1926

Events

January

• January 3 - Theodoros Pangalos declares himself dictator in Greece.
• January 8
• *Ibn Saud is crowned ruler of the Kingdom of Hejaz.
• * Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuy ascends the throne as Bảo Đại, the last monarch of the Nguyễn dynasty of the Kingdom of Vietnam.
• January 16 - A British Broadcasting Company radio play by Ronald Knox about workers' revolution in London causes a panic among those who have not heard the preliminary announcement that it is a satire on broadcasting.
• January 21 - The Belgian Parliament accepts the Locarno Treaties.
• January 26 - Scottish inventor John Logie Baird demonstrates a mechanical television system at his London laboratory for members of the Royal Institution and a reporter from The Times.
• January 31 - British and Belgian troops leave Cologne.

  February

• February 1 - Land on Broadway and Wall Street in New York City is sold at a record $7 per sq inch; it is only affordable for four more years.
• February 12 - The Irish minister for Justice, Kevin O'Higgins, appoints the Committee on Evil Literature.
• February 20 - The Berlin International Green Week, a food and agriculture fair, debuts in Germany.
• February 25 - Francisco Franco becomes General in Spain.

  March

• March 6
• * The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon is destroyed by fire.
• * The first commercial air route from the United Kingdom to South Africa is established by Alan Cobham.
• March 14 - El Virilla train accident in Costa Rica: 248 people are killed and 93 injured when an overloaded pilgrim special derails on a bridge.
• March 16 - Robert H. Goddard launches the first liquid-fuel rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.
• March 23 - Éamon de Valera organises the political party Fianna Fáil in Ireland.

  April

• April 4 - Greek dictator Theodoros Pangalos wins the presidential election, with 93.3% of the vote; turnout is light, as the result is considered a foregone conclusion.
• April 6 - Aarón Joaquín has a vision in the Nuevo León state of Mexico, origin of La Luz del Mundo, a nontrinitarian charismatic restorationist Christian church.
• April 7 - An assassination attempt against Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini fails.
• April 17 - Zhang Zuolin's army captures Beijing.
• 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 five years.
• April 25 - Reza Khan is crowned Shah of Iran, under the name "Pahlevi".
• April 30 - A state of emergency is proclaimed in the United Kingdom under the Emergency Powers Act 1920 on account of the "threat of cessation of work in Coal Mines".

  May

• May 4 - The United Kingdom general strike begins at midnight, in support of a strike by coal miners.
• May 9
• * The French navy bombards Damascus, because of Druze riots.
• * Explorer Richard E. Byrd and co-pilot Floyd Bennett claim to be the first to fly over the North Pole in the Josephine Ford monoplane, taking off from Spitsbergen, Norway and returning 15 hours and 44 minutes later. Both men are immediately hailed as national heroes, though some experts have since been skeptical of the claim, believing that the plane was unlikely to have covered the entire distance and back in that short an amount of time. An entry in Byrd's diary, discovered in 1996, suggests that the plane actually turned back 150 miles short of the North Pole, due to an oil leak.
• May 10 - Planes piloted by Major Harold Geiger and Horace Meek Hickam, students at the United States Air Corps Tactical School, collide in mid-air at Langley Field, Virginia.
• May 12
• * Roald Amundsen and his crew fly over the North Pole, in the airship Norge.
• * The United Kingdom general strike is called off by the trade unions, although miners remain on strike.
• May 12-14 - May Coup: Józef Piłsudski takes over in Poland.
• May 18 - Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears, while visiting a Venice, California beach. She reappears nearly a month later claiming to have been kidnapped.
• May 20 - The United States Congress passes the Air Commerce Act, licensing pilots and planes.
• May 23 - The first Lebanese constitution is established.
• May 26 - The Rif War ends, when Rif rebels surrender in Morocco.
• May 28 - The 1926 coup d'état, commanded by Manuel Gomes da Costa in Portugal, installs the Ditadura Nacional, followed by António de Oliveira Salazar's Estado Novo.

  June

• June 4 - Ignacy Mościcki becomes president of Poland.
• June 7 - Liberal politician Carl Gustaf Ekman succeeds Rickard Sandler as Prime Minister of Sweden.
• June 12 - Lithuanian Radio launches its service from Kauno radiofonas.
• June 29 - Arthur Meighen briefly returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada during the King-Byng Affair.

