1926 CE

The 1926 Miami hurricane devastates southern Florida and parts of the Caribbean, killing hundreds and causing massive destruction; the 1926 United Kingdom general strike brings the nation to a standstill as millions of workers walk out in support of coal miners; the Northern Expedition is launched by the Kuomintang to unify China under its rule, marking a turning point in the Chinese Civil War; the Cristero War erupts in Mexico as Catholic rebels take up arms against the government’s anti-clerical policies; the May Coup sees Marshal Józef Piłsudski overthrow the government in a three-day military coup; Hirohito ascends the throne as Emperor of Japan, beginning the Shōwa era; NBC is founded.

In the 1920s, the 20th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 3 – Theodoros Pangalos declares himself dictator in Greece.source
  • January 21 – The Belgian Parliament accepts the Locarno Treaties.source
  • 1 March - In the presidential election, Washington Luís of the Republican Party of São Paulo, who received 98.0% of the vote.Brazilsource
  • March 16 – Ambassadors representing eight countries that were signatory nations to the Boxer Protocol send an ultimatum to the Beiyang Government under Duan Qirui, demanding that the Duan government destroy all defense establishments on the Taku Forts.Chinasource
  • March 23 – Éamon de Valera organises the political party Fianna Fáil in Ireland.source
  • 26 March – In Bucharest, Romania and Poland sign a Treaty on Mutual Assistance against Aggression and on Military Aid, building the Polish–Romanian alliance.Romaniasource
  • April 4 – Greek dictator Theodoros Pangalos wins the presidential election, with 93.3% of the vote; turnout is light, as the result is considered a foregone conclusion.source
  • April 24 – Treaty of Berlin: Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party, for the next five years.source
  • 24 April – The Treaty of Berlin (1926) is signed.Soviet Unionsource
  • April 25 – Reza Khan is crowned Shah of Iran, under the name "Pahlevi".source
  • April 25 – Rezā Khan was crowned Shah of Persia under the name "Pahlevi".Iransource
  • May 12–14 – May Coup: Józef Piłsudski takes over in Poland.source
  • May 20 – The United States Congress passes the Air Commerce Act, licensing pilots and planes.source
  • June 4 – Ignacy Mościcki becomes president of Poland.source
  • June 7 – Liberal politician Carl Gustaf Ekman succeeds Rickard Sandler as Prime Minister of Sweden.source
  • 20 June – Crisis between the prime minister İsmet İnönü and the special court about the court's right to arrest of Kazım Karabekir who was an MP. (Mustafa Kemal mediated and the crisis ended on the 5th of July)Turkeysource
  • June 29 – Arthur Meighen briefly returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada during the King-Byng Affair.source
  • The Zionist Organization submits a memorandum to the League of Nations concerning the administration of the British Mandate for Palestine. The document is officially filed in Geneva by the Mandates Section.Mandatory Palestinesource
  • 1 July – Icelandic parliamentary election, 1926Icelandsource
  • August 22 – In Greece, Georgios Kondylis ousts Theodoros Pangalos.source
  • August 25 – Pavlos Kountouriotis announces that dictatorship has ended in Greece, and he is now the president.source
  • September 1 – Lebanon under the French Mandate gets its first constitution, thereby becoming a republic, with Charles Debbas as its president.source
  • September 8 – The German Weimar Republic joins the League of Nations.source
  • September 14 – The Locarno Treaties of 1925 are ratified in Geneva, and come into effect.source
  • September 25 – William Lyon Mackenzie King returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada, after winning the Canadian federal election.source
  • October 2 – Józef Piłsudski becomes prime minister of Poland.source
  • October 23 – Leon Trotsky and Lev Kamenev are removed from the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.source
  • November 15 – The Balfour Declaration is approved by the 1926 Imperial Conference, making the Commonwealth dominions equal and independent.source
  • November 27 – The restoration of Colonial Williamsburg begins in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States.source
  • December 13 – Miina Sillanpää becomes Finland's first female government minister.source
  • December 26 – In the history of Japan, the Shōwa period begins from this day, due to the death of Emperor Taishō on the day before. His son Hirohito will reign as Emperor of Japan until 1989.source
  • Muthulakshmi Reddi becomes the first woman to be appointed to a legislature in India, the Madras Legislative Council.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 31 – British and Belgian troops leave Cologne.source
  • 14 February – The Nazi Party holds the Bamberg Conference in an attempt to strengthen Adolf Hitler's control over the party.Germanysource
  • April 7 – An assassination attempt against Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini fails.source
