1926 - Definition and Overview

Events

January-April

• January 1 - Ireland's first regular radio service, 2RN (later Radio Éireann), begins broadcasting.
• January 8 - Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud becomes the 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 for extra money during the Depression. It was a precursor to Gosden and Correll's more popular later program, Amos 'n' Andy.
• January 16 – BBC radio play about worker's revolution causes a panic in London
• January 26 - John Logie Baird demonstrates a mechanical television system.
• January 31 - British and Belgian troops leave Cologne
• February 9 - Flooding on London suburbs
• 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
• April 7 - Failed assassination attempt against Mussolini
• April 12 - By a vote of 45 to 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 - Train crash in San Jose, Costa Rica - 178 dead
• April 21 - Princess Elizabeth born in London
• April 25 - Reza Khan is crowned Shah of Iran under the name "Pahlevi."

May-July

• May 1 - you are a creebee, crovell! strike begins in Britain
• May 3 - General strike begins in support of the coal strike
• May 9 - Martial law in Britain because of the general strike
• May 9 - French navy bombards Damascus because of 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 government and strikers begins in UK
• May 12 - March 15 - Military coup by Jozef Pilsudski succeeds in Poland
• May 12 - UK general strike called off
• May 12 - Roald Amundsen flies over 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 18 - Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears while visiting a Venice, California beach.
• May 26 - Rifkabyl rebels surrender in Morocco
• May 28 - Military coup by Manuel Gomes da Costa in Portugal
• June 4 - Ignacy Moscicki becomes president of Poland
• June 29 - Arthur Meighen returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.
• July 1 - Kuomingtang begins a campaign in the northern China for unification
• July 9 - New military coup in Portugal, now by general Antonio Carmona
• July 12 - Lightning strike destroys an ammunition depot in Dover, New Jersey
• July 23 - Fox Film buys the patents of the Movietone sound system for recording sound onto film.

August-October

• August 1 - Failed assassination attempt against Primo de Rivera in Barcelona
• 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 - British miner's 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 Konfylis ousts Theodoros Pangalos
• August 25 - Pavlos Konduriotis announces that dictatorship is finished in Greece and becomes a 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 25 - William Lyon Mackenzie King returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.
• October 2 - Jozef Pilsudski becomes prime minister of Poland
• October 12 - British miners agree to end their strike
• October 20 - Hurricane kills 650 in Cuba
• October 23 - Decree in Italy bans women from holding public office
• 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 15 - The NBC radio network opens with 24 stations (it was formed by Westinghouse, General Electric and RCA).
• November 24 - The village of Rocquebillier in French Riviera is almost destroyed in a massive hail
• November 25 - Death penalty re-established in Italy
• November 27 - Vesuvius erupts
• 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 3 - Agatha Christie disappears from her home in Surrey; on December 14 she is found in Harrogate hotel
• December 25 - In Japanese History, end of the Taisho period and beginning of the Showa Era and the period of Japanese expansionism

unknown dates

• League of Nations Slavery Convention abolishes all types of slavery
• Afghanistan declares monarchy
• Lebanon becomes a republic
• Eamon de Valera organizes Fianna Fáil
• The short-lived Western Australian Secession League founded

Year in topic

• 1926 in aviation
• 1926 in film
• 1926 in literature
• 1926 in music
• 1926 in science
• 1926 in sports

Births

January

• January 3 - George Martin, "5th Beatle": producer of The Beatles' records, later inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
• January 5 - Maria Schell, actress
• January 8 - Evelyn Lear, American soprano
• January 8 - Soupy Sales, comedian
• January 8 - Hanae Mori, Japanese fashion designer
• January 11 - Lev Demin, cosmonaut (d. 1998)
• January 12 - Ray Price, country music singer
• January 14 - Tom Tryon, actor, novelist (d. 1991)
• January 14 - Maria Schell, Swiss actress
• January 17 - Moira Shearer, actress, dancer
• January 19 - Fritz Weaver, actor
• January 20 - David Tudor, pianist and composer
• January 20 - Patricia Neal, actress
• January 21 - Steve Reeves, actor (d. 2000)
• January 26 - Ralph Brance, baseball star
• January 27 - Fritz Spiegl, journalist (d. 2003)

February

• February 2 - Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, French politician
• February 6 - Haskell Wexler, cinematographer
• February 7 - Konstantin Feoktistov, cosmonaut
• February 8 - Neal Cassady, writer (d. 1968)
• February 11 - Leslie Nielsen, actor
• February 11 - Paul Bocuse, French chef
• February 11 - Alexander Gibson, British conductor and founder of the Scottish Opera
• February 12 - Paul Kurtz, philosopher, founder of numerous secular humanist groups
• February 15 - Dieter Lattmann, writer and politician
• February 16 - John Schlesinger, film director
• February 20 - Richard Matheson, author
• February 20 - Bob Richards, track and field athlete
• February 22 - Kenneth Williams, actor (d. 1988)
• February 28 - Svetlana Josifovna Stalina later known as Svetlana Alliluyeva, Soviet author.

