Harry Houdini, the escape artist born in Budapest, died in Detroit on 31 October 1926, two months after the silent-film star Rudolph Valentino died at 31 and set off mass mourning. The arts lost others too: Claude Monet, whose painting Impression, Sunrise gave Impressionism its name, died at Giverny, and Antoni Gaudí died in Barcelona with his Sagrada Família still unfinished. In China, Chiang Kai-shek set out on the Northern Expedition to reunify the country under the Kuomintang. In Mexico, Catholics rose against the government in what became the Cristero War; in the United Kingdom some 1.7 million people stopped work in a general strike; and in Poland Marshal Piłsudski seized power in a coup. A hurricane devastated Miami and helped end Florida's land boom, Bessie Coleman, the earliest African-American woman to hold a pilot's licence, died in a crash, and a teddy bear called Winnie-the-Pooh arrived in print.
This page lists all 499 events in our records for 1926: 336 dated to the day, 111 from outside Europe and North America. The biggest come first, then every event month by month, grouped by region.
How sure we are: events with no label are high confidence. A grey label such as Exact day uncertain says why one detail is less certain; a yellow label such as Sources differ on the date marks a low-confidence event where the sources disagree or are thin. The notes say where. Dates are in the Gregorian calendar; where a country still used another calendar, the notes give the original. How events are checked
The biggest stories of 1926
Ranked by how widely known each event is today, one card per happening, at least a third from outside Europe and North America.
War & conflictWidely known
Kuomintang launches the Northern Expedition against China's warlords
· China · Asia
The Kuomintang's National Revolutionary Army, led by Chiang Kai-shek, set out against the Beiyang government and regional warlords to reunify a China left fragmented after the 1911 Revolution. The campaign ended in 1928 with the country under Kuomintang control.
Why it is interesting. Months before the launch Chiang purged hardline communists from Guangzhou without bloodshed, and within a year his movement had split into Nanjing and Wuhan factions.
Notes and dating details
Infobox gives the whole campaign as 9 July 1926 to 29 December 1928; Wikidata gives the start as 1926 (year only). Day taken from the infobox.
Catholic uprising known as the Cristero War begins in Mexico
· Mexico · North America
Catholics in central and western Mexico rose up against anticlerical articles of the 1917 Constitution after President Calles ordered strict enforcement of Article 130 through the Calles Law. The war ended in 1929, once the government made concessions and the Church withdrew its backing.
Why it is interesting. The American ambassador, Dwight Morrow, brokered talks between the Mexican government and the Church before the conflict ended.
Notes and dating details
Infobox and lead give 3 August 1926 to 21 June 1929; Wikidata start property also 1926-08-03.
The Trades Union Congress called the strike to back coal miners locked out over wage cuts, and some 1.7 million people stopped work, mostly in transport and heavy industry. The well-prepared government used volunteers to keep services going, and the union leadership gave up in defeat.
Why it is interesting. Many of the strikers were not miners at all but walked out in sympathy, while middle- and upper-class volunteers kept essential services running.
Notes and dating details
Lead and infobox give 4 to 12 May 1926; Wikidata gives the end as 13 May. The body says the strike was scheduled to begin one minute to midnight on Monday, 3 May.
Claude Monet, the French painter who founded the Impressionist movement, died at Giverny, where he had settled in 1883 and made a garden with a water-lily pond. He spent his last 20 years painting those water lilies.
Why it is interesting. Impressionism took its name from his painting Impression, Sunrise, shown in 1874.
Albania introduces the lek as its first modern currency
· Albania · Europe
Albania launched the lek in February 1926, with the National Bank of Albania issuing the first banknotes, priced in gold francs. Until 1939 the currency followed the gold standard in principle, so notes could be exchanged for gold.
Why it is interesting. For thirteen years the lek was tied to gold in principle, so a banknote could in theory be swapped for gold.
Antoni Gaudí, the Catalan architect and leading exponent of Catalan Modernisme, died in Barcelona. He is buried in the Sagrada Família, his best-known work, which is still unfinished.
Why it is interesting. Days before he died, he took his usual walk to the Sant Felip Neri church to pray and confess.
· Detroit, Michigan, United States · North America
Harry Houdini, born Erik Weisz in Budapest in 1874, died in Detroit. An American illusionist, escapologist and stuntman, he led the Society of American Magicians from 1917 until his death and campaigned against fake spiritualists.
Why it is interesting. In 1904 thousands watched him struggle for an hour to escape handcuffs made for London's Daily Mirror.
Rudolph Valentino, an Italian-born actor and dancer nicknamed the Latin Lover, died aged 31 of peritonitis after surgery for appendicitis and gastric ulcers. His 1921 hit Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse had made him a star of American silent films.
Why it is interesting. His sudden death at 31 set off mass public mourning.
Marshal Józef Piłsudski's supporters attacked government troops and brought down President Wojciechowski and Prime Minister Witos, in fighting that left hundreds dead. Piłsudski then set up the Sanation government, which lasted until 1939.
Why it is interesting. Piłsudski dominated Polish politics from the coup until his death in 1935.
Afghanistan, freed of foreign political control after the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, became an independent monarchy, the Kingdom of Afghanistan, in 1926. The monarchy lasted almost half a century, until 1973.
Why it is interesting. The kingdom ended when King Zahir Shah was toppled by his own cousin, Mohammad Daoud Khan.
Notes and dating details
The infobox entry for the Kingdom of Afghanistan gives 9 June 1926; the lead says only 1926. Wikidata gives 1926 and also lists 19 June 1747, which belongs to the Durrani Empire, a different happening.
Emperor Taishō died of a heart attack in the early morning at the Hayama Imperial Villa, after it had been announced earlier in December that he had pneumonia. His son Hirohito succeeded him; his reign saw a shift toward liberal democracy known as Taishō Democracy.
Why it is interesting. Poor health kept him from official duties from 1919, and his son Hirohito became regent in 1921, years before the emperor died.
Kruger National Park becomes South Africa's first national park
· Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces, South Africa
Some details uncertain.
Parliament passed the National Parks Act, combining the Sabi and Singwitsi game reserves with farmland to create Kruger National Park in northeastern South Africa. The government of the South African Republic had first protected parts of the area in 1898.
Why it is interesting. The Sabi Game Reserve at its core was created in 1898 to curb hunting and protect the declining animals.
Notes and dating details
Infobox gives 31 May 1926 as the establishment date; the history section says the National Parks Bill was introduced in May 1926 and passed on 11 June 1926. Stored at year level because the two dates differ.
Stella Artois is launched in Leuven as a Christmas beer
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Brouwerij Artois in Leuven launched Stella Artois as a Christmas beer named after the Christmas star; the first brew had been made in October 1925, codenamed X. It is a pilsner, now owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Notes
The lead and infobox say the beer was first brewed in 1926; the body says brewed in October 1925 and launched the following January, so January 1926 is stored for the launch.
Composer and publisher Lawrence Wright started Melody Maker in London as an in-house publication for his music publishing firm. It began as a monthly, became a weekly newspaper in 1933, and was merged into the New Musical Express in January 2001.
Notes
The magazine was published monthly in its early years; the English article dates the change to a 16-page weekly newspaper to 1933, after Odhams Press took it over in 1928.
Amsterdam agrees terms for the Olympic Stadium and starts raising the site
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
The city, the Olympic committee and the Sportpark company agreed terms for a new stadium, under which the old Harry Elte stadium would be torn down after the 1928 Games. From January the building area was raised with sand.
Notes
The article dates the opening to 1928 and the groundbreaking to 1927. The 1926 happening is the January agreement and start of ground-raising works.
Vera Douie is appointed first librarian of what became the Women's Library
Art & literature
Douie took up the post on 1 January 1926 and organised the collection that became the Women's Library. Its core came from a library set up by Ruth Cavendish-Bentinck in 1909, and since 2013 the London School of Economics has held it.
Notes
The infobox gives 1926 as the year the library was established; the lead dates its coherent collection to the mid-1920s.
George Henry Martin worked as a producer, arranger, composer, conductor and musician. Before the Beatles he produced comedy records with Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan at EMI's Parlophone label. He won six Grammy Awards and was knighted in 1996.
England, France, Ireland, Scotland and Wales took part in the 1926 Five Nations, which ran from 3 January to 2 April with ten matches in all. It was the twelfth Five Nations series since France was admitted to the Home Nations Championship.
Queen Mother Margherita of Savoy dies at Bordighera
Lives
Margherita of Savoy, mother of King Victor Emmanuel III, died at Bordighera in a villa she owned on the Italian Riviera, after a long bout of pleurisy. Her body travelled to Rome on 10 January and she was buried in the Pantheon the next day.
Deutsche Luft Hansa is formed in Berlin from two airlines
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Deutscher Aero Lloyd and Junkers Luftverkehr merged in Berlin to form Deutsche Luft Hansa, Germany's national airline, which took on a symbol that Lufthansa still uses in a later form. The company was liquidated in 1951 because of its links to the Nazi regime.
Notes
The infobox entry for 1926 is run together with the 1953 date; the 6 January 1926 reading is taken from it. Wikidata also gives 1953-01-06, the founding of the postwar company Luftag, a different happening.
Eino Leino, a Finnish poet and journalist regarded as a pioneer of Finnish poetry and a national poet, died in Tuusula. His poems mix modern touches with Finnish folk elements, and much of his work echoes the Kalevala.
Camillo Golgi, an Italian biologist and pathologist who studied medicine at the University of Pavia, died in Pavia. He shared the 1906 Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology with Santiago Ramón y Cajal for work on the nervous system, and the Golgi apparatus bears his name.
Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier, Archbishop of Mechelen since 1906, died in Brussels after surgery in early January for a stomach lesion. He resisted the German occupation of Belgium in the First World War, above all through the pastoral letter Patriotism and Endurance.
· Packard, Whitley County, Kentucky, United States · North America
Patricia Neal is born in Packard, Kentucky
Lives
Patricia Neal, born Patsy Louise Neal, worked as an American actress on stage and screen. In 1951 she appeared as Helen Benson, a World War II widow, in The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Notes
The birthplace, Packard in Whitley County, comes from the infobox.
Kuomintang holds its 2nd National Congress in Guangzhou
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The Kuomintang held its second national congress in Guangzhou, Guangdong, in January 1926, closing on 19 January.
Notes
The English lead says the congress ran from 1 to 19 January; the Chinese article's lead and Wikidata say 4 to 19 January (a later paragraph in the Chinese article says 1 to 19), so only the month is stored.
Mitsui Bussan sets up Toyo Rayon, now Toray Industries
Economy & trade
Mitsui Bussan, one of Japan's two biggest trading firms of the era, set up Toyo Rayon, whose first business areas were fibers and textiles, plus plastics and chemicals. It kept that name until 1970.
Notes
English Wikipedia gives only January 1926; Japanese Wikipedia's history list and the French infobox give 12 January 1926, as does Wikidata.
Total solar eclipse crosses Africa and Southeast Asia
Science
Totality crossed central Africa, Kenya, Seychelles, the Dutch East Indies, Borneo and the Philippines, with a magnitude of 1.043. A team from Swarthmore went to Palembang to observe the eclipse.
Notes
The body text quotes a remark that the Einstein experiment would have failed if a certain condition held; the Einstein test is the purpose implied for the Swarthmore expedition.
Katō Takaaki, Japan's prime minister from 1924 until his death, died of pneumonia in Tokyo. As foreign minister he negotiated the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, and he presented China with the Twenty-One Demands.
· Jhang, Punjab, British India (now Pakistan) · Asia
Abdus Salam is born in Jhang, British India
Lives
Abdus Salam became a Pakistani theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate. From 1960 to 1974 he advised Pakistan's science ministry and shaped the country's science infrastructure.
Scholars and merchants, with Hasyim Asyari named as founder, formed Nahdlatul Ulama to defend traditionalist Islamic practice and their own economic interests. It was a counterweight to the modernist Muhammadiyah and the Salafi-leaning Al-Irshad.
Notes
The Islamic date in the infobox matches the Gregorian date given.
· Mecca, Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd (now Saudi Arabia) · Middle East
Ibn Saud is proclaimed king of the Hejaz
Politics & diplomacy
Ibn Saud was named king of the Hejaz and joined his territories together as the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd, after the Kingdom of Hejaz had surrendered to his forces in December 1925. In 1927 he made Nejd a kingdom too.
Notes
Same happening as the Kingdom of Hejaz row. This article and French Wikipedia give 19 December 1925 for the surrender or conquest, while the Kingdom of Hejaz article gives 23 December 1925, so only the month is stated. This article places the crowning in the Great Mosque of Mecca.
Apostolic Prefecture of Navrongo is established in Ghana
Religion & philosophy
The prefecture was created on 11 January 1926 from land that had belonged to the Ouagadougou vicariate in Burkina Faso. It became an apostolic vicariate in 1934 and the Diocese of Tamale in 1950; today it is the Archdiocese of Tamale.
1926 Australasian Championships tennis tournament is held in Adelaide
Sport
The 19th Australasian Championships ran from 24 to 30 January on outdoor grass courts at Memorial Drive in Adelaide, opening the Grand Slam year. Australians Jack Hawkes and Daphne Akhurst won the singles titles.
National Socialist German Students' League is formed as a Nazi Party division
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The student organization began as a Nazi Party division meant to bring university life under the Nazi worldview. The Allied Control Council banned it on 10 October 1945 as a criminal organization.
Notes
The month comes only from the infobox; the lead gives only 1926. The infobox calls it a Students' Union.
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was born in Koblenz, Germany. He served as Minister of Finance under Jacques Chaban-Delmas and Pierre Messmer, then as French president from 1974 to 1981.
1926 World Figure Skating Championships are held in Stockholm and Berlin
Sport
The championships were split between two cities: the ladies' events in Stockholm on 7 and 8 February, and the men's and pairs' events in Berlin on 13 and 14 February. Willy Böckl and Herma Szabo won the men's and ladies' titles.
Liechtenstein voters reject a state fire insurance scheme
Politics & diplomacy
A referendum held on 7 February 1926 put to voters a proposal for a state scheme insuring against fire damage. They turned it down, with 66% voting no.
William Bateson, an English biologist, coined the word genetics for the study of heredity. He publicised Gregor Mendel's work after its rediscovery in 1900 and published Materials for the Study of Variation in 1894.
Notes
The infobox lists his children as Gregory Bateson and two older sons.
Francis Ysidro Edgeworth, an economist and philosopher of Anglo-Irish background, contributed significantly to statistical methods in the 1880s and was founding editor of The Economic Journal from 1891. His limit theorem says uncertainty shrinks as an economy's agents grow in number.
Hitler convenes the Bamberg Conference of Nazi Party leaders
Politics & diplomacy
Hitler convened about sixty Nazi Party leaders in Bamberg to curb dissent between the party's northern and southern wings. He aimed to establish himself as the party's sole and final authority and to fix the Twenty-Five Point Programme as its unchangeable platform.
Albania introduces the lek as its first modern currency
Economy & trade
Albania launched the lek in February 1926, with the National Bank of Albania issuing the first banknotes, priced in gold francs. Until 1939 the currency followed the gold standard in principle, so notes could be exchanged for gold.
Schlesinger worked in film, television and theatre, and as an actor. In the early 1960s he rose as a leading figure of the British New Wave with A Kind of Loving and Billy Liar, and later took the Oscar for directing Midnight Cowboy.
The large multi-purpose arena first opened its doors on 20 February 1926, in time for that year's motor show. Prime Minister Thorvald Stauning had laid the foundation stone on 25 September 1925, and today it hosts concerts, markets and exhibitions.
The first Green Week agricultural fair opens in Berlin
Economy & trade
Held from 20 to 28 February 1926, it was not yet international. A Berlin Tourism Office employee suggested adding an agricultural show to the winter gathering that the German Agricultural Society traditionally held. Today it is an international trade fair for agriculture, horticulture and food.
Notes
Wikidata gives only the start date 20 February 1926; the article gives 20 to 28 February.
Dutch experimental physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, the first person to liquefy helium, died in Leiden. That work won him the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physics, and in 1911 he found that the electrical resistance of solid mercury vanishes, an effect called superconductivity.
Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin's daughter, is born in Moscow
Lives
Svetlana, later known as Lana Peters, was the only daughter born to Joseph Stalin by Nadezhda Alliluyeva, his second wife. She defected to the United States in 1967, became an American citizen in 1978, and was the last of Stalin's children to survive.
Leslie Nielsen became a Canadian-American actor and comedian, making his acting debut in 1950 and his film debut in 1956. In 2001 he was appointed to the Order of Canada at officer rank.
A group of young people founded Club Deportivo Águila in San Miguel. It counts among the most successful sides in Salvadoran football.
Notes
The founding date 15 February 1926 is confirmed by French and Spanish Wikipedia. The title count is left out because English Wikipedia gives seventeen league titles while the French text lists sixteen championship years.
Greta Garbo's first American film, Torrent, is released
Stage, music & film
Monta Bell directed this silent romantic drama, though his name did not appear in the credits. The story, which comes from a novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, is set in a small town, and the title refers to a flood there.
William Faulkner's first novel, Soldiers' Pay, is published
Art & literature
Boni & Liveright brought the book out on 25 February 1926. It was the first novel Faulkner published, though it is unclear whether it was the first he wrote. He was working on two other manuscripts while he finished it.
Hubel, whose parents were American, became an American Canadian neurophysiologist who studied how the visual cortex is built and works. In 1981 he and Torsten Wiesel won the Nobel award in Physiology or Medicine, a prize Roger W. Sperry also shared.
Notes
The lead gives the full date; the early-life section states only the year 1926.
First All-Union Turkological Congress opens in Baku
ScienceSome details uncertain
The congress opened at the Ismailiyya Palace in Baku and brought 131 scholars and politicians together to discuss the history, language, alphabet and culture of the Turkic peoples. Its main outcome was a move by Turkic peoples to the Latin script.
Notes
The lead gives the end as 6 March 1926, but the infobox gives 5 March, so the end date is left out.
Andrzej Wajda became a Polish film and theatre director and a leading figure of the Polish Film School. He received an Honorary Oscar and the Palme d'Or.
Panetolikos, regarded as one of Greece's historical clubs, was founded in Agrinio with statutes aimed at promoting gymnastics and racing and supporting the education of minors. Its colours are yellow and blue.
French ocean liner Île de France is launched at Saint-Nazaire
Technology
The liner, built for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, known as the French Line, was launched with her keel having been laid in 1925. Her maiden voyage began on 22 June 1927.
Notes
The date stored is the ship's launch; she entered service in 1927.
Aleksei Brusilov, a Russian and later Soviet general, was known above all for the 1916 offensive that bears his name, for which he worked out new offensive tactics. Though a nobleman, he sided with the Bolsheviks in the Civil War and helped organise the early Red Army.
· Reading, Berkshire, England, United Kingdom · Europe
Royal charter makes Reading a university
Science
King George V granted the royal charter creating the University of Reading, formerly University College, Reading, and giving it the right to award its own degrees. A second petition in 1925 had succeeded after an earlier attempt failed.
The modern Academy of Athens was first established, and its main building was handed over to the new academy on 24 March. Greece's national academy and top research body, it is named after Plato's ancient Academy.
· Amalienborg Palace, Copenhagen, Denmark · Europe
Louise of Sweden, Queen of Denmark, dies at Amalienborg
Lives
Louise of Sweden, Queen of Denmark from 1906 to 1912 as the wife of Frederick VIII, died at Amalienborg Palace and was buried in Roskilde Cathedral on 28 March. She was known for her many charity projects.
Soviet government announces the first volume of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
The Soviet government announced the release of the first volume of what became one of the biggest encyclopedias in Russian, published between 1926 and 1990. Its first edition came out in stages between 1926 and 1947.
