1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

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 1936 Winter Olympic 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 15 - The Arab rebellion 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 Atlantic

June

• 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

Births

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 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 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 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 St. 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

Deaths

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)

1936

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