1936

1845–1958	Germany [earth sciences]	German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt lays the basis of modern geography with the publication of Kosmos/Cosmos, in which he arranges geographic knowledge in a systematic fashion.
c. 1931–c. 1940	[aircraft]	Aeroplanes undergo radical changes; they become streamlined, are made almost entirely of metal, acquire controllable-pitch propellers, have air-cooled engines and retractable landing gear, and passengers and crew are protected in soundproofed and insulated cabins.
c. 1931–c. 1940	[technology]	The development of facsimile machines is made possible with the discovery of a dry chemical copying process.
1936	UK [television]	The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) begins the first public television broadcasts; the system used has 405-line pictures.
1936	USSR [women's rights]	A system of maternity welfare is established in the USSR, including child care and financial support for women.
1936	USA [aircraft]	US aircraft manufacturer Douglas introduces the 21-passenger DC-3, one of the most successful commercial aircraft ever built (10,000 are produced by 1945). Powered by two 1200-horsepower engines, it reaches speeds of 300 kph/186 mph
1936	Hungary, USA, Spain [art]	The Hungarian-born US photographer Robert Capa (pseudonym of André Friedman) takes Death of a Loyalist (also known as Moment of Death), one of the best-known images of the Spanish Civil War.
1936	Germany [cinema and film]	The German film-maker Leni Riefenstahl, one of the leading women directors in film history, directs Olympia (released 1938–39). It is a stylized two-part film documenting the Berlin Olympic Games, and is recognized as one of the landmarks of Nazi cinema.
1936	USA [cinema and film]	The film The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, directed by Henry Hathaway, is released in the USA. The first film to contain location shooting in colour, it stars Fred MacMurray, Sylvia Sidney, and Henry Fonda.
1936	Italy [cinema and film]	Cinema censorship guidelines in fascist Italy discourage the portrayal of women as anything but virgins, wives, or mothers. The Pope expresses concern about the moral influence of cinema.
1936	Germany [cinema and film]	The rejection of German films abroad, because of the unpalatably high propaganda content, leads to a crisis in the German film industry.
1936	England, USA [cinema and film]	The film Modern Times, directed by the English film-maker Charlie Chaplin, is released, the last of the great silent films. He also stars in it, along with Paulette Goddard.
1936	USA [fiction]	The US writer Margaret Mitchell publishes her novel Gone with the Wind, which becomes one of the best-selling novels of the 20th century.
1936	Germany [health and medicine]	Plexiglas lenses, the first plastic contact lenses, are manufactured in Germany by I G Farben.
1936	USA [health and medicine]	Rates of maternal mortality begin to drop in the USA because of antibiotics and better trained physicians; they continue to decline sharply for the next 20 years.
c. 1936	USA [health and medicine]	Home remedies used to terminate pregnancies rely on solutions of water, Lysol, carbolic soap, iodine, and turpentine. The bark of the American slippery elm tree, rolled and inserted in the cervix, is also used to abort the fetus.
1936	UK [economic theory]	English economist John Maynard Keynes publishes General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, proposing that recession can be prevented if the government sponsors a full employment policy. It has a profound effect on economic thinking and government economic strategy worldwide.
1936	USA [everyday life]	Earl Haas patents tampons and commercial production begins at Tampax, Inc. in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
1936	USA [everyday life]	The self-help book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie is published. It will sell more copies than any other non-fiction title apart from the Bible.
1936	USA [everyday life]	The American Optical Society produces Polarized sunglasses, developed by Edwin Land of Boston, Massachusetts.
1936	UK [everyday life]	At Skegness in England, Billy Butlin opens the first of his successful Butlin's holiday camps.
1936	England [maths]	The English mathematician Alan Turing supplies the theoretical basis for digital computers by describing a machine, now known as the Turing machine, capable of universal rather than special-purpose problem solving.
1936	USSR [legislation]	In Moscow, Russia, the government revokes a 1920 law legalizing abortion, and introduces restrictions on the availability of abortion.
1936	Austria [orchestral music]	The Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg completes his Violin Concerto (Opus 36) and his String Quartet No. 4 (Opus 37).
1936	England [philosophy]	The English philosopher A J Ayer publishes Language, Truth, and Logic. A brilliant exposition of logical positivism, its claim that the statements of morality and religion are, literally, ‘meaningless’, makes it the most controversial British philosophical work of the period.
1936	England, USA [poetry]	The English-born US writer W H Auden publishes his poetry collection Look, Stranger! and writes the verse commentary for the General Post Office documentary film Night Mail, directed by Harry Watt and Basil Wright.
