Historical Events
- Mar 4 1st flight of the airship Hindenburg at Friedrichshafen, Germany
- Mar 7 Adolf Hitler breaks the Treaty of Versailles by sending troops into the Rhineland
- May 28 Alan Turing submits "On Computable Numbers" for publication, in which he set out the theoretical basis for modern computers.
- Jul 17 Spanish generals Francisco Franco and Emilio Mola lead a right-wing uprising, starting the Spanish Civil War
- Jul 18 Spanish Civil War: General Francisco Franco issues manifesto and leads an uprising in the Spanish army stationed in Morocco
- Sep 14 1st prefrontal lobotomy in America performed by Walter Freeman and James W. Watts at George Washington University Hospital in Washington D.C.
- Sep 21 Spanish fascist junta names Francisco Franco to Generalissimo and Supreme Commander
- Dec 10 Edward VIII signs Instrument of Abdication, giving up the British throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson
- Dec 11 Edward VIII announces in a radio broadcast that he is abdicating the British throne to marry Wallis Simpson
- Dec 24 1st radioactive isotope medicine administered in Berkeley, California
- More Historical Events
1936 in Film & TV
- Jan 16 Screen Actors Guild incorporates with King Vidor as president
- Feb 5 "Modern Times", silent film directed by, written by and starring Charlie Chaplin, is released
- Jul 7 RCA shows 1st real TV program (dancing, film on locomotives, Bonwit Teller fashion show and monologue from Tobacco Road & comedy)
- Sep 4 RKO Radio Pictures releases "Swing Time", directed by George Stevens, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
- Nov 2 At 3pm the BBC begins the world's first regular high-definition TV broadcast service from specially constructed studios at Alexandra Palace, North London
1936 in Music
1936 in Sport
- Jan 29 1st players elected to Baseball Hall of Fame: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson & Walter Johnson
- Feb 8 1936 NFL Draft (first ever): Jay Berwanger from University of Chicago first pick by Philadelphia Eagles
- Mar 8 The first stock car race is held in Daytona Beach, Florida.
- Aug 1 XI Summer Olympic Games are opened by Adolph Hitler in Berlin
- Aug 5 American athlete Jesse Owens wins 200m in world record time (20.7s), his 3rd gold medal of the Berlin Olympics
Did You Know?
Did You Know?The world's first superhero, The Phantom, a cartoon strip by Lee Falk, makes his first appearance in comics
On February 17, 1936
Wilt Chamberlain
Buddy Holly
Václav Havel
James Bevel
Pope Francis
Mary Tyler Moore
Luise Rainer
Paul Muni
Wallis SimpsonWorld Leaders in 1936
Adolf Hitler
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Joseph Stalin
Stanley Baldwin
Would You Believe?
The last surviving member of the marsupial thylacine species, Benjamin, dies alone in his/her cage at the Hobart Zoo (Hobart, Tasmania, Australia)
On September 7, 1936
Famous Weddings
- Jan 1 Actor Paul Henreid (27) weds Elizabeth Camilla Julia Gluck
- Jan 10 Actor Burgess Meredith (28) weds actress Margaret Perry (22)
- Feb 2 Physicist Emilio G. Segrè (31) weds jewish woman Elfriede Spiro at the Great Synagogue of Rome in Italy
Famous Divorces
- Jan 10 Actress Mary Pickford (44) divorces actor Douglas Fairbanks (52) after 15 years of marriage
- Mar 2 Film director D. W. Griffith (61) divorces Linda Arvidson (50) after 30 years of marriage
More Weddings & Divorces
Rudyard Kipling
George V
Ivan Pavlov
David Beatty
Eleftherios Venizelos
Maxim GorkyArticles and Photos
On Computable Numbers
On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem, by Alan TuringMay 28America's Last Public Hanging
The last man to be publicly hanged in the United States met his fate on this day in history. It was a squalid affair watched by about 10,000 people.August 14A Kiss For Adolf Hitler
A woman spectator leaned over and kissed Adolf Hitler at the Berlin Olympic Games on this day. Hitler pretended to be amused, but his guards were to suffer.August 15King Abdicates for Love of Wallis Simpson
On this day King Edward VIII gave up his throne so that he could marry the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson. It was the first time a British king had abdicated.December 10
