* 1937 – Merle Haggard, American singer-songwriter and musician

* 1937 – Peter Maivia, Samoan wrestler ( d. 1982 )

* 1937 – Billy Dee Williams, American actor

* 1937 – Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby, England.

* 1856 – William Martin Conway, English art critic and mountaineer ( d. 1937 )

* 1937 – Igor Volk, Soviet astronaut

* 1876 – Orso Mario Corbino, Italian physicist ( d. 1937 )

* 1937 – Alice Coltrane, American pianist and composer ( d. 2007 )

* 1937 – Tommy Sands, American actor and singer

* 1937 – Baden Powell de Aquino, Brazilian guitarist ( d. 2000 )

* 1937 – Barbara Windsor, English actress

* 1845 – André Bessette, Canadian pastor and saint ( d. 1937 )

* 1937 – The Battle of Shanghai begins.

* 1937 – The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 is passed in America, the effect of which is to render marijuana and all its by-products illegal.

* 1937 – Billy Cannon, American football player

* 1937 – Garth Hudson, Canadian musician, composer, and producer ( The Band )

* 1937 – Josip Broz Tito reads the resolution " Manifesto of constitutional congress of KPH " to the constitutive congress of KPH ( Croatian Communist Party ) in woods near Samobor.

* 1858 – Gaston Doumergue, French politician ( d. 1937 )

* 1937 – Al D ' Amato, American politician

* 1937 – Steven Berkoff, English actor

* 1937 – Roland Burris, American politician

* 1937 – Duncan Sharpe, Pakistani cricketer

* 1937 – Spanish Civil War: Guernica ( or Gernika in Basque ), Spain is bombed by German Luftwaffe.

* 1937 – Joseph Estrada, Philippine actor and politician, 13th President of the Philippines

He made a solo flight over the Philippines in 1937.

He retired from the U. S. Army in 1937 to become Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government of the Philippines.

* 1937 – Congo ( Brazzaville ), French Indo-China ( until 1942 ), México, Philippines

An American High Commissioner and an American Military Advisor, Douglas MacArthur headed the latter office from 1937 until the advent of World War II in 1941, holding the military rank of Field Marshal of the Philippines.

He went to the Philippines in 1937 to advise the government there on hydropower and flood control.

Along with Lucius Clay, Casey was sent to the Philippines in 1937 to advise the government there on hydropower and flood control.

Grunert's air force in July 1940 consisted of 28 Boeing P-26A " Peashooter " fighters ( out of 34 originally shipped to the Philippines in 1937 ), 17 Martin B-10 bombers, 10 Douglas O-46 observation planes ( the newest planes in the department ), five 1920s-vintage Thomas-Morse ZO-19E observation craft ( the " Z " modifier indicated they were unfit for front-line duty and could only be used as trainers ), and three fabric-covered biplanes used for liaison, transport, and courier duties.

On 12 November 1937, the first national assembly in the Philippines approved a law creating a National Language Institute to make a study and survey of each existing native language, hoping to choose which was to be the base for a standardised national language.

Joseph " Erap " Ejercito Estrada ( born Jose Marcelo Ejercito on April 19, 1937 ) was the 13th President of the Philippines, serving from 1998 until 2001.

These would be the last new aircraft received in the Philippines until 1937 due to funding shortages caused by the Great Depression.

Mayor of Detroit ( 1930 – 33 ), the last Governor-General of the Philippines ( 1933 – 35 ), U. S. High Commissioner of the Philippines ( 1935 – 36 ), the 35th Governor of Michigan ( 1937 – 39 ), United States Attorney General ( 1939 – 40 ), and United States Supreme Court Associate Justice ( 1940 – 49 ).

His destinations included Tahiti ( 1933 ); United States, Japan, and China ( 1934 and 1937 ); Italy, Spain, Sudan ( now Mali ), Niger, Upper Volta, Togo and Dahomey ( now Benin, 1935 ); the West Indies ( 1936 ); Mexico ( 1937, 1939, and 1957 ); the Philippines and Indochina ( now Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, 1938 ); Guatemala and Ecuador ( 1939 ); Senegal ( as a conscript, 1940 ); Argentina ( 1941 ), Peru and Bolivia ( 1942 and 1946 ); and finally Brazil ( 1946 ).

From 1907 until 1937, while it was a U. S. territory, the Philippines elected two non-voting resident commissioners to serve in the U. S. House of Representatives.

From 1937 until 1946, while it was a U. S. Commonwealth, the Philippines sent one non-voting resident commissioner to the House.

The Middletons left the Philippines in May 1937, making a long leisurely trip back to the United States.

MacArthur had retired in 1937 after two years as Military Advisor to the Philippine Commonwealth, and accepted control of the Philippine Army, tasked by the government of the Philippines with reforming an army made up primarily of reservists lacking equipment, training and organization.

By virtue of Executive Order No. 134 issued and signed by President Quezón on December 30, 1937, approved the adoption of Tagalog as the basis of the national language, and declared and proclaimed the national language based on Tagalog, as the national language of the Philippines.

He was then commissioned by Svensk to make a series of Ethnographic film in such countries as Indonesia, the Philippines, New Guinea, Ceylon and Thailand from 1937 to 1938.

Roosevelt made him High Commissioner to the Philippines in 1937, a post that McNutt thought would help him in a presidential bid in 1940 and which Roosevelt, contemplating a third term for himself, thought would effectively sideline McNutt.

During the Commonwealth of the Philippines, the town head of Calolbon was Emiliano Surban ( 1935 – 1937 ) who was the first to assume the title of " Municipal Mayor ".

The transition from the American regime to the time the Philippines obtained its independence saw Jeremias Pal re-elected alcalde in 1937 until the outbreak of World War II.