January
January 4 – England celebrates its first ever win over the All Blacks in rugby union, in particular the two famous tries by "The Prince" HH Alexander Obolensky.
January 11 – I Wanna Play House marks the first Warner Bros. cartoon with "target" titles.
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 is executed in Sing Sing Prison.
January 20 – King George V of the United Kingdom dies. His eldest son succeeds to the throne, becoming Edward VIII. The title Prince of Wales is not used for another 22 years.
January 31 – The Green Hornet radio show debuts.
February
February – John Maynard Keynes' book The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money is published in the UK.
February 4 – Radium E (bismuth-210) becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.
February 6 – The IV Olympic Winter Games open in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
February 17 The first superhero to wear a skin-tight costume and mask, The Phantom, makes his first appearance in U.S. newspapers.
February 26 – The Imperial Way Faction engineers a failed coup against the Japanese government; some politicians are killed.
February 29 – Emperor Hirohito orders the Japanese army to arrest 123 conspirators in Tokyo government offices; 19 of them are executed in July.
March
March 1: Hoover Dam is completed
March 1 – Construction of Hoover Dam is completed.
March 7 – In violation of the Treaty of Versailles, Nazi Germany reoccupies the Rhineland.
March 9 – Pro-democratic militarist Keisuke Okada steps down as Prime Minister of Japan and is replaced by radical militarist Kōki Hirota.
March 17 – March 18 – St. Patrick's Day Flood: Pittsburgh suffers the worst flooding in its history.
March 26 – The longest game in the history of the National Hockey League was played. The Montreal Maroons and Detroit Red Wings went scoreless until 16 and a half minutes into the sixth OT when Mud Bruneteau ends it at 2:25 in the morning.
April
April 3 – Richard Hauptmann, convicted of the kidnap and killing of Charles Lindbergh III in 1932, is executed by electrocution in New Jersey.
April 5 – A tornado hits Tupelo, Mississippi, killing 216 and injuring over 700 (the 4th deadliest tornado in U.S. history).
April 6 – Two tornadoes strike Gainesville, Georgia. The smaller tornado hits north Gainesville, the stronger tornado the west side of town. 203 die and 1,600 are injured in the 5th deadliest tornado in U.S. history.
April 11 – Billy Butlin opens his first Butlins holiday camp, Butlins Skegness, in Skegness (Ingoldmells), Lincolnshire, England.[1] It is officially opened by Amy Johnson of Hull (the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia).
April 19 – The 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine against the British government and opposition to Jewish immigration begins.
May
May 2 – Peter and the Wolf, a Russian fairy tale of Sergei Prokofiev's composition, debuts at the Nezlobin Theater in Moscow, Soviet Union.
May 5 – Italian forces occupy Addis Ababa.
May 7 – Italy annexes Ethiopia.
May 9 – Italian East Africa is formed from the Italian territories of Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Italian Somaliland.
May 12 – The Santa Fe railroad in the United States inaugurates the all-Pullman Super Chief passenger train between Chicago and Los Angeles.
May 25 – The Remington Rand strike of 1936–37 begins, spawning the notorious "Mohawk Valley formula", a corporate plan for strikebreaking.
May 27
The first flight by the Irish airline Aer Lingus takes place.
British luxury liner RMS Queen Mary leaves Southampton on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic
May 28 - Alan Turing submits a paper describing universal computation, to Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society.
May 30 – Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind is first published.
June
June
A major heat wave strikes North America; high temperature records are set and thousands die.
The first production model PCC trolley car, built by St. Louis Car Company, is placed in service by Pittsburgh Railways.
June 7
The general strike in France is ended by the Matignon Agreements.
The Steel Workers Organizing Committee is founded in the United States.
June 15 – An army laboratory explodes in Estonia, killing 60.
June 19 – Max Schmeling knocks out Joe Louis in the 12th round of their heavyweight boxing match at Yankee Stadium in New York City.
June 26 – Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first fully controllable helicopter, makes its maiden flight.
June 29 – United States Maritime Commission is formed.
July
July 11 – The Triborough Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic – the bridge was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Bridge in 2008.
July 13 – 14 – Peak of July 1936 heat wave: The U.S. 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 17 – The Army of Africa launches a coup d'état against the Second Spanish Republic, beginning the Spanish Civil War.
July 20 – 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.
August
August 1 – The 1936 Summer Olympics open in Berlin, Germany, and mark the first live television coverage of a sports event in world history. Note that John Logie Baird had previously broadcast the Derby horse race in Britain in 1931.