Notes
The date is when the Soviet government announced the release of the initial volume; infobox gives the printed version as 1926-1981.
Dario Fo became a playwright, actor and director and won the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature. His plays were translated into 30 languages and staged around the world.
The British aviation firm was set up on 24 March 1926 to develop the autogyro, advancing designs by the Spanish engineer and pilot Juan de la Cierva. The money came from the Scottish industrialist and aviator James George Weir.
Notes
The exact day comes from the infobox only, and the lead gives 1926, so confidence is medium.
Constantin Fehrenbach, a leader of Germany's Catholic Centre Party, was Reichstag president in 1918 and Chancellor of Germany from June 1920, dealing chiefly with compliance with the Treaty of Versailles. From 1923 until his death he headed the party's Reichstag group.
Stadium Ovetense and Real Club Deportivo Oviedo merged to form Real Oviedo, whose home ground is the Estadio Carlos Tartiere, the largest sports stadium in Asturias. Fred Pentland coached the new side in its first season.
Kálmán's operetta Die Zirkusprinzessin premieres in Vienna
Stage, music & film
Kálmán wrote the music for this three-act operetta, with German text by Julius Brammer and Alfred Grünwald, and it had its first night at the Theater an der Wien. It went on to 344 performances at the Vienna theatre.
Notes
The Wikidata label calls it an opera, but the lead describes an operetta.
John Fowles became an English novelist placed critically between modernism and postmodernism, influenced by writers including Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. In 1969 came The French Lieutenant's Woman, a romance set in the Victorian period but written with a postmodern twist.
Harry Langdon's silent comedy Tramp, Tramp, Tramp is released
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Harry Edwards directed this silent comedy starring Harry Langdon and Joan Crawford, in which Langdon plays a ne'er-do-well who falls for a girl pictured on a billboard.
Notes
The English infobox gives 21 March 1926, but Silent Era marks the release as 17 or 21 March with a question mark, so only the month is stored.
Alan Greenspan was the 13th chair of the Federal Reserve, serving from 1987 to 2006. President Reagan first nominated him in August 1987, and he was reappointed every four years until January 2006.
Technicolor silent film The Black Pirate premieres in New York
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Albert Parker directed this silent colour adventure starring Douglas Fairbanks, Billie Dove and Donald Crisp. Fairbanks delayed production until 1925, when Technicolor's filming and printing had improved.
Notes
The English infobox gives 8 March 1926; Silent Era says the film premiered that day at the Selwyn Theatre in New York and went into general release on 12 September 1926, so the stored date is the premiere.
First issue of Amazing Stories, a magazine devoted to science fiction, appears
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing launched Amazing Stories, the first magazine devoted purely to science fiction. Gernsback stopped publishing The Experimenter to make room for it in his schedule.
Notes
Body: first issue appeared 10 March 1926 with cover date April; lead and Wikidata say April 1926.
· Virilla River Canyon, Costa Rica · North America
El Virilla train accident kills hundreds in Costa Rica
DisastersSome details uncertain
A train packed mostly with farmers and laborers on a special pilgrimage service to visit the figurine of La Negrita derailed on the bridge over the Virilla River Canyon, killing hundreds and injuring 93. A poorly fastened rail and the train's excessive weight caused the last carriage to derail.
Notes
English Wikipedia gives 385 dead and German Wikipedia 248 dead; both give 93 injured. The infobox lists an overloaded train and excessive speed as the cause, while the lead blames a poorly fastened rail and the train's weight.
· Newark, New Jersey, United States · North America
Jerry Lewis is born in Newark, New Jersey
LivesSome details uncertain
Jerry Lewis rose to prominence in 1946 as half of the duo Martin and Lewis with Dean Martin. The pair split in 1956, and Lewis then moved into filmmaking. His first name at birth is reported as Joseph in his own memoir but as Jerome in official records.
Notes
The body of the article says his first name is given as Joseph in his 1982 autobiography but as Jerome on his birth certificate and in census records. The date and city are not disputed.
Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy is published
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
Simon & Schuster published the book, in which Durant profiles major Western philosophers from Socrates and Plato through to Friedrich Nietzsche. Demand for the earlier Little Blue Books pamphlets led to their being gathered into one hardcover.
Notes
The day comes only from the infobox; the lead says only 1926.
Washington Luís wins Brazil's presidential election
Politics & diplomacy
The Paulista Republican Party's Washington Luís took 98% of the vote on 1 March 1926 and succeeded the outgoing president, Artur Bernardes of the Mineiro Republican Party.
A massacre took place during an anti-warlord, anti-imperialist demonstration in Beijing, following the Anti-Fengtian War of November 1925. In April 1926 the Guominjun ousted the Duan government.
Chiang Kai-shek purges Communists in Guangzhou in the Canton Coup
Politics & diplomacy
Chiang Kai-shek purged Chinese Communist Party members from the National Revolutionary Army in Guangzhou, declaring martial law and cutting the city's telephone network. The move cemented his power just before the Northern Expedition.
Notes
English Wikipedia covers this event in its article 'Canton Coup'; it is also known as the Zhongshan Warship Incident.
Apostolic Prefecture of Meru is established in Kenya
Religion & philosophy
The prefecture was separated from the Apostolic Vicariate of Kenya on 10 March 1926. It was raised to the rank of diocese on 7 May 1953 and today lies in the ecclesiastical province of Nyeri.
Notes
Wikidata gives only the year; the history list in the English article gives 10 March 1926, and Italian Wikipedia independently gives the same day, with 7 May 1953 for the raising to a diocese.
· Bondo, Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) · Africa
Apostolic Prefecture of Bondo is established in Congo
Religion & philosophy
It was carved out of the Apostolic Vicariate of Western Uélé on 10 March 1926, became an apostolic vicariate on 2 December 1937 and was promoted to a diocese on 10 November 1959. Today it belongs to the ecclesiastical province of Kisangani.
Notes
Wikidata gives only the year; the history list in the English article gives 10 March 1926, and Italian Wikipedia independently gives the same day for the prefecture, 2 December 1937 for the vicariate and 10 November 1959 for the diocese.
The football club of Lorient, in Brittany, came into being on 2 April 1926. It was mostly an amateur club until its first Ligue 1 season in 1998-99, and in 2002 it beat Bastia in the Coupe de France final.
Agip, the Italian state petroleum company, is created
Economy & trade
A royal decree set up Agip, the Azienda generale italiana petroli, as a joint-stock company to handle all of Italy's petroleum activities, with the Ministry of the Treasury holding most of the share capital. It became part of Eni in 1953.
Notes
Agip was set up by royal decree on 3 April 1926. The Ministry of the Treasury held 60 percent of the share capital, and the English article says it became a subsidiary of Eni in 1953.
In the 27th Paris-Roubaix, one of France's classic single-day races, Belgium's Julien Delbecque won the ride from Paris to a velodrome in Roubaix. Gustaaf Van Slembrouck and Gaston Rebry, also Belgian, took second and third.
Greece's dictator Pangalos wins a presidential election
Politics & diplomacy
Voting ran from 4 to 11 April 1926 under the dictator Theodoros Pangalos, who had seized power in a coup the year before. His only rival, Konstantinos Demertzis, withdrew before election day but stayed on the ballot, and Pangalos received 93% of the vote.
Notes
The English infobox, lead and Wikidata give 4 to 11 April 1926. Pangalos was removed from office on 22 August 1926 after a counter-coup.
Pope Pius XI raises Kaunas to a metropolitan archdiocese
Religion & philosophy
Kaunas, previously a suffragan see subordinate to the Archdiocese of Mohilev, became the head of a new Lithuanian church province, with Vilkaviškis and Telšiai as its first suffragan sees. An earlier diocese existed from 1417 as the Diocese of Žemaičiai.
Notes
The infobox also gives 4 April 1926 for the archdiocese.
The diocese was established out of the Diocese of Sejny, which was split in two along the new border drawn after World War I. The other part became the Diocese of Łomża in Poland.
Notes
The article names Pope Pius XII for the split, but the article on the Archdiocese of Kaunas names Pius XI for the changes of 4 April 1926, so no pope is named here.
Ordained as an evangelical Protestant minister in 1946, Paisley helped found the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster in 1951 and led it until 2008. He headed the Democratic Unionist Party from 1971 to 2008 and served as Northern Ireland's First Minister in 2007-2008.
The hall, completed that year to Ivar Tengbom's winning competition design, is the base of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. A bequest from Rosa Nachmanson paid for part of the construction.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox; the lead says only 1926.
Bryne FK was founded under the name Bryne Fotball-lag and joined the Norwegian Football Federation in 1929. It has played its home games at Bryne Stadion since 1945.
The station opened as part of Line 7's extension from Palais Royal to Pont Marie. It sits in the heart of old Paris and takes its name from the nearby Pont Neuf.
PAOK is founded in Thessaloniki by refugees from Constantinople
Sport
Greek refugees from Constantinople, who had left after the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922, set up PAOK in Thessaloniki. The club's name and its Byzantine double-headed eagle emblem honour the people and places of Constantinople.
· 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair, London, United Kingdom · Europe
Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II, is born in London
Lives
Princess Elizabeth of York was born at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, to the Duke and Duchess of York as their first child while her grandfather George V was on the throne. Her father became king in 1936, making her heir presumptive.
Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Treaty of Berlin
Politics & diplomacy
Germany and the Soviet Union signed a neutrality and non-aggression pact, each pledging to stay neutral for five years if the other were attacked by a third party. It reaffirmed the 1922 Treaty of Rapallo and took effect when ratifications were swapped on 29 June.
· Wembley Stadium, London, United Kingdom · Europe
Bolton Wanderers win the 1926 FA Cup final
Sport
David Jack scored the only goal as Bolton Wanderers beat Manchester City 1-0 in the 55th FA Cup final, Wembley's fourth. Manchester City were next to bottom of the First Division, so Bolton were the favourites.
Notes
Score taken from the infobox as well as the lead's single-goal win.
Arturo Toscanini conducted the premiere of Turandot, a three-act opera set in China in which any suitor of Princess Turandot must solve three riddles or be executed. Puccini had died in 1924 with it unfinished, and Franco Alfano completed the music.
Ellen Key, a Swedish feminist writer on family life, ethics and education, died at Ellen Keys Strand. An early supporter of child-centred education and parenting, and a suffragist, she played an important part in the Modern Breakthrough movement.
Notes
Infobox, lead and body give 25 April 1926; Wikidata also lists 26 April.
H. P. Lovecraft's story The Outsider is first published in Weird Tales
Art & literature
Weird Tales first published the story, in which a mysterious person who has lived alone in a castle sets out to find human contact and light. It mixes horror, fantasy and gothic fiction, with an epigraph from a Keats poem.
· Mitchell, Indiana, United States · North America
Gus Grissom is born in Mitchell, Indiana
Lives
Virgil Ivan Grissom, son of a railroad signalman, became one of the first seven astronauts NASA chose, the Mercury Seven, and later flew in the Gemini and Apollo programs. He died on 27 January 1967 with Ed White and Roger B. Chaffee in a pre-launch test for Apollo 1.
· Detroit, Michigan, United States · North America
Roger Corman is born in Detroit
Lives
Corman became an American film director and producer and a trailblazer of independent film, behind hundreds of features, many of them low-budget works that later gained cult followings. He handled American distribution of films by Fellini, Bergman, Truffaut and Kurosawa and gave early careers to Coppola, Scorsese, Howard and Cameron.
Notes
The English lead gives a total of more than 500 features directed or produced, but French Wikipedia counts about fifty as director and 400 as producer, so the total is given as hundreds.
· Chicago, Illinois, United States · North America
Hugh Hefner is born in Chicago
Lives
Hugh Marston Hefner, the first child of an accountant, Glenn Hefner, and a teacher, Grace Hefner, founded Playboy magazine and served as its editor-in-chief.
· Santa Rosa, California, United States · North America
Luther Burbank dies in Santa Rosa
Lives
Luther Burbank, an American botanist and horticulturist, developed over 800 plant strains in a 55-year career, working mainly with fruits, flowers, grains, grasses and vegetables. His varieties include the Shasta daisy, the plumcot and the Santa Rosa plum.
Robertson Aircraft Corporation begins mail flights, forerunner of American Airlines
Economy & trade
Of the companies that preceded American Airlines, Robertson Aircraft Corporation was the first to start operations, when it began flying mail. American Airlines itself was formed in 1930 as a union of airlines.
Notes
Wikidata gives 15 April 1926 and also lists 25 June 1936 (when American Airlines began operating under that name, per the infobox); the infobox gives its founding as 25 January 1930. The date stored is that of the predecessor's first mail flights.
· Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States · North America
Sesquicentennial Stadium opens in Philadelphia
Architecture
The open-air stadium was built for the 1926 Sesquicentennial International Exposition. It was later renamed Philadelphia Municipal Stadium and, in 1964, John F. Kennedy Stadium, and it stood until its demolition in 1992.
Notes
The English article gives 15 April 1926 as the opening day of Sesquicentennial Stadium. After the exposition closed it became Philadelphia Municipal Stadium, and John F. Kennedy Stadium became its name in 1964.
New York Rangers hockey club is incorporated at an NHL meeting
SportSome details uncertain
The NHL granted Tex Rickard, head of Madison Square Garden, a franchise for 1926-27, and the club was incorporated at an NHL meeting. Coached by Lester Patrick, the Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1928, only their second season.
Notes
Infobox gives founded: 1926. The day is that of the incorporation meeting described in the history section.
Pitcairn Aviation, later Eastern Air Lines, is founded
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Eastern Air Lines was founded as Pitcairn Aviation and operated as a US scheduled airline until 1991. The 1930 Spoils Conferences produced the Big Four domestic airlines, and Eastern was among them.
Hi-Bred Corn Company, later Pioneer Hi-Bred, is founded in Des Moines
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Henry Wallace began selling Copper Cross, an early commercial hybrid corn seed, in 1924, and the company was founded in Des Moines in 1926. Roswell Garst agreed to produce and distribute seed for it in 1931. It grew into Pioneer Hi-Bred International, now a Corteva subsidiary based in Johnston, Iowa.
Notes
The exact day, 20 April 1926, comes only from the infobox, so confidence is medium.
· Monroeville, Alabama, United States · North America
Harper Lee is born in Monroeville, Alabama
Lives
Nelle Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama; her father was a lawyer and former newspaper editor who served in the Alabama State Legislature. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007.
· Jacksonville, Florida, United States · North America
Bessie Coleman dies in a plane crash in Jacksonville
Lives
Bessie Coleman, the earliest African-American woman with a pilot's licence, died in a plane crash in Jacksonville, Florida. A well-known stunt pilot nicknamed Queen Bess, she hoped to open a flying school for African-American pilots.
Leachman, raised in Des Moines, entered the 1946 Miss America pageant and won a scholarship to study under Elia Kazan. After her professional debut in 1948 she won Emmys for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, a Golden Globe for Phyllis, an Academy Award and a BAFTA.
Notes
The birth date and place agree between the English infobox, the lead and Wikidata.
Sunjong, the last Korean monarch, dies at Changdeokgung
LivesSome details uncertain
Sunjong took the throne after his father Gojong was forced to abdicate, and historians describe him as a powerless puppet ruler under Japanese control. He died at Changdeokgung palace and was buried at the imperial tomb of Yureung in Namyangju.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 25 April 1926; the body says he died on 24 April 1926, so only the month is stored.
The Guominjun fought the Fengtian clique and its Zhili allies from November 1925 to April 1926, lost, and the provisional executive government came to an end. In April it freed the deposed ex-president Cao Kun to appease the Zhili clique.
· Nairi Theatre, Yerevan, Armenian SSR, Soviet Union (now Armenia) · Asia
Armenian film Namus premieres in Yerevan
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Hamo Beknazarian directed the silent drama, adapted from Alexander Shirvanzade's novel of 1885, which premiered at the Nairi Theatre. A 1926 Leningrad poster billed it as the biggest blockbuster of the season.
Notes
The film itself is dated 1925 in the lead; the infobox gives a Moscow release on 3 October 1926 as well as the 13 April 1926 Yerevan premiere.
Atatürk orders Rumi's tomb in Konya turned into a museum
Religion & philosophy
Atatürk issued a decree ordering the mausoleum and dervish lodge in Konya turned into a museum. The site began as the lodge of the Mevlevi order, known as the whirling dervishes, and houses the tomb of the Sufi mystic Jalal ad-Din Rumi.
Turkish Statistical Institute is founded as the Central Statistical Department
Politics & diplomacy
The institute was set up soon after the Republic of Turkey was founded, under the name Central Statistical Department. It is the state body that compiles Turkey's official figures on people, resources, the economy, society and culture.
Notes
Turkey used the Gregorian calendar from 1 January 1926, so no conversion is needed.
· Hurstville, New South Wales, Australia · Oceania
Jack Brabham is born in Hurstville, New South Wales
Lives
Brabham worked as a flight mechanic in the Royal Australian Air Force before racing midget cars from 1948. He moved to Britain, joined the Cooper team, and won three Formula One world championships, the first two in 1959 and 1960.
Hitchcock's film The Mountain Eagle is released in Germany
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Alfred Hitchcock directed The Mountain Eagle as his second film, after The Pleasure Garden. British distributors shelved it when it was shown to them in October 1926, and it reached British cinemas on 23 May 1927 after The Lodger became a hit.
Notes
English Wikipedia (lead and infobox) dates the German release to May 1926. Silent Era lists the film as released in October 1926, the month British distributors first saw it, so confidence is medium.
Comintern opens the International Lenin School in Moscow
Politics & diplomacy
The Comintern's International Lenin School, founded as a tool for the Bolshevization of the Comintern and its national sections, held its first class in May. It gave academic and practical underground political training to communists from many countries.
Portugal's National Dictatorship begins after the military coup
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
A coup on 28 May ended the First Portuguese Republic and began the National Dictatorship. José Mendes Cabeçadas, Manuel Gomes da Costa and Óscar Carmona each led it in turn during 1926.
Notes
The infobox gives 29 May as the start, but the lead and body give 28 May 1926 for the coup, so only the month is stored.
Knut Wicksell, a Swedish economist of the Stockholm school who held professorships at Uppsala and Lund, died at Stocksund. His work covered theories of population, value, capital and money, and influenced both Keynesian and Austrian economics.
The Trades Union Congress called the strike to back coal miners locked out over wage cuts, and some 1.7 million people stopped work, mostly in transport and heavy industry. The well-prepared government used volunteers to keep services going, and the union leadership gave up in defeat.
Notes
Lead and infobox give 4 to 12 May 1926; Wikidata gives the end as 13 May. The body says the strike was scheduled to begin one minute to midnight on Monday, 3 May.
David Attenborough grew up at College House on the University College, Leicester, campus, where his father Frederick was principal. His presenting career began in 1954 with the series Zoo Quest.
Lithuania holds the parliamentary election that chose the third Seimas
Politics & diplomacy
Voting ran from 8 to 10 May 1926 for the 85-seat third Seimas. The Lithuanian Popular Peasants' Union stayed the largest party and formed a left coalition with the Social Democrats, which a military coup overthrew in December 1926.
Notes
The lead gives the winning party 24 seats and the infobox gives 22, so no seat count is used. The Seimas was disbanded in 1927.
Marshal Józef Piłsudski's supporters attacked government troops and brought down President Wojciechowski and Prime Minister Witos, in fighting that left hundreds dead. Piłsudski then set up the Sanation government, which lasted until 1939.
Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1 premieres in Leningrad
Stage, music & film
The Leningrad Philharmonic first played the symphony under the conductor Nikolai Malko. Shostakovich composed it in 1924 and 1925 and finished it at nineteen as his graduation work for the Petrograd Conservatory.
