1936
1936 (
MCMXXXVI) was a
leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar).
January
*
January 15 - The first building to be completely covered in
glass is completed in
Toledo, Ohio, for the
Owens-Illinois Glass Company.
*
January 16 -
Serial killer Albert Fish executed in
Sing Sing*
January 31 -
The Green Hornet radio show debuts.
February
*
February 4 -
Radium E. becomes the first
radioactive element to be made synthetically.
*
February 6 - The
IV Olympic Winter Games opens in
Garmisch-Partenkirchen,
Germany.
*
February 29 - Emperor
Hirohito orders the Japanese army to arrest 123 conspirators in Tokyo government offices - 19 of them are executed in July.
March-April
*
March 1 - Construction of
Hoover Dam is completed
*
March 7 - In violation of the
Treaty of Versailles,
Nazi Germany reoccupies the
Rhineland.
*
April 3 -
Bruno Richard Hauptmann, convicted of kidnapping and killing
Charles Lindbergh Jr., is executed in
New Jersey.
*
April 6 - Three tornadoes strike Gainesville, Georgia. 200 die and 1600 are injured. It is the 25th deadliest tornado in U.S. history.
*
April 19 - The Arab rebellion[
1] against the British government in Palestine and in opposition to Jewish immigration begins. It will last until 1939.
May
*
May 8 -
Jockey Ralph Neves temporarily dies during a race in
Bay Meadows Racecourse in
California but dashes back from the morgue to the racetrack
*
May 12 - The
Santa Fe railroad in the
United States inaugurates the all-Pullman
Super Chief passenger train between
Chicago, Illinois and
Los Angeles, California.
*
May 27 - The first flight by the Irish airline
Aer Lingus takes place.
*
May 27 - British luxury liner
The Queen Mary leaves
Southampton on her
maiden voyage over the
AtlanticJune
*
June 15 - Army laboratory explodes in
Estonia - 50 dead.
*
June 19 -
Max Schmeling knocks out
Joe Louis in the twelfth round of their
heavyweight boxing match at
Yankee Stadium in
New York City.
July
* July - A major heat wave strikes the
Midwestern
United States and
Central Canada, hundreds of high temperature records are set and thousands die.
*
July 11 -
Triborough Bridge in
New York City is opened to traffic
*
July 13 to
14 - Peak of July 1936 heat wave. The
states of
Wisconsin,
Michigan, and
Indiana all set new state records for high temperature. At Mio, in northern Michigan it soars to 113°F (45°C).
*
July 18 - Spain's civil war begins when nationalist troops under the command of
General Francisco Franco rise against the democratic republic.
August-September
*
August 1 - The
1936 Summer Olympics open in
Berlin,
Germany.
*
August 3 -
African-American athlete
Jesse Owens wins the 100 meter dash at the
Berlin Olympics.
*
August 14 -
Rainey Bethea is hanged in
Owensboro, Kentucky, in the last public
execution in the United States*
September 6 - The last surviving
thylacine, Benjamin, dies alone in her (despite being named Benjamin, it was female) cage in the Hobart Zoo in
Tasmania.
October
*
October 9 - Generators at Boulder Dam (later renamed to
Hoover Dam) begin to transmit
electricity from the
Colorado River 266 miles to
Los Angeles, California.
*
October 28 - US President
Franklin Roosevelt rededicates the
Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary.
November
*
November 2 -
BBC launch world's first regular (then) high definition television service.
*
November 2 - The
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) begins
radio in
Canada.
*
November 3 -
U.S. presidential election, 1936:
Franklin D. Roosevelt is reelected to a second term in a landslide victory over
Alf Landon.
*
November 12 - In
California, the
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.
*
November 23 - The first edition of
Life is published.
*
November 25 -
Abraham Lincoln Brigade sails from
New York City on its way to
Spanish Civil War*
November 30 - In
London,
the Crystal Palace is destroyed in a fire (it had been built for the 1851
Great Exhibition).
December
*
December 3 Radio station
WQXR is officially founded
*
December 10-
11 -
King Edward VIII signs an instrument of abdication at
Fort Belvedere in the presence of his three brothers,
The Duke of York,
The Duke of Gloucester and
The Duke of Kent.
*
December 11 -
** The British Parliament passes
His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936 on behalf of the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
** The King performs his last act as sovereign by giving
royal assent to the Act
** Prince Albert, Duke of York becomes King, ruling as
King George VI** The abdicated King Edward VIII, now HRH The Prince Edward, makes a broadcast to the nation explaining his decision to abdicate. He leaves the country for
Austria *
December 12- The
Irish Free State passes the
External Relations Act to legislate for Edward VIII's abdication in that realm.
*
December 12-
26 - Men of two of his generals kidnap
Chiang Kai-Shek in
Xi'an (
Zhang Xueliang and
Yang Hucheng do it to force him to negotiate a deal with the communists)
*
December 30 - The
United Auto Workers union stages its first sit-down strike.
Unknown Dates
*
YMCA Youth and Government program founded in
Albany, New York*
Mordecai Ham begins radio ministry.
*
Stress (medicine) first described
January
*
January 2 -
Roger Miller, American singer (d.
1992)
*
January 10 -
Stephen Ambrose, American historian (d.
2002)
*
January 10 -
Robert Wilson, American physicist and radio astronomer,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
January 11 -
Eva Hesse, American artist (d.
