1926 CE

The 1926 Miami hurricane devastates southern Florida and parts of the Caribbean, killing hundreds and causing massive destruction; the 1926 United Kingdom general strike brings the nation to a standstill as millions of workers walk out in support of coal miners; the Northern Expedition is launched by the Kuomintang to unify China under its rule, marking a turning point in the Chinese Civil War; the Cristero War erupts in Mexico as Catholic rebels take up arms against the government’s anti-clerical policies; the May Coup sees Marshal Józef Piłsudski overthrow the government in a three-day military coup; Hirohito ascends the throne as Emperor of Japan, beginning the Shōwa era; NBC is founded.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

January 3 – Theodoros Pangalos declares himself dictator in Greece.source
January 21 – The Belgian Parliament accepts the Locarno Treaties.source
February 25 – Francisco Franco becomes General in Spain.source
March 23 – Éamon de Valera organises the political party Fianna Fáil in Ireland.source
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.source
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.source
April 25 – Reza Khan is crowned Shah of Iran, under the name "Pahlevi".source
May 12–14 – May Coup: Józef Piłsudski takes over in Poland.source
May 20 – The United States Congress passes the Air Commerce Act, licensing pilots and planes.source
June 4 – Ignacy Mościcki becomes president of Poland.source
June 7 – Liberal politician Carl Gustaf Ekman succeeds Rickard Sandler as Prime Minister of Sweden.source
June 29 – Arthur Meighen briefly returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada during the King-Byng Affair.source
August 22 – In Greece, Georgios Kondylis ousts Theodoros Pangalos.source
August 25 – Pavlos Kountouriotis announces that dictatorship has ended in Greece, and he is now the president.source
September 1 – Lebanon under the French Mandate gets its first constitution, thereby becoming a republic, with Charles Debbas as its president.source
September 8 – The German Weimar Republic joins the League of Nations.source
September 14 – The Locarno Treaties of 1925 are ratified in Geneva, and come into effect.source
September 25 – William Lyon Mackenzie King returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada, after winning the Canadian federal election.source
October 2 – Józef Piłsudski becomes prime minister of Poland.source
October 23 – Leon Trotsky and Lev Kamenev are removed from the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.source
November 15 – The Balfour Declaration is approved by the 1926 Imperial Conference, making the Commonwealth dominions equal and independent.source
November 27 – The restoration of Colonial Williamsburg begins in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States.source
December 13 – Miina Sillanpää becomes Finland's first female government minister.source
Muthulakshmi Reddi becomes the first woman to be appointed to a legislature in India, the Madras Legislative Council.source

Conflict & Security

January 31 – British and Belgian troops leave Cologne.source
April 7 – An assassination attempt against Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini fails.source
April 17 – Zhang Zuolin's army captures Beijing.source
May 9 – The French navy bombards Damascus, because of Druze riots.source
May 12 – The United Kingdom general strike is called off by the trade unions, although miners remain on strike.source
May 26 – The Rif War ends, when Rif rebels surrender in Morocco.source
May 28 – The 1926 coup d'état, commanded by Manuel Gomes da Costa in Portugal, installs the Ditadura Nacional (National Dictatorship), followed by António de Oliveira Salazar's Estado Novo.source
July 9 – In Portugal, General Óscar Carmona takes power in a military coup.source
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.source
August 1 – In Mexico, the entry into force of anticlerical measures stipulated in the Constitution of 1917 causes the Cristero War from August 3.source
September 11 – In Rome, Italy, Gino Lucetti throws a bomb at Benito Mussolini's car, but Mussolini is unhurt.source
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.source
October 16 – An ammunition explosion on troopship Kuang Yuang near Jiujiang, China, kills 1,200.source
December 17 – 1926 Lithuanian coup d'état: A democratically elected government is overthrown in Lithuania; Antanas Smetona assumes power.source
December 23 – Nicaraguan President Adolfo Díaz requests U.S. military assistance in the ongoing civil war. American peacekeeping troops immediately set up neutral zones in Puerto Cabezas and at the mouth of the Rio Grande to protect American and foreign lives and property.source

