1926.html



Year 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1926

January-February

• January 1 - Flooding in the Rhine River strikes Cologne.
• January 1 - Ireland's first regular radio service, 2RN (later Radio Éireann), begins broadcasting.
• January 1 - Turkey switches to the Gregorian calendar after reforms set by Kemal Atatürk.
• January 3 - Theodoros Pangalos declares himself dictator in Greece.
• January 8 - Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud is crowned King of Hejaz.
• January 12 - Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll premiere their radio program Sam 'n' Henry, in which the two white performers portrayed two black characters from Harlem looking to strike it rich in the big city. It is a precursor to Gosden and Correll's more popular later program, Amos 'n' Andy.
• January 16 - A BBC radio play about a worker's revolution causes a panic in London.
• January 21 - The Belgian Parliament accepts the Locarno treaties.
• January 26 - John Logie Baird demonstrates a mechanical television system.
• January 29 - Eugene O'Neill's The Great God Brown opens at the Greenwich Theatre.
• January 31 - British and Belgian troops leave Cologne.
• February 1 - Land on Broadway and Wall Street in New York City is sold at a record $7 per sq inch.
• February 8 - Sean O'Casey's Plough and Stars opens at Abbey Theater in Dublin.
• February 9 - Flooding hits London suburbs.
• February 12 - The Irish minister for Justice, Kevin O'Higgins, appoints the Committee on Evil Literature.
• February 25 - Francisco Franco becomes General of Spain.

March-April

March 16: Goddard with rocket in 1926.

• March 6 - The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon is destroyed by fire.
• March 16 - Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.
• March 23 - Eamon de Valera organizes Fianna Fáil in Ireland.
• April 4 - Greek dictator Theodorus Pangalos is elected president.
• April 7 - An assassination attempt against Mussolini fails.
• April 12 - By a vote of 45-41, the United States Senate unseats Iowa Senator Smith W. Brookhart and seats Daniel F. Steck, after Brookhart had already served for over one year.
• April 16 - A train crash in San José, Costa Rica kills 178.
• April 24 - Treaty of Berlin: Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for the next 5 years.
• April 25 - Reza Khan is crowned Shah of Iran under the name "Pahlevi."
• April 30 - African-American pilot Bessie Coleman is killed after falling 2,000 feet from an airplane.

May-June

• May 1 - A coal miners' strike begins in Britain.
• May 3 - The British General Strike begins in support of the coal strike.
• May 9 - Martial law is declared in Britain because of the general strike.
• May 9 - The French navy bombards Damascus because of the Druze riots.
• May 9 - Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claim to have flown over the North Pole (later discovery of his diary seems to indicate that this did not happen).
• May 10 - Talks between the government and strikers begin in the U.K.
• May 10 - Planes piloted by Major Harold Geiger and Horace Meek Hickam, students at the Air Corps Tactical School, collide in mid-air at Langley Field, Virginia. Hickam parachutes to safety.
• May 12 -Roald Amundsen flies over the North Pole.
• May 12 -UK General Strike 1926: In the United Kingdom, a general strike by trade unions ends (the strike began on May 3).
• May 12–May 14 - May Coup: Józef Piłsudski takes over in Poland.
• May 18 - Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears while visiting a Venice, California beach.
• May 20 - Congress passes the Air Commerce Act, licensing pilots and planes.
• May 23 - The first Lebanese constitution is established.
• May 26 - The Rifkabyl rebels surrender in Morocco.
• May 28 - The 1926 coup d'état commanded by Manuel Gomes da Costa in Portugal installs the Ditadura Nacional (National Dictatorship), followed by António de Oliveira Salazar's Estado Novo.
• June 4 - Ignacy Moscicki becomes president of Poland.
• June 19 - DeFord Bailey is the first African-American to perform on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry.
• June 29 - Arthur Meighen returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.

July-August

• July 1 - The Kuomingtang begins a military unification campaign in northern China. n
• July 3 - A Caudron C-61 aircraft operated by Compagnie Internationale de Navigation Aérienne crashes in Czechoslovakia.
• July 9 - General Antonio Carmona takes power in a military coup in Portugal.
• July 12 - A lightning strike destroys an ammunition depot in Dover, New Jersey.
• July 15 - BEST buses make their début in Bombay.
• July 23 - Fox Film buys the patents of the Movietone sound system for recording sound onto film.
• July 26 - The National Bar Association incorporates in the United States.
• August 6 - Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel from France to England.
• August 6 - In New York, the Warner Brothers' Vitaphone system premieres with the movie Don Juan starring John Barrymore.
• August 18 - The British miners' union begins negotiations with the government
• August 18 - A weather map is televised for the first time, sent from NAA Arlington to the Weather Bureau Office in Washington, D.C.
• August 22 - In Greece, Georgios Kondylis ousts Theodoros Pangalos.
• August 25 - Pavlos Kountouriotis announces that dictatorship is finished in Greece and becomes the president.