Greece's republican government created the Order to succeed the defunct Royal Order of George I, and it was kept after the monarchy returned in 1935. It honours Greek citizens who excelled in fields such as the arts, science, shipping and industry.
Notes
The English lead, its infobox and Wikidata all give 13 May 1926.
The 14th Giro d'Italia, put on and funded by the paper La Gazzetta dello Sport, began in Milan on 15 May with a first stage to Turin and finished back in Milan on 6 June. Giovanni Brunero of the Legnano team won.
Voters chose the members of the third Riigikogu in elections held between 15 and 17 May. The electoral law was changed beforehand to create more stability, and Jaan Teemant of the Farmers' Assemblies was State Elder before and after the vote.
Notes
Lead gives 15 to 17 May 1926; the infobox and Wikidata give 17 May 1926.
· Zagreb, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (now Croatia) · Europe
Radio Zagreb begins broadcasting
Technology
Radio Station Zagreb began broadcasting, and Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT), its direct successor, counts that date as its own founding and marks it as HRT's Day. Television Zagreb started broadcasting on 7 September 1956.
Mehmed VI, the last Ottoman sultan, dies in exile at Sanremo
Lives
Mehmed VI, the final Ottoman sultan and second-to-last caliph, died in Sanremo, Italy, and was buried in Damascus on 3 July. His reign ran from July 1918 until the sultanate was abolished on 1 November 1922.
Notes
English Wikipedia dates his accession to 4 July 1918 and French Wikipedia to 3 July 1918, so only the month is given.
Éamon de Valera and his supporters founded Fianna Fáil as a republican party, splitting from Sinn Féin so that they could sit in the Oireachtas, a body Sinn Féin would not recognise. Since 1927 it has been a main party and led Irish politics for most of the twentieth century.
Notes
The infobox gives 16 May 1926 as the founding date; Wikidata also lists 23 March 1926.
Valencia's Mestalla stadium hosted the 26th Copa del Rey final, in which Barcelona beat Atlético Madrid after extra time to win the cup for the seventh time. Barcelona were big favourites, with stars such as Josep Samitier and Paulino Alcántara.
Notes
The lead gives the score as 10-3, but the infobox gives 3-2; the score is therefore left out of the main facts and confidence is lowered.
The Stade de Gerland in Lyon, designed by architect Tony Garnier, was inaugurated by Herriot. Matches of football's 1998 World Cup and of the 2007 Rugby World Cup were later played there.
Notes
The infobox lists the stadium as built in 1914 and opened on 23 May 1926; the body confirms an inauguration in 1926 but gives no day.
Symon Petliura, a Ukrainian revolutionary, politician and journalist born in Poltava, was elected head of the military of the Ukrainian People's Republic after the 1917 February Revolution. He became head of the Directorate in 1919 and lived in exile from 1921.
A nationalist military coup ended Portugal's unstable First Republic after several attempts had failed in 1925. General Gomes da Costa started the revolt in Braga, and Porto, Lisbon, Évora, Coimbra and Santarém joined at once.
Notes
Infobox gives the conflict as 28 May to 11 July 1926; the body says Gomes da Costa arrived in Braga on 27 May to launch it.
Yleisradio, Finland's broadcasting company, is founded in Helsinki
Economy & trade
Finland's General Radio company was set up in Helsinki after over a year of planning by a commission of public and private bodies. Its first programme aired on 9 September 1926, and regular daily broadcasts began on 1 December.
Notes
Infobox gives founded 29 May 1926 (radio) and launch 9 September 1926; Wikidata also lists 12 October 1926.
VPRO, the Dutch liberal Protestant broadcaster, is founded
Everyday lifeSome details uncertain
A liberal Protestant section of Dutch society founded the VPRO, with the Central Committee for Liberal Protestantism behind it. Nicolette Bruining, one of the founders, chaired it from 1926 to 1956.
Notes
English and Dutch Wikipedia give 29 May 1926 and Wikidata agrees; the French infobox gives 26 May 1926. English Wikipedia calls the VPRO the oldest public broadcaster in the Dutch system, but it also mentions a broadcaster founded in 1925, and Dutch Wikipedia says the VPRO was the last of the original broadcasters to be founded.
Nicaraguan Civil War, the Constitutionalist War, begins
War & conflict
Fighting began when Liberal exiles landed at Bluefields, following a coup by the Conservative Emiliano Chamorro that removed the elected government. A truce meeting aboard the USS Denver on 1 October failed to end the fighting.
· Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States · North America
El Capitan Theatre opens in Hollywood with a live revue
Stage, music & film
Live shows began with a Charlot revue starring Gertrude Lawrence and Jack Buchanan at the theatre, billed as Hollywood's First Home of Spoken Drama. Today it is a restored movie palace on Hollywood Boulevard, owned by the Walt Disney Company.
· Queens, New York City, United States · North America
Don Rickles is born in Queens, New York
Lives
Donald Jay Rickles grew up an only child in a Jewish family, speaking Yiddish at home, and became a stand-up comedian and actor known mainly for insult comedy. From 1976 to 1978 he starred in the NBC sitcom C.P.O. Sharkey.
· Detroit, Michigan, United States · North America
NHL approves a Detroit franchise, forerunner of the Red Wings
SportSome details uncertain
NHL owners voted to grant a Detroit franchise to the Townsend-Seyburn group. The new club bought the roster of the Victoria Cougars, and was called the Detroit Cougars until 1930, then the Falcons, and the Red Wings from 1932.
Notes
Infobox and lead give 'founded 1926'; the day is that of the NHL owners' vote described in the history section.
· Chicago, Illinois, United States · North America
NHL awards Chicago an expansion franchise, the start of the Blackhawks
SportSome details uncertain
NHL owners meeting in Montreal granted Chicago an expansion franchise, which went to a syndicate led by Huntington Hardwick of Boston, a onetime football star. The team first played at the Chicago Coliseum, from 1926 to 1929.
Notes
Infobox and lead give 'founded 1926'; the day is that of the NHL owners' meeting in Montreal described in the history section.
Miles Davis grew up in an affluent family in East St. Louis, took up the trumpet in his early teens and made his professional debut in Charlie Parker's bebop quintet, playing with it from 1944 to 1948.
· Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States · North America
Sesquicentennial Exposition world's fair opens in Philadelphia
Everyday lifeSome details uncertain
The Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition marked a century and a half since the Declaration of Independence and half a century since the 1876 Centennial Exposition. Philadelphia built the first bridge across the Delaware to Camden in 1926 for the expected crowds.
Notes
The opening date comes from a caption on an invitation to the opening ceremonies, dated 31 May 1926. The infobox gives 4 July 1926, the anniversary itself; Wikidata gives 31 May to 1 December 1926.
· Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indiana, United States · North America
Frank Lockhart wins the rain-shortened 1926 Indianapolis 500
Sport
Rain stopped play at lap 72 and again later, so officials ended the 14th Indianapolis 500 at 400 miles. Rookie Frank Lockhart took the win, two laps ahead of the field.
Territorial Prelature of Foz do Iguaçu is established in Brazil
Religion & philosophy
This church territory was carved out of the Diocese of Curitiba on 10 May 1926. It was dissolved in 1959, its land passing to the Dioceses of Campo Mourão and Toledo, and was restored as the Diocese of Foz do Iguaçu on 5 May 1978.
Pope Pius XI creates the Diocese of Ponta Grossa in Paraná
Religion & philosophy
Pius XI created the diocese through a papal bull on 10 May 1926. It lies in the state of Paraná and is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Curitiba.
Notes
Wikidata gives only the year; the English lead gives 1926 and the English infobox gives 10 May 1926, and Italian Wikipedia independently says the diocese was erected on 10 May 1926.
Hercílio Luz Bridge is inaugurated in Florianópolis
Architecture
The bridge, the first built to link Santa Catarina Island with the mainland, was inaugurated on 13 May after construction began on 14 November 1922. Its central span of 340 metres was considered long at the time, though not the longest.
The museum was the first public art museum in Japan. Coal magnate Keitaro Sato of Kyushu had donated funds for a permanent art museum in 1921, and a new building by Kunio Maekawa replaced the original one in 1975.
Lebanon's representative Council adopted a constitution whose drafting French Mandate authorities had started in 1925. It built a system of confessionalism, giving political power by religious community, with legislature seats split equally between Christians and Muslims.
· Greater Lebanon, under French mandate (now Lebanon) · Middle East
Office of Prime Minister of Lebanon is created
Politics & diplomacy
The post of prime minister was created when Greater Lebanon's constitution was promulgated, and Auguste Adib Pacha became the first holder later that month.
Notes
The text and infobox give 23 May 1926 for the creation; the infobox gives 31 May 1926 for the first holder's start.
A royal decree of 25 May 1926 lays the roots of Morocco's BCP banking group
Economy & trade
French protectorate authorities issued the decree, called a dahir, on behalf of the Moroccan sultan Mulay Yusef. It is the origin of BCP Group, also known as Banque Populaire or Chaabi, a financial services group based at the BCP Tower in Casablanca.
Notes
The infobox also gives 25 May 1926 as the founding date.
Republic of the Rif is dissolved by Spanish and French forces
Politics & diplomacy
Spanish and French occupation forces dissolved the confederal Rif republic, which had arisen in 1921 when Riffians and Jebala under Abd el-Krim rose against Spain's protectorate. Many guerrillas kept fighting until 1927, and Abd el-Krim went into exile on Réunion.
· Kébémer, French West Africa (now Senegal) · Africa
Abdoulaye Wade, later president of Senegal, is born in Kébémer
LivesSome details uncertain
Wade was born into a Wolof family and founded the Senegalese Democratic Party in 1974. After running for president four times from 1978, he won in 2000 and served until 2012. His official birth year is 1926, though some accounts place it earlier.
Notes
Disputed: 1926 is his official birth year, but some say he was born several years before that and records of the time are not considered very reliable, so confidence is medium.
Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is published
Art & literature
William Collins, Sons published the novel in the UK in June. It was Christie's third novel with Hercule Poirot as lead detective and her first book placed with Collins, and it had been serialised in the London Evening News in 1925 as Who Killed Ackroyd?
Emily Hobhouse, a Briton who campaigned for welfare and opposed war as a pacifist, died in Kensington, London. Her brother was the thinker Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 8 June 1926 but the body says 9 June 1926, so only the month is stored.
1926 French Championships tennis tournament is held in Paris
Sport
The 31st French Championships ran from 2 to 14 June on clay courts at the Racing Club de France's Croix-Catelan grounds. Suzanne Lenglen again took every event open to her, in her last year before turning professional.
Stadion Rote Erde opened after building work from 1924, with a football match involving a City of Dortmund side. It is the home stadium of Borussia Dortmund II and of several athletics clubs.
Notes
The opening day comes from the infobox, and Wikidata agrees; the lead and body give only 1926.
Antoni Gaudí, the Catalan architect and leading exponent of Catalan Modernisme, died in Barcelona. He is buried in the Sagrada Família, his best-known work, which is still unfinished.
The first section, between Bordeta and Catalunya, opened in 1926 and was run at first by an independent firm called Ferrocarril Metropolitano Transversal de Barcelona. Only Line 3 is older than Line 1.
Notes
The infobox and the station table both give 10 June 1926.
The fourth Grand Prix of Endurance at Le Mans, run on 12 and 13 June, saw Lorraine-Dietrich cars build an unchallenged one-two lead. Robert Bloch and André Rossignol won on distance, Rossignol repeating his 1925 victory.
The stadium, home ground of Preußen Münster, opened on 12 June 1926. Today it holds 14,300 spectators, and the record attendance for a Preußen Münster match there is around 40,000.
Notes
The opening day comes only from the infobox, so confidence is medium; Wikidata gives only the year 1926.
Nikoloz Chkheidze, a Georgian Social Democrat, died by suicide at his residence in Leuville-sur-Orge, France. In 1917 he headed the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet as a Menshevik during the February Revolution, and from 1918 to 1921 he presided over Georgia's parliament.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body all give 13 June 1926; Wikidata gives 11 June and also lists 13 June.
Kadriorg Stadium was inaugurated about eight years into Estonian independence, with a first wooden grandstand built for the 1923 Estonian Song Festival. It was the home ground of Estonia's national football team until the Soviet occupation in 1940.
· Château de Beaufresne, near Paris, France · Europe
Mary Cassatt dies near Paris
Lives
Mary Cassatt, an American painter and printmaker born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, died at the Château de Beaufresne. She spent most of her adult life in France, befriended Edgar Degas, showed with the Impressionists and often painted the bond between mothers and children.
Olga Constantinovna, former Queen of the Hellenes, dies
LivesSome details uncertain
Olga Constantinovna, a Romanov by birth who married King George I of Greece in 1867 at sixteen, died in either Rome or Pau. She served briefly as regent of Greece in 1920.
Notes
The date is consistent, but the place is uncertain: the infobox says Rome, Italy, or Pau, France.
The twentieth Tour de France ran from 20 June to 18 July and was described as the longest in its history, following the borders of France closely. The Belgian rider Lucien Buysse won, and no French rider took a single stage.
· All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom · Europe
The 1926 Wimbledon Championships, the Jubilee Championships, begin
Sport
The 46th Wimbledon, known as the Jubilee Championships, ran from 21 June to 3 July on grass at the All England Club. Jean Borotra won the men's singles and Kitty Godfree the women's singles.
Sanjuanada plot against Spain's Primo de Rivera dictatorship
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The Sanjuanada was a failed plot to topple Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, named for the night of San Juan, 24 June, on which it was planned. Officers opposed a decree of 9 June that unified promotion systems across the armed forces.
Notes
24 June is the night on which the coup was planned.
Bachmann became an Austrian poet and author, counted among the major voices of twentieth-century German-language writing. Her collections include Die gestundete Zeit (1953) and Anrufung des großen Bären (1956).
Spain's Order of Civil Merit is created by royal decree
Politics & diplomacy
King Alfonso XIII created the Order by royal decree on the proposal of General Miguel Primo de Rivera, head of the Council of Ministers. It is a knighthood and state honour, one of Spain's three preeminent orders of merit.
Unofficial Chess Olympiad is held in Budapest alongside the FIDE Congress
Sport
A team chess event in Budapest ran alongside the third FIDE Congress, and Hungary won ahead of Yugoslavia, Romania and Germany. Six teams entered at first, though Austria and Czechoslovakia pulled out before the opening.
· Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) · Europe
Janáček's Sinfonietta premieres in Prague
Stage, music & film
Václav Talich conducted the first performance of Leoš Janáček's Sinfonietta, which carries two subtitles, Military Sinfonietta and Sokol Festival. A typical performance lasts between 20 and 25 minutes.
Notes
The English body text and the infobox give 26 June 1926 for the first performance in Prague, as does French Wikipedia.
Only three cars started the race on the Miramas circuit, all of them Bugattis, and Jules Goux's Bugatti was the sole car to finish the full distance. It was round two of the AIACR World Manufacturers' Championship.
Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft and Benz & Cie merge into Daimler-Benz
Economy & trade
Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft joined Benz & Cie to form Daimler-Benz AG, as Germany's post-war economic crisis pushed the two firms together. The new company adopted Mercedes-Benz as its car trademark.
Notes
The seat of the new company is disputed. The English article says Daimler-Benz had its headquarters in the Untertürkheim factory, though the same article says DMG moved its headquarters to Berlin in 1922. German Wikipedia says the merged company was formed with its seat in Berlin, and that DMG's seat had last been Berlin. No seat is stored.
Gale Street Halt, now Becontree station, opens in east London
Technology
The halt, first named Gale Street, opened for people living on the new Becontree Estate, on a line the London, Midland and Scottish Railway had owned since 1923. District line service started on 12 September 1932.
Notes
Opened on the LMS railway; the District line started in 1932 per the infobox.
Construction of the Palau Nacional begins on Montjuïc
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
Eugenio Cendoya and Enric Catà designed the palace, supervised by Pere Domènech i Roura, and the 1929 International Exhibition used it as its chief venue. Since 1934 it has housed the National Art Museum of Catalonia.
Notes
The English body text reports the foundation stone being laid on 30 June 1926, and the infobox gives the same day; Wikidata gives only 1926.
Erich von Stroheim starts shooting The Wedding March
Stage, music & film
Stroheim's script was finished by March, shooting began in June and went on until he was shut down in January 1927. The finished film of 1928 had a synchronized music score and sound effects but no audible dialog.
Notes
The film was released on 6 October 1928; the 1926 happening is the start of shooting.
· Los Angeles, California, United States · North America
Marilyn Monroe is born in Los Angeles
Lives
Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson and grew up mostly in foster homes and an orphanage. A photographer found her working in a factory during the Second World War, launching her pin-up modelling.
· Mount Airy, North Carolina, United States · North America
Andy Griffith is born in Mount Airy, North Carolina
LivesSome details uncertain
Griffith worked as an actor, comedian, TV producer, singer and writer in a career of over six decades. He debuted on film in 1957 in A Face in the Crowd, directed by Elia Kazan, and earned two Tony nominations for No Time for Sergeants and Destry Rides Again.
Notes
The English infobox, lead and early-life section, and French and German Wikipedia, all give 1 June 1926. Wikidata also lists 7 June 1926 as an alternative date, which none of these texts supports, so confidence stays at medium.
· Newark, New Jersey, United States · North America
Allen Ginsberg is born in Newark, New Jersey
Lives
Irwin Allen Ginsberg made friends at Columbia with Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs and Lucien Carr, and those friendships formed the core of the Beat Generation. He is best known for his poem Howl.
Sanford B. Dole, a lawyer and jurist, died after a series of strokes. He led the Republic of Hawaii as president until it secured annexation by the United States, then served as the territory's first governor.
The first SAT, then the Scholastic Aptitude Test, is given
Everyday life
The first Scholastic Aptitude Test, now known as the SAT, was given with many test takers applying to Yale University or Smith College. The College Board owns and publishes it, and it is widely used for US college admissions.
King-Byng affair: Canada's constitutional crisis of 1926 begins
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Prime Minister King asked Governor General Lord Byng for a dissolution of parliament to avoid a Commons vote that could end his government after a scandal. Byng refused under his reserve powers and King resigned, but King returned as prime minister after the 14 September election.
Notes
Wikidata gives 26 June 1926. The day of Byng's refusal is not given; the crisis is stored as running to the dissolution granted on 2 July, with the election on 14 September.
Melvin James Kaminsky, later Mel Brooks, works as an actor, comedian, filmmaker, songwriter and playwright. His career started as a writer on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, and he won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for The Producers.
Notes
The infobox gives New York City as the birthplace.
Paul Berg studied biochemistry at Penn State, earned his doctorate at Case Western Reserve University in 1952, and taught at Washington University School of Medicine and at Stanford University. He received the National Medal of Science in 1983.
Notes
The infobox gives New York City as the birthplace.
Diocese of Cafelândia, later renamed Lins, is created in Brazil
Religion & philosophy
The diocese was separated from the Diocese of Botucatu on 21 June 1926 and renamed the Diocese of Lins on 27 May 1950. It lies in the ecclesiastical province of Botucatu.
Notes
Wikidata gives only the year; the article's history list and infobox give 21 June 1926. The place is taken from the original diocese name, Cafelândia.
Afghanistan, freed of foreign political control after the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, became an independent monarchy, the Kingdom of Afghanistan, in 1926. The monarchy lasted almost half a century, until 1973.
Notes
The infobox entry for the Kingdom of Afghanistan gives 9 June 1926; the lead says only 1926. Wikidata gives 1926 and also lists 19 June 1747, which belongs to the Durrani Empire, a different happening.
Amanullah Khan proclaims the Kingdom of Afghanistan
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Amanullah Khan, who had reigned as emir for seven years, proclaimed the kingdom as successor to the Emirate of Afghanistan, with the Loya Jirga as its legislature at first. A rebellion broke out in 1927 while he was visiting Europe.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox, where the start date is given as 9 June and the start year as 1926 in separate fields.
