1926

Events in 1926 71

• 1840 – 1926 Claude Monet Impressionism · France Claude Monet (November 14, 1840 – December 5, 1926) was the founder of French Impressionism, whose series paintings of haystacks, Rouen Cathedral and water lilies are among the most beloved works in art history.
• 1844 – 1926 Mary Cassatt Impressionism · USA Mary Cassatt (May 22, 1844 – June 14, 1926) was an American Impressionist painter who spent most of her career in France. Degas invited her to exhibit with the Impressionists. Her intimate depictions of women and children are among the finest in the movement.
• 1860 – 1926 Annie Oakley (1860-1926) Died 3 November 1926, aged 66 Annie Oakley, the sharpshooter who had risen to fame in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, died in Ohio after a long illness linked to injuries from a 1901 train crash. She remained the best-known female marksman in American popular memory.
• 1868 – 1926 Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) Died 12 July 1926, aged 57 Gertrude Bell, the British writer, archaeologist and political officer who helped draw the borders of the modern state of Iraq, died in Baghdad from an overdose of sleeping pills. She had been one of the few women with real influence over British policy in the Middle East after the First World War.
• 1874 – 1926 Harry Houdini (1874-1926) Died 31 October 1926, aged 52 Harry Houdini, the escape artist and illusionist who became the most famous magician of his age, died of peritonitis in Detroit after a ruptured appendix, worsened by a punch to the stomach days earlier. He remains one of the most recognisable names in the history of stage magic.
• 1895 – 1926 Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926) Died 23 August 1926, aged 31 Rudolph Valentino, the Italian-American film star and the leading male sex symbol of the silent era, died suddenly in New York of peritonitis following a ruptured ulcer. His death triggered mass public grief, with crowds rioting outside the funeral home and reports of fans attempting suicide.
• 1912 – 1926 Emperor Taisho (Yoshihito) Reign 1912–1926 — the era of "Taisho democracy" Emperor Taisho's short reign saw a shift toward liberal, party-based politics known as "Taisho democracy", Japan's participation in World War I on the Allied side, and the devastating Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. His poor health led Crown Prince Hirohito to serve as regent from 1921.
• 1926 – 1927 A year with Harvey Cushing Boston, United States A Rockefeller travelling fellowship took him to the man who had invented modern neurosurgery. Cairns came back determined to build the speciality in Britain, and spent the next decade copying Cushing's methods — the meticulous records, the photographs, the refusal to hurry.
• 1926 – 2024 Bernard Kops (1926-2024) Died 25 February 2024, aged 97 English playwright, novelist and poet of the postwar London Jewish East End.
• 1926 – 2026 Betye Saar (1926-2026) Died 26 July 2026, aged 99 American artist whose assemblages skewered racist imagery and whose installations drew on mystical themes.
• 1926 – 2021 Cloris Leachman (1926-2021) Died 27 January 2021, aged 94 American actress who won eight Emmy Awards and an Oscar for The Last Picture Show.
• 1926 – 2022 Elizabeth II (1926-2022) Died 8 September 2022, aged 96 Princess Elizabeth of York was born in London on 21 April 1926, the elder daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. She became Queen of the United Kingdom in 1952 and went on to become the longest-reigning British monarch.
• 1926 – 1989 Emperor Showa (Hirohito) Reign 1926–1989 — war, defeat and postwar recovery Hirohito, posthumously Emperor Showa, was Japan's longest-reigning emperor. His era spanned the rise of militarism, the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War, the catastrophe of 1945, and then Japan's extraordinary postwar reconstruction into an economic superpower. After 1945 he became a symbolic constitutional monarch.
• 1926 – 1966 Frank O'Hara (1926-1966) Died 25 July 1966, aged 40 Frank O'Hara was an American poet and art critic associated with the New York School. He died after being struck by a beach buggy on Fire Island, succumbing to his injuries on 25 July 1966.
• 1926 – 1927 Hubble — the expanding universe Galaxies are receding — the universe had a beginning In 1924-1929, Edwin Hubble demonstrated that the "nebulae" are distant galaxies far beyond the Milky Way, and that they are receding from us at speeds proportional to their distance (Hubble's Law, 1929). The expanding universe implied it had once been smaller and hotter — the foundation of the Big Bang theory. It is the most consequential astronomical discovery of the 20th century.