September-October

• September 1 - Lebanon under the French Mandate gets its first constitution, thereby becoming a republic. Charles Debbas is elected president.
• September 11 - Spain leaves the League of Nations.
• September 11 - Aloha Tower is officially dedicated at Honolulu Harbor in the Territory of Hawai'i.
• September 16 - Philip Dunning and George Abbott's play Broadway premieres in New York City.
• September 18 - Great Miami Hurricane: A strong hurricane devastates Miami, Florida, leaving over 100 dead and causing several hundred million dollars in damage (equal to nearly $100 billion dollars today).
• September 20 - Twelve cars full of gangsters open fire at the Hawthorne Inn, Al Capone's Chicago headquarters. Only one of Capone's men is wounded.
• September 25 - The League of Nations Slavery Convention abolishes all types of slavery.
• September 25 - William Lyon Mackenzie King returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.
• September 26 - Gene Tunney defeats Jack Dempsey and becomes heavyweight champion of the world.
• October 2 - Józef Piłsudski becomes prime minister of Poland.
• October 12 - British miners agree to end their strike.
• October 14 - Alan Alexander Milne's book Winnie-the-Pooh is released.
• October 20 - A hurricane kills 650 in Cuba.
• October 23 - A decree in Italy bans women from holding public office.
• October 23 - The Fazal Mosque (one of the first in London) is built.
• October 31 - Magician Harry Houdini dies of gangrene and peritonitis that developed after his appendix ruptured.

November-December

• November 10 - In San Francisco, California, a necrophiliac serial killer named Earle Nelson (dubbed "Gorilla Man") kills and then rapes his 9th victim, a boardinghouse landlady named Mrs. William Edmonds.
• November 10 - Michinomiya Hirohito is crowned the 124th Emperor of Japan.
• November 11 - U.S. Route 66 is established.
• November 15 - The NBC radio network opens with 24 stations (formed by Westinghouse, General Electric and RCA).
• November 24 - The village of Rocquebillier in the French Riviera is almost destroyed in a massive hail.
• November 24 - Sri Aurobindo retires, leaving The Mother to run the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India.
• November 25 - The death penalty is re-established in Italy.
• November 26 - All Italian Communist deputies are arrested.
• November 27 - Mount Vesuvius erupts in Italy.
• November 27 - In Williamsburg, Virginia, the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg begins.
• December 2 - British prime minister Stanley Baldwin ends the martial law that had been declared due to general strike.
• December 8 - Agatha Christie disappears from her home in Surrey; on December 14 she is found at the Harrogate Hotel.
• December 17 - A democratically elected government is overthrown during the 1926 Lithuanian coup d'état‎; Antanas Smetona assumes power in Lithuania.
• December 18 - Turkey converts to the Gregorian calendar, making 'tomorrow' January 1, 1926
• December 25 - In Japanese History, the Taishō era ends and the Shōwa era and the period of Japanese expansionism begins.

Undated

• Widows' pensions are introduced in New South Wales, Australia.
• Earl W. Bascom, rodeo cowboy and artist, designs and makes rodeo's first high-cut rodeo chaps at Stirling, Alberta Canada.
• The short-lived Western Australian Secession League is founded.
• The International African Institute is founded in London.
• Raymond Pearl publishes his landmark book, Alcohol and Longevity.
• American microbiologist Selman Waksman publishes Enzymes.
• The Pike School of Andover, Massachusetts is founded.
• U.S. Marines intervene in Nicaragua to bolster the conservative government.

