1936

Events

January–February

• January 20 – The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King Edward VIII, following the death of his father, George V, at Sandringham House.
• January 28 – State funeral of George V of the United Kingdom. After a procession through London, he is buried at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
• February 4 – Radium E becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.
• February 6 – The IV Olympic Winter Games open in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
• February 10–19 – Second Italo-Ethiopian War: Battle of Amba Aradam – Italian forces gain a decisive tactical victory, effectively neutralizing the army of the Ethiopian Empire.
• February 16 – 1936 Spanish general election: The left-wing Popular Front coalition takes a majority.
• February 26 – February 26 Incident : The Imperial Way Faction engineers a failed coup against the Japanese government; some politicians are killed.

  March–April

• March 1 – Construction of Hoover Dam is completed in the United States.
• March 7 – In violation of the Treaty of Versailles and Locarno Treaties, Nazi Germany reoccupies the Rhineland. Hitler and other Nazis later admit that the French army alone could have destroyed the Wehrmacht.
• March 9 – Pro-democratic militarist Keisuke Okada steps down as Prime Minister of Japan and is replaced by radical militarist Kōki Hirota.
• March 15 – Austrian Josef Bradl sets the men's world record ski jump at 101.5 metres on Bloudkova velikanka hill in Planica and becomes the first man in history to stand jump over one hundred metres.
• April 5 – A tornado hits Tupelo, Mississippi, United States, killing 216 people and injuring over 700.
• April 15 – The Tulkarm shooting, followed by Jewish retaliation, begins the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine against British administration, and stokes opposition to Jewish immigration.

  May–June

• May 5 – March of the Iron Will: Italian forces occupy Addis Ababa unopposed.
• May 9 – Speaking in Rome, Benito Mussolini announces the foundation of the empire, as Italian East Africa is formed from the Italian territories of Eritrea, Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland.
• May 25 – The Remington Rand strike of 1936–37 begins, spawning the notorious Mohawk Valley formula, a corporate plan for strikebreaking.
• June 19
• * Per Albin Hansson resigns as Prime Minister of Sweden, over the issue of defence policy. He is replaced by the leader of the Farmer's League Axel Pehrsson-Bramstorp, who also becomes Minister of Agriculture.
• * The total solar eclipse of June 19, 1936 is visible in Greece, Turkey, Russia and Japan. It is part of Solar Saros 126; Gamma is a value of 0.53889.
• June 26 – Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first fully controllable helicopter, makes its maiden flight.

  July–August

• July 4 – First publication recognizing stress as a biological condition.
• July 17 – The Spanish Army of Africa launches a coup d'état against the Republican Second Spanish Republic, beginning the Spanish Civil War.
• July 20 – The Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits is signed in Montreux, allowing Turkey to fortify the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, but guaranteeing free passage to ships of all nations in peacetime.
• July 24 – Carmelite Martyrs of Guadalajara: 3 nuns are shot dead by the Republican faction.
• August 1 – The 1936 Summer Olympics open in Berlin, Germany, and mark the first live television coverage of an international sports event in world history.
• August 3 – 1936 Summer Olympics: African-American athlete Jesse Owens wins the 100-meter dash.
• August 4 – A self-coup is staged by Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas, marking the beginning of the authoritarian 4th of August Regime, which will rule Greece until the Axis occupation of Greece in 1941.
• August 14 – 1936 Summer Olympics: The Junior Varsity Rowing Crew from the University of Washington surprises the world listening on radio when they come from behind to win Olympic Gold.
• August 26 – The Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 is signed.

  September–October

• September 4–5 – English-born aviator Beryl Markham becomes the first woman to make an east-to-west solo transatlantic flight, from Abingdon-on-Thames, England, to Baleine, Nova Scotia.
• September 5 – Spanish Civil War: Robert Capa's photograph The Falling Soldier is taken.
• September 7 – The last known thylacine, named Benjamin, dies in Hobart Zoo in Tasmania.
• September 9
• *1936 Naval Revolt : The crews of Portuguese Navy frigate NRP Afonso de Albuquerque and destroyer Dão mutiny while anchored in Lisbon Harbour. Opposed to the Salazar dictatorship's support of General Franco's coup in Spain, they declare their solidarity with the Second Spanish Republic.
• *The Franco-Syrian Treaty of Independence is signed.
• September 10 – The first World Speedway Championship is held at Wembley Stadium in London, England. It is won by Australian Lionel Van Praag, with Englishman Eric Langton second and Australian Bluey Wilkinson third.
• September 13 – In response to a polio outbreak, Chicago Public Schools launches a distance education program which constitutes the first large-scale use of radio broadcasts to facilitate distance education.
• September 28 – After the election to the Swedish Riksdag's second chamber, Axel Pehrsson-Bramstorp and his "Holiday Cabinet" resign and Per Albin Hansson returns as Prime Minister, staying in office until his death from a heart attack in 1946.
• October
• * Joseph Stalin's Great Purge begins in the Soviet Union.
• * The Viking Age craftsman's Mästermyr chest is discovered in the Mästermyr mire, west of Hemse, on the island of Gotland, Sweden.
• October 19 – H. R. Ekins, reporter for the New York World-Telegram, wins a race to travel around the world on commercial airline flights, beating Dorothy Kilgallen of the New York Journal and Leo Kieran of The New York Times. The flight takes 18½ days.
• October 25 – The Italo-German protocol of 23 October 1936 is signed, resulting in the creation of the Axis.