• 1926 – 1967 John Coltrane (1926-1967) Died 17 July 1967, aged 40 The saxophonist and composer was one of the most influential figures in jazz history, known for albums including A Love Supreme. He died of liver cancer in New York.
• 1926 – 1959 Kay Kendall (1926-1959) Died 6 September 1959, aged 32 Kendall was a British actress known for comic roles in films such as Genevieve and Les Girls. She continued acting after being diagnosed with leukemia, reportedly without being told the diagnosis herself. Her death shortly before her 33rd birthday cut short a rapidly rising career.
• 1926 – 1962 Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) Died 5 August 1962, aged 36 Marilyn Monroe, one of the most famous film actresses and cultural icons of the 20th century, was found dead at her Los Angeles home on August 5, 1962. Her death was ruled a probable suicide from barbiturate overdose. She remains one of the most enduring symbols of Hollywood stardom.
• 1926 Mercedes-Benz official merger Daimler and Benz companies unite Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft and Benz & Cie formally merged to create Mercedes-Benz, combining two pioneering automotive companies into one global luxury manufacturer.
• 1926 – 1968 Neal Cassady (1926-1968) Died 4 February 1968, aged 41 The Beat Generation figure who inspired Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" and later drove Ken Kesey's bus Furthur, died after collapsing beside a railroad track in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He was a central real-life character in Beat literary circles rather than a writer himself. His life became emblematic of the era's restless countercultural spirit.
• 1926 – 2024 Norman Jewison (1926-2024) Died 20 January 2024, aged 97 Canadian director whose films included In the Heat of the Night, Fiddler on the Roof and Moonstruck.
• 1926 – 2024 Roger Corman (1926-2024) Died 9 May 2024, aged 98 American director and producer of low-budget films who launched the careers of Coppola, Scorsese and Nicholson.
• 1926 – 2026 San Siro Milan, Italy Officially the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, and the only major ground in the world shared by two clubs of this size. Its 1990 rebuild added eleven concrete helix towers and a red girder roof.
• 1926 San Siro opens Milan, Italy Officially the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, shared by AC Milan and Internazionale. Its 1990 rebuild added eleven concrete helix towers and a red girder roof. Capacity 75,923.
• 1926 Television Baird's first demo John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of television in London in January 1926, transmitting moving images for the first time.
• 1926 – 2023 Tony Bennett (1926-2023) Died 21 July 2023, aged 96 American singer whose career ran from the 1950s to duets with Lady Gaga, and who never abandoned the standards for passing fashion.
• 1926 Ibn Saud proclaimed King of Hejaz A step toward the founding of Saudi Arabia On 8 January 1926, Abdulaziz ibn Saud was proclaimed King of Hejaz after his forces captured Mecca, Medina and Jeddah from the Hashemites the previous year. He already ruled Nejd as sultan, and the combined realm would become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932.
• 1926 – 2010 Patricia Neal (1926-2010) American actress, Oscar winner for Hud and wife of Roald Dahl.
• 1926 – 2020 Valery Giscard d'Estaing (1926-2020) Died 2 December 2020, aged 94 Valery Giscard d'Estaing served as President of France from 1974 to 1981, liberalizing social laws and later chairing the convention that drafted a proposed European Union constitution. He died on 2 December 2020 from COVID-19 complications.
• 1926 – 2010 Leslie Nielsen (1926-2010) Died 28 November 2010, aged 84 Nielsen was a Canadian-American actor who became a comedy icon in his later career with roles in Airplane! and the Naked Gun films, after decades as a dramatic actor. His deadpan delivery made him one of the most recognizable comic performers of his generation. He died of complications from pneumonia.
• 1926 – 2026 Alan Greenspan Alan Greenspan (born 6 March 1926, New York City) served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006 — the second-longest tenure in the Fed's history. During his 18 years at the Fed, Greenspan navigated the 1987 Black Monday crash, the savings and loan crisis, the dot-com bubble, the 9/11 attacks and the longest peacetime economic expansion in American history. His monetary philosophy — keeping interest rates low, trusting financial markets to self-regulate, and using the Fed's bully pulpit to guide market expectations — was influential beyond measure. The 2008 financial crisis, which struck two years after his retirement, forced a devastating reassessment of those beliefs. Greenspan famously admitted to Congress in 2008 that he had found 'a flaw' in his ideology.