  • 7 April – Fascist leader Benito Mussolini survives an attempt on his life by the Irishwoman Violet Gibson.Italysource
  • April 17 – Zhang Zuolin's army captures Beijing.source
  • May 9 – The French navy bombards Damascus, because of Druze riots.source
  • May 12 – The United Kingdom general strike is called off by the trade unions, although miners remain on strike.source
  • May 26 – The Rif War ends, when Rif rebels surrender in Morocco.source
  • May 28 – The 1926 coup d'état, commanded by Manuel Gomes da Costa in Portugal, installs the Ditadura Nacional (National Dictatorship), followed by António de Oliveira Salazar's Estado Novo.source
  • 28 May - Coup d'état, establishment of the Ditadura NacionalPortugalsource
  • 5 June – Treaty concerning the future of Mosul (Which was a part of Turkey at the end of World War I but annexed by the United Kingdom during the armistice day following the war.)Turkeysource
  • June 10 – June 10th Movement: public displays of Korean resistance organized by students against Japanese rule take place in Korea.Japansource
  • July 9 – In Portugal, General Óscar Carmona takes power in a military coup.source
  • July 10 – A bolt of lightning strikes Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey; the resulting fire causes several million pounds of explosives to blow up in the next 2–3 days.source
  • July – The "Declaration of the 13" was written by Kamenev, Krupskaya, Trotsky, Zinoviev, along with 9 other contributors. The declaration was a denouncement of the economic policies of the left and the attacks on freedom the writers felt would lead to the destruction of the Bolshevik Revolution.Soviet Unionsource
  • August 1 – In Mexico, the entry into force of anticlerical measures stipulated in the Constitution of 1917 causes the Cristero War from August 3.source
  • August 3 – Cristero War: Some 400 armed Catholics barricaded themselves in the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Guadalajara, Jalisco and exchanged gunfire with federal troops until they ran out of ammunition and surrendered. According to U.S. consular sources, 18 were killed and 40 wounded.Mexicosource
  • September 11 – In Rome, Italy, Gino Lucetti throws a bomb at Benito Mussolini's car, but Mussolini is unhurt.source
  • September 20 – The North Side Gang attempts to assassinate Al Capone, at the apex of his power at this time, spraying his headquarters in Cicero, Illinois with over a thousand rounds of machine gun fire in broad daylight, as Capone is eating there. Capone escapes harm.source
  • October 16 – An ammunition explosion on troopship Kuang Yuang near Jiujiang, China, kills 1,200.source
  • October 16 – Explosion of ammunition on the Chinese troopship Kuang Yuang, near Kiukiang, ChinaChinasource
  • December 17 – 1926 Lithuanian coup d'état: A democratically elected government is overthrown in Lithuania; Antanas Smetona assumes power.source
  • December 23 – Nicaraguan President Adolfo Díaz requests U.S. military assistance in the ongoing civil war. American peacekeeping troops immediately set up neutral zones in Puerto Cabezas and at the mouth of the Rio Grande to protect American and foreign lives and property.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • Imperial Airways open an ordinary passenger service between Cairo and Baghdad via Gaza.Mandatory Palestinesource
  • March 6 – The first commercial air route from the United Kingdom to South Africa is established by Alan Cobham.source
  • May 9 – Explorer Richard E. Byrd and co-pilot Floyd Bennett claim to be the first to fly over the North Pole in the Josephine Ford monoplane, taking off from Spitsbergen, Norway and returning 15 hours and 44 minutes later. Both men are immediately hailed as national heroes, though some experts have since been skeptical of the claim, believing that the plane was unlikely to have covered the entire distance and back in that short an amount of time. An entry in Byrd's diary, discovered in 1996, suggests that the plane actually turned back 150 miles short of the North Pole, due to an oil leak.source
  • 12 June - A travelling exhibition departed from Istanbul on SS Karadeniz,Turkeysource
  • July 1 – The Kuomintang begins the Northern Expedition, a military unification campaign in northern China.source
  • 1 July – The Icelandic Coast Guard formally foundedIcelandsource
  • July 9 – KMT launches Northern Expedition.Chinasource
  • September 16 – Mikasaya Department Store, as predecessor of Kintetsu Department Store Osaka Uehonmachi was officially open in Tennoji-ku, Osaka.Japansource
  • October 10 – The South African National War Memorial next to Delville Wood outside Longueval, France is opened.South Africasource
  • Stephen H. Langdon begins excavations in Jemdet Nasr, finding proto-cuneiform clay tablets (3100–2900 BCE).source
  • Ballerina Anna Pavlova tours AustraliaAustraliasource
  • Writer and adventurer Zane Grey first visits New Zealand, helping to popularise big-game fishingNew Zealandsource