  November–December

• November 2
• * The BBC launches the world's first regular television service in high-definition.
• * The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation begins radio in Canada.
• November 3 – 1936 United States presidential election: Franklin D. Roosevelt is reelected to a second term, in a landslide victory over Kansas Governor Alf Landon; farmers support Roosevelt.
• November 12 – In California, the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.
• November 19 and 20 – Buenaventura Durruti, a major Spanish anarchist, is fatally shot in Madrid, dying the following day.
• November 20 – A levee failure and continued massive rain at the Mitsubishi Osarizawa mine, Kazuno, northeastern Akita, Japan, results in at least 375 deaths.
• November 23 – Cover date of the first issue of Life, a weekly news magazine launched in the United States under the management of Henry Luce.
• November 25 – The Anti-Comintern Pact is signed by Germany and Japan.
• November 30 – A spectacular fire destroys The Crystal Palace in London, originally built for the 1851 Great Exhibition.
• December 5 – The 1936 Soviet Constitution, promulgated by Stalin, is adopted in the Soviet Union. The Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic is dissolved, and Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia become full Republics of the Soviet Union.
• December 7 – Streptococcous meningitis is successfully treated for the first time with a sulfonamide.
• December 10 – Edward VIII abdication crisis: King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom signs an instrument of abdication at Fort Belvedere, Surrey in the presence of his three brothers, The Duke of York, The Duke of Gloucester and The Duke of Kent.
• December 11
• * Edward VIII abdication crisis: The British Parliament passes His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936 on behalf of the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The King performs his last act as sovereign by giving Royal Assent to the Act, and his brother Prince Albert, Duke of York, becomes King, reigning as King George VI. The former King, now HRH Prince Edward, makes a broadcast to the nation explaining his decision to abdicate, and leaves the country for Austria.
• * Taking the opportunity to free itself further from ties to the United Kingdom, the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State passes the Constitution Act 1936, removing most powers from the office of Governor-General of the Irish Free State, and the Executive Authority Act 1936, assenting to the abdication and restricting the power of the monarch in relation to Ireland to international affairs.
• December 12 – Xi'an Incident: Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China is kidnapped by Marshal Zhang Xueliang.
• December 24 – The first filmed Russian opera, Natalka Poltavka, is released in Ukraine.

  Date unknown

• West China Famine: An estimated five million people die.
• Nestlé introduce the white chocolate Milkybar.

  Births

January

• January 2 – Roger Miller, American singer-songwriter, musician and actor
• January 6
• * Darlene Hard, American tennis player
• * Alejandro Maldonado, 37th President of Guatemala
• * Julio María Sanguinetti, 2-time President of Uruguay
• January 8 – Robert May, Australian scientist
• January 10
• * Stephen E. Ambrose, American historian and biographer
• * Robert Wilson, American physicist and radio astronomer, Nobel laureate
• January 11 – Eva Hesse, American sculptor and textile artist
• January 12 – Émile Lahoud, 15th President of Lebanon
• January 14 – Reiner Klimke, German equestrian
• January 19 – Ziaur Rahman, 7th President of Bangladesh
• January 22
• * Alan J. Heeger, American physicist and Nobel laureate
• * Ong Teng Cheong, 5th President of Singapore
• January 23 – Cécile Ousset, French pianist
• January 25 – Diana Hyland, American actress
• January 27
• * Barry Barish, American gravitational physicist, Nobel laureate
• * Troy Donahue, American actor
• * Samuel C. C. Ting, American physicist
• January 28
• * Alan Alda, American actor, director, screenwriter, comedian and author
• * Ismail Kadare, Albanian writer