August 3 – African-American athlete Jesse Owens wins the 100-meter dash at the Berlin Olympics.
August 14
Rainey Bethea was hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky, in the last public execution in the United States
1936 Summer Olympics: The United States men's national basketball team wins the first Olympic basketball tournament in the final game over Canada, 19–8.
August 19 – The first of the Moscow Trials begins in the Soviet Union.
August 26 – Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 is signed.
August 30
Ernest Nash flees Germany for Rome.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt attends the dedication of Thomas Jefferson's head at Mount Rushmore.
September
September – Franco-Syrian Treaty of Independence (1936) is signed.
September 4–5 – English-born aviatrix 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 (Tasmanian Tiger), named Benjamin, dies in Hobart Zoo in Tasmania.
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.
October
October – Start of Joseph Stalin's Great Purge in the Soviet Union.
October 11 – Earl Bascom, rodeo cowboy and artist, designs and builds Mississippi's first permanent rodeo arena at Columbia, Mississippi.
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 – Rome-Berlin Axis is formed.
October 29 – The historic Uptown Theater (Washington, D.C.) opens.
Family during the Great Depression, Oklahoma, 1936
November
November 2
The BBC launches the world's first regular (then) high-definition television service.
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 Kansas Governor Alf Landon. Farmers support Roosevelt.
November 12 – In California, the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.
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 – The first edition of Life magazine is published.
November 25 – The Abraham Lincoln Brigade sails from New York City on its way to the Spanish Civil War.
November 26 – The Anti-Comintern Pact is signed by Germany and Japan.
November 30 – In London, the Crystal Palace is destroyed in a fire (it had been built for the 1851 Great Exhibition).
December
December 1 – Hitler mandates that all German boys aged 10 to 18 join the Hitler Youth paramilitary organization.
December 3 – Radio station WQXR is officially founded in New York City.
December 5 – 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 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 UK, 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, reigning as King George VI.
The abdicated King Edward VIII, now HRH 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.
Xi'an Incident: Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China is kidnapped by Zhang Xueliang.
December 24 – Release of the film Natalka Poltavka in Ukraine, the first filmed Russian opera.
December 29 – The United Auto Workers begins the Flint Sit-Down Strike in Flint, Michigan.
January 4 – England celebrates its first ever win over the All Blacks in rugby union, in particular the two famous tries by "The Prince" HH Alexander Obolensky.
January 11 – I Wanna Play House marks the first Warner Bros. cartoon with "target" titles.
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 is executed in Sing Sing Prison.
January 20 – King George V of the United Kingdom dies. His eldest son succeeds to the throne, becoming Edward VIII. The title Prince of Wales is not used for another 22 years.
January 31 – The Green Hornet radio show debuts.
February
February – John Maynard Keynes' book The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money is published in the UK.
February 4 – Radium E (bismuth-210) becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.
February 6 – The IV Olympic Winter Games open in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
February 17 The first superhero to wear a skin-tight costume and mask, The Phantom, makes his first appearance in U.S. newspapers.
February 26 – The Imperial Way Faction engineers a failed coup against the Japanese government; some politicians are killed.
February 29 – Emperor Hirohito orders the Japanese army to arrest 123 conspirators in Tokyo government offices; 19 of them are executed in July.
March
March 1: Hoover Dam is completed
March 1 – Construction of Hoover Dam is completed.
March 7 – In violation of the Treaty of Versailles, Nazi Germany reoccupies the Rhineland.
March 9 – Pro-democratic militarist Keisuke Okada steps down as Prime Minister of Japan and is replaced by radical militarist Kōki Hirota.
March 17 – March 18 – St. Patrick's Day Flood: Pittsburgh suffers the worst flooding in its history.
March 26 – The longest game in the history of the National Hockey League was played. The Montreal Maroons and Detroit Red Wings went scoreless until 16 and a half minutes into the sixth OT when Mud Bruneteau ends it at 2:25 in the morning.
April
April 3 – Richard Hauptmann, convicted of the kidnap and killing of Charles Lindbergh III in 1932, is executed by electrocution in New Jersey.
April 5 – A tornado hits Tupelo, Mississippi, killing 216 and injuring over 700 (the 4th deadliest tornado in U.S. history).
April 6 – Two tornadoes strike Gainesville, Georgia. The smaller tornado hits north Gainesville, the stronger tornado the west side of town. 203 die and 1,600 are injured in the 5th deadliest tornado in U.S. history.