Religion & Belief

  • January 8 – Ibn Saud is crowned ruler of the Kingdom of Hejaz.source
  • 13 January – Mathilde Schjøtt, writer, literary critic, biographer and feminist (born 1844).Norwaysource
  • 2 February – Spelling of the town of Carnarvon changed to Caernarvon (modern-day Caernarfon); the county makes the same change on 1 July.Walessource
  • February 12 – The Irish minister for Justice, Kevin O'Higgins, appoints the Committee on Evil Literature.source
  • April 6 – Aarón Joaquín has a vision in the Nuevo León state of Mexico, origin of La Luz del Mundo, a nontrinitarian charismatic restorationist Christian church.source
  • War cemeteries at Ramleh and Jerusalem are formally dedicated by Field-Marshal Viscount Allenby.Mandatory Palestinesource
  • September 11 – Aloha Tower is officially dedicated at Honolulu Harbor in the Territory of Hawai'i.United Statessource
  • October 23 – The Fazal Mosque, the first purpose-built in London and the first Ahmadiyya mosque in Britain, is completed.source
  • 24 November – Sri Aurobindo retires, leaving Mirra Alfassa to run the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry.Indiasource
  • 31 December – Hadow report on The Education of the Adolescent published.United Kingdomsource
  • Monarch – Victor Emmanuel III (1900–1946)Italysource
  • The Chatham Cup is won by Sunnyside (Christchurch)New Zealandsource

Economy & Finance

  • 6 January – Deutsche Luft Hansa is formed by the merger of Deutsche Aero Lloyd and Junkers LuftverkehrGermanysource
  • January 12 – Toray (then Toyo Rayon) was founded.Japansource
  • 29 May – Modern Commercial codeTurkeysource
  • July 26 – The United States National Bar Association is incorporated.source
  • September – Abraham Berge, as the only Norwegian Prime Minister ever is impeached. The charge was withholding information relating to the government rescue of a bank threatened by bankruptcy. He was, however, acquitted in 1927, along with the six ministers who stood trial alongside him.Norwaysource
  • 10 October – The Romanian National Party (Partidul Național Român, PNR) and the Peasants' Party (Partidul Țărănesc, PȚ) merge to form the National Peasants' Party. The party subsequently dominated Romanian politics from 1928 to 1933.Romaniasource
  • 4 November – A revised import tariff is introduced, shifting from ad valorem to specific duties to protect local industries.Mandatory Palestinesource
  • Cotton Industry (Statistics) ActIndiasource
  • The New Zealand national rugby league team tours Britain, losing all three tests against Great Britain and one test against WalesNew Zealandsource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • 7 January – Deutschlandsender, a radio transmitter, is opened for the first time.Germanysource
  • January 16 – A British Broadcasting Company radio play by Ronald Knox about workers' revolution in London causes a panic among those who have not heard the preliminary announcement that it is a satire on broadcasting.source
  • 21 January - Rádio Mayrink Veiga begins broadcasting in Rio de Janeiro.Brazilsource
  • January 26 – Scottish inventor John Logie Baird demonstrates a mechanical television system at his London laboratory for members of the Royal Institution and a reporter from The Times.source
  • 5 March – The British High Commissioner grants an exclusive 70-year concession to Pinhas Rutenberg of the Palestine Electric Corporation for production and distribution of electric power utilize the water of the Jordan River and the Yarmouk River (see First Jordan Hydro-Electric Power House)Mandatory Palestinesource
  • 7 June – Free State – Harrismith to Warden, 35 mi 33 ch.South Africasource
  • June 12 – Lithuanian Radio launches its service from Kauno radiofonas.source
  • July 15 – Bombay Electric Supply and Transport Company in India introduces motor buses.source
  • August 5 – In New York, the Warner Brothers' Vitaphone system is experienced by audiences for the first time, in the movie Don Juan, starring John Barrymore.source
  • August 6 – American Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel, from France to England.source
  • August 18 – In the United States, a weather map is televised for the first time, sent from NAA Arlington to the Weather Bureau office in Washington, D.C.source
  • 6 October – First airplane factory in KayseriTurkeysource
  • November 11 – The United States Numbered Highway System, including U.S. Route 66, is established.source
  • November 15 – The NBC Radio Network opens in the United States with 24 stations (formed by Westinghouse, General Electric and RCA).source
  • November 18 – Inventor and industrialist Sakichi Toyoda founds the Toyota Industries, the company from which Toyota Motor Corporation would develop.Japansource
  • 18 December – Raadio Ringhääling starts regular broadcastsEstoniasource
  • December – The First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union is conducted.Soviet Unionsource
  • Phencyclidine (PCP, angel dust) is first synthesized.source
  • Industrial output surpasses the level of 1913 in the USSR after a period of economic downturn.source