Exploration & Expansion

March 6 – The first commercial air route from the United Kingdom to South Africa is established by Alan Cobham.source
May 9 – 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.source
July 1 – The Kuomintang begins the Northern Expedition, a military unification campaign in northern China.source
Stephen H. Langdon begins excavations in Jemdet Nasr, finding proto-cuneiform clay tablets (3100–2900 BCE).source

Religion & Belief

January 8 – Ibn Saud is crowned ruler of the Kingdom of Hejaz.source
February 12 – The Irish minister for Justice, Kevin O'Higgins, appoints the Committee on Evil Literature.source
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.source
October 23 – The Fazal Mosque, the first purpose-built in London and the first Ahmadiyya mosque in Britain, is completed.source

Economy & Finance

July 26 – The United States National Bar Association is incorporated.source

Technology & Infrastructure

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.source
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.source
June 12 – Lithuanian Radio launches its service from Kauno radiofonas.source
July 15 – Bombay Electric Supply and Transport Company in India introduces motor buses.source
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.source
August 6 – American Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel, from France to England.source
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.source
November 11 – The United States Numbered Highway System, including U.S. Route 66, is established.source
November 15 – The NBC Radio Network opens in the United States with 24 stations (formed by Westinghouse, General Electric and RCA).source
Phencyclidine (PCP, angel dust) is first synthesized.source
Industrial output surpasses the level of 1913 in the USSR after a period of economic downturn.source

Science & Discovery

March 16 – Robert H. Goddard launches the first liquid-fuel rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.source
May 12 – Roald Amundsen and his crew fly over the North Pole, in the airship Norge.source

Health & Medicine

October 23 – A decree in Italy bans women from holding public office.source
November 24 – Sri Aurobindo withdraws into seclusion following a spiritual realisation, entrusting the supervision of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram to "The Mother".source

Crime & Justice

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.source
May 18 – Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears, while visiting a Venice, California beach. She reappears nearly a month later claiming to have been kidnapped.source
September 23 – Gene Tunney defeats Jack Dempsey to become heavyweight boxing champion of the world.source
November 10 – In San Francisco, a necrophiliac serial killer named Earle Nelson (dubbed "Gorilla Man") kills and then rapes his 9th victim, a boarding house landlady named Mrs. William Edmonds.source
November 25 – The death penalty is re-established in Italy.source
November 26 – All Italian Communist deputies are arrested.source
December 3 – English detective story writer Agatha Christie disappears from her home in Surrey; on December 14 she is found under her husband's mistress's surname at a Harrogate hotel.source

Disasters & Accidents

March 6 – The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon (England) is destroyed by fire.source
March 14 – El Virilla train accident in Costa Rica: 385 people are killed and 93 injured when an overloaded pilgrim special derails on a bridge. The SS Ile de france Was Launched at Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyards in Saint Nazaire, France As one of the first ships to embrace the Art Deco stylesource
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".source
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.source
July 3 – A Caudron C.61 aircraft, operated by Compagnie Internationale de Navigation Aérienne, crashes in Czechoslovakia.source
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.source
October 12 – British miners agree to end their strike.source
November 24 – The village of Rocquebillier, in the French Riviera, is almost destroyed in a massive hailstorm.source
December 2 – British prime minister Stanley Baldwin ends the state of emergency that had been declared due to the miners' strike.source

Climate & Environment

September 18 – Great Miami Hurricane: A strong hurricane devastates Miami, leaving over 100 dead and causing several hundred million dollars in damage (equal to nearly $100 billion in the modern day).source
October 20 – A hurricane kills 650 in Cuba.source