Emirate of Afghanistan ends as Amanullah Khan becomes king
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The Emirate of Afghanistan ended when its last emir, Amanullah Khan, was crowned king and founded the Kingdom of Afghanistan. The emirate had grown out of the Durrani Empire after the Barakzai dynasty won power in Kabul.
Notes
This is the same transition as the founding of the Kingdom of Afghanistan.
June Tenth Movement: Korean students protest at Sunjong's funeral
Politics & diplomacy
Korean students protested against Japanese colonial rule, mainly in Seoul, as the funeral procession of the former Emperor Sunjong marched from Changdeokgung palace to the tomb at Hongneung. Colonial authorities suppressed the protest.
Notes
The body gives Sunjong's death as 26 April 1926, while his own article gives 25 April (infobox) or 24 April.
Turkey, the United Kingdom and Mandatory Iraq signed the treaty to settle the Mosul Question by fixing a border between Turkey and Iraq. Turkey gained the right to take military action in the border region if it became unstable.
Alleged plot to assassinate Mustafa Kemal in İzmir
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Turkish police arrested dozens, including ex-ministers, lawmakers and governors, on suspicion of plotting to kill Mustafa Kemal with gunfire from a hotel and bombs from a barber shop beneath it in İzmir's Kemeraltı district. Trials ran from 26 June to 13 July.
Notes
The plot is described as alleged; Zürcher and Kévorkian dispute that a plot existed. The article is titled 'İzmir plot'. Date is the day the attack was planned to take place.
Baghdad Antiquities Museum is established, forerunner of the Iraq Museum
Science
Iraq's government founded the Baghdad Antiquities Museum by relocating the collection into a new building. Today, as the Iraq Museum, it is the national museum of Iraq, with relics of Mesopotamian, Abbasid and Persian civilisations among its holdings.
ILO adopts the Seamen's Articles of Agreement Convention
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The International Labour Organization adopted Convention C22 on 24 June 1926, covering seafarers' employment agreements. It entered into force on 4 April 1928.
Notes
The adoption day comes only from the infobox, so confidence is medium; the lead says only that the convention was established in 1926.
Max Born formulates the Born rule in quantum mechanics
Science
The German physicist Max Born set out in a paper published in July 1926 the rule that fixes the probability of each possible measurement outcome in quantum mechanics. For finding a particle at a point, the probability density is proportional to the square of the wavefunction's amplitude there.
Hergé's comic strip The Adventures of Totor begins
Art & literature
Hergé's first comic strip series began running monthly in the Belgian scouting magazine Le Boy Scout Belge. Its hero was Totor, a Belgian boy scout who visits relatives in Texas, where he outwits hostile tribes and gangsters.
· Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park, Aragon, Spain · Europe
Norbert Casteret first explores the Grotte Casteret ice cave in the Pyrenees
Exploration
Norbert Casteret discovered the Grotte Casteret ice cave in the Pyrenees, and his mother, wife and brother joined him for the first entry in July. He returned with his wife in September and completed the through trip.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 1926 for the discovery; the history section gives July 1926 for the first entry and September 1926 for the through trip.
Émile Coué, a French pharmacist, psychologist and hypnotist, promoted a popular self-improvement method built on optimistic autosuggestion, holding that hidden mental ideas constantly shape a person's health and wellbeing.
Antonio, Adriano and Bruno Cavalieri Ducati are named as the founders of Ducati, based in Bologna. The company makes motorcycles and has a racing division called Ducati Corse; the family led it from 1926 until 1953.
Notes
Only the infobox gives the day; the body text confirms the family led the firm from 1926.
· Čukarica, Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (now Serbia) · Europe
FK Čukarički is founded at a meeting in Belgrade
Sport
FK Čukarički was formed at a meeting in the Majdan restaurant, which settled on the name ČSK Čukarički and on black and white as the club colours. The club grew out of the working-class Čukarica district on the right bank of the Sava.
· Banja Luka, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (now Bosnia and Herzegovina) · Europe
FK Borac Banja Luka is founded
Sport
The football club Borac, whose name translates as Fighter, was founded in Banja Luka, in the Republika Srpska part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It plays in the country's Premier League at the Banja Luka City Stadium.
Born Elisabeth Kübler to a Protestant Christian family, she became a Swiss and American psychiatrist and a pioneer in near-death studies. She developed the five stages of grief, known as the Kübler-Ross model.
Central Institute of Statistics, now Istat, is set up in Italy
Science
A legislative decree set up the Central Institute of Statistics, now Istat, replacing a statistics division of the agriculture ministry. Istat is today the main source of official statistics in Italy and runs the population census and economic censuses.
World Union for Progressive Judaism is founded in London
Religion & philosophySome details uncertain
Progressive, Liberal and Reform movements joined in a single union founded in London; Germany's Union for Liberal Judaism was among the founding members.
Notes
The English infobox gives 10 July 1926 as the formation date, and a German Wikipedia link to a record of the founding assembly in London is dated 10 to 12 July 1926. English and Russian Wikipedia differ on the years of Leo Baeck's presidency (1938 to 1956, or 1939 to 1953), so they are not given.
Rudolf Caracciola wins the first German Grand Prix in heavy rain
Sport
The first German Grand Prix was run at AVUS in heavy rain, and Rudolf Caracciola won. Few cars suited the new formula, so organisers admitted sports cars in three engine-size classes, started two minutes apart.
Notes
English Wikipedia says Rosenberger's crash killed three people; German Wikipedia says two race officials died in it and that a riding mechanic, Carlo Cattaneo, was killed in practice on 9 July, so no death toll is given.
Maurice Tranchant de Lunel designed the Grand Mosque of Paris in the Moorish Revival style, and building work ran from 1922. It is the oldest mosque in metropolitan France.
Notes
Wikidata also gives 19 October 1922, which matches the 1922 start of construction rather than the opening.
The San Sebastián Grand Prix, also that year's European Grand Prix and round three of the AIACR World Manufacturers' Championship, was held at the Lasarte circuit. Jules Goux won in a Bugatti.
Notes
Some results were disqualified after the race and reinstated on appeal.
Felix Dzerzhinsky, Soviet security chief, dies in Moscow
Lives
Felix Dzerzhinsky, a Polish-born Bolshevik known as Iron Felix, died in Moscow and was buried at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. From 1917 until his death he ran the Soviet Union's first three secret police bodies: Cheka, GPU and OGPU.
Friedrich von Wieser, born in Vienna, moved from sociology and law to economic theory in 1872 after reading Carl Menger's founding work of the Austrian school, and in 1903 took over Menger's post at the University of Vienna. He taught Mises, Hayek and Schumpeter.
Viktor Vasnetsov painted and drew, mostly on mythological and historical themes, and helped found a folkloric, romantic and nationalist style of Russian painting. His best-known works include A Knight at the Crossroads and Bogatyrs.
Notes
Infobox and lead give 23 July 1926; Wikidata also lists 23 June 1926.
Karadzha and Atletik merge to form Sportclub Plovdiv
Sport
Karadzha and Atletik merged to form Sportclub Plovdiv, which Lokomotiv Plovdiv counts as its own founding. The modern Lokomotiv emerged from another merger in the 2001-02 season, and its rival is Botev Plovdiv.
Notes
Wikidata gives 26 July 1926; the infobox, lead and body all give 25 July.
Bartolomeo Costantini wins the 1926 Spanish Grand Prix at Lasarte
Sport
Costantini drove a Bugatti to victory over 40 laps and 692.6 km near San Sebastián. The race used Formula Libre, so Bugatti and Delage entered their 1925 two-litre cars.
Notes
The location San Sebastián comes from the infobox.
1926 UCI Road World Championships are held in Milan
Sport
Milan hosted the sixth UCI Road World Championships on Thursday 29 July, with a single race for amateur cyclists. The track world championships were held in Milan and Turin around the same time.
· Philadelphia and Camden, United States · North America
Benjamin Franklin Bridge opens between Philadelphia and Camden
Architecture
The bridge, first called the Delaware River Bridge, opened to traffic a few days before its planned 4 July opening and was dedicated as part of the Sesquicentennial Exposition. It crosses the Delaware between Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey.
Notes
The article dates the opening to traffic to 1 July 1926; Wikidata agrees.
Fogel, son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants from Odessa, became an economic historian who championed cliometrics, the use of quantitative methods in history. He shared the 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in economics with Douglass North.
Congress chose the new name largely as a compromise between supporters of a separate air arm and traditional Army leaders. The Air Corps stayed mainly a support force for ground troops under Army policy.
Congress authorised the Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for heroism or extraordinary achievement in aerial flight, in Section 12 of the Army Air Corps Act. President Calvin Coolidge made the first award on 2 May 1927 to aviators of the Army Pan American Flight.
Notes
Authorised by Section 12 of the Army Air Corps Act, passed on 2 July 1926, the law that also turned the Army Air Service into the Army Air Corps.
Congress creates the U.S. Army's Soldier's Medal for heroism
Politics & diplomacy
A clause in the Air Corps Act, which Congress passed on 2 July 1926, set up the decoration for heroism that does not involve conflict with an enemy. It was first awarded on 17 October 1927, and other services have matching awards, including the Navy and Marine Corps Medal and the Coast Guard Medal.
· Los Angeles, California, United States · North America
Valentino's final film The Son of the Sheik premieres in Los Angeles
Stage, music & film
George Fitzmaurice directed The Son of the Sheik, in which Rudolph Valentino and Vilma Bánky starred and Valentino played both a father and his son. It premiered at Los Angeles's Million Dollar Theater.
· Chicago, Illinois, United States · North America
Ben Mottelson is born in Chicago
Lives
Benjamin Roy Mottelson, whose father Goodman was an engineer and whose mother was Georgia (Blum), became an American-Danish nuclear physicist. He died on 13 May 2022.
· Brooklyn, New York, United States · North America
Irwin Rose is born in Brooklyn
Lives
Irwin Allan Rose became an American biologist and earned his degrees at the University of Chicago. In 2004 he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko for discovering how proteins are broken down with the help of ubiquitin.
Jewison, a Canadian filmmaker known for films on topical social and political issues, began at CBC Television in the 1950s and moved to NBC in the United States. His feature debut was the 1962 comedy 40 Pounds of Trouble.
· Manchester, Vermont, United States · North America
Robert Todd Lincoln dies in Manchester, Vermont
Lives
Robert Todd Lincoln, eldest son of Abraham and Mary Lincoln, was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He served as a captain on General Grant's staff, then as Secretary of War from 1881 to 1885 and ambassador to Great Britain from 1889 to 1893.
· Chicago, Illinois, United States · North America
Hilary Putnam is born in Chicago
Lives
Putnam was an American philosopher, mathematician and computer scientist who contributed to the philosophy of mind, language, mathematics and science. He argued that mental states cannot be identified with physical state types, citing the multiple realizability of the mental.
Alfredo Di Stéfano, an Argentine and Spanish forward who later managed clubs, started out at River Plate. A footballers' strike in Argentina in 1949 sent him to Millonarios of Bogotá until 1953.
Notes
The lead gives age 17 and 1943 for the start of his club career, but the body says River Plate invited him to a youth-team audition after a 1944 letter and that he first played for the first team in 1945 at age 19, so no age or year is given.
Rafael Larco Herrera obtained vases and other archaeological items from his brother-in-law in 1925, and the museum, first called the Rafael Larco Herrera Archaeological Museum, opened to the public the next year. It is now a privately run museum of pre-Columbian art in an 18th-century vice-royal building.
Kuomintang launches the Northern Expedition against China's warlords
War & conflict
The Kuomintang's National Revolutionary Army, led by Chiang Kai-shek, set out against the Beiyang government and regional warlords to reunify a China left fragmented after the 1911 Revolution. The campaign ended in 1928 with the country under Kuomintang control.
Notes
Infobox gives the whole campaign as 9 July 1926 to 29 December 1928; Wikidata gives the start as 1926 (year only). Day taken from the infobox.
Second Enoshima Electric Railway company is founded
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
A second company named Enoshima Electric Railway was founded and later took over the Enoshima line, which had already changed hands in 1911 and again in 1921.
Notes
English Wikipedia says ownership passed to the second company in 1926 and that the railway opened on 25 November 1900. German and Japanese Wikipedia instead say the second company was founded on 10 July 1926 (as does Wikidata) and acquired the line later (German: 1 July 1928), and that 25 November 1900 was the first company's founding date, with the line opening in stages from 1902 or 1903. The date stored is that of the second company's founding.
Persian-language daily Ettela'at is founded in Tehran
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
Abbas Massoudi started Ettela'at, a Persian-language paper published in Tehran with a conservative stance.
Notes
The English infobox gives 10 July 1926. Persian Wikipedia says the first issue was printed on the evening of Sunday 19 Tir 1305 in the solar Hijri calendar; 19 Tir 1305 falls on 10 July 1926, but that day was a Saturday, and the Sunday was 11 July, so only the month is stored.
Gertrude Bell, an English writer, traveller, administrator and archaeologist, died in Baghdad. Much of her life went into exploring and mapping the Middle East, and her knowledge of it made her influential in British policy as an Arabist.
· Basankusu, Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) · Africa
Apostolic Prefecture of Basankusu is established in the Congo
Religion & philosophy
The prefecture was split off from the Apostolic Vicariate of Nouvelle-Anvers on 28 July 1926, and Gerardo Wantenaar of the Mill Hill Missionaries became prefect in February 1927. It became a vicariate in 1948 and a full diocese on 10 November 1959.
· Pacific Ocean: Midway, Wake Island and Japan's South Seas Mandate (now Palau) · Oceania
Annular solar eclipse crosses the Pacific
Science
An annular solar eclipse with a magnitude of 0.968 showed its ring from Midway Atoll on 9 July and from Wake Island, Pulo Anna and Merir on 10 July. A partial eclipse reached Hawaii, northeast Asia, southern North America and Central America.
Israel Zangwill, a British author who stood at the forefront of Zionism in the late 19th century and was a close associate of Theodor Herzl, died of pneumonia in a Midhurst nursing home. His best-known works include The Big Bow Mystery and The Melting Pot.
Jan Kasprowicz, a poet, dramatist, critic and translator in Poland and a leading figure of the Young Poland movement, died at his villa Harenda, between Poronin and Zakopane.
· Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) · Europe
Slovenský rozhlas starts radio broadcasting in Slovakia
Technology
The state-run public broadcaster went on air on 3 August 1926, transmitting twice a week at first. Daily programmes began on 2 October 1926. Its Bratislava headquarters is a building shaped like an inverted pyramid.
Notes
The infobox also gives 3 August 1926 as the launch date; daily broadcasting began on 2 October 1926, a separate step.
· Bilbao to Las Arenas, Basque Country, Spain · Europe
Nicolas Frantz wins the 1926 Tour of the Basque Country
Sport
The third Tour of the Basque Country ran from 4 to 8 August, beginning in Bilbao and ending at Las Arenas. Luxembourg's Nicolas Frantz won, ahead of Ottavio Bottecchia and Victor Fontan.
· Brooklands, Weybridge, Surrey, United Kingdom · Europe
The first British Grand Prix is held at Brooklands
Sport
The Royal Automobile Club held the first British Grand Prix on the concrete Brooklands oval near Weybridge, where Louis Wagner and Robert Sénéchal won in a Delage. Sir Arthur Stanley gave a cup for the fastest lap, which Henry Segrave won.
Notes
Brooklands hosted the first race, on 7 August 1926.
Parc des Sports du Pont d'Essey stadium opens in Tomblaine
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
The stadium, now Stade Marcel Picot, was built near Nancy and from 1926 to 1963 went by an older name based on the Parc des Sports at Pont d'Essey. A complete rebuild ended with its reopening in a new configuration in 2003.
Notes
The opening day comes from the infobox, and Wikidata agrees; the lead gives only 1926.
Aaron Klug came from the village of Pazelva, now Želva; his father Lazar was a drover and horseman, and he received both a secular and a traditional Jewish education. He became a British biophysicist and chemist, and was later knighted.
Notes
The infobox and body give Pazelva, present-day Želva. The knighthood is from the title Sir in the lead.
René Goscinny, co-creator of Asterix, is born in Paris
Lives
Born to Jewish immigrants from Poland, Goscinny spent his childhood in Argentina. With the illustrator Albert Uderzo he created Asterix, and he also wrote Lucky Luke with Morris, Iznogoud, and the children's books Le Petit Nicolas.
First European Aquatics Championships are held in Budapest
SportSome details uncertain
Budapest hosted the first European Aquatics Championships, the continental competition run by the governing body LEN, with swimming, diving and water polo medals awarded from 1926. Water polo stayed in the event until it became a separate championship in 1999.
Notes
Day range comes from the article's list of editions (Budapest, 18-22 August 1926); infobox and text give only 1926 as the first year.
On 22 August 1926 communists and Catholic autonomists held a joint protest rally in Colmar's Salle des Catherinettes, and nationalist groups, among them the Camelots du Roi and Action française, assembled to stop the meeting. Clashes followed.
Notes
Wikidata gives 26 August 1926, but the lead and infobox both give 22 August 1926, so the article's day is stored at medium confidence.
The eighth Volta a Catalunya ran from 22 to 29 August, starting and finishing in Barcelona. Victor Fontan took the overall win, with Spain's Mariano Cañardo third.
FC Barcelona Bàsquet was founded as the basketball section of the sports club and is the oldest club in the Spanish Liga ACB. It first played at the Sol de Baix Sports Complex, with José Vila as head coach.
Catholic uprising known as the Cristero War begins in Mexico
War & conflict
Catholics in central and western Mexico rose up against anticlerical articles of the 1917 Constitution after President Calles ordered strict enforcement of Article 130 through the Calles Law. The war ended in 1929, once the government made concessions and the Church withdrew its backing.
Notes
Infobox and lead give 3 August 1926 to 21 June 1929; Wikidata start property also 1926-08-03.
Tony Bennett, born Anthony Dominick Benedetto, became an American jazz and traditional pop singer after taking part in the last stages of World War II as a US Army infantryman in Europe. His first number-one popular hit was Because of You, in 1951.
Notes
The article body places his birth in Long Island City, Queens (St. John's Hospital), within New York City; the infobox gives New York City.
· San Antonio, Texas, United States · North America
Diocese of San Antonio is raised to a metropolitan archdiocese
Religion & philosophy
The Diocese of San Antonio, created in 1874 when the northern part of the Diocese of Galveston was split off, had belonged to the ecclesiastical province of New Orleans. Bishop Arthur Jerome Drossaerts, in office since 1918, became its archbishop.
Notes
The diocese itself dates from 1874; the 1926 happening is its elevation.
· Warner Theatre, New York City, United States · North America
Don Juan premieres with a Vitaphone sound score
Stage, music & film
John Barrymore starred in Alan Crosland's Don Juan, shown at the Warner Theatre in New York after a programme of Vitaphone shorts. It was the first feature-length film to use the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system for a synchronised score and sound effects.
Victor Sjöström's silent film The Scarlet Letter is released
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Victor Sjöström, billed as Victor Seastrom, directed this version of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, with Lillian Gish and Lars Hanson starring. It earned a Photoplay Award for one of the month's best pictures in October 1926.
Fidel Castro, son of a wealthy Spanish farmer, was born in Birán. Law studies at the University of Havana turned him towards leftist, anti-imperialist politics, and he led Cuba as prime minister from 1959 to 1976, then as president until 2008.
· West Side Tennis Club, Forest Hills, New York City, United States · North America
1926 U.S. National Championships tennis tournament is played at Forest Hills
Sport
The 46th staging of the championships, today's US Open, was played on outdoor grass at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, with the women's event from 16 to 23 August and the men's from 13 to 18 September. It counted as the fourth Grand Slam event of 1926.
