Top News Stories from 1936
World Events
World Statistics
Population: 4.378 billion
population by decade Nobel Peace Prize: Carlos de S. Lamas (Argentina)
More World Statistics... - Rome-Berlin Axis is proclaimed (Japan to join in 1940).
- Spanish civil war begins. Hundreds of Americans join the "Lincoln Brigades." (Franco's fascist forces defeat Loyalist forces by 1939, when Madrid falls.)
- War between China and Japan begins, to continue through World War II.
- Japan and Germany sign anti-Comintern pact; joined by Italy in 1937.
- Gen. Anastasio Somoza leads a coup d'etat in Nicaragua ushering in Somoza family dictatorship for more than 4 decades.
- King George V dies; succeeded by son, Edward VIII, who soon abdicates to marry an American-born divorcée, and is succeeded by brother, George VI.
U.S. Events
U.S. Statistics
President: Franklin D Roosevelt
Vice President: John N. Garner
Population: 128,053,180
More U.S. Statistics... - Dust Bowl problem continues in the midwest.
- FDR is reelected in a landslide. The Electoral Vote is 523-8. Background: US Presidential Elections, 1789–present
Economics
Federal spending: $8.23 billion
Consumer Price Index: $13.9
Unemployment: 16.9%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03
Sports
World Series
NY Yankees d. NY Giants (4-2)Stanley Cup
Detroit d. TorontoWimbledon
Women: Helen Jacobs d. H.K. Sperling (6-2 4-6 7-5)Men: Fred Perry d. G. von Cramm (6-1 6-1 6-0)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Bold VentureNCAA Football Champions
Minnesota (7-1-0) 1936 Summer OlympicsEntertainment
Entertainment Awards
Pulitzer Prizes Fiction:
Honey in the Horn, Harold L. Davis
Drama: Idiot's Delight, Robert E. Sherwood
Academy Award, Best Picture: Mutiny on the Bounty (MGM)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Eugene O'Neill (US)
Miss America: Rose Coyle (PA)
More Entertainment Awards... Events
- The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) debuts the world's first television service with three hours of programming a day.
- Electric guitars debut.
- Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind published.
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: Peter J. W. Debye (Netherlands), for investigations on dipole moments and diffraction of X-rays and electrons in gases
Physics: Victor F. Hess (Austria), for discovery of cosmic radiation; and Carl D. Anderson (US), for discovery of the positron
Physiology or Medicine: Sir Henry Dale (UK) and Otto Loewi (Germany), for discoveries on chemical transmission of nerve impulses
More Nobel Prizes in 1998... - Alexis Carrel and Charles Lindbergh develop the first artificial heart.
- The Boulder Dam, which creates the largest artificial reservoir in the U.S. and provides power to 1.5 million people, is completed.
- The first successful helicopter flight is made.