Culture & Society

January 8 – Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuy ascends the throne as Bảo Đại, the last monarch of the Nguyễn dynasty of the Kingdom of Vietnam.source
February 20 – The Berlin International Green Week, a food and agriculture fair, debuts in Germany.source
May 4 – The United Kingdom general strike begins at midnight, in support of a strike by coal miners.source
June 19 – King Roger, an opera about Roger II of Sicily by Karol Szymanowski, is premiered at the Grand Theatre in Warsaw.source
September 19 – Giuseppe Meazza (San Siro) Stadium, well known among sports venues in Italy, officially opens in Milan.source
September 25 – Henry Ford announces the 8-hour, 5-day work week.source
September 25 – The League of Nations Slavery Convention abolishes all types of slavery.source
October 14 – A. A. Milne's children's book Winnie-the-Pooh is published in London, featuring the eponymous bear.source
October 19 – The 1926 Imperial Conference opens in London.source
December 7 – The Council for the Preservation of Rural England, later the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), is founded by Patrick Abercrombie to limit urban sprawl and ribbon development.source
December 26 – World première of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius's tone poem Tapiola by Walter Damrosch and the New York Philharmonic, the last substantial composition to be made public by the composer for the remaining 30 years of his life.source

Births

January 29 – Abdus Salam, Pakistani physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)source
March 6 – Alan Greenspan, American economist, Federal Reserve Chairman (d. 2026)source
March 16 – Jerry Lewis, American comedian, humanitarian and philanthropist (known for The Nutty Professor) (d. 2017)source
April 5 – Roger Corman, American filmmaker, producer, actor and businessman (d. 2024)source
April 28 – Harper Lee, American novelist (To Kill a Mockingbird) (d. 2016)source
May 8 – Sir David Attenborough, British broadcaster, naturalist, and producersource
May 30 - Christine Jorgensen, American trans woman and actress (d. 1989)source
June 18 – Avshalom Haviv, member of the Irgun underground organization in Mandatory Palestine (d. 1947)source
July 1 – Carl Hahn, German automotive executive, chairman of Volkswagen (d. 2023)source
August 15 – Sukanta Bhattacharya, Bengali poet and playwright (d. 1947)source
September 4 – Ivan Illich, Austrian philosopher and Catholic priest who founded the Centro Intercultural de Documentación in Cuernavaca, Mexico (d. 2002)source
September 9 – Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Egyptian Islamic theologian (d. 2022)source
October 11 – Thích Nhất Hạnh, Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist monk and peace activist (d. 2022)source
December 21 – Joe Paterno, American football player and coach (d. 2012)source

Deaths

January 21 – Camillo Golgi, Italian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1843)source
February 1 – Theodosius of Skopje, Bulgaria Orthodox religious leader and saint (b. 1846)source
February 21 – Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)source
February 24 – Eddie Plank, American baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1875)source
March 16 – Sergeant Stubby, World War I American hero war dog (b. 1916)source
June 10 – Antoni Gaudí, Spanish architect (b. 1852)source
July 9 – Mother Mary Alphonsa, American Roman Catholic religious sister, social worker, foundress and venerable (b. 1851)source
July 12 – Gertrude Bell, British archaeologist, writer, spy and administrator; known as the "Uncrowned Queen of Iraq" (b. 1868)source
July 26 – Robert Todd Lincoln, American statesman and businessman, son of 16th President Abraham Lincoln (b. 1843)source
August 23 – Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor (b. 1895)source
November 21 – Joseph McKenna, American politician and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (b. 1843)source
December 10 – Nikola Pašić, Serbian and Yugoslav statesman, 33rd Prime Minister of Serbia and 4th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1845)source
December 17 – Lars Magnus Ericsson, Swedish inventor and founder of Ericsson (b. 1846)source
December 26 – In the history of Japan, the Shōwa period begins from this day, due to the death of Emperor Taishō on the day before. His son Hirohito will reign as Emperor of Japan until 1989.source