Notes
Wikidata gives an end date of 13 September 1926; the lead says the men's event ended on 18 September.
Rudolph Valentino, an Italian-born actor and dancer nicknamed the Latin Lover, died aged 31 of peritonitis after surgery for appendicitis and gastric ulcers. His 1921 hit Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse had made him a star of American silent films.
· San Francisco, California, United States · North America
Clifford Geertz is born in San Francisco
Lives
Geertz became an American anthropologist who shaped the practice of symbolic anthropology. He served in the US Navy from 1943 to 1945 and ended his career as an emeritus professor at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study. He died on 30 October 2006.
· Santa Barbara, California, United States · North America
Thomas Moran dies in Santa Barbara
Lives
Thomas Moran, a Hudson River School painter and printmaker born in England, often painted the Rocky Mountains. He became chief illustrator for Scribner's Monthly.
Colombia's National Capitol in Bogotá is officially inaugurated
Architecture
Construction began in 1848 and the building was finished in 1926. Designed by Thomas Reed in Neoclassical style, it stands on the Plaza de Bolívar in central Bogotá and houses both chambers of Colombia's Congress.
Notes
The English infobox gives 7 August 1926 as the completion date and the lead says the building was finished in 1926; Spanish Wikipedia says the palace was officially inaugurated on 7 August 1926 for the presidential inauguration, after the main works ended in 1924 to 1925. The infobox gives 20 July 1848 for the start of construction.
Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park is established in Chile
Earth & geologySome details uncertain
Chile created the national park by decree in August 1926. It lies in Llanquihue Province in the Los Lagos Region and protects Todos los Santos Lake and much of its catchment.
Notes
English Wikipedia gives only the year 1926. Spanish Wikipedia gives 17 August 1926 (Supreme Decree 552), which matches Wikidata.
Ugyen Wangchuck founded the kingdom of Bhutan, became its first king on 17 December 1907 and worked to unite the fledgling country. His body was cremated at Kurjey Lhakhang, and his son Jigme Wangchuck succeeded him.
Notes
Infobox and lead give 26 August 1926 (aged 64); the death section gives 21 August 1926; Wikidata gives 21 August. Stored at month level because the two days differ.
Jiang Zemin, whose childhood fell within the years of Japanese occupation, studied electrical engineering and graduated from National Chiao Tung University in 1947. He led China as Communist Party general secretary from 1989 to 2002 and as president from 1993 to 2003.
The Uraga Dock Company finished Yayoi on 28 August 1926, over two years after her keel was laid. She was one of twelve destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the 1920s and later fought at Wake Island in December 1941.
Notes
Wikidata gives 11 July 1926, but the article puts her launch on 11 July 1925 and her completion on 28 August 1926. The completion day is stored.
Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed is released
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Lotte Reiniger wrote and directed this animated film, working on it from 1923 to 1926, using silhouette animation of shapes cut from card and thin lead sheet. The story draws on tales from One Thousand and One Nights, including Aladdin.
Notes
The infobox gives 23 September 1926; Wikidata gives 1 July 1926 and 3 September 1926. The sources conflict, so only the month of the majority is stored.
European Rowing Championships are held on Lake Lucerne
Sport
The championships were held on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, with the final race day on Monday 6 September. Only men competed, in all seven Olympic boat classes.
Notes
The article gives Monday 6 September 1926 as the final race day; Wikidata gives 1 September 1926 for the start.
Heinrich Straumer designed the Berlin radio tower, built from 1924 to 1926 and inaugurated as the third Great German Radio Exhibition opened at the Berlin fairgrounds. It is now a former broadcasting tower.
Notes
The infobox also gives 3 September 1926 for the opening.
Illich, a Catholic priest, wrote as a theologian, a philosopher and a critic of society. In 1971 Deschooling Society challenged the way modern societies organise schooling through institutions.
Louis Charavel wins the 1926 Italian Grand Prix at Monza
Sport
Two classes of car raced at once over different distances at Monza, closing the 1926 season of the AIACR World Manufacturers' Championship. Louis Charavel won in a Bugatti, ahead of Meo Costantini in another Bugatti.
· Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine) · Europe
Traktor stadium opens in Kharkiv
Architecture
Workers from the Kharkiv Locomotive Factory built the stadium, which opened as Traktor after building began in 1925 on the order of Anastas Mikoyan and a local steelworkers' league. It later became the Metalist Stadium.
Morden station opened at the end of the City and South London Railway extension, designed by Charles Holden as one of his first modernist stations for the London Underground. It is now the most southerly station on the network.
John Louis Emil Dreyer, a Dane who did the bulk of his astronomical work in Ireland, died in Oxford, where he had lived his last ten years. The Royal Astronomical Society gave him its Gold Medal in 1916, and he was its president from 1923 to 1925.
Butor was a French poet and novelist who also worked as a teacher, essayist, art critic and translator. His works include L'Emploi du temps, La Modification and Mobile.
Rudolf Eucken, a German philosopher born in Aurich in 1846, died in Jena, where he had taught, as he had at Basel. He won the 1908 Nobel Prize in Literature for his idealistic philosophy of life.
Notes
Infobox and text give 15 September 1926; Wikidata also gives 14 September.
Serre is a French mathematician who contributed to topology, geometry and number theory in their algebraic forms. He won the Fields Medal in 1954 and received the inaugural Abel Prize in 2003.
Milan's San Siro stadium, begun in 1925 as the Nuovo Stadio Calcistico San Siro, was inaugurated when Inter beat Milan in front of a large crowd. AC Milan owned the ground until 1935, and it was renamed for Giuseppe Meazza in March 1980.
The Polish State Railways were founded, with headquarters at Warszawa Zachodnia station in Warsaw. The old state enterprise was divided into several units in 2001, leaving a holding company that oversees passenger and freight operators in the PKP Group.
Notes
The article dates the founding only in the infobox; the lead describes the 2001 reorganisation of the modern holding company, so the 1926 date may refer to the original state enterprise.
The 1926 Slavery Convention, a League of Nations treaty, reaffirmed efforts to end slavery and the slave trade and entered into force on 9 March 1927. A 1925 committee report recommending outlawing legal chattel slavery and the slave trade led to it.
Notes
Infobox gives date_effective 9 March 1927; Wikidata gives 1926 (year) with publication date 1926-09-25.
Crown Prince Olav performed the grand opening of Ullevaal Stadion, which started as the home ground of Lyn and several other local teams. It is now the biggest football stadium in Norway and hosts the Norwegian Cup final.
Soviet Union and Lithuania sign a non-aggression pact in Moscow
Politics & diplomacy
The pact confirmed the basic terms of the 1920 Soviet-Lithuanian peace treaty, with the Soviets still recognising Vilnius as Lithuanian although Poland held the city. In return Lithuania promised not to join alliances aimed against the Soviet Union.
H. P. Lovecraft writes the short story Pickman's Model
Art & literature
H. P. Lovecraft wrote the horror story in September, and Weird Tales printed it in its October 1927 issue. Pickman's ideas about horror echo Lovecraft's essay Supernatural Horror in Literature, which he was working on then.
Notes
Only the writing falls in 1926; first publication was October 1927.
Conan Doyle's The Adventure of the Three Gables appears in Liberty
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
The Sherlock Holmes story first appeared in the American magazine Liberty in September, and the British Strand Magazine printed it in October. It is among 12 tales in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, which came out in June 1927.
Notes
The UK printing in The Strand Magazine came in October 1926; the infobox and lead give only 1926.
Northwest Airways is founded, later Northwest Airlines
Economy & trade
Colonel Lewis Brittin founded Northwest Airways, which began flying on 1 October 1926 and operated until 2010, when it merged with Delta Air Lines. After the Second World War it came to dominate flying across the Pacific, using Tokyo as a hub.
· Germantown Cricket Club, Philadelphia, United States · North America
1926 International Lawn Tennis Challenge (Davis Cup) final is played in Philadelphia
SportSome details uncertain
In the 21st edition of the competition now called the Davis Cup, the United States beat France in a rematch of the 1925 Challenge Round. The decisive tie was played at Philadelphia's Germantown Cricket Club.
Notes
The lead gives the final as 9 to 11 September; Wikidata gives 8 to 11 September for the whole event and a Montreal venue.
The hurricane formed in the central Atlantic and reached hurricane strength the next day, then devastated Greater Miami and caused heavy damage in the Bahamas and along the US Gulf Coast. It crossed Florida and re-emerged in the Gulf of Mexico near Fort Myers.
Notes
The storm's lifespan, 11 to 22 September 1926, is stored. Wikidata gives 18 September 1926, the day it struck the Miami area, which a caption in the body also gives.
Canada votes in the election called after the King-Byng affair
Politics & diplomacy
Governor General Byng had refused Prime Minister King's request to dissolve Parliament, and Meighen's government then fell to a non-confidence vote. In the 14 September vote King's Liberals won the most seats although the Conservatives won more votes.
Frank Capra's feature debut The Strong Man is released
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Frank Capra directed this silent comedy in his debut as a feature director, with Harry Langdon starring and also producing. With Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, it is Langdon's best-known feature.
New York Evening Enquirer debuts, forerunner of the National Enquirer
Art & literature
William Griffin, taken under William Randolph Hearst's wing, launched The New York Evening Enquirer, a broadsheet sold around the city on Sunday afternoons. It later became the National Enquirer, an American tabloid known for paying sources for tips.
Donald Arthur Glaser, whose parents were Russian Jewish immigrants, became an American physicist and biologist. He won the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing the bubble chamber.
· Hamlet, North Carolina, United States · North America
John Coltrane is born in Hamlet, North Carolina
Lives
John William Coltrane grew up in North Carolina and moved to Philadelphia after finishing high school. He made his professional debut in 1945, after serving in the Navy near the end of World War II, and worked as a jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer.
A large tornado hit Encarnación on 20 September 1926, heavily damaging the town and killing about 300 people, with some estimates reaching 500. It was later rated F5 on the Fujita scale, though some assessments say F4.
Notes
The death toll is disputed: the English lead says up to 300, the English infobox says 300 with some estimates up to 500, and Spanish Wikipedia says 300 to 400. The F5 rating is the English lead's; Spanish Wikipedia says F5 or F4+.
· Yerevan, Armenian SSR, Soviet Union (now Armenia) · Asia
Voice of Yerevan, Armenia's first experimental radio programme, goes on air
Technology
Armenia's first experimental radio programme went out under the name Voice of Yerevan, and Public Radio of Armenia counts 1926 as the year it was established. Regular broadcasting by Armenian Republican Radio began on 15 June 1927.
Juzaburo Koto founded the company, whose first chemical plant stood in the Shin'etsu region, which gave it its name. The Naoetsu plant, built in 1927, made carbide and lime nitrogen fertilizer.
Notes
English Wikipedia gives the day only in its infobox; Japanese Wikipedia's history also gives 16 September 1926, which matches Wikidata.
Masatoshi Koshiba, a physicist from Japan and a co-founder of neutrino astronomy, was the son of Toshio and Hayako Koshiba. He shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics with Raymond Davis Jr.
Italy and Yemen's Mutawakkilite Kingdom signed a friendship treaty in which Italy recognised Imam Yahya as King of Yemen and acknowledged his claim to Aden. Yahya wanted Italian support in his conflict with Britain.
· Southfields, Wandsworth, London, England · Europe
Fazl Mosque opens in Southfields, London
Religion & philosophySome details uncertain
The Fazl Mosque in Southfields, Wandsworth, opened in October 1926 as the first purpose-built mosque in London. Donations from Ahmadi Muslim women in Qadian, Punjab, covered the mosque and its land, at a cost of £6,223.
Notes
The opening day is disputed, so only the month is stored: the English lead says 3 October 1926, the English body says the formal opening was on 4 October 1926, and French and German Wikipedia both say the official inauguration was on 23 October 1926. Building began in September 1925 and took about ten months.
Emil Kraepelin, a German psychiatrist known for classifying mental disorders, saw mental illness as rooted in a mix of biological processes and genetic faults. His theories ruled psychiatry in the early 1900s and returned to favour at the century's close.
Romania's National Peasants' Party is founded by merger
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The Romanian National Party and the Peasants' Party fused to form the National Peasants' Party, and Iuliu Maniu was voted its chairman at the founding congress. Its cabinets held office for much of 1928 to 1933.
Notes
The lead gives only 1926; the body says a congress of the two parties enshrined the fusion on 10 October 1926, the date used.
Vsevolod Pudovkin directed this Soviet silent drama, based on Maxim Gorky's 1906 novel, about a mother who turns revolutionary in Russia's 1905 upheaval after her husband dies violently and her son is jailed.
Methuen published A. A. Milne's book, illustrated by E. H. Shepard, of short stories about a teddy bear and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood. Reviewers praised it, and 150,000 copies had sold by the end of 1926.
F. W. Murnau's silent film Faust premieres in Berlin
Stage, music & film
Faust opened at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin, with Emil Jannings as Mephisto and Gösta Ekman as Faust. The film is praised for its special effects and seen as a German expressionist work.
Notes
The infobox gives the US release as 5 December 1926; Wikidata lists 6 December.
Michel Foucault was born Paul-Michel Foucault into an upper-middle-class family and attended the Lycée Henri-IV, where he developed an interest in philosophy. As a philosopher, critic and historian of ideas he centred his work on power, knowledge and social control.
· Royal Hungarian Opera House, Budapest, Hungary · Europe
Kodály's folk opera Háry János premieres in Budapest
Stage, music & film
Nándor Rékai conducted the premiere at the Royal Hungarian Opera House of Zoltán Kodály's four-act folk opera, with text by Béla Paulini and Zsolt Harsányi.
Notes
The infobox gives the same premiere date. The orchestral suite premiered separately on 24 March 1927.
Norway votes in a referendum on continuing prohibition
Politics & diplomacy
Partial prohibition had applied since 1917, and spirits and dessert wine were also banned after a 1919 referendum. Support for prohibition dropped in every county, and the law was abolished as a result.
· Zoppot, Free City of Danzig (now Sopot, Poland) · Europe
Klaus Kinski is born in Zoppot, now Sopot
Lives
Born Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski in the Free City of Danzig, Kinski became a German actor with more than 130 film roles between 1948 and 1989. He made five films with director Werner Herzog, among them Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo.
The fifth Imperial Conference, held between 19 October and 23 November, produced the Balfour Declaration, stating that the dominions were equal in status within the British Empire. A committee under Arthur Balfour studied future constitutional arrangements.
Notes
Wikidata gives an end date of 22 November 1926; the English lead and infobox and German Wikipedia give 23 November. The English article dates the unanimous adoption of the committee's recommendations to 15 November, German Wikipedia to 19 November, so no day is stated for it. The English infobox names Lancaster House as venue, but the text and German Wikipedia do not, so only London is given.
Victor Babeș, a Romanian physician and bacteriologist born in Vienna in 1854, is counted among the founders of modern microbiology. Universities in Cluj-Napoca and Timișoara carry his name.
The silent film The Student of Prague is released in Berlin
Stage, music & film
Henrik Galeen, an actor and filmmaker, directed this German Expressionist silent film, produced by Sokal-Film with Henry Sokal as producer. Conrad Veidt and Werner Krauss are named in the cast.
Period of fascist and anti-fascist violence in Italy ends
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The period of violence, which followed the First World War and the rise of Mussolini's fascism, ran from 15 April 1919 to 31 October 1926. There were several attempts on Mussolini's life in 1926, the last on 31 October.
Notes
The end date comes from the infobox and coincides with the last assassination attempt on Mussolini; the article gives no separate event for the end of the period.
Conan Doyle's The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier appears in Liberty
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
The Sherlock Holmes story first appeared in the American magazine Liberty in October, and the British Strand Magazine printed it in November. It is among 12 tales in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.
Notes
The UK printing in The Strand Magazine came in November 1926. Wikidata gives 16 October 1926.
First issue of the parenting magazine Parents appears in New York
Art & literature
Parents was an American monthly magazine with scientific information on child development, aimed at helping parents raise their children. It was based in New York City and ended in 2022, when the title carried on as a digital media site.
Notes
The infobox, the history section and Wikidata all give October 1926; none gives a day.
The older athletic-club ground grew into a complete stadium with an upper seating bowl, named Multnomah Civic Stadium after the club that built it. Ground had been broken on 6 May 1926.
Notes
The opening day, 9 October 1926, is in the English infobox and in the body, which says the stadium was formally dedicated that day; Wikidata agrees.
· Estadio Nacional, Mexico City, Mexico · North America
Plutarco Elías Calles opens the first Central American and Caribbean Games
SportSome details uncertain
The first Central American and Caribbean Games ran at the Estadio Nacional in Mexico City, opened by Plutarco Elías Calles. Sports delegates meeting in Mexico City on 16 October 1925 had agreed to hold the first edition there the next year.
Notes
This article and its infobox give 12 October to 2 November 1926; the series article's edition table and German Wikipedia give 30 October to 2 November, so the opening day is disputed.
· St. Louis, Missouri, United States · North America
Chuck Berry is born in St. Louis
Lives
Charles Edward Anderson Berry came from a middle-class family, and his first public performance took place at Sumner High School. His songs include Maybellene, Roll Over Beethoven, Rock and Roll Music and Johnny B. Goode.
· Elmhurst, Illinois, United States · North America
Eugene V. Debs dies in Elmhurst, Illinois
Lives
Eugene Debs, an American trade unionist and socialist campaigner, helped found the American Railway Union and the Industrial Workers of the World. In 1894 he led the union's boycott of Pullman cars in the nationwide Pullman Strike.
Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises is published by Scribner's
Art & literature
Scribner's published Ernest Hemingway's first novel, which follows American and British expatriates travelling from Paris to the San Fermín festival in Pamplona. Reviews were mixed at first, but a biographer and a scholar later called it his greatest and his most important work.
Notes
The lead gives October 1926 for the US publication; the publication history in the body gives the day, 22 October 1926, which matches Wikidata.
First Central American and Caribbean Games open in Mexico City
SportSome details uncertain
Mexico City hosted the first Central American and Caribbean Games from 30 October to 2 November. The regional multi-sport event is now held every four years and is meant as a step between the sub-regional games and the Pan American Games.
Notes
The English series article's edition table and infobox, and German Wikipedia's article on the series, give 30 October to 2 November 1926. The English article on the 1926 games gives 12 October to 2 November, saying delegates agreed in 1925 to open on 12 October, so the opening day is disputed.
· Detroit, Michigan, United States · North America
Harry Houdini dies in Detroit
Lives
Harry Houdini, born Erik Weisz in Budapest in 1874, died in Detroit. An American illusionist, escapologist and stuntman, he led the Society of American Magicians from 1917 until his death and campaigned against fake spiritualists.
The strike and boycott began on 19 June 1925, when unions linked to the Chinese Communist Party started the walkout after the shootings of protesters in Shanghai during the May Thirtieth Movement. It ended in October 1926.
Notes
The infobox and lead both give October 1926 as the end; no day is given.
India's first Public Service Commission is established under Sir Ross Barker
Politics & diplomacy
Sir Ross Barker chaired the commission, set up on 1 October 1926. Today the Union Public Service Commission is a constitutional body under Part XIV of the Constitution of India, recruiting civil-service officers through standardised examinations.
Notes
Set up on 1 October 1926 under the name Public Service Commission. The Government of India Act 1935 turned it into the Federal Public Service Commission, and after independence it took its present name, Union Public Service Commission.
Hidemaro Konoye founds the New Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Hidemaro Konoye founded the orchestra, Japan's first professional symphony orchestra. Today, as the NHK Symphony Orchestra, it is a broadcast orchestra playing at NHK Hall and Suntory Hall.
Notes
The conductor list gives Konoye's start as January 1926, earlier than the 5 October 1926 founding day.