Births

January-February

• January 2 – Harold Bradley, American session guitarist on country music records
• January 3 - George Martin, English producer of The Beatles
• January 5 - William De Witt Snodgrass, American poet
• January 6 - Kim Daejung, President of South Korea, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• January 6 - Mickey Hargitay, Hungarian actor and bodybuilder (d. 2006)
• January 8 - Evelyn Lear, American soprano
• January 8 - Hanae Mori, Japanese fashion designer
• January 8 - Soupy Sales, American comedian
• January 11 - Lev Demin, cosmonaut (d. 1998)
• January 12 - Ray Price, American singer
• January 14 - Maria Schell, Austrian actress (d. 2005)
• January 14 - Tom Tryon, American actor and novelist (d. 1991)
• January 15 - Florence Buchsbaum, theater director and musician (d. 1996)
• January 17 - Moira Shearer, Scottish actress and dancer (d. 2006)
• January 19 - Fritz Weaver, American actor
• January 20 - Patricia Neal, American actress (The Day The Earth Stood Still)
• January 20 - David Tudor, American pianist and composer (d. 1996)
• January 21 - Steve Reeves, American actor (d. 2000)
• January 26 - Franco Evangelisti, Italian composer (d. 1980)
• January 27 - Fritz Spiegl, Austrian journalist (d. 2003)
• January 27 - Ingrid Thulin, Swedish actress (d. 2004)
• January 29 - Abdus Salam, Pakistani physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)
• February 2 - Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, President of France
• February 2 - Elaine Stritch, Broadway/film actress
• February 6 - Haskell Wexler, American cinematographer
• February 7 - Konstantin Feoktistov, Russian cosmonaut
• February 8 - Neal Cassady, American writer (d. 1968)
• February 8 - Audrey Meadows, American actress (d. 1996)
• February 10 - Danny Blanchflower, Northern Irish footballer and football manager (d. 1993)
• February 11 - Paul Bocuse, French chef
• February 11 - Alexander Gibson, British conductor and founder of the Scottish Opera
• February 11 - Leslie Nielsen, Canadian actor (Airplane!)
• February 16 - Margot Frank, sister of Anne Frank (d. 1945)
• February 16 - John Schlesinger, British film director (d. 2003)
• February 20 - Richard Matheson, American author
• February 20 - Bob Richards, American track and field athlete
• February 22 - Kenneth Williams, English actor (d. 1988)
• February 27 - David H. Hubel, Canadian neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• February 28 - Svetlana Alliluyeva, Russian author, daughter of Joseph Stalin

March-April

• March 1 - Pete Rozelle, American commissioner of the National Football League (d. 1996)
• March 2 - Murray Rothbard, American economist (d. 1995)
• March 3 - James Merrill, American poet (d. 1995)
• March 4 - Richard DeVos, American billionaire, co-founder of Amway
• March 4 - James J. Eagan, former Mayor of Florissant, Missouri (d. 2000)
• March 4 - Fran Warren, American popular singer
• March 6 - Alan Greenspan, American economist and former Chairman of the Federal Reserve
• March 6 - Andrzej Wajda, Polish film director
• March 8 - Sultan Salahuddin of Malaysia (d. 2001)
• March 13 - Carlos Roberto Reina, President of Honduras (d. 2003)
• March 15 - Norm Van Brocklin, American football player (d. 1983)
• March 16 - Charles Goodell, American politician (d. 1987)
• March 16 - Jerry Lewis, American comedian and humanitarian (Muscular Dystrophy Telethon)
• March 17 - Siegfried Lenz, German writer
• March 18 - Peter Graves, American actor (Mission: Impossible)
• March 24 - Dario Fo, Italian author, Nobel Prize laureate
• March 26 - László Papp, Hungarian boxer (d. 2003)
• March 30 - Ingvar Kamprad, Swedish businessman
• March 31 - John Fowles, English writer (d. 2005)
• April 1 - Charles Bressler, American tenor
• April 1 - Anne McCaffrey, American author
• April 2 - Jack Brabham, Australian race car driver
• April 3 - Gus Grissom, American astronaut (d. 1967)
• April 6 - Sergio Franchi, Italian tenor and actor (d. 1990)
• April 6 - Gil Kane, Latvian-born cartoonist (d. 2000)
• April 6 - Ian Paisley, Northern Irish politician
• April 9 - Hugh Hefner, American magazine editor (Playboy)
• April 12 - Khozh-Akhmed Bersanov, Chechen ethnographer
• April 14 - Frank Daniel, Czech-born writer, producer, director, teacher (d. 1996)
• April 17 - Gerry McNeil, Canadian hockey player (d. 2004)
• April 21 - Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
• April 21 - Arthur Rowley, English footballer (d. 2002)
• April 22 - James Stirling, Scottish architect (d. 1992)
• April 24 - Thorbjörn Fälldin, Prime Minister of Sweden
• April 25 - Gertrude Fröhlich-Sandner, Austrian politician (d. 2008)
• April 26 - David Coleman, British TV sports broadcaster
• April 26 - Michael Mathias Prechtl, German illustrator (d. 2003)
• April 28 - Harper Lee, American author
• April 30 - Edmund Cooper, British author & poet (d. 1982)
• April 30 - Cloris Leachman, American actress