• 1926 – 2016 Andrzej Wajda (1926-2016) Died 9 October 2016, aged 90 Wajda was a Polish film director whose works, including Ashes and Diamonds and Man of Iron, chronicled Poland's turbulent 20th-century history. He received an honorary Academy Award in 2000 for lifetime achievement. He remained active in filmmaking until his death.
• 1926 Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket A 10-second flight that opened the space age On 16 March 1926, American physicist Robert Goddard launched "Nell," the first rocket powered by liquid fuel, from a farm in Auburn, Massachusetts. The rocket rose only 12 metres, but the achievement is regarded as the founding moment of modern rocketry.
• 1926 – 2017 Jerry Lewis (1926-2017) Died 20 August 2017, aged 91 American comedian, actor and filmmaker known for his slapstick comedy partnership with Dean Martin and later solo films including The Nutty Professor. He hosted the annual Labor Day telethon for muscular dystrophy for decades. He was widely regarded, especially in France, as a comic auteur.
• 1926 – 2016 Dario Fo (1926-2016) Died 13 October 2016, aged 90 Fo was an Italian playwright, actor, and satirist awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1997 for work combining comedy with pointed social and political criticism. His best-known play, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, was performed worldwide. He was also a lifelong political activist.
• 1926 Ingvar Kamprad born in Småland Ingvar Feodor Kamprad is born on 30 March 1926 on a farm called Elmtaryd near the village of Agunnaryd in Småland, southern Sweden. Småland is a poor, rocky region where the soil is thin and farming is hard — a place that historically produces either emigrants or extremely resourceful people. Kamprad inherits both traits: he works with ferocious intensity and treats every öre as precious. His grandmother gives him money as a reward for collecting berries; he uses it to buy matches in bulk and resell them individually at a profit. He is five years old.
• 1926 – 2005 John Fowles (1926-2005) Died 5 November 2005, aged 79 John Fowles, the British novelist known for "The French Lieutenant's Woman" and "The Collector", died on 5 November 2005. His novels combined literary experimentation with popular storytelling and were widely adapted for film. Fowles lived for much of his later life in Lyme Regis, the setting of his best-known novel.
• 1926 – 2011 Anne McCaffrey (1926-2011) Died 21 November 2011, aged 85 The American-born author was best known for the "Dragonriders of Pern" science fiction series and was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction. She lived much of her later life in Ireland. She died at her home near Dublin.
• 1926 – 2014 Jack Brabham Black Jack Three-time World Champion and the only person to win the title in a car of his own construction.
• 1926 – 2014 Ian Paisley (1926-2014) Died 12 September 2014, aged 88 Ian Paisley, the firebrand Protestant preacher and politician who became Northern Ireland's first minister after decades opposing power-sharing with Irish nationalists, died in Belfast. He founded the Democratic Unionist Party and the Free Presbyterian Church. His late-career political partnership with former IRA commander Martin McGuinness surprised many observers.
• 1926 Violet Gibson attempts to assassinate Mussolini Irish aristocrat shoots and wounds the Italian dictator On 7 April 1926, Violet Gibson, an Irish noblewoman, shot Benito Mussolini in Rome, grazing his nose. She was overpowered by the crowd and later declared insane and deported to Britain rather than tried in Italy.
• 1926 – 2017 Hugh Hefner (1926-2017) Died 27 September 2017, aged 91 American publisher who founded Playboy magazine in 1953, building it into a global media and lifestyle brand that shaped and reflected American attitudes toward sex. He remained the magazine's editor-in-chief until his death. His Playboy Mansion became a cultural symbol of the brand.
• 1926 – 2021 Jane Withers (1926-2021) American child star of the 1930s, later Josephine the Plumber in TV commercials.
• 1926 – 2016 Harper Lee (1926-2016) Died 19 February 2016, aged 89 Lee was an American author best known for her 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which won the Pulitzer Prize and became a staple of school curricula worldwide. A long-awaited follow-up, Go Set a Watchman, was published in 2015. She rarely gave interviews after her early fame.