Founding declaration of the Cao Đài religion is signed
Religion & philosophySome details uncertain
The founding declaration of Caodaism, a Vietnamese religion that blends Confucian ethics, Taoist practice, Buddhist karma and rebirth, and a Catholic-style hierarchy, was signed on 7 October 1926. The movement grew from a spiritualist club of colonial clerks begun in Saigon in 1925.
Notes
The English article dates the signing of the founding declaration by Ngô Văn Chiêu to 7 October 1926 (citing a 1955 Pacific Affairs article) and says the religion was officially established in Tây Ninh in 1926; it does not say where the declaration was signed. Wikidata gives 19 November 1926 for the founding, without a source, and German Wikipedia gives 7 September 1926.
The baseball ground in Shinjuku belongs to the Meiji Shrine. The Tokyo Big6 Baseball League has played there since 1926, the professional Tokyo Yakult Swallows use it as their home field, and the Tohto University Baseball League also plays there.
Notes
The English infobox gives 23 October 1926 and the English lead says only 1926. Japanese Wikipedia independently says the completion ceremony was on 23 October 1926, and German Wikipedia's infobox agrees.
Elections begin for British India's legislative councils
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Elections to the Imperial Legislative Council and the provincial councils began in British India on 28 October and continued until late November. The Swaraj Party took the provincial contests in Bengal and Madras and gained ground in Bihar and Orissa.
Notes
Polling ran from 28 October to late November 1926. Wikidata gives 10 June 1926, which the article does not support.
· Salmas (Dilman), Persia (now Iran) · Middle East
Simko Shikak leads a second Kurdish revolt against Iran
War & conflict
The Shekak tribal leader led a short uprising against the Pahlavi dynasty, and in October 1926 his Kurdish rebels began besieging the city of Salmas, also called Dilman. Iran won.
Notes
The infobox also dates the conflict to October 1926 and names it the 2nd Simko Shikak Revolt.
Necmettin Erbakan became a Turkish politician and political theorist who founded the Millî Görüş movement and led several Islamic political parties. He was Turkey's 23rd prime minister, from 1996 to 1997, when military pressure forced his resignation.
Notes
The date is in the English lead, the infobox and French Wikipedia; the birthplace Sinop is in the English body text, the infobox and French Wikipedia. Turkey had used the Gregorian calendar since 1 January 1926, so no conversion is needed.
Italian People's Party dissolves under the fascist regime
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The party, founded on 18 January 1919 as a Christian democratic party inspired by Catholic social teaching, was wound up in November 1926 under the fascist regime, having been divided between pro-fascist and anti-fascist members. Christian Democracy is named as its successor.
Notes
The English infobox gives 5 November 1926; Italian Wikipedia and Wikidata give 9 November 1926 (a forced dissolution), so only the month is stored. The English lead puts the end down to a split between pro- and anti-fascist members; Italian Wikipedia stresses the fascist dictatorship's forced dissolution.
Valdas Adamkus, born Voldemaras Adamkavičius, worked as a civil engineer, diplomat and American civil servant before leading Lithuania. Rolandas Paksas beat him in the 2003 election but was later impeached, and Adamkus won again.
· Prats-de-Mollo-la-Preste, Vallespir, France · Europe
Plot of Prats de Molló: planned Catalan invasion from France is aborted
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Francesc Macià and the Estat Català leadership planned an armed invasion of Catalonia from France to win Catalan independence, but the plot was aborted and its leaders arrested. Macià had decided to go ahead after the failed June 1926 Sanjuanada coup attempt.
Notes
The lead says only that the plot was discovered and aborted in 1926; the day comes from the infobox.
Spanish astronomer Josep Comas Solà found the comet at the Fabra Observatory. A member of the Jupiter family, it takes less than ten years to go once round the Sun.
Notes
English Wikipedia and its infobox give 4 November 1926; French Wikipedia gives 5 November; Wikidata gives 6 November and also lists 5 November. English and French Wikipedia also differ on the orbital period (9.7 and 8.8 years).
Berger was an English writer who worked as a critic of art, a novelist, a painter and a poet. He lived in France for more than fifty years and died there on 2 January 2017.
Notes
The article text says he was born in Stoke Newington, London; its infobox gives London, and Wikidata gives the London Borough of Hackney.
HaFraBa association is founded to plan a Hamburg-Frankfurt-Basel motorway
Architecture
Robert Otzen founded the HaFraBa association to prepare an early large-scale Autobahn project in Germany. Its original, longer name described a fast road for motor traffic from Hamburg to Basel via Frankfurt.
Greece holds its parliamentary election of November 1926
Politics & diplomacy
The Liberal Union became the largest faction with 108 of 286 seats, but no party could govern alone. On 4 December a government led by Alexandros Zaimis, an outsider to parliament, took office, drawing in the Liberal Union, Democratic Union, People's Party and Freethinkers' Party.
The club was formed under the name POEL, the Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia. APOEL is now a professional club that ranks as Cyprus's most successful, and it helped found the Cyprus Football Association.
Italian Chamber moves to strip Aventine Secession deputies of their seats
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The Italian Chamber took up Augusto Turati's motion declaring forfeit the seats of the opposition deputies who had walked out in 1924 after the murder of Giacomo Matteotti. In November 1926 those deputies were formally deprived of their seats.
Notes
Wikidata gives the end as 9 November 1926. The body says the Chamber considered the motion that day; the lead says only that the deputies were deprived of their mandates in November 1926.
Three regional football clubs' associations, for Athens, Piraeus and Macedonia, decided to create the federation. It became a FIFA member in 1927 and in 1954 one of the first members of UEFA.
Imperial Conference approves the Balfour Declaration of 1926
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
At the 1926 Imperial Conference in London, the imperial prime ministers unanimously approved a text drafted by a committee chaired by Arthur Balfour. It declared the equality of the Commonwealth nations.
Notes
Lead gives no day; 15 November 1926 is the date of the prime ministers' approval of the committee's document (body).
John Moses Browning, an American firearms designer, died in Liège, Belgium. He built many military and civilian guns, cartridges and mechanisms, and his best-known designs include the M1911 pistol, the M2 machine gun and the Browning Automatic Rifle.
First World Snooker Championship begins as the Professional Championship of Snooker
Sport
Ten players took part in matches at several venues, billed then as the Professional Championship of Snooker. Joe Davis won the final in Birmingham in May 1927, beating Tom Dennis.
Notes
Lead gives 29 November 1926 for the start; the preliminary match was played at Thurston's Hall, London. Wikidata also gives place London. The final was held at Camkin's Hall, Birmingham.
Andrzej Viktor Schally became a Polish-American endocrinologist whose research showed the hypothalamus controls hormone production by the pituitary gland. In 1977 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Roger Guillemin and Rosalyn Sussman Yalow.
Notes
The infobox and body give the birthplace as Wilno in Poland, now Vilnius in Lithuania.
Conan Doyle's The Adventure of the Lion's Mane appears in Liberty
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
The Sherlock Holmes story first appeared in the American magazine Liberty, and the British Strand Magazine printed it in December. Set in 1907 after Holmes has retired to the Sussex Downs, it was collected in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes in June 1927.
Notes
Wikidata gives 27 November 1926 for the US first printing.
The elections fell midway through President Calvin Coolidge's second term and covered the 32 Class 3 seats, with special elections filling vacancies. Republicans lost seven Senate seats.
Notes
The general election day is 2 November 1926, taken from the infobox and race summaries. The infobox also lists special elections on 30 June, 31 August, 13 September and 14 September, and one entry for 3 November. German Wikipedia's text says Democrats took six seats from Republicans, while the English infoboxes show seven, so the seat change is treated as approximate.
Annie Oakley, an American trick-shot performer who was a headline act with Buffalo Bill's Wild West, died of pernicious anaemia. She learned to hunt as a child to feed her poor family, and beat the marksman Frank Butler in a shooting match before marrying him.
Notes
English Wikipedia's lead puts her age at the match at 15, French Wikipedia at 16, and a biographer cited in the English article dates the match to 1881, so no age is given.
U.S. Route 66 is established as an original numbered highway
Architecture
Route 66 became part of the U.S. Numbered Highway System from the start, running from Chicago across eight states to Los Angeles, California. It was extended west to Santa Monica in 1936. Businessman Cyrus Avery and others had pushed for a Chicago to Los Angeles route.
United States approves its numbered highway system
Architecture
The plan created a nationwide grid of numbered roads across the contiguous United States, replacing the haphazard markings of private auto trail associations. Most north-south routes carry odd numbers and most east-west routes even ones.
· Kansas City, Missouri, United States · North America
Liberty Memorial is dedicated in Kansas City
Architecture
President Coolidge dedicated the finished monument, with Queen Marie of Romania present. Congress named it the country's official World War I museum in 2004.
· Springfield, Missouri to Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States · North America
U.S. Route 60 is established from Springfield, Missouri, to Virginia
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
The final plan gave the number to the road from Springfield, Missouri, to Virginia Beach, after a 1925 preliminary plan had split the Midland Trail among several different numbers. The western end was later extended to Los Angeles and in 1964 cut back to near Brenda, Arizona.
Notes
The infobox lists both 11 November 1926 and a bare 1926 for different parts of the route; the history section describes the plan without a day. Confidence is medium.
The Radio Corporation of America had set up NBC earlier in 1926 as a new division, National Broadcasting Company, Inc., and General Electric, Westinghouse and AT&T soon became co-owners. Its radio network began broadcasting on 15 November.
Notes
English Wikipedia's infobox gives 19 May 1926 for the founding and 15 November 1926 for the launch of the radio network; French Wikipedia's text and Wikidata also give 15 November 1926 for the launch. The date stored is that of the launch.
Silent film The Great Gatsby, directed by Herbert Brenon, is released
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Herbert Brenon directed this silent drama, the first film version of Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, with Warner Baxter as Jay Gatsby, Lois Wilson as Daisy Buchanan and Neil Hamilton as Nick Carraway.
Notes
The release day comes only from the infobox. A stage version of the novel, directed by George Cukor, opened on Broadway on 2 February 1926.
Rosario Central's stadium, named after the Arroyito neighborhood, was officially inaugurated with a Copa Nicasio Vila game against the club's arch-rival Newell's Old Boys. The refurbished, complete stadium was inaugurated again in October 1927 with a friendly against Peñarol.
Notes
The body also describes a later inauguration of the refurbished, complete stadium in October 1927.
Uruguay holds its general election of November 1926
Politics & diplomacy
Voters chose a president, three seats on the National Council of Administration and six Senate seats. The National Party's Luis Alberto de Herrera collected the most individual votes, yet the Colorado Party led overall, which made its candidate Juan Campisteguy president.
Madras Presidency Legislative Council election of November 1926
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The vote, the third since dyarchy was set up under the Government of India Act, 1919, saw the Justice Party lose to the Swaraj Party. The Swaraj Party declined to form a government, so the Governor set up an independent ministry under P. Subbarayan, backed by nominated members.
Notes
The day 8 November 1926 comes only from the infobox, so confidence is medium; the lead gives November 1926.
Sakichi Toyoda, inventor of manual and powered looms, founded the company, which grew out of loom making and still makes automatic looms. It is the world's largest maker of forklift trucks by revenue.
· Pondicherry, French India (now Puducherry, India) · Asia
Sri Aurobindo and The Mother found the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry
Religion & philosophySome details uncertain
Sri Aurobindo and his collaborator Mirra Alfassa, known as The Mother, founded the spiritual community in Pondicherry, now Puducherry. It centres on Integral Yoga, Sri Aurobindo's teaching, and has an educational arm, the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education.
Notes
The English infobox and French Wikipedia give 24 November 1926 (Siddhi day); German Wikipedia says only that the ashram took shape after November 1926, and Wikidata gives only the year, so confidence is medium.
Tsung-Dao Lee, a Chinese-American physicist noted for parity-violation research, taught at Columbia University from 1953 until his retirement in 2012. He and Chen Ning Yang won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Notes
Wikidata also lists 25 November 1926; the infobox and lead give 24 November.
· Sidi Bou Said, French Tunisia (now Tunisia) · Africa
Beji Caid Essebsi is born in Sidi Bou Said
Lives
Beji Caid Essebsi, from an elite family with roots in Sardinia, was foreign minister from 1981 to 1986 and prime minister in 2011. He founded the Nidaa Tounes party, which won most seats in the 2014 parliamentary election.
Notes
The infobox gives the birthplace as French Tunisia.
Sutherland was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano who helped revive the bel canto repertoire between the late 1950s and the 1980s. Many regard her as among the finest sopranos ever.
Notes
The infobox and body give Sydney as the birthplace; Wikidata lists Sydney and, as its preferred value, the Sydney suburb of Point Piper.
Imperial Chemical Industries is formed by merging four British chemical firms
Economy & trade
Brunner Mond, Nobel Explosives, United Alkali and British Dyestuffs merged to form ICI, headquartered at Millbank in London. It was acquired by AkzoNobel and ceased to exist in 2008.
Notes
Wikidata gives 18 December 1926, but the article states only December 1926, so only the month is stored.
T. E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom is privately printed
Art & literature
T. E. Lawrence's account of his service as an adviser to Bedouin forces during the Arab Revolt of 1916 to 1918 first appeared in a private Subscribers' Edition, subtitled A Triumph. A shorter US edition followed in 1927 as Revolt in the Desert.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 1926; the lead gives December and the body says late 1926.
International Table Tennis Federation is formed in London
SportSome details uncertain
Ivor Montagu and William Henry Lawes are named as founders of the federation, formed in London after an earlier founding in Berlin in January. Montagu led it from 1926, first as chairman and later as president.
Notes
The infobox gives 12 December 1926; the text says the federation was established in Berlin in January and in London in December 1926, and French Wikipedia has Ivor Montagu elected first president on 7 December 1926, so only the month is stored.
Théo van Rysselberghe, a Belgian Neo-Impressionist painter and founding member of the avant-garde group Les XX, died at Saint-Clair. Through Les XX and La Libre Esthétique he helped bring Seurat and Signac to Belgian audiences.
Notes
The day of death is disputed. The English infobox and lead, French Wikipedia and German Wikipedia give 13 December 1926; the English article's body, Dutch Wikipedia and one of Wikidata's two statements give 14 December. Wikidata lists both days, so only the month is stored.
The Social Democrats stayed the largest party with 53 of the 149 seats, but Thomas Madsen-Mygdal of Venstre replaced Thorvald Stauning as prime minister afterwards. The Faroe Islands voted on 20 December.
Notes
The change of prime minister is from the infobox; the lead does not mention it.
Lev Kuleshov directed this silent action drama for the Soviet company Goskino. It follows gold prospectors in Canada's Yukon region during the Klondike Gold Rush.
Poland's top football league, Liga Polska, is founded in Warsaw
SportSome details uncertain
The league now called the Ekstraklasa, Polish for 'Extra Class', was officially founded in Warsaw under the name Liga Polska. From 1 March 1927 it was called Liga Piłki Nożnej.
Notes
Lead gives 4-5 December 1926; the infobox gives 4 December 1926; Wikidata gives 5 December 1926.
Claude Monet, the French painter who founded the Impressionist movement, died at Giverny, where he had settled in 1883 and made a garden with a water-lily pond. He spent his last 20 years painting those water lilies.
Trelleborgs FF was formed in Trelleborg, Sweden, and has played 17 seasons in Allsvenskan. In 2006 it set a Superettan record for the longest run without conceding.
· Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes · Europe
Nikola Pašić dies in Belgrade
Lives
Nikola Pašić, a Serbian and Yugoslav statesman and diplomat active in politics for nearly fifty years, served five times as Serbia's prime minister and three times as Yugoslavia's. He is credited with an instrumental part in founding Yugoslavia.
San Marino holds a one-party election won by the Fascist Party
Politics & diplomacy
The Sammarinese Fascist Party, in control since April 1923, was the only party to run and won all 60 seats on the Grand and General Council. Opposition had been blocked by internal and Italian threats, and a law of 11 November 1926 ended universal suffrage and lengthened the Council's term to six years.
Military coup brings Antanas Smetona to power in Lithuania
Politics & diplomacy
Military officers ousted Lithuania's democratically elected government and set up an authoritarian regime under Antanas Smetona, replacing President Kazys Grinius and Prime Minister Mykolas Sleževičius. The Christian Democrats, the biggest party in parliament, gave the coup legal cover.
Janáček's opera The Makropulos Affair premieres in Brno
Stage, music & film
František Neumann conducted the first performance of the three-act Czech opera at the Brno National Theatre. Janáček, who supplied both music and words, adapted a play by Karel Čapek and finished the score in December 1925.
Rainer Maria Rilke, an Austrian poet born in Prague who wrote in German and French, died in Montreux, Switzerland. His best-known works in English include Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus.
Conan Doyle's The Adventure of the Retired Colourman appears in Liberty
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
The Sherlock Holmes story first appeared in the American magazine Liberty, and the Strand Magazine printed it in Britain in January 1927. It is one of 12 tales in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.
Notes
The UK printing in The Strand Magazine came in January 1927; the infobox gives only 1926.
· Los Angeles, California, United States · North America
Notre Dame plays USC for the first time
Sport
Notre Dame won the first game, played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, beginning a rivalry that ranks among the fiercest in college football. The series was played every year from 1926 to 2025 except 1943 to 1945 and 2020, and is scheduled to resume in 2030.
Lázaro Chacón González won the presidency with 89% of the vote in elections that were rigged. The Progressive Liberal Party still won some seats in Congress.
· Boston, Massachusetts, United States · North America
Henry Way Kendall is born in Boston
Lives
Henry Way Kendall became an American particle physicist who studied at Amherst College and earned his doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Jerome Isaac Friedman and Richard E. Taylor shared his 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics.
MGM releases Flesh and the Devil with Greta Garbo and John Gilbert
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released Clarence Brown's silent film, adapted from Hermann Sudermann's novel The Undying Past, with Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in the leading roles. Its first showing was at the Capitol Theatre in New York on 9 January 1927.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 25 December 1926; the body gives a first showing at the Capitol Theatre in New York on 9 January 1927.
Emperor Taishō died of a heart attack in the early morning at the Hayama Imperial Villa, after it had been announced earlier in December that he had pneumonia. His son Hirohito succeeded him; his reign saw a shift toward liberal democracy known as Taishō Democracy.
Events we can place in 1926 but not in a particular month.
Europe 69
· London, England · Europe
First World Table Tennis Championships are held in London
Sport
The International Table Tennis Federation's world championships began in London in 1926. Gladys, Baroness Swaythling, donated the Swaythling Cup for the men's team event that year, and Hungary's men's team dominated the early tournaments.
Kafka's last novel, in which a hero named K. reaches a village and struggles to get through to the officials who rule it from a castle, appeared after his death and against his wishes. Max Brod convinced the publisher Kurt Wolff to issue the first German edition.
A. A. Milne created Piglet, Pooh's closest friend among the toys and animals, for his Winnie-the-Pooh books. A very small and generally timid animal who tries to be brave, he hunts Woozles and joins the Expotition to the North Pole in the first book.
· Strahov, Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) · Europe
Great Strahov Stadium opens in Prague
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
The Great Strahov Stadium was built for mass displays of synchronised gymnastics on an enormous field, with a first wooden stadium to plans by the architect Alois Dryák. Concrete grandstands replaced the wooden ones in 1932.
Notes
The infobox gives an opening day of 4 July 1926, but the text says construction of the first, wooden stadium began in 1926 and French Wikipedia gives only the year, so only the year is stored.
Park Güell, a public park of gardens and architectural elements in Barcelona's Gràcia district, was formally opened for public use. Industrialist Eusebi Güell had commissioned Antoni Gaudí to design it, and UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage Site in 1984.
