1936

align="center" colspan=2 | Years:
1933 1934 1935 - 1936 - 1937 1938 1939

align="center" colspan=2 | Decades:
1900s 1910s 1920s - 1930s - 1940s 1950s 1960s

align="center" | Centuries:
19th century - 20th century - 21st century

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

Events

January-February

January 15 -- The first building to be completely covered in glass is completed in Toledo, Ohio, for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company.
January 20 - Death of George V of the United Kingdom. His son Edward VIII succeedes him as King of the United Kingdom, King of Ireland and Emperor of India.
January 24 - Albert Serraut's government begins in France
January 31 - The Green Hornet radio show debuts.
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 10-15 - Italian troops defeat Abyssinian army in Enderta
From February 14, 1936, to March 1, 1945, AG Weser launched a total of 162 U-boats.
February 19 - Manuel Aznar's government begins in Spain
February 26 - 1400 Japanese soldiers invade government offices in Tokyo. They demand arrest of general Kazushige Ugaki and that general Sadao Araki made head of the Kwantung Army and death of the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, the minister of Finance and Inspector General of Military Education
February 29 - Emperor Hirohito orders Japanese army to arrest 123 conspirators in Tokyo government offices - 19 of them are executed in July

March-April

March 1 - Hoover Dam is completed.
March 5 – First flight of Spitfire fighter plane from Eastleigh aerodrome, Southampton
March 6 - Japan's ruling junta replaces anti-war prime minister Okada Keisuke with pro-war foreign minister Hirota Koki.
March 7 - World War II: In violation of the Locarno Pact and the Treaty of Versailles, Germany reoccupies the Rhineland.
March 8 - The first stock car race is held in Daytona Beach, Florida.
April 1 - Universal conscription in Austria
April 3 - Richard Bruno Hauptmann is executed for the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh III, the baby son of Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Charles Lindbergh.
April 5 - A F5 tornado hits Tupelo, Mississippi killing 233 people.
April 6 - Another tornado hits in Gainesville, Georgia killing 203 people. This is the first time two large cities were hit by tornadoes within a day of each other. (see Tupelo-Gainesville Outbreak)
April 7 - Cortes in Spain fires president Alcala Zamora
April 20 - Abyssinians evacuate Addis Ababa

May-June

May 2 - Haile Selassie flees to Aden
May 5 - Italians occupy Addis Ababa
May 9 - Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa on May 5.
May 12 - The Santa Fe railroad in the United States inaugurates the all-Pullman Super Chief passenger train between Chicago, IL and Los Angeles, CA.
May 18 - Sada Abe, a Japanese former prostitute, causes the death of her lover Kichizo Ishida from asphyxia while having sexual intercourse. She performs penis removal on the corpse. She wanders the streets of Tokyo for three days with the severed penis placed in her kimono.
May 21 - The Japanese Police apprehends Sada Abe for manslaughter. She is sentenced to six years in prison but she gains fame from the incident. She would later become an actress.
May 27 - The first flight by the Irish airline Aer Lingus takes place.
May 28 - Alan Turing submits "On Computable Numbers" for publication.
June 3 - Haile Selassie arrives to London in exile.
June 4 - Lon Blum becomes Prime Minister of France.
June 11 - Opening of the London International Surrealist Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries.
June 15 - Army laboratory explodes in Estonia - 50 dead.

July-September

July - A major heat wave strikes the Midwestern United States, hundreds of high temperature records are set
July 4 - Last day of the London International Surrealist Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries
July 11 - Triborough Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic
July 13 - Murder of Spanish monarchist Jose Calvo Sotelo
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.
July 16 – George McMahon tries to shoot Edward VIII at the Colour ceremony. Later he tries to claim he was working for MI5
July 17 - Spanish Civil War: Francisco Franco and other generals attempt a coup d'tat, starting a conservative rebellion against the recently-elected leftist Popular Front government of Spain
July 18 - Troops of Francisco Franco land on Morocco and Barcelona - Spanish Civil War begins
July - British Police end routine armed patrols in London
August 1 - The 1936 Summer Olympics open in Berlin, Germany.
August 5 - Military coup in Greece - Ioannis Metaxas takes power
August 25 - Lev Kamenev and Grigori Zinoviev were shot by a firing squad
September 6 - The last surviving thylacine, Benjamin, dies alone in his cage in the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania.
September 14 - Landslide in northern Norway - 74 dead

October

October 1 - Franco elected Jefe del Estado (Head of State) in Spain.
October 5 - In Jarrow, England, 200 unemployed shipyard workers begin a march to London to petition the government to create more jobs. On October 31, 197 of them arrive on the Houses of Parliament
October 9 - Generators at Boulder Dam (later renamed to Hoover Dam) begins to transmit electricity from the Colorado River 266 miles to Los Angeles, California.
October 13 - The Jarrow March sets off for London.
October 13 - Regular ferry traffic begins between Dover and Calais
October 23 - Condor Legion joins the Falangists
October 28 - US President Franklin Roosevelt rededicates the Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary.
October 31 - The Boy Scouts of the Philippines was formed.

November

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 16 - Edward VIII of the United Kingdom announces his intention to marry Wallis Simpson
November 20 - In UK, new Matrimonial Causes Act permits divorce on the grounds of cruelty, drunkenness, willful desertion, incurable insanity, and being a prisoner on a death sentence
November 23 - The first edition of Life is published.
November 25 - In Berlin, Nazi-Germany and Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, thus agreeing to consult on what measures to take "to safeguard their common interests" in case of an unprovoked attack by the Soviet Union against either nation (Adolf Hitler broke the terms of the pact when he signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact in August, 1939).
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 - Edward VIII of the United Kingdom abdicates
December 11 - Abdication of King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom leads to accession of King George VI of the United Kingdom.
December 12 - George VI of the United Kingdom
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

Inge Lehmann argues that the Earth's molten interior has a solid core.
The Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Turkish Straits is signed.
YMCA Youth and Government program founded in Albany, New York
Oswald Mosley leads an Anti-Jewish march through London's East End, where it meets with opposition
Australia: The last Thylacine (or Tasmanian tiger) dies in captivity at Hobart Zoo

Year in topic

1936 in film

1936 in literature

The Allegory of Love by C. S. Lewis
Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Life magazine is first published

1936 in music

January 4 - Billboard magazine publishes its first music hit parade

1936 in rail transport

May 12 - The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway inaugurates the all-diesel powered passenger train Super Chief between Chicago, Illinois, and Los Angeles, California.
May 15 - The first City of Los Angeles passenger train makes its debut running from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California as a joint venture of the Union Pacific Railroad and Chicago and Northwestern Railway.

1936 in sports

January 29 - First inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced
February 8 - Jay Berwanger becomes the first person to be selected by a National Football League draft, by the Philadelphia Eagles.
Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany
August 9 - 1936 Summer Olympics: Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the games becoming the first American to win four medals in one Olympics.

1936 in television

July 7 - NBC's first attempt at actual programming is a 30-minute variety show featuring speeches, dance ensembles, monologues, vocal numbers, and film clips.
Approximately 2000 television sets are in use around the world