January 12, 1932: A special election is held to fill the remainder of the term of the late U.S. Senator Thaddeus Carraway of Arkansas.
His widow, Hattie Caraway (born Hattie Ophelia Wyatt), had been appointed to his seat by Governor Harvey Parnell, and announced she was running in the special election. Since the Republican Party was still considered the Party of Abraham Lincoln, it had no chance of winning elections in the South, and Mrs. Caraway, like her husband, was a Democrat. So her election was a foregone conclusion: She beat the Republican nominee, John H. White, with 89 percent of the vote.
Mrs. Caraway was elected to a full term in November 1932, and re-elected in 1938, but lost the Democratic Primary in 1944. She supported the New Deal and World War II measures of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Unfortunately, like most liberal-leaning Southern politicians of the era, she was conservative on race, voting against anti-lynching legislation.
She died in 1950, at the age of 72.
*
January 12, 1932 was a Tuesday. Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were 3 games in the NHL that day:
* The New York Rangers beat the Boston Bruins, 5-3 at the Boston Garden.
* The New York Americans beat the Montreal Maroons, 2-0 at Madison Square Garden.
* And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Falcons, 7-4 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The Falcons became the Red Wings the next season.