Science & Discovery

  • 1 January – Law of Property Act 1925 and Administration of Estates Act 1925 come into effect modernising the laws on real estate and intestacy.United Kingdomsource
  • March 16 – Robert H. Goddard launches the first liquid-fuel rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.source
  • March 16 – Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fuel rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.United Statessource
  • 22 April – Modern Obligations codeTurkeysource
  • 28 April – J. G. Parry-Thomas breaks the world land speed record on Pendine Sands, in his new car, "Babs".Walessource
  • May 11–14 – Roald Amundsen makes the first airship flight over the North Pole. The Norge leaves Spitsbergen and arrives in Teller, Alaska three days later.Norwaysource
  • May 12 – Roald Amundsen and his crew fly over the North Pole, in the airship Norge.source
  • 24 June – the liner Padua is launched. Other ships launched this year (all with date of launch unknown) include SS Amrum, SS Ilse L M Russ and SS Siegmund.Germanysource
  • Helen Wayth wins the first Miss Australia QuestAustraliasource
  • New Zealand Trotting Cup – Ahuriri (2nd win)New Zealandsource

Health & Medicine

  • 28 January – Orthopaedic surgeon Robert Jones is created a baronet (Jones of Rhyl).Walessource
  • 11 February – Inga Houge, actress (born 1856)Norwaysource
  • 11 April – Partial mobilization as a precaution after a speech of Italian dictator Benito MussoliniTurkeysource
  • 18 April – censuses are held in both parts of Ireland. The 1926 Irish Free State census records a population of 2,971,992; the population of Northern Ireland is 1,257,000.Irelandsource
  • 18 April – Census held in Northern Ireland (and the Free State). The population of Northern Ireland is 1,257,000.Northern Irelandsource
  • 1 October − Public Service Commission established, it was later reconstituted as Federal Public Service Commission by the Government of India Act 1935 only to be renamed as today's Union Public Service Commission after the independence.Indiasource
  • October 23 – A decree in Italy bans women from holding public office.source
  • 6 November – The policy of police confinement and internment begins with the issuance of Royal Decree 1848 and lasts until 1943. The decree allows Fascist Italy to deport its perceived political enemies as alleged subversives acting against the State, some of whom were later being knowingly deported to their imminent deaths in concentration camps. In spite of the Fascist regime, many Italians resisted and helped hide people from the authorities.Italysource
  • November 24 – Sri Aurobindo withdraws into seclusion following a spiritual realisation, entrusting the supervision of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram to "The Mother".source
  • Pavlova reportedly created by a Wellington hotel chef in honour of the visit of Anna PavlovaNew Zealandsource