S. Fischer Verlag issued the first book edition of Schnitzler's novella, which had been serialised in the magazine Die Dame from December 1925 to March 1926. It follows Doctor Fridolin over two days after his wife confesses a fantasy about another man.
Notes
The serial ran from December 1925, but the book edition is 1926; no day is given.
After the report of the first Gaeltacht Commission, the Irish government designated the official Gaeltacht, districts where Irish is recognised as the main language of the home. They lay in Donegal, Galway, Mayo, Kerry, Cork and Waterford.
Ten journalists and critics create the Prix Renaudot in Paris
Art & literature
Ten journalists and literary critics created the French literary award in 1926, after joking in 1925 about a rival to the Goncourt while waiting for that prize's jury to decide. Armand Lunel won the first prize, for Nicolo Peccavi, published by Gallimard.
Notes
English Wikipedia calls the ten founders art critics; French Wikipedia calls them journalists and literary critics, dates the original joke to 1925 and says the prize was created the following year. Both say the prize is now announced at the Drouant restaurant in Paris.
Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet founds Publicis in Paris
Economy & trade
Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet founded Publicis as a very young man. The Paris-based French multinational in advertising and public relations forms the so-called Big Three of advertising with WPP and Omnicom.
Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger found the firm now called SLB in Paris
Economy & trade
The brothers Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger, from Alsace, founded the Electric Prospecting Company in Paris, selling electrical-measurement mapping services. It is now the oilfield services multinational SLB, formerly named Schlumberger.
The Thessaloniki International Fair, an annual exhibition in Greece's second-largest city, has taken place in early September every year since 1926. HELEXPO organises it.
Nabokov's first novel, issued under his pen name V. Sirin by the Russian-language publisher Slovo, appeared in Germany. Its original title is Mashen'ka, and the English edition did not come until 1970.
Notes
The infobox lists Germany as the country of publication, and the article says the novel was written and published while Nabokov lived in Berlin. Wikidata gives only the year 1926.
Godiva began in Brussels when a member of the Draps family started making pralines in a home workshop, selling them through the Sarma department store and other retailers. Campbell Soup bought it in 1974 and sold it to Yıldız Holding in November 2007.
Notes
The infobox names the founder as Joseph Draps, while the body says Pierre Draps began making pralines.
The Oseberg ship left the university's temporary shelters for a hall built for it with funding from the Norwegian Parliament. The Viking Ship Museum on the Bygdøy peninsula holds three Viking burial ships, with finds from the Tune, Gokstad, Oseberg and Borre excavations.
Notes
The 1926 happening dated in the article is the Oseberg ship's move into its new hall, not the museum's opening.
Prague Linguistic Circle is founded in the Café Derby
Science
Linguists, philologists and literary critics in Prague formed a society that became the Prague school, meeting in its first years at the Café Derby. Between 1928 and 1939 its members built structuralist ways of analysing literature and a theory about standard languages.
Hans Wilsdorf of Rolex registers the Tudor watch brand
Economy & trade
The trademark was registered for Hans Wilsdorf, founder of Rolex, by a Swiss watch firm, Veuve de Philippe Hüther. Tudor, based in Geneva, makes Swiss watches and is still a sister company of Rolex.
Krste Misirkov, a Macedonian-born philologist, journalist, historian, folklorist and ethnographer, died in Sofia. In 1903-1905 he published On Macedonian Matters and the journal Vardar, arguing for a distinct Macedonian national identity.
Notes
The infobox gives 1926 and the text gives 26 June or 26 July 1926, so only the year is stored. Wikidata gives 26 June 1926 and also lists 26 July 1926.
The Michelin Guide awards stars to restaurants for the first time
Everyday life
Michelin, a French tyre maker that has published the guide since 1900, began giving stars to superior restaurants in 1926; earlier guides by Murray and Baedeker had already used stars. Today it awards up to three stars to a select few restaurants.
Otakar Borůvka publishes his minimum spanning tree algorithm
Science
Otakar Borůvka first published the greedy algorithm, which finds a minimum spanning tree, as a way to build an efficient electricity network for Moravia.
GeSoLei, a huge public health and welfare fair, runs in Düsseldorf
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
No German trade fair of the Weimar years was bigger, with 7.5 million visitors. The name combines short forms of German words for public health, social welfare and physical exercise. Wilhelm Kreis built the Tonhalle for the fair, and it still stands.
Notes
Wikidata gives 8 May to 15 October 1926 for the fair.
Deutsche Luft Hansa opens an air route serving Salzburg
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Deutsche Luft Hansa opened an air route from Munich to Salzburg to Bad Reichenhall, and in 1927 ÖLAG started a Vienna to Salzburg to Innsbruck route. Salzburg Airport is now Austria's second-largest airport.
Notes
The article does not give the airport's own opening date; the 1926 date is for the first scheduled route that the article mentions.
Andreas Stihl founded the firm that bears his name and designed and hand-built his first chainsaw that year. It makes handheld power equipment, is headquartered in Waiblingen near Stuttgart, and runs the Stihl Timbersports Series.
Rachmaninoff completes his Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor
Stage, music & film
Sergei Rachmaninoff finished the concerto, Op. 40, in 1926 after a sabbatical from eight years of touring. Its first performance, in Philadelphia in March 1927, was unsuccessful, and he cut and revised the work, leaving three versions.
Notes
Completion is dated 1926. The premiere was on 18 March 1927.
Four-masted barque Padua, later the Kruzenshtern, is built at Geestemünde
Technology
Padua was the last of the P-Liners and began as a cargo ship, taking construction material to Chile and bringing saltpeter back. In 1946 she passed to the USSR as war reparation, was renamed Kruzenshtern, and today serves Russia as a sail training ship.
Notes
The name Kruzenshtern honours the explorer Adam Johann von Krusenstern.
Warsaw's bronze Chopin statue is erected in Łazienki Park
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
Wacław Szymanowski designed the large bronze monument to Frédéric Chopin, which stands in the upper part of Łazienki Park, next to Aleje Ujazdowskie.
Notes
Only the year is stored. Polish Wikipedia gives 14 November 1926 for the unveiling and German Wikipedia also dates it to November 1926; the 11 May 1958 in the infobox is the unveiling of the rebuilt statue. English Wikipedia says the statue was designed in 1907, while Polish and German Wikipedia say the design competition was decided in 1909.
Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg directed this Lenfilm silent drama with Russian intertitles, adapting two Gogol stories, Nevsky Prospekt and The Overcoat.
Notes
Wikidata gives 10 May 1926; the infobox and lead give only 1926.
UNIDROIT, an institute for unifying private law across countries, was set up as an agency of the League of Nations and is headquartered in Rome. It was set up again in 1940 after the League was dissolved.
Museum that became the Amsterdam Museum opens in the Waag
Art & literature
The museum, called the Amsterdam Historical Museum until 2010, first opened in the Waag, formerly one of Amsterdam's city gates. The gate dates from the 15th century, and the museum is devoted to the city's past and present.
Divisione Nazionale becomes Italian football's top tier under fascist control
Sport
In 1926 the fascist regime took direct control of the football federation, with Leandro Arpinati as president, and refused to tolerate a championship built on local groups. Divisione Nazionale was the top tier's name from 1926 to 1929.
The National Railway Company of Belgium replaced the Belgian State Railways as the national rail operator. It is an autonomous government company known as NMBS in Dutch and SNCB in French.
Notes
Wikidata lists 1 September 1926 as the founding date, with no source; the English article gives only the year 1926.
Georges Bernanos publishes his first novel, Under the Sun of Satan
Art & literature
Plon published the novel in Paris. The curate Jean-Marie Vianney inspired the character Donissan, and the earlier writers Bloy and Barbey d'Aurevilly shaped its themes.
Notes
The infobox names Plon as the publisher; the article and Wikidata give only the year 1926.
The club was founded as SV Wehen 1926 Taunusstein and was disbanded by the Nazi government in 1933. It added Wiesbaden to its name in the summer of 2007 and now plays at the BRITA-Arena.
Gelmerbahn cable railway opens in the canton of Bern
Technology
The railway links Handegg with the Gelmersee lake and was built to help construct the reservoir, which was made to use the area's hydroelectric power. The public could not ride it until 2001; its maximum incline of 106% makes it the steepest open-car railway in Europe.
Notes
The English infobox gives the opening as 1926 and the body says the reservoir was built in 1926; German Wikipedia says the works railway began operating in 1926. It opened to the public in 2001.
· Lake Goldajärvi, on the Norway, Sweden and Finland border · Europe
Three-Country Cairn is built at the Sweden-Norway-Finland tripoint
Architecture
The present cairn, a conical concrete frustum standing on a pile of stones in Lake Goldajärvi, marks where the borders of Sweden, Norway and Finland meet. No international tripoint anywhere lies further north.
Notes
The present monument dates from 1926. Earlier monuments were put up in 1897 (by Norway and Russia) and 1901 (by Sweden), and the border had been marked with cairns after the Strömstad Treaty of 1751. Wikidata lists 1897, 1901 and 1926 as inception years, none sourced.
International Federation of Journalists is founded in Paris
Economy & trade
The French journalists' union, the Syndicat national des journalistes, took the initiative in founding the federation, and Georges Bourdon became its first president. It is now the world's largest global union federation of journalists' unions.
Reims-Gueux was established to host the Grand Prix de la Marne for the second time, after the race moved from the Beine-Nauroy circuit east of Reims. The circuit used rural public roads west of Reims in the Champagne region.
First European Water Polo Championship is held in Budapest
Sport
Budapest hosted the opening European Water Polo Championship, a men's competition only. Until 1997 the water polo event was part of the European Aquatics Championships, and it became its own tournament from 1999.
· Surdulica, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (now Serbia) · Europe
Football club that became FK Radnik Surdulica is founded
Sport
The club began under the name Surdulički sportski klub (SSK), founded on the initiative of a local shoemaker, Gradimir Antić. Today it is a professional club in the top tier of Serbian football.
Hendrik op het Veld founds the company that became Vekoma
Economy & trade
Hendrik op het Veld set up the company, originally named Veld Koning Machinefabriek. Vekoma, a shortened form of that name, is now a Dutch amusement ride manufacturer headquartered in Vlodrop.
Italy founds the Fascist youth organization Opera Nazionale Balilla
Politics & diplomacy
A law set up the Fascist paramilitary youth organization under the Ministry of National Education, and it was active until 1937, when the Gioventù Italiana del Littorio took it over.
Russian submarine commission becomes Technical Bureau No. 4, an early form of Rubin
TechnologySome details uncertain
The Construction Commission for Submarines was turned into Technical Bureau No. 4; six years later the bureau was renamed Central Design Bureau No. 2 for special military shipbuilding. Based in Saint Petersburg, Rubin is today the biggest of Russia's three main submarine design centers.
Notes
The infobox gives 1900 as the founding year; the 1926 happening is a reorganisation of the submarine commission, not the founding. Wikidata gives 1926.
Spyker's last products were the C2 truck and the C4 car, built until its funds ran out in 1926, when the original company closed for good. Blacksmiths Jacobus and Hendrik-Jan Spijker had started the business in 1880.
Notes
English, French and Dutch Wikipedia agree on 1926. The English infobox lists the fate as bankruptcy, but the text dates bankruptcies to 1907 and 1922 and says funds ran out in 1926; French Wikipedia says the firm closed for good in 1926, and Dutch Wikipedia gives 26 May 1926 for the final end, with the stock auctioned. Only the year is stored.
Odd Gleditsch Sr. buys a small chemical factory called Jotun
Economy & trade
The company's founder, Odd Gleditsch Sr., bought a small chemical factory named Jotun. Jotun is now a Norwegian multinational making paints and coatings, with its headquarters in Sandefjord.
Notes
The body sentence says only 'he'; the infobox names Odd Gleditsch Sr. as founder.
After the coup, President Wojciechowski and Prime Minister Witos had to step down, and real power passed to Marshal Józef Piłsudski. The National Assembly, made up of Sejm and Senate, picked the new president; Piłsudski declined, so Ignacy Mościcki accepted the office.
Notes
The article covers two elections in 1926; Wikidata gives 31 May 1926 for the first. A section dated 1 June covers the choice of candidates. Only the year is stored, at medium confidence.
Carrozzeria Touring traces its roots to a 1926 Milan coachbuilder takeover
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
The lawyers Felice Bianchi Anderloni and Gaetano Ponzoni bought control of Carrozzeria Falco from its founder, Vittorio Ascari, and the business became Carrozzeria Touring. It was known for patented superleggera building methods; the original company folded in 1966.
Notes
The lead gives two founding dates: it says originally established in Milan in 1925, and also says established on 25 March 1926. The body and infobox give 1926, so only the year is stored, at medium confidence.
Jacoby's Fragmente der griechischen Historiker: volumes on the historians proper appear
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
Volumes covering the historians proper were published by Weidmann in Berlin from 1926 in Jacoby's collection, which builds on Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller's earlier Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum. The project was planned in six parts, but only the first three were published.
Notes
The volume index dates Part 1 to 1923 and the first of the Part 2 volumes to 1926; only the 1926 volumes are meant here.
Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities is launched in Stockholm
Art & literature
Sweden's Parliament launched the museum and made the archaeologist Johan Gunnar Andersson its founding director. It is housed in the Tyghuset building on Skeppsholmen and has been part of Sweden's National Museums of World Culture group since 1999.
Notes
The English article and infobox give 1926 only. Wikidata gives 1926 as the official opening year (citing French Wikipedia) and also lists 1963 as an inception date, with no source.
· Vatican, Rome, Italy (now Vatican City) · Europe
The Holy See establishes the Vatican Publishing House
Economy & trade
The Holy See set up the Vatican Publishing House, which publishes official church documents such as papal bulls and encyclicals. The library was split from the printing side and became an autonomous body selling the Holy See's books.
Notes
Italian Wikipedia describes 1926 as the year, under Pius XI, when the sales office was split from the Vatican press and made independent.
Dinamo Moscow created the women's volleyball club as a section of its sports club. The club was dissolved in 1992 and reestablished in 2004.
Notes
English Wikipedia says most successful with fourteen titles; Russian Wikipedia says one of the most titled; German Wikipedia's text says fifteen titles while its list shows fourteen. Founding year 1926 is agreed by English and Russian Wikipedia.
S. A. Korovin completes the TK pistol design, seen as the first Soviet semi-automatic
Technology
The Dinamo sport society ordered a small 6.35 mm pocket pistol in 1925 for sport and civic uses. By 1926 S. A. Korovin had finished the design, TOZ began production at the end of that year, and it was approved the next year as Pistol TK Model 1926.
Notes
The infobox gives design 1925-1926 and production from 1926.
Südelektra is founded in Switzerland, later becoming Xstrata
Economy & trade
Südelektra worked on infrastructure and electricity projects in Latin America. It later became Xstrata, an Anglo-Swiss mining multinational based in Zug, which Glencore acquired on 2 May 2013 and later retired as a brand.
Ulrich Maisch founds the family firm that became Maico
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Ulrich Maisch started the Swabian family firm in 1926 as Maisch & Co, near Tübingen. It went on to build motorcycles, briefly made microcars in the late 1950s, and became best known for its off-road motocross and enduro bikes and its Maicoletta scooters.
Notes
English, German and French Wikipedia agree on 1926. The English lead says the firm first made Ilo engines of 98 and 123 cc, but German Wikipedia says motorcycle building began only in 1934, mostly with bought-in Sachs and Ilo engines. The founders differ: English and German name Ulrich Maisch (German adds that his sons took over in 1931), while French names the brothers Otto and Wilhelm Maisch. English Wikipedia places the firm at Pfäffingen; German Wikipedia says the business began in Poltringen and moved to Pfäffingen in 1938 and 1939, so the place is given only as near Tübingen.
Venice architecture school, now Iuav University, is founded
Architecture
Giovanni Bordiga launched the school in 1926 as a branch of the Venice art academy and served as its first rector until 1929. Today it is Iuav University of Venice, teaching architecture, urban planning, fashion, arts and design.
Notes
Only the year is stored. English Wikipedia lists Carlo Scarpa as rector from 1971 to 1974, while Italian Wikipedia has him leading the school from 1972. The English article names the 1926 school Scuola Superiore di Arti and has Bordiga found it with Guido Cirilli; Italian Wikipedia calls it the Regia Scuola Superiore di Architettura, founded on Bordiga's initiative, with Cirilli among its first teachers.
The Nordic Games hold their seventh and last edition in Sweden
Sport
The Nordic Games, the earliest international multi-sport event aimed mostly at winter sports, had run at irregular intervals since 1901. A Swedish athletics promotion association organised them, largely through Viktor Balck, an early member of the International Olympic Committee.
Notes
The article records the 1926 games as the seventh and final edition.
· Skopje, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (now North Macedonia) · Europe
Skopje Zoo is founded by a three-member commission
Science
Stanko Karaman headed a three-person commission that established the zoo beside Skopje's City Park.
Notes
The founding year 1926 and the commission led by Stanko Karaman are confirmed by French and Spanish Wikipedia. The animal and species counts are left out because English Wikipedia gives 500 animals and 85 species while French and Spanish Wikipedia give about 300 and 56.
Fascist regime forces the satirical magazine Il Becco Giallo to close
Art & literature
The Fascist regime forced the founder, Alberto Giannini, to close the anti-Fascist satirical weekly, published in Rome from 1924, and to move to France. Its title means The Yellow Beak.
Notes
The Rome magazine closed in 1926. A clandestine series then appeared in Paris from 1 August 1927 and ran until August 1931, which is the end date Wikidata gives.
Museum of Hutsul and Pokuttia folk art is founded in Kolomyia
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
The museum holds more than 50,000 objects recording the history and folk culture of the Hutsulshchyna and Pokuttia regions in Ukraine.
Notes
The founding year 1926 is agreed by English, French and German Wikipedia. English and French Wikipedia say it opened to the public in 1934 (English: end of 1934), but the German infobox gives an opening date of 13 November 1926, so no opening date is relied on.
Warsaw hosts the first Polish men's chess championship
Sport
Dawid Przepiórka won the first national men's title in 1926. Akiba Rubinstein took the second, held in Łódź in 1927, and the first women's event followed in 1935, also in Warsaw.
Notes
The winners come from the article's table of champions.
Thousandth Anniversary of Islam Mosque is completed in Kazan
Religion & philosophy
Kazan's Anniversary Mosque commemorates a thousand years since the Volga Bulgars adopted Islam in 922. It was built from 1924 to 1926 to a design Pechnikov had drawn up in 1914, with money given privately by Muslims.
Notes
Only the year is stored, as the end of building work that began in 1924.
· Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine) · Europe
Kharkiv's Veterinarnaya Square is renamed Dzerzhinsky Square
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Veterinarnaya Square became Maidan Dzerzhynskoho after the Soviet takeover of the city. It is now called Freedom Square and is the largest city square in Kharkiv.
Notes
The 1926 event is a renaming of the square, not its creation.
The institute at Villejuif, near Paris, is a cancer research hospital.
Notes
The founding year is in the English infobox and in French Wikipedia, which says the cancer institute was created in 1926 at the Paul-Brousse site in Villejuif.
· Kamianske, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine) · Europe
Factory team that became FC Stal Kamianske is formed
Sport
A factory team formed as FC Metalist Kamianske and sponsored by the Dnieper Metallurgical Combine is the origin of the club. Relegation came after the 2017-18 season of the Ukrainian Premier League.
Espanya station opened with its Metro line 1 platforms, on the first section of that line between Bordeta and Catalunya, and its upper-level FGC platforms. The complex lies beneath Plaça d'Espanya, where the Llobregat-Anoia Line ends in Barcelona.
Notes
Wikidata gives 27 May 1926. The 1975 date for line 3 comes from the infobox.
H. P. Lovecraft wrote his cosmic horror story in the summer of 1926, and Weird Tales first printed it in February 1928. It is a founding text of the Cthulhu Mythos, a shared fictional universe that Lovecraft and later writers extended.