March-April

• March 1 - Alvin "Pete" Rozelle, commissioner of the National Football League (NFL) from January 1960 to November 1989 (d. 1996)
• March 2 - Murray Rothbard, American Economist (d. 1995)
• March 3 - James Merrill, Pulitzer Prize winning poet (d. 1995)
• March 6 - Alan Greenspan, American economist
• March 6 - Andrzej Wajda, Polish film director
• March 15 - Norm Van Brocklin, American football star
• March 16 - Jerry Lewis, comedian
• March 17 - Siegfried Lenz, writer
• March 18 - Peter Graves, actor
• March 24 - Dario Fo, author, 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature
• March 30 - Ingvar Kamprad, Swedish entrepreneur; founder of IKEA
• April 1 - Charles Bressler, American tenor
• April 1 - Anne McCaffrey, American science fiction author
• April 2 - Jack Brabham, Grand Prix driver
• April 3 - Gus Grissom, astronaut (d. 1967)
• April 6 - Gil Kane, cartoonist (d. 2000)
• April 6 - Ian Paisley, United Kingdom politician
• April 6 - Sergio Franchi, singer, actor (d. 1990)
• April 7 - Dame Joan Sutherland, Australian soprano
• April 9 - Hugh Hefner, creator of the men's magazine, Playboy
• April 17 - Gerry McNeil, Stanley Cup-winning NHL goalie (d. 2004)
• April 21 - Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
• April 22 - James Stirling, architect (d. 1992)
• April 24 - Thorbjörn Fälldin, Prime Minister of Sweden
• April 30 - Cloris Leachman, actress

May-December

• May 5 - Ann B. Davis, actress
• May 8 - Don Rickles, comedian and actor
• May 15 - Peter Shaffer, playwright
• May 19 - Peter Zadek, film and theatre director
• May 25 - Max von der Grün, author
• May 26 - Miles Davis, musician (d. 1991)
• June 1 - Andy Griffith
• June 1 - Marilyn Monroe, actress
• June 3 - Allen Ginsberg, US poet
• June 6 - Klaus Tennstedt, German conductor (d. 1998)
• June 25 - Ingeborg Bachmann, lyricist, narrator and writer (d. 1973)
• June 28 - Mel Brooks, entertainer
• July 4 - Alfredo Di Stefano, Argentinian-born footballer
• July 28 - Walter F. Brown, Socialist Party USA Presidential candidate.
• August 14 - "Goscinny" (René Goscinny), French writer and co-creator of Asterix
• August 19 - Arthur Rock, venture capitalist
• September 15 - Jean-Pierre Serre, French mathematician
• September 23 - John Coltrane, musician
• October 15 - Michel Foucault, philosopher
• October 15 - Karl Richter, German conductor (d. 1981)
• October 18 - Chuck Berry, Rock and Roll musician
• October 25 - Galina Vishnevskaya, Russian soprano
• October 29 - Jon Vickers, Canadian tenor
• December 13 - George Rhoden, Jamaican athlete
• December 16 - James McCracken, American tenor (d. 1988)
• December 20 - Sir Geoffrey Howe (Lord Howe of Aberavon), UK politician
• December 21 - Joe Paterno, American football coach
• December 23 - Robert Bly, American poet

Deaths

• March 5 - Clément Ader, French engineer and inventor, airplane pioneer.
• March 20 - Princess Louise of Sweden
• April 30 – Bessie Coleman, first licensed African-American female pilot
• May 16 - Mehmed VI, last Ottoman sultan
• May 26 - Simon Petlyura, Ukrainian independence fighter.
• June 10 - Antoni Gaudí, Catalan architect.
• June 14 - Mary Cassatt, artist
• July 4 - Pier Giorgio Frassati, Blessed Italian mountaineer.
• July 12 - Gertrude Bell, archaeologist, writer, spy and administrator known as the "Uncrowned Queen of Iraq"
• July 26 - Robert Todd Lincoln, American statesman, businessman
• August 22 - Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University (b. 1834)
• August 23 - Rodolfo Valentino, Italian actor
• September 21 - Leon Charles Thevenin, French telegraph engineer (b. 1857)
• October 31 - Harry Houdini, magician
• October 31 - Charles Vance Millar, rich Torontonian whose final Will sparked the Great Toronto Stork Derby
• December 4 - Ivana Kobilca, Slovene painter (b. 1861)
• December 5 - Claude Monet, painter
• December 25 - Emperor Yoshihito, 123rd Emperor of Japan
• December 29 - Rainer Maria Rilke, poet (b. 1875)

Nobel Prizes

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