April 11 – Billy Butlin opens his first Butlins holiday camp, Butlins Skegness, in Skegness (Ingoldmells), Lincolnshire, England.[1] It is officially opened by Amy Johnson of Hull (the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia).
April 19 – The 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine against the British government and opposition to Jewish immigration begins.
May
May 2 – Peter and the Wolf, a Russian fairy tale of Sergei Prokofiev's composition, debuts at the Nezlobin Theater in Moscow, Soviet Union.
May 5 – Italian forces occupy Addis Ababa.
May 7 – Italy annexes Ethiopia.
May 9 – Italian East Africa is formed from the Italian territories of Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Italian Somaliland.
May 12 – The Santa Fe railroad in the United States inaugurates the all-Pullman Super Chief passenger train between Chicago and Los Angeles.
May 25 – The Remington Rand strike of 1936–37 begins, spawning the notorious "Mohawk Valley formula", a corporate plan for strikebreaking.
May 27
The first flight by the Irish airline Aer Lingus takes place.
British luxury liner RMS Queen Mary leaves Southampton on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic
May 28 - Alan Turing submits a paper describing universal computation, to Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society.
May 30 – Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind is first published.
June
June
A major heat wave strikes North America; high temperature records are set and thousands die.
The first production model PCC trolley car, built by St. Louis Car Company, is placed in service by Pittsburgh Railways.
June 7
The general strike in France is ended by the Matignon Agreements.
The Steel Workers Organizing Committee is founded in the United States.
June 15 – An army laboratory explodes in Estonia, killing 60.
June 19 – Max Schmeling knocks out Joe Louis in the 12th round of their heavyweight boxing match at Yankee Stadium in New York City.
June 26 – Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first fully controllable helicopter, makes its maiden flight.
June 29 – United States Maritime Commission is formed.
July
July 11 – The Triborough Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic – the bridge was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Bridge in 2008.
July 13 – 14 – Peak of July 1936 heat wave: The U.S. 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 17 – The Army of Africa launches a coup d'état against the Second Spanish Republic, beginning the Spanish Civil War.
July 20 – 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.
August
August 1 – The 1936 Summer Olympics open in Berlin, Germany, and mark the first live television coverage of a sports event in world history. Note that John Logie Baird had previously broadcast the Derby horse race in Britain in 1931.
August 3 – African-American athlete Jesse Owens wins the 100-meter dash at the Berlin Olympics.
August 14
Rainey Bethea was hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky, in the last public execution in the United States
1936 Summer Olympics: The United States men's national basketball team wins the first Olympic basketball tournament in the final game over Canada, 19–8.
August 19 – The first of the Moscow Trials begins in the Soviet Union.
August 26 – Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 is signed.
August 30
Ernest Nash flees Germany for Rome.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt attends the dedication of Thomas Jefferson's head at Mount Rushmore.
September
September – Franco-Syrian Treaty of Independence (1936) is signed.
September 4–5 – English-born aviatrix 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 (Tasmanian Tiger), named Benjamin, dies in Hobart Zoo in Tasmania.
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.
October
October – Start of Joseph Stalin's Great Purge in the Soviet Union.
October 11 – Earl Bascom, rodeo cowboy and artist, designs and builds Mississippi's first permanent rodeo arena at Columbia, Mississippi.
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 – Rome-Berlin Axis is formed.
October 29 – The historic Uptown Theater (Washington, D.C.) opens.
Family during the Great Depression, Oklahoma, 1936
November
November 2
The BBC launches the world's first regular (then) high-definition television service.
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 Kansas Governor Alf Landon. Farmers support Roosevelt.
November 12 – In California, the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.
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 – The first edition of Life magazine is published.
November 25 – The Abraham Lincoln Brigade sails from New York City on its way to the Spanish Civil War.
November 26 – The Anti-Comintern Pact is signed by Germany and Japan.
November 30 – In London, the Crystal Palace is destroyed in a fire (it had been built for the 1851 Great Exhibition).
December
December 1 – Hitler mandates that all German boys aged 10 to 18 join the Hitler Youth paramilitary organization.
December 3 – Radio station WQXR is officially founded in New York City.
December 5 – 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 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 UK, 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, reigning as King George VI.
The abdicated King Edward VIII, now HRH 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.
Xi'an Incident: Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China is kidnapped by Zhang Xueliang.
December 24 – Release of the film Natalka Poltavka in Ukraine, the first filmed Russian opera.
December 29 – The United Auto Workers begins the Flint Sit-Down Strike in Flint, Michigan.