What Happened in 1936

Significant Events

  • Mar 4 1st flight of the airship Hindenburg at Friedrichshafen, Germany
  • Mar 7 Hitler breaks Treaty of Versailles by sending troops to 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 leds uprising with army in Morocco
  • Sep 21 Spanish fascist junta names Franco to Generalissimo and Supreme Commander
  • Dec 10 Edward VIII signs Instrument of Abdication, giving up the British throne to marry American divoree 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 "Swing Time", directed by George Stevens, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, is released
  • 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

  • Jan 4 Billboard magazine publishes its 1st music hit parade
  • May 2 Sergei Prokofiev's musical "Peter and the Wolf" premieres in Moscow

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 Adolf Hitler opens 11th Olympic Games in Berlin
  • Aug 5 American athlete Jesse Owens wins 200m in world record time (20.7), his 3rd gold medal of the Berlin Olympics

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


World Leaders in 1936

Famous People in 1936

Famous People Born in 1936

More Famous Birthdays

Would You Believe?

The last surviving member of the thylacine species, Benjamin, dies alone in her cage at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania.

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
  • Jun 9 Novelist and journalist George Orwell (33) weds Eileen Maud O'Shaugnessy (30) at St. Mary's Church
  • Jun 14 Singer and cowboy actor Roy Rogers (24) weds Arlene Wilkins in Roswell, New Mexico

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

Famous Deaths

More Famous Deaths

Articles on Events in 1936