May-June

• May 5 - Ann B. Davis, American actress (The Brady Bunch)
• May 8 - David Attenborough, British broadcaster, naturalist and producer
• May 8 - Don Rickles, American comedian and actor
• May 10 - Tichi Wilkerson Kassel, American film personality and publisher of The Hollywood Reporter (d. 2004)
• May 15 - Anthony Shaffer, English novelist and playwright (d. 2001)
• May 15 - Peter Shaffer, English playwright
• May 18 - Dirch Passer, Danish actor (d. 1980)
• May 20 - John Lucarotti, TV writer (d. 1994)
• May 25 - Bill Sharman, American basketball player and coach
• May 26 - Miles Davis, American musician (d. 1991)
• May 30 - Tsuneo Watanabe, Japanese businessman
• June 1 - Andy Griffith, American actor (The Andy Griffith Show)
• June 1 - Marilyn Monroe, American actress (d. 1962)
• June 3 - Roscoe Gardner Bartlett, Republican member of the United States House of Representatives
• June 3 - Allen Ginsberg, American poet (Howl) (d. 1997)
• June 6 - Klaus Tennstedt, German conductor (d. 1998)
• June 11 - Frank Plicka, Czech-born photographer
• June 13 - Paul Lynde, American comedian (Hollywood Squares) (d. 1982)
• June 15 - Shigeru Kayano, Japanese Ainu activist (d. 2006)
• June 16 - William F. Roemer, Jr., United States FBI agent (d. 1996)
• June 21 - Conrad Hall, Tahitian-born cinematographer (d. 2003)
• June 25 - Ingeborg Bachmann, Austrian writer (d. 1973)
• June 28 - Mel Brooks, American entertainer (The Producers)
• June 29 - Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait (d. 2006)
• June 30 - Paul Berg, American chemist, Noble Prize laureate

July-August

• July 1 - Robert Fogel, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• July 1 - Carl Hahn, German automotive executive, chairman of Volkswagen from 1982 to 1993
• July 1 - Hans Werner Henze, German composer
• July 4 - Alfredo Di Stéfano, Argentine-born footballer
• July 4 - Mary Stuart, American soap actress (d. 2002)
• July 8 - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-born psychiatrist (d. 2004)
• July 9 - Ben Roy Mottelson, American-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• July 10 - Fred Gwynne, American actor and author (The Munsters) (d. 1993)
• July 13 - Andrew Maher, American actor
• July 15 - Leopoldo Galtieri, Argentine dictator (d. 2003)
• July 16 - Stanley Clements, American actor (d. 1981)
• July 16 - Irwin Rose, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• July 18 - Robert Sloman, English writer (d. 2005)
• July 28 - Walt Brown, American presidential candidate
• July 30 - Sir Patrick Russell QC, PC, British High Court Judge
• August 3 - Tony Bennett, American singer (I Left My Heart In San Francisco)
• August 3 - Anthony Sampson, British journalist and biographer (d. 2004)
• August 11 - Aaron Klug, Lithuanian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• August 12 - Wallace Markfield, American writer (d. 2002)
• August 13 - Fidel Castro, Cuban revolutionary and politician
• August 14 - Alice Ghostley, American actress (d. 2007)
• August 14 - René Goscinny, French comic book writer (d. 1977)
• August 19 - Arthur Rock, American venture capitalist
• August 23 - Felipe de Ortego y Gasca, Chicano literary historian
• August 27 - Pat Coombs, British actress (d. 2002)

September-October

• September 3 - Uttam Kumar (Arun Kumar Chatterjee), legendary Bengali Actor (d. 1980)
• September 6 - Claus von Amsberg, Prince of the Netherlands and husband of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands (d. 2002)
• September 6 - Maurice Prather, American photographer (d. 2001)
• September 7 - Don Messick, American voice actor (d. 1997)
• September 14 - Dick Dale, American singer and musician
• September 15 - Jean-Pierre Serre, French mathematician
• September 16 - John Knowles, American author (d. 2001)
• September 21 - Donald A. Glaser, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• September 21 - Noor Jehan, Pakistani singer and actress (d. 2000)
• September 23 - John Coltrane, American jazz saxophonist (d. 1967)
• September 26 - Masatoshi Koshiba, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• October 7 - Czesław Ryll-Nardzewski, Polish mathematician
• October 9 - Ruth Ellis, British murderess (d. 1955)
• October 15 - Michel Foucault, French philosopher (d. 1984)
• October 15 - Karl Richter, German conductor (d. 1981)
• October 17 - Beverly Garland, American actress and hotel founder
• October 18 - Chuck Berry, American musician (Johnny B. Goode)
• October 22 - Gloria Carter Spann, sister of former President Jimmy Carter (d. 1990)
• October 25 - Galina Vishnevskaya, Russian soprano
• October 28 - Bowie Kuhn, American Commissioner of Baseball (d. 2007)
• October 29 - Jon Vickers, Canadian tenor
• October 30 - Lois Wyse, American advertising executive, author and columnist (d.2007)
• October 31 - Jimmy Savile, English DJ and television presenter