1970)
*
January 20 -
Lady Frances Roche of Femoy, Princess Diana's mother*
January 23 -
Jerry Kramer, American football player
*
January 27 -
Troy Donahue, American actor (d.
2001)
*
January 28 -
Alan Alda, American actor
February
*
February 11 -
Burt Reynolds, American actor
*
February 14 -
Andrew Prine, American actor
*
February 17 -
Jim Brown, American football player
*
February 19 -
Sam Myers, American musician and songwriter (d.
2006)
*
February 20 -
Larry Hovis, American actor (d.
2003)
*
February 24 -
Lance Reventlow, English playboy, entrepreneur, and race car driver (d.
1972)
March
*
March 6 -
Marion Barry Jr., Mayor of Washington, DC
*
March 7 -
Loren Acton, astronaut
*
March 9 -
Tom Sestak, American football player (d.
1987)
*
March 11 -
Ralph Abernathy, American civil rights leader (d.
1990)
*
March 11 -
Antonin Scalia, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
*
March 15 -
Howard Greenfield, American songwriter (d.
1986)
*
March 20 -
Lee "Scratch" Perry, Jamaican musician
April
*
April 10 -
John Madden, American football coach and sportscaster
*
April 14 -
Kenneth Mars, American actor
*
April 21 -
James Dobson, PH.D, Founder of Focus On The Family, child psychologist
*
April 22 -
Glen Campbell, American musician
*
April 23 -
Roy Orbison, American singer (d.
1988)
May
*
May 2 -
Engelbert Humperdinck, British/American singer
*
May 9 -
Albert Finney, English actor
*
May 14 -
Bobby Darin, American singer (d.
1973)
*
May 17 -
Dennis Hopper, American actor and director
*
May 23 -
Ingeborg Hallstein, German opera singer
June
*
June 8 -
James Darren, American actor and singer
*
June 17 -
Ken Loach, British director
*
June 22 -
Kris Kristofferson, American singer, songwriter, and actor
*
June 28 -
Chuck Howley, American football player
*
June 29 -
Harmon Killebrew, baseball player
July
*
July 16 -
Buddy Merrill, American musician,
The Lawrence Welk Show*
July 23 -
Don Drysdale, baseball player (d.
1993)
August
*
August 1 -
Bradford Bishop, fugitive indicted for the murders of his three children, spouse and mother in
1976.
*
August 1 -
Yves Saint-Laurent, Algerian-born French fashion designer
*
August 18 -
Robert Redford, American actor
*
August 21 -
Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player (d.
1999)
*
August 27 -
David Clarke, English retired teacher
September-December
*
September 7 -
Buddy Holly, American singer (d.
1959)
*
September 24 -
Jim Henson, American puppeteer, filmmaker, and television producer (d.
1990)
*
September 29 -
Silvio Berlusconi, Italian politician, entrepreneur, and media proprietor
*
October 25 -
Masako Nozawa, Japanese voice actress
*
October 29 -
Akiko Kojima, Japanese model
*
October 31 -
Michael Landon, American actor (d.
1991)
*
December 25 -
Princess Alexandra of Kent, daughter of
The Duke and
Duchess of Kent*
December 29 -
Mary Tyler Moore, American actress
January-June
*
January 9 -
John Gilbert, American actor (b.
1899)
*
January 16 -
Albert Fish, American serial killer (executed) (b.
1890)
*
January 18 -
Rudyard Kipling, British writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1865)
*
January 20 - King
George V of the United Kingdom (b.
1865)
*
February 4 -
Wilhelm Gustloff, German leader of the Swiss Nazi Party (b.
1895)
*
February 19 -
Billy Mitchell, U.S. general and military aviation pioneer (b.
1879)
*
February 26 -
Saito Makoto,
Prime Minister of Japan (b.
1858)
*
February 27 -
Ivan Pavlov, Russian psychologist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b.
1849)
*
February 28 -
Charles Nicolle, French bacteriologist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b.
1866)
*
March 16 -
Marguerite Durand, French journalist and feminist leader (b.
1864)
*
March 21 -
Alexander Glazunov, Russian composer (b.
1865)
*
April 3 -
Bruno Hauptmann, German killer of
Charles Lindbergh Jr. (b.
1899)
*
April 8 -
Robert Bárány, Austrian physician, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b.
1876)
*
April 30 -
Alfred Edward Housman, English poet (b.
1859)
*
June 11 -
Robert E. Howard, American author (suicide} (b.
1906)
*
June 14 -
Gilbert Keith Chesterton, English author (b.
1874)
*
June 14 -
Maxim Gorky, Russian writer (b.
1868)
July-December
*
July 21 -
Georg Michaelis,
Chancellor of Germany (b.
1857)
*
August 2 -
Louis Blériot, French aviation pioneer (b.
1872)
*
August 9 -
Lincoln Steffens, American journalist (b.
1866)
*
August 15 -
Grazia Deledda, Italian writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1871)
*
August 19 -
Federico García Lorca, Spanish writer (b.
1898)
*
September 19 -
Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande, Indian musican (b.
1860)
*
October 3 -
John Heisman, American football coach (b.
1869)
*
October 8 -
William Henry Stark, American businessman (b.
1851)
*
December 9 -
Arvid Lindman,
Prime Minister of Sweden (b.
1862)
*
December 10 -
Bobby Abel, English cricketer (b.
1857)
*
December 10 -
Luigi Pirandello, Italian writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1867)