• 1926 – 2025 Peter Lax (1926-2025) Died 16 May 2025, aged 99 Hungarian-born American mathematician awarded the 2005 Abel Prize for his contributions to the theory and applications of partial differential equations.
• 1926 The General Strike Britain's only nationwide general strike From 3 to 12 May 1926, roughly 1.7 million British workers, led by the Trades Union Congress, struck in support of coal miners facing pay cuts and longer hours. The strike collapsed after nine days without gains for the miners, who stayed out alone for several more months.
• 1926 – 2017 Don Rickles (1926-2017) Died 6 April 2017, aged 90 American comedian and actor famous for his insult comedy and decades of performances in Las Vegas and on television. He was a frequent guest on late-night talk shows and appeared in films including the Toy Story series as the voice of Mr. Potato Head. He died of kidney failure.
• 1926 Airship Norge crosses the North Pole First confirmed flight over the North Pole The Italian-built airship Norge, carrying Roald Amundsen, Lincoln Ellsworth and Umberto Nobile, flew from Svalbard across the North Pole to Alaska between 11 and 13 May 1926. It provided the first flight over the pole that was independently verified.
• 1926 – 1991 Miles Davis (1926-1991) Died 28 September 1991, aged 65 Miles Davis, one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century, died of pneumonia, a stroke, and respiratory failure. His trumpet playing and restless reinvention shaped bebop, cool jazz, modal jazz, and jazz fusion across a five-decade career. Albums such as Kind of Blue remain among the best-selling and most acclaimed jazz recordings ever made.
• 1926 28 May coup ends Portugal's First Republic Military coup installs the Ditadura Nacional On 28 May 1926, a military coup led by General Manuel Gomes da Costa overthrew Portugal's parliamentary government, ending the unstable First Republic. It established the National Dictatorship that would evolve into the long Estado Novo regime.
• 1926 – 2012 Andy Griffith (1926-2012) Died 3 July 2012, aged 86 American actor best known for starring in "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Matlock." He died at his home in North Carolina.
• 1926 – 1997 Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) Died 5 April 1997, aged 70 Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and leading figure of the Beat Generation, best known for his poem Howl. His work challenged censorship laws and influenced the counterculture movements of the 1960s. He died of liver cancer complications in New York.
• 1926 Northern Expedition begins in China Nationalist campaign to unify China against the warlords On 9 July 1926, Chiang Kai-shek launched the Northern Expedition, a military campaign by the Kuomintang's National Revolutionary Army to defeat regional warlords and unify China under the Nationalist government. The campaign marked the rise of Chiang as China's dominant military and political leader.
• 1926 – 2017 Harry Dean Stanton (1926-2017) Died 15 September 2017, aged 91 American character actor known for lead roles in Paris, Texas and Repo Man and supporting roles in Alien and The Green Mile. His weathered, laconic screen presence made him a favorite of independent filmmakers. He died of natural causes.
• 1926 Gertrude Ederle swims the English Channel First woman to swim the Channel On 6 August 1926, American swimmer Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel, completing the crossing from France to England in 14 hours and 39 minutes. Her time beat the existing men's record by nearly two hours.
• 1926 – 2016 Fidel Castro (1926-2016) Died 25 November 2016, aged 90 Castro led Cuba as Prime Minister and later President for nearly five decades after leading the 1959 revolution that overthrew Fulgencio Batista. He established a one-party communist state that survived a U.S. trade embargo and decades of Cold War hostility. He formally transferred power to his brother Raul in 2008 but remained a symbolic figure until his death.
• 1926 – 2022 Jiang Zemin (1926-2022) Died 30 November 2022, aged 96 Chinese politician who led the country from 1989 to 2002, steering it through the aftermath of Tiananmen and into the WTO.
• 1926 – 2002 Ivan Illich (1926-2002) Died 2 December 2002, aged 76 Ivan Illich was an Austrian-born priest and social critic whose books of the 1970s, including Deschooling Society and Medical Nemesis, attacked the way large institutions in education, medicine and transport disable the people they claim to serve. Trained across several disciplines, he ran a research centre in Cuernavaca, Mexico. His ideas influenced environmental and anti-industrial thought.
