December 13, 1937

1937Ron Taylor, Canadian physician and baseball player^[†]

Ronald Wesley Taylor was a Canadian professional baseball player, who went on to become a physician. Born in Toronto, Taylor was a pitcher over all or parts of 11 seasons (1962–1972) in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Astros, New York Mets and San Diego Padres. He was a key contributor to two World Series–winning teams: the 1964 Cardinals and the 1969 Mets. After retiring as a baseball player, he attended medical school at the University of Toronto, graduating in 1977. In 1979, he started a 30-year association with the Toronto Blue Jays as the team's physician. As a result of his pitching success, Taylor was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, and the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. He also served in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Taylor was appointed a member of the Order of Ontario in 2005.

1937Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanking: The city of Nanjing, defended by the National Revolutionary Army under the command of General Tang Shengzhi, falls to the Japanese. This is followed by the Nanking Massacre, in which Japanese troops rape and slaughter hundreds of thousands of civilians.^[†]

The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part of World War II, and often regarded as the beginning of World War II in Asia. It was the largest Asian war in the 20th century and has been described as The Asian Holocaust, in reference to the scale of Japanese war crimes against Chinese civilians, similar to the European ones. It is known in the Republic of China and People's Republic of China as the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.