Notes
Only the writing (summer 1926) falls in 1926; first publication was February 1928.
· Chicago, Illinois, United States · North America
Harlem Globetrotters begin in Chicago
SportSome details uncertain
The team grew out of Giles American Legion Post #87 on Chicago's South Side, and its original players attended Wendell Phillips High School in Bronzeville. Early names included the Chicago GlobeTrotters and the Savoy Big Five.
Notes
English Wikipedia says the team originated in 1926; French Wikipedia lists it as founded in 1927 and has it turning professional that year.
· Detroit, Michigan, United States · North America
General Motors introduces the Pontiac brand
Economy & trade
General Motors introduced Pontiac as a companion make to its pricier Oakland cars, starting with the six-cylinder Series 6-27. The brand's name honours the Odawa chief Pontiac, who appeared on its first logo.
Notes
The article gives both 1931 (Oakland cancelled) and 1933 (Pontiac supplanted Oakland entirely) for the end of Oakland.
James O. McKinsey founds the consulting firm McKinsey & Company
Economy & trade
James O. McKinsey founded the management consultancy that bears his name, which advises corporations, governments and other organisations on strategy. Marvin Bower led its expansion into Europe in the 1940s and 1950s.
Notes
The day is not given. The infobox lists New York City as its headquarters, while the 1926 office is shown as Chicago in the leadership list.
Coco Chanel's simple black dress appears in American Vogue
Everyday lifeSome details uncertain
American Vogue printed a photo of a short, plain black dress by Coco Chanel. Fashion historians trace the little black dress to Chanel's designs of the 1920s.
Notes
The article says historians credit Chanel's 1920s designs, so the 1926 Vogue picture is a milestone rather than a strict founding.
· Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States · North America
Construction starts on Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning skyscraper
Architecture
Building work began on a 42-story tower at the centre of the University of Pittsburgh campus, five years after it was commissioned. It was the tallest building in the city until 1932; the first class met there in 1931 and the formal dedication followed in 1937.
Notes
The university commissioned the building in 1921 and broke ground in 1926; the exterior was finished in October 1934. Wikidata also gives only the year 1926.
The Richest Man in Babylon, a book of money parables by George S. Clason, is published
Art & literature
The book gives financial advice through parables set in ancient Babylon. It gathered pamphlets that American banks and insurers had handed out in the early 1920s, and it is still in print a century later.
· Yonkers, New York, United States · North America
Sarah Lawrence College is founded in Yonkers
Science
Sarah Lawrence College was established on the grounds of William Van Duzer Lawrence's estate and named for his wife, Sarah Bates Lawrence. It opened as a women's college and has been coeducational since 1968.
Robert J. Flaherty and his wife Frances H. Flaherty directed the silent documentary, filmed in Samoa from April 1923 to December 1924 and finished in December 1925.
Notes
The English and French infoboxes and Silent Era give 7 January 1926 (Silent Era: premiered in New York), but German Wikipedia's text gives the Rialto premiere as 7 February 1926, the day before Grierson's review of 8 February. The month is disputed, so only the year is stored; Wikidata gives 1926.
· Astoria, Oregon to Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States · North America
U.S. Route 30 is laid out as a coast-to-coast highway
Architecture
US 30 runs from Astoria, Oregon, to Atlantic City, New Jersey, across the northern United States. Much of the old Lincoln Highway, the first road across the country, became part of it, and its original routing went straight through downtown Chicago.
Notes
Only the year is stored for the highway; 11 November 1926 is the date of the final plan mentioned in the history section.
· New Orleans, Louisiana to Wyoming, Minnesota, United States · North America
U.S. Route 61 is designated along the Mississippi River
Architecture
In Missouri, US 61 replaced most of the state's Route 9, created in 1922 between the Arkansas and Iowa borders. The highway follows the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Wyoming, Minnesota; much of it carries the name Great River Road, and its blues heritage earned the nickname Blues Highway.
Hemingway's novella The Torrents of Spring is published
Art & literature
Ernest Hemingway's first long work parodies Sherwood Anderson's Dark Laughter and also pokes fun at the literary world in general. He submitted the manuscript in early December 1925, and a rejection came before the month was out.
Notes
Wikidata gives 28 May 1926 as the publication date; the English article gives only the year 1926.
· Cheektowaga, New York, United States · North America
Buffalo Municipal Airport opens in Cheektowaga
Architecture
Buffalo Municipal Airport, now Buffalo Niagara International Airport, opened on former farmland, which puts it among the oldest public airports in the United States. Passenger and mail flights to Cleveland started in December 1927.
After the 1925 season the Pros went back to being the Akron Indians, who disbanded after 1926 because of falling financial support and a poor record. The franchise went dormant in 1927 and was surrendered formally a year later.
Notes
The infobox gives 1927 as the year the team folded; the body says it disbanded after the 1926 season, suspended operations in 1927 and gave up its franchise a year later.
Embry-Riddle School of Aviation opens in Cincinnati
Technology
Talton Higbee Embry and John Paul Riddle started their company at Lunken Airport on 17 December 1925, and the school opened in spring 1926, training pilots and aircraft mechanics for the region. It is now a private university with campuses in Daytona Beach, Florida, and Prescott, Arizona.
Notes
The company itself was founded on 17 December 1925; the school opened in spring 1926. The lead dates the founding to 1926.
· Chicago, Illinois, United States · North America
James O. McKinsey founds the Chicago firm that became Kearney
Economy & trade
McKinsey started the consultancy in Chicago in 1926, and in 1929 Andrew Thomas Kearney joined him as the first partner. After his death in 1937 the Chicago branch went its own way under Tom Kearney; a January 2020 rebrand shortened the name to simply Kearney.
H. P. Lovecraft writes the short story The Silver Key
Art & literature
H. P. Lovecraft wrote the fantasy story, which belongs to his Dreamlands series and continues The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. Weird Tales first printed it in its January 1929 issue.
Notes
It was written in 1926 and first published in January 1929.
National Electrical Manufacturers Association is founded in the United States
Economy & trade
NEMA is the largest US trade body for makers of electrical equipment, lobbying for manufacturers and issuing standards for electrical products. It also specifies the form of American household outlets and plugs.
Girl Scout conference calls for a special international day, later World Thinking Day
Everyday lifeSome details uncertain
At Camp Edith Macy, a site owned by Girl Scouts of the United States, delegates to the fourth international Girl Scout conference called for a special international day.
The Overland marque becomes the Overland Whippet, later the Willys Whippet
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Willys-Overland kept the Overland name until 1926, when it became Overland Whippet and later Willys Whippet. The Overland Automobile Company, a car maker based in Toledo, Ohio, started the Willys-Overland business and was among the first to mass-produce cars.
Notes
The infobox lists the company as defunct in 1926 by merger into Willys-Overland; the history section describes the marque becoming the Overland Whippet. Only the year is stored.
The committee speaks for Cuban athletes at the IOC, at the Pan American Games and in Central American and Caribbean competition.
Notes
English Wikipedia says created in Havana in 1926 and recognised by the IOC in 1955. Spanish Wikipedia says recognised in 1954 and officially created on 21 August 1937 after preparatory work between 1926 and 1935. The year of creation and the recognition year are therefore disputed.
· Brooklyn, New York, United States · North America
Long Island University is chartered in Brooklyn
Science
The New York State Education Department chartered the university in 1926, with the aim of offering good, affordable education to people of every background. It is now a private research university with campuses in Brooklyn and Brookville, over 16,000 students and more than 500 academic programs.
Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi founds Tablighi Jamaat in Mewat
Religion & philosophySome details uncertain
Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi established Tablighi Jamaat, an international Islamic movement that urges Muslims to practise their faith more strictly, in British India's Mewat region. It grew out of the Deobandi revivalist tradition, and members make brief preaching trips known as khuruj.
Notes
The history section says the movement was formally launched near Dargah Hazrat Nizamuddin in Delhi in 1926, or 1927.
Shintaro Uda invents the Yagi-Uda antenna in Sendai
Technology
At Tohoku Imperial University in Sendai, Shintaro Uda invented a directional antenna built from parallel rods, with passive reflectors and directors shaping the radio waves to favour one direction. It is light, cheap and easy to build, and is widely used on the HF, VHF and UHF bands.
Nationalist government closes the magazine New Youth
Art & literature
The Nationalist government shut down the magazine that Chen Duxiu had founded and that was published from 1915 to 1926. It strongly influenced the New Culture Movement and, later, the May Fourth Movement.
Wanhsien incident: British ships and Chinese warlords clash on the Yangtze
War & conflict
A run of clashes on the Yangtze pitted British merchant shipping against regional Chinese military leaders and ended in a battle involving Royal Navy gunboats. The gunboats also shelled the city of Wanxian, then spelled Wanhsien. Sichuan was in its own civil war during China's Warlord Era.
Ernest Mackay digs up the bronze Dancing Girl at Mohenjo-daro
Art & literature
British archaeologist Ernest Mackay dug up the bronze Dancing Girl at Mohenjo-daro, a city of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Cast by the lost-wax method, it shows a young woman or girl in a confident, lifelike stance, wearing stylised ornaments.
Six Wuchang colleges merge into National Wuchang Sun Yat-sen University
ScienceSome details uncertain
Six Wuchang institutions, among them National Wuchang University, a commercial university and Hubei provincial medical, law and liberal arts schools, were combined to form National Wuchang Sun Yat-sen University, also called National Second Sun Yat-sen University. In 1928 the Nanjing government set up National Wuhan University on the basis of this merged body.
Notes
The English article dates the merger to 1926 and the official establishment of National Wuhan University to 1928. Wikidata lists 1926 and 2000 as inception years for Wuhan University, neither sourced.
Andhra University was established under the Andhra University Act, 1925, with Sir C. R. Reddy named as its founder. It is a public state university in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
Notes
Only the year is stored. The Act's title says 1925, but the article also calls it Madras Act II of 1926, so its year of passage is left open.
Building work on Yerevan's Republic Square began with the Government House, to a design Alexander Tamanian drew up in 1924. Five major buildings faced in pink and yellow tuff now line the square.
East Indian Railway approves the first building of New Delhi station
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
The East Indian Railway approved a one-storey building and a lone platform near Ajmeri Gate, a small station that would eventually grow into New Delhi railway station. A realigned railway line beside the Yamuna had opened in 1924.
Notes
The infobox and body date the opening of the present station building to 16 April 1956; the 1926 event is the approval of the first building. Wikidata also gives 1926 for the inception and the opening, citing only Wikipedia imports.
· Bangalore, Mysore State, British Raj (now Bengaluru, India) · Asia
Binny Mills workers strike in Bangalore
Economy & trade
Workers at the Bangalore Woollen, Cotton and Silk Mills, known as Binny Mills, held a general strike that is counted as part of the Indian independence movement. Mill management sued for damages over the strike.
· Pyongyang, Korea under Japanese rule (now North Korea) · Asia
Girimri Stadium is built in Pyongyang
Architecture
Japanese authorities built the stadium as Girimri Stadium; it is now Kim Il Sung Stadium, a multi-purpose ground in Pyongyang, although the current stadium dates from 1969.
Notes
Only the year is stored; the present stadium dates from 1969.
· Turkestan Range, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union (now Jizzakh Region, Uzbekistan) · Asia
Guralash Nature Preserve, now Zaamin National Park, is created in Soviet Uzbekistan
Earth & geology
The preserve, later Zaamin National Park, is Uzbekistan's oldest nature reserve. It stands on the northern flank of the Turkestan Range in Jizzakh Region.
· South Kazakhstan, Kazakh ASSR, Soviet Union (now Kazakhstan) · Asia
Aksu-Zhabagly Nature Reserve is established in Kazakhstan
Earth & geologySome details uncertain
The reserve in southern Kazakhstan takes in north-western ranges of the Tian Shan, and its name comes from the Aksu river and the Zhabagly mountain chain.
· Calcutta, British India (now Kolkata, India) · Asia
Work on Kolkata's Nakhoda Mosque dates from 1926
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
The Nakhoda Masjid is the principal mosque of Kolkata, a Sunni mosque of the Hanafi school in the Burrabazar business district, built in a Mughal and Indo-Islamic style. Accounts differ on whether 1926 marked its completion or the start of a rebuilding that ran to 1935.
Notes
The English lead and infobox say the mosque was completed in 1926, but the English architecture section says reconstruction started in 1926 and was finished in 1935. French Wikipedia says it was built in 1926 and that its foundation stone was laid on 11 September 1926.
· Soviet Armenia, Soviet Union (now Armenia) · Asia
Soviet Armenia holds a census
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Soviet Armenia took a census in 1926, four years after its previous one. Armenia counts its population roughly every ten years to gather exact demographic data.
Notes
The 1926 census appears in the article only as a row of a table of Soviet Armenia censuses, so confidence is medium. The table figures are not used.
Atatürk's teacher-training institute, later Gazi University, is founded
ScienceSome details uncertain
Gazi University traces its origins to a teacher-training institute set up on Atatürk's initiative in 1926. It is now a public research university in Ankara.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give the original name as Gazi Eğitim Enstitüsü for 1926 to 1980, but Turkish Wikipedia says the school opened in 1926 under another name, became Gazi Orta Muallim Mektebi in 1929, took the Gazi Eğitim Enstitüsü name in 1976 and became the university in 1982, so no name is given for 1926.
· Lebanese Republic, under French mandate (now Lebanon) · Middle East
Presidency of Lebanon is created under the 1926 constitution
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The post was established under Lebanon's first constitution, promulgated on 23 May 1926. Charles Debbas, its first holder, was elected days later and took office on 1 September. Today parliament elects the president for six years.
Notes
The constitution was promulgated on 23 May 1926; the English article on Charles Debbas says he was elected on 26 May and his term began on 1 September, so only the year is stored for the creation of the post.
· Ramat Rachel, Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine · Middle East
Ramat Rachel kibbutz is founded near Jerusalem
Everyday life
Members of the Gdud HaAvoda labor brigade set up the kibbutz, an enclave inside Jerusalem's city limits close to Arnona and Talpiot. It overlooks Bethlehem and Rachel's Tomb, from which it takes its name.
· Karagümrük, Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey · Middle East
Fatih Karagümrük football club is founded in Istanbul
Sport
Local figures in the Karagümrük neighbourhood merged the youth groups Karagümrük Gençleri and Acıçeşme Gençleri in spring to form the club, whose first registered name was Karagümrük İdman Yurdu. It plays in red and black.
· Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine (now Israel) · Middle East
Great Synagogue of Tel Aviv is completed on Allenby Street
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
Yehuda Magidovitch designed the Orthodox synagogue in Art Deco style, at 110 Allenby Street. Renovations in 1969 added a Modernist facade with arches.
Notes
English Wikipedia's lead and infobox say completed 1926 but its history says the project was finished in 1925 and its cornerstone laid in November 1921; French Wikipedia says the cornerstone was laid in 1924, work finished in 1925 and the inauguration took place in 1926; German Wikipedia says completed 1926 and consecrated in April 1930. Year stored at medium confidence.
Tnuva, the Israeli cooperative for marketing farm produce, is created
Economy & trade
Kibbutz movement leaders agreed to pool the distribution and export of their food through a cooperative that later became Tnuva. Kibbutzim and moshavim owned it for about seventy years before it was sold as a company; China's Bright Food has controlled it since 2014.
Notes
The English text gives only the year 1926, as does French Wikipedia. The dairy-market share figure was removed because the English lead states 70% in the present tense while French Wikipedia gives about 70% for 2014 and about 50% for 2022.
· Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine (now Israel) · Middle East
A one-day book sale on Rothschild Boulevard is the forerunner of Hebrew Book Week
Art & literature
Bracha Peli, founder of Masada Press, organised a single-day book sale on Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard to lift sales. It grew into Hebrew Book Week, a yearly week-long event in Israel devoted to Hebrew literature.
Notes
The English article gives only the year 1926. Hebrew Wikipedia dates the first book-day stalls to 1 April 1926 and treats the later book week as a development of them.
Kruger National Park becomes South Africa's first national park
Everyday lifeSome details uncertain
Parliament passed the National Parks Act, combining the Sabi and Singwitsi game reserves with farmland to create Kruger National Park in northeastern South Africa. The government of the South African Republic had first protected parts of the area in 1898.
Notes
Infobox gives 31 May 1926 as the establishment date; the history section says the National Parks Bill was introduced in May 1926 and passed on 11 June 1926. Stored at year level because the two dates differ.
· Bioko and Río Muni, Spanish Guinea (now Equatorial Guinea) · Africa
Spain merges Bioko and Río Muni into the colony of Spanish Guinea
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Spain's crown merged Bioko with Río Muni into a single colony named Spanish Guinea. The territory became independent in 1968 as Equatorial Guinea.
Notes
Wikidata gives 11 August 1926; the article dates the union to 1926. The article is inconsistent about when colony status ended (1956 in the infobox, 1959 in the text).
Gossage Cup, the tournament that became CECAFA, begins
SportSome details uncertain
The competition that grew into CECAFA began as an annual match called the Gossage Cup, making it Africa's earliest international football competition. CECAFA itself was founded unofficially in 1927 and officially in 1973.
Notes
The infobox says CECAFA formed in 1926 (unofficial), while the body says it was founded unofficially in 1927. The 1926 date used is the start of the Gossage Cup, an East African tournament.
· Matobo Hills, near Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) · Africa
Rhodes Matopos National Park is established
Everyday life
The park was created under the name Rhodes Matopos National Park and is the oldest national park in Zimbabwe. It forms the core of the Matobo Hills, an area of granite kopjes south of Bulawayo.
Palaver, the first Nigerian feature film, is released
Stage, music & film
Geoffrey Barkas wrote and directed this silent film for British Instructional Films, shot on location in British Nigeria. It did not do well at the box office but mattered later to Nigerian cinema's history.
· Gulf of Guinea (Annobón, Elobey Grande, Elobey Chico and Corisco) · Africa
Spain merges its Guinea possessions into Spanish Guinea
Politics & diplomacy
In 1926 Spain joined the administration of its Guinea colonial possessions into a single colony, Spanish Guinea. The Elobey, Annobón and Corisco administration, a protectorate since 1843, had taken in Annobón island plus the little islands Elobey Grande, Elobey Chico and Corisco, and answered to a governor-general in Santa Isabel.
Notes
The English article and Wikidata give only the year 1926 for the unification of Spain's Guinea possessions into Spanish Guinea. A later passage of the article places a further reorganisation in 1959, when Annobón was joined to Fernando Poo and Elobey and Corisco became part of Río Muni.
· Windhoek, South West Africa (now Namibia) · Africa
Library that became the National Library of Namibia is established in Windhoek
ScienceSome details uncertain
The library began as the library of South West Africa's Legislative Assembly, set up in the Tintenpalast building in Windhoek. Today it is Namibia's legal deposit and copyright library, part of the government's National Library and Archives service.
Rif Republic's planned currency is suppressed after Abd el-Krim's surrender
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
After Abd el-Krim surrendered, Spanish and French colonial administrations suppressed the Rif Republic's symbols, including planned financial instruments such as the Riffan currency.
Florence Goodenough developed the test, first called the Goodenough Draw-a-Man test, in which people draw pictures of people with simple art supplies. Psychologists use it to assess children and adolescents.
Victor Goldschmidt describes the tolerance factor for perovskite structures
Science
Victor Moritz Goldschmidt first described the tolerance factor, a measure of how stable or distorted a crystal structure is. It was first used only for the ABO3 perovskite structure.
The Dutch mathematician Hendrik Kloosterman introduced Kloosterman sums, a specific type of exponential sum, while applying the Hardy-Littlewood circle method to a problem on diagonal quadratic forms in four variables.
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