• 1926 Germany admitted to the League of Nations Postwar Germany rejoins the community of nations On 8 September 1926, Germany was admitted to the League of Nations and given a permanent seat on its Council, formalising its reintegration into international diplomacy after the First World War. The move followed the Locarno Treaties of the previous year.
• 1926 NBC founded First permanent US radio network The National Broadcasting Company was founded on 9 September 1926 by RCA in partnership with General Electric and Westinghouse. It began broadcasting that November as the first permanent radio network in the United States.
• 1926 – 2022 Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022) Died 22 January 2022, aged 95 Vietnamese Zen monk, poet and peace activist who brought mindfulness practice to the West.
• 1926 Winnie-the-Pooh published A.A. Milne introduces the bear of Hundred Acre Wood A.A. Milne's "Winnie-the-Pooh," illustrated by E.H. Shepard, was published in London on 14 October 1926, drawing on stories he told his son Christopher Robin about a stuffed bear. The book made Pooh one of the most widely recognised children's characters in the world.
• 1926 – 1984 Michel Foucault French philosopher, historian of ideas, and social theorist Michel Foucault was one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century, producing genealogical histories of madness, medicine, punishment, and sexuality that exposed how knowledge and power jointly construct the categories through which societies understand themselves. Trained in philosophy and psychology in postwar Paris, he moved between clinical psychiatry, diplomatic teaching posts abroad, and the highest academic chair in France, the Collège de France. His major works — History of Madness, The Birth of the Clinic, The Order of Things, Discipline and Punish, and the multi-volume History of Sexuality — reshaped fields from history and sociology to literary theory and law. He was also a committed activist, co-founding a prison-information group and speaking out on behalf of refugees and dissidents. He died in Paris in 1984 of an AIDS-related illness, the first prominent French public figure known to have died of the disease.
• 1926 – 2017 Chuck Berry (1926-2017) Died 18 March 2017, aged 90 American singer, songwriter and guitarist widely regarded as one of the pioneers of rock and roll, known for songs including "Johnny B. Goode" and "Maybellene." His guitar riffs and showmanship influenced generations of rock musicians. He was among the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• 1926 – 1991 Klaus Kinski (1926-1991) Died 23 November 1991, aged 65 German actor Klaus Kinski, known for his intense performances in films such as Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Nosferatu the Vampyre, died of a heart attack in California. His volatile collaborations with director Werner Herzog produced some of the most striking images in European cinema. He remained a controversial and widely discussed figure in film history.
• 1926 Balfour Declaration on Dominion status Imperial Conference redefines the British Commonwealth The 1926 Imperial Conference in London concluded on 18 November with the Balfour Declaration, which recognised Britain and its self-governing Dominions as equal in status, "in no way subordinate one to another." The formula became the basis for the 1931 Statute of Westminster and the modern Commonwealth.
• 1926 The Sun Also Rises published Hemingway's debut novel defines the Lost Generation Ernest Hemingway's first novel, "The Sun Also Rises," was published on 22 October 1926, following a group of expatriate Americans and Britons through Paris and Pamplona. It established Hemingway's spare style and gave lasting currency to the term "Lost Generation."
• 1926 – 2011 Sathya Sai Baba (1926-2011) Died 24 April 2011, aged 84 The Indian guru attracted millions of followers worldwide and founded a network of hospitals, schools, and charitable institutions. He was regarded by devotees as a spiritual leader with miraculous powers, a claim disputed by skeptics. He died in Puttaparthi, India, where his ashram drew huge crowds of mourners.
• 1926 – 2024 Tsung-Dao Lee (1926-2024) Died 4 August 2024, aged 97 Chinese-born American physicist who shared the 1957 Nobel Prize for Physics for showing that parity is not conserved.
• 1926 – 1927 1927 World Snooker Championship The Inaugural Championship The first world championship. Winner: Joe Davis; Runner-up: Tom Dennis. Score: 20–11.
• 1926 Seven Pillars of Wisdom London, United Kingdom Privately printed in around 200 copies, each costing more to produce than its thirty-guinea price, so the book left him in debt. It is part campaign history, part confession, and unlike anything else written about the war.