November-December

• November 2 - Tsung-Dao Lee, Chinese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• November 3 - Valdas Adamkus, President of Lithuania
• November 6 - Frank Carson, Northern Irish comedian
• November 7 - Dame Joan Sutherland, Australian soprano
• November 19 - Jeane Kirkpatrick, American ambassador (d. 2006)
• November 20 - John Gardner, English spy novelist (d. 2007)
• November 20 - Andrzej W. Schally, Polish-born endocrinologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• November 23 - Sathya Sai Baba, Indian guru
• November 23 - R. L. Burnside, American musician (d. 2005)
• November 25 - Poul Anderson, American author (d. 2001)
• November 26 - Peter van Pels, German-Dutch love interest of Anne Frank (d. 1945)
• November 30 - Richard Crenna, American actor (d. 2003)
• December 1 - Robert Symonds, American actor (d. 2007)
• December 9 - Henry Way Kendall, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
• December 13 - George Rhoden, Jamaican athlete
• December 16 - James McCracken, American tenor (d. 1988)
• December 17 - Allan V. Cox, American geologist (d. 1987)
• December 17 - Bill Keightley (Mr. Wildcat), equipment manager for the University of Kentucky men's basketball team from 1962-2008 (d. 2008)
• December 20 - Sir Geoffrey Howe, British politician
• December 20 - David Levine, U.S. caricaturist
• December 21 - Joe Paterno, American football coach and philanthropist
• December 23 - Robert Bly, American poet
• December 26 - Gina Pellón, Cuban painter
• December 31 - Billy Snedden, Australian politician (d. 1987)

Deaths

January - June

• January 21 - Camillo Golgi, Italian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1843)
• January 28 - Kato Takaaki, 24th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1860)
• January 30 - Barbara La Marr, American film actress (b. 1896)
• February 21 - Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
• February 24 - John Jacob Bausch, German-American optician who co-founded Bausch & Lomb (b. 1830)
• March 5 - Clément Ader, French engineer and inventor, airplane pioneer (b. 1841)
• March 16 - Sergeant Stubby, WWI American hero, most decorated war dog. First dog promoted to Sergeant. (b. 1916 or 1917)
• March 26 - Konstantin Fehrenbach, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1852)
• April 24 - Sunjong of Korea (b. 1874)
• April 30 - Bessie Coleman, African-American pilot (b. 1892)
• May 16 - Mehmed VI, last Ottoman Sultan (b. 1861)
• May 26 - Simon Petlyura, Ukrainian independence fighter (b. 1879)
• June 10 - Antoni Gaudí, Catalan architect (b. 1852)
• June 14 - Mary Cassatt, American artist (b. 1844)

July - December

• July 12 - Gertrude Bell, English archaeologist, writer, spy, and administrator known as the "Uncrowned Queen of Iraq" (b. 1868)
• July 26 - Robert Todd Lincoln, American statesman and businessman, son of 16th President Abraham Lincoln (b. 1843)
• August 14 - John H. Moffitt, American politician (b. 1843)
• August 22 - Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University (b. 1834)
• August 23 - Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor (b. 1895)
• September 15 - Rudolf Christoph Eucken, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1846)
• September 21 - Leon Charles Thevenin, French telegraph engineer (b. 1857)
• September 25 - Herbert Booth, third son of William and Catherine Booth (b. 1862)
• October 20 - Eugene V. Debs, American labor and political leader (b. 1855)
• October 31 - Harry Houdini, Hungarian-born magician (b. 1874)
• October 31 - Charles Vance Millar, Canadian businessman (b. 1853)
• December 4 - Ivana Kobilca, Slovenian painter (b. 1861)
• December 5 - Claude Monet, French painter (b. 1840)
• December 17 - Lars Magnus Ericsson, Swedish inventor and founder of Ericsson (b. 1846)
• December 25 - Emperor Taishō, 123rd Emperor of Japan (b. 1879)
• December 29 - Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian poet (b. 1875)

Nobel prizes

• Physics - Jean Baptiste Perrin
• Chemistry - Theodor Svedberg
• Physiology or Medicine - Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger
• Literature - Grazia Deledda
• Peace - Aristide Briand, Gustav Stresemann

Notes

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1926

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