1936	Wales [poetry]	The Welsh poet Dylan Thomas publishes his collection Twenty-five Poems.
1936	Switzerland [sculpture]	The Swiss artist Meret Oppenheim creates Object (Fur Tea Cup). A fur-lined tea cup, it becomes one of the most familiar images of surrealism.
1936	China, India, USSR, USA, Japan, Germany, UK, France [statistics and demography]	Populations (in millions): China, 422; India, 360; USSR, 173; USA, 127; Japan, 89; Germany, 70; Great Britain, 47; France, 44.
1936	USA [statistics and demography]	38% of families in the USA live below the poverty line designated by the government.
c. 1936	USA [technology]	Catalytic cracking, a chemical process in which long-chain hydrocarbon molecules are broken down into smaller ones, is introduced to produce gasoline from low grade crude oil by the US Sun Oil Company and Socony-Vacuum Company.
18 January 1936	England [births and deaths]	Rudyard Kipling, English novelist, short-story writer, and poet, dies in London, England (70).
February 1936	Germany [motor vehicles]	Adolf Hitler commissions Ferdinand Porsche to design a ‘people's car’ and the Volkswagen Beetle is born.
18 March 1936	South Africa [births and deaths]	F(rederik) W(illem) de Klerk, South African politician, president of South Africa 1989–94, who ended the apartheid system, born in Johannesburg, South Africa.
25 March 1936	Germany [telephone services]	In Germany, the first public videophone service, to be used by Aryans only, starts in Berlin and Leipzig.
9 May 1936	Italy, Ethiopia [wars]	Italy formally annexes Ethiopia (Abyssinia), having occupied the capital, Addis Ababa, on 5 May.
10 May 1936	Spain [political events]	Manuel Azaña of the Republican Left succeeds Niceto Alcalá Zamora as president of Spain.
4 June 1936	France [administration]	The Popular Front leader, Léon Blum, becomes the first Socialist and Jewish prime minister of France.
12 June 1936	France [industrial relations]	A strike by 300,000 workers results in social reforms in France, including a 40-hour working week and paid holiday.
18 July 1936	Spain, Morocco [revolution]	The right-wing Spanish general Francisco Franco leads an army mutiny in Morocco against the Spanish Republican government. Other mutinies break out on the Spanish mainland, marking the start of the Spanish Civil War.
1 August - 16 August 1936	Germany [Olympic Games]	The 11th Olympic Games are held in Berlin, Germany. Germany wins 33 gold medals; the USA, 24; Hungary, 10; Italy, 8; Finland and France, 7 each; Sweden and Holland, 6 each; Japan, 5. The US black American athlete Jesse Owens wins 4 gold medals, in the 100 metres, the 200 metres, the long jump, and the 4 × 100-metre relay. Jack Lovelock of New Zealand wins the 1,500 metres title in a world record time of 3 minutes 47.8 seconds. A selection of highlights is shown live and viewed by an estimated 150,000 people in the public viewing rooms in Berlin.
4 August 1936	Spain [Spanish Civil War (1936–39)]	In the Spanish Civil War, General Franco's Nationalist army captures Badajoz in the southwest, enabling antigovernment forces in the north and south to combine.
26 August 1936	Egypt, UK [treaties]	A treaty of alliance is signed between Britain and Egypt. To last for 20 years, it gives Britain the right to station troops in the Suez Canal region and use Alexandria as a naval base.
26 August 1936	UK, Egypt [diplomacy]	Britain signs a treaty with Egypt recognizing the latter's sovereignty and independence and pledging mutual defence and a 20-year alliance.
27 September 1936	France, Switzerland, Netherlands [banking and finance]	France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands abandon the gold standard.
2 November 1936	UK [television]	The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) starts the world's first public high-definition television service from its transmitter at Alexandra Palace, London, England, using Logie Baird's mechanical system and EMI's electronic system.
25 November 1936	Germany, Japan, China [treaties]	Germany and Japan sign an anti-Comintern pact and agree to work together against international communism. Germany also recognizes Japan's regime in Manchuria, China.
30 November 1936	UK [natural disasters]	The Crystal Palace at Sydenham, London, England, is destroyed by fire.
11 December 1936	UK [political events]	Edward VIII abdicates as king of Great Britain and Northern Ireland following his refusal to give up the idea of marriage to the US divorcee Wallis Simpson.
12 December 1936	UK [political events]	The Duke of York, younger brother of Edward VIII, succeeds to the British throne as George VI, following Edward's abdication on 11 December.
12 December 1936	Ireland [legislation]	The Constitution (amendment) Act in the Irish Free State removes the king from membership of the Irish parliament and deprives the British governor general of most of his functions.
24 December 1936	UK [television]	Harry Pringle's Old Veterans, a variety show in the UK, is the first television programme to have a studio audience.