Top News Stories from 1936

World Events

• 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

• 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

Sports

World Series

Stanley Cup

Wimbledon

Kentucky Derby Champion

NCAA Football Champions

Entertainment

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

• 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.

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