  July

• July 1 - The Kuomintang begins the Northern Expedition, a military unification campaign in northern China.
• July 3 - A Caudron C.61 aircraft, operated by Compagnie Internationale de Navigation Aérienne, crashes in Czechoslovakia.
• July 9 - In Portugal, General Óscar Carmona takes power in a military coup.
• July 10 - A bolt of lightning strikes Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey; the resulting fire causes several million pounds of explosives to blow up in the next 2–3 days.
• July 15 - Bombay Electric Supply and Transport Company in India introduces motor buses.
• July 26 - The United States National Bar Association is incorporated.

  August

• August 1 - In Mexico, the entry into force of anticlerical measures stipulated in the Constitution of 1917 causes the Cristero War from August 3.
• August 2 - The short-lived Western Australian Secession League is founded.
• August 5 - In New York, the Warner Brothers' Vitaphone system is experienced by audiences for the first time, in the movie Don Juan, starring John Barrymore.
• August 6 - American Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel, from France to England.
• August 18 - In the United States, 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 has ended in Greece, and he is now the president.

  September

• September 1 - Lebanon under the French Mandate gets its first constitution, thereby becoming a republic, with Charles Debbas as its president.
• September 8 - The German Weimar Republic joins the League of Nations.
• September 11 - In Rome, Italy, Gino Lucetti throws a bomb at Benito Mussolini's car, but Mussolini is unhurt.
• September 14 - The Locarno Treaties of 1925 are ratified in Geneva, and come into effect.
• September 18 - Great Miami Hurricane: A strong hurricane devastates Miami, leaving over 100 dead and causing several hundred million dollars in damage.
• September 19 - Giuseppe Meazza Stadium, well known among sports venues in Italy, officially opens in Milan.
• September 20 - The North Side Gang attempts to assassinate Al Capone, at the apex of his power at this time, spraying his headquarters in Cicero, Illinois with over a thousand rounds of machine gun fire in broad daylight, as Capone is eating there. Capone escapes harm.
• September 21 - French war ace René Fonck and three others attempt to fly the Atlantic, in pursuit of the Orteig Prize. Before the newsreel cameras at Roosevelt Field New York, the modified Sikorsky S-35 crashes on take-off and bursts into flames. Fonck survives, but two of his men are killed.
• September 23 - Gene Tunney defeats Jack Dempsey to become heavyweight boxing champion of the world.
• September 25
• * The League of Nations Slavery Convention abolishes all types of slavery.
• * William Lyon Mackenzie King returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada, after winning the Canadian federal election.
• * Henry Ford announces the 8-hour, 5-day work week.

  October

• October 2 - Józef Piłsudski becomes prime minister of Poland.
• October 12 - British miners agree to end their strike.
• October 14 - A. A. Milne's children's book Winnie-the-Pooh is published in London, featuring the eponymous bear.
• October 16 - An ammunition explosion on troopship Kuang Yuang near Jiujiang, China, kills 1,200.
• October 19 - The 1926 Imperial Conference opens in London.
• October 20 - A hurricane kills 650 in Cuba.
• October 23
• * Leon Trotsky and Lev Kamenev are removed from the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
• * A decree in Italy bans women from holding public office.
• * The Fazal Mosque, the first purpose-built in London and the first Ahmadiyya mosque in Britain, is completed.
• October 31 - Magician Harry Houdini dies of gangrene and peritonitis that has developed after his appendix ruptured.

  November

• November 10 - In San Francisco, a necrophiliac serial killer named Earle Nelson kills and then rapes his 9th victim, a boarding house landlady named Mrs. William Edmonds.
• November 11 - The United States Numbered Highway System, including U.S. Route 66, is established.
• November 15
• * The NBC Radio Network opens in the United States with 24 stations.
• * The Balfour Declaration is approved by the 1926 Imperial Conference, making the Commonwealth dominions equal and independent.
• November 24
• * The village of Rocquebillier, in the French Riviera, is almost destroyed in a massive hailstorm.
• * Sri Aurobindo withdraws into seclusion following a spiritual realisation, entrusting the supervision of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram to "The Mother".
• November 25 - The death penalty is re-established in Italy.
• November 26 - All Italian Communist deputies are arrested.
• November 27 - The restoration of Colonial Williamsburg begins in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States.