Cleveland, the thermometer reached 73 degrees, which was the highest temperature ever recorded in Ohio’s largest city for February.
15. February 25: Adolf Hitler became a German citizen. Hitler, who was born in Austria, immigrated to Germany in 1913 and renounced his Austrian citizenship in 1925.
16. March 1: Charles Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of aviators Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was abducted from the family home in East Amwell, New Jersey.
17. May 2: The Jack Benny Show premiered on the NBC Blue Network.
18. May 4: Al Capone, who was convicted of income tax evasion, began serving his federal prison sentence in Atlanta.
19. May 12: Ten weeks after Charles Lindbergh Jr. was kidnapped from the family home in New Jersey, the infant's body was found just a few miles from where he had been abducted.
20. May 20 to 21: American aviator Amelia Earhart became the first woman "and the only person since Charles Lindbergh to fly nonstop and alone across the Atlantic."
21. In June, an estimated 20,000 World War I veterans from across the United States marched on Capitol Hill and demanded "early payment of cash bonuses for their military service that weren't due to be paid until 1945." President Hoover claimed that the march was being influenced by Communists and ordered the U.S. Army to evict them.
22. June 6: In an attempt to balance the federal budget, the Revenue Act of 1932 was enacted. It raised all federal income tax rates across the board, "with the top rate on top incomes rising from 25 percent to 63 percent. The estate tax was doubled, and corporate taxes were raised by almost 15 percent."
23. June 22: At the National League's "midsummer meeting" in New York City, all teams unanimously agreed to begin using numbers on baseball uniforms as a way of identifying players. The Baseball Hall of Fame tells us that "by the end of 1932, every big league club wore numbered uniforms, though the Philadelphia Athletics would not wear numbers at home until 1937."
24. July 8: The Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed out at 41.22—its lowest level of the Great Depression.
25. July 31: The Cleveland Indians played their first baseball game at Municipal Stadium, which would become their long-time home until 1993. Municipal Stadium was one of the first multipurpose stadiums built to accommodate both baseball and football.
26. In August, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) aired its first experimental television program.
27. November 8: In the 1932 presidential election, Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated incumbent Republican President Herbert Hoover in a landslide. In this "critical election," Roosevelt carried 42 states and won 472 electoral votes. On the other hand, Hoover carried six states and earned 59 electoral votes.
28. November 8: The Republicans also "suffered crushing defeats in both congressional chambers: They lost 101 seats in the House of Representatives . . . and also lost twelve seats in the Senate."
29. November 16: The Palace Theatre in New York City transitioned to a movie house, which is considered to be "the final death knell of vaudeville as a popular form of entertainment in the United States."
30. On November 18, at the 5th Academy Awards, Grand Hotel won an Oscar for Best Picture, and Frank Borzage (Bad Girl) won an Oscar for Best Director. Fredric March (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) won an Oscar for Best Actor, and Helen Hayes (The Sin of Madelon Claudet) won an Oscar for Best Actress.
31. November 24: The FBI Crime Lab opened in Washington, DC.
32. December 18: In the NFL's 1932 playoff game, the Chicago Bears became the NFL champs by defeating the Portsmouth Spartans, 9-0. (In 1934, the Portsmouth Spartans relocated from Portsmouth, Ohio, to Detroit and became known as the Detroit Lions.)
33. December 27: Radio City Music Hall opened to guests in New York City. The first show featured vaudevillian Ray Bolger and dancer Martha Graham.
34. Surprisingly, the movie industry did not suffer financially during the Great Depression. In 1932, a movie ticket cost 35 cents, and there were around 20,000 movie theaters across the United States. Popular genres in the film industry included musicals, comedies, gangster films, thrillers, and westerns. Above all, a trip to the cinema in 1932 provided Americans with a brief respite from the anguish of the Great Depression.
35. In 1932, The Lucky Strike Hour was a popular radio program, The Good Earth was a best-selling book, and Grand Hotel was a must-see movie.
36. Famous people born in 1932 included Anthony Perkins, Dave Thomas, Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor, KC Jones, Patsy Cline, Paul Zimmerman, Sonny Liston, and Ted Kennedy.
37. Here are some sports facts from 1932: The Chicago Bears were the NFL champs, the Toronto Maple Leafs clinched the Stanley Cup, and the New York Yankees won the World Series.
38. In 1932 as well, the words "pablum," "pizzaiola," "plea bargaining," "po'boy," "polyunsaturated," "power steering," "prefabricated," "pricey," "pro shop," "psychodrama," and "Purple Heart" all appeared in print for the first time.

References:

1. https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/1932
2. https://www.infoplease.com/year/1932
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1932_in_the_United_States
4. https://hotpopsongs.com/number-one-hits-1932/
5. http://www.jimramsburg.com/the-1932-33-season.html
6. https://onetuberadio.com/2022/04/25/1932-grocery-prices/
7. https://recipes.howstuffworks.com/menus/how-to-create-a-1930s-dinner-party-menu.htm#pt1
8. https://popculturemadness.com/1932-history-trivia-and-fun-facts/
9. https://www.historic-newspapers.com/blogs/article/1932-events
10. https://www.yourdictionary.com/articles/1930s-slang
11. https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/1932
12. https://www.foodreference.com/html/html/food-history-1930.html

© 2026 Gregory DeVictor