Crime & Justice

  • February 1 – Land on Broadway and Wall Street in New York City is sold at a record $7 per sq inch; it is only affordable for four more years.source
  • 1 March – Modern criminal codeTurkeysource
  • May 18 – Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears, while visiting a Venice, California beach. She reappears nearly a month later claiming to have been kidnapped.source
  • 6 June - Campeonato de Portugal FinalPortugalsource
  • September 23 – Gene Tunney defeats Jack Dempsey to become heavyweight boxing champion of the world.source
  • 10 October –Muin Bseiso – Palestinian poet. (died 1984)Mandatory Palestinesource
  • November 10 – In San Francisco, a necrophiliac serial killer named Earle Nelson (dubbed "Gorilla Man") kills and then rapes his 9th victim, a boarding house landlady named Mrs. William Edmonds.source
  • November 25 – The death penalty is re-established in Italy.source
  • November 26 – All Italian Communist deputies are arrested.source
  • December 3 – English detective story writer Agatha Christie disappears from her home in Surrey; on December 14 she is found under her husband's mistress's surname at a Harrogate hotel.source
  • 16 December – Philipp Scheidemann of the Social Democratic Party reveals that the Reichswehr is secretly working with the Soviet Red Army and anti-republican groups in Germany.Germanysource
  • Le Corbusier, Maison Guiette, AntwerpBelgiumsource
  • Corações em Suplício, directed by Eugenio Centenaro KerriganBrazilsource
  • Good Conduct Prisoners Probational Release ActIndiasource
  • Royal County Down Golf Club bring in Harry Colt to make further improvements to the course.Northern Irelandsource

Disasters & Accidents

  • March 6 – The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon (England) is destroyed by fire.source
  • 6 March – The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon is destroyed by fire.United Kingdomsource
  • April 30 – A state of emergency is proclaimed in the United Kingdom under the Emergency Powers Act 1920 on account of the "threat of cessation of work in Coal Mines".source
  • April – Hindu-Muslim strike in Calcutta.Indiasource
  • 1 May – A lockout of coal miners leads to the declaration of the 1926 United Kingdom general strike. Police and miners clash eighteen times in the course of industrial disputes in the South Wales coalfield.Walessource
  • May 10 – Planes piloted by Major Harold Geiger and Horace Meek Hickam, students at the United States Air Corps Tactical School, collide in mid-air at Langley Field, Virginia.source
  • July 3 – A Caudron C.61 aircraft, operated by Compagnie Internationale de Navigation Aérienne, crashes in Czechoslovakia.source
  • July 12 – A lightning strike destroys an ammunition depot in Dover, New Jersey.United Statessource
  • 2 August – The French S.S. Lotus collided with the Turkish S.S. Bozkurt.Turkeysource
  • September 21 – French war ace René Fonck and three others attempt to fly the Atlantic, in pursuit of the Orteig Prize. Before the newsreel cameras at Roosevelt Field New York, the modified Sikorsky S-35 crashes on take-off and bursts into flames. Fonck survives, but two of his men are killed.source
  • October 8 – 124 coal miners die due to a methane explosion in the Durban Navigation Colliery disasterSouth Africasource
  • October 12 – British miners agree to end their strike.source
  • November 24 – The village of Rocquebillier, in the French Riviera, is almost destroyed in a massive hailstorm.source
  • 24 November – The village of Rocquebillier on the Riviera is almost destroyed in a massive hailstorm.Francesource
  • December 2 – British prime minister Stanley Baldwin ends the state of emergency that had been declared due to the miners' strike.source
  • 3 December – Nine miners die in an explosion in the Dobson coal mine near BrunnerNew Zealandsource

Climate & Environment

  • 1 January – the city of Cologne is badly hit by flooding in the river Rhine.Germanysource
  • 7 January – Flooding along the river Meuse, particularly in Liège.Belgiumsource
  • 18 March – A magnitude 6.9 earthquake, with a maximum intensity of VIII (Severe), occurs in the Mediterranean Sea southwest of Kaş in the Antalya Province. Some people are killed.Turkeysource
  • May 24 – A volcano eruption hit in Mount Tokachi, Hokkaido, according to Japanese government official document figure showed, 144 persons were fatalities, 21 persons missing, about 200 persons were hurt.Japansource
  • An exceptionally stormy and unsettled month in Central Chile produces the wettest and cloudiest month for which reliable records exist in Santiago, where a total of 433.0 mm falls (more than the average annual rainfall) and no more than 51 sunny hours occur all month.Chilesource
  • An earthquake causes significant damage and loss of life in Palestine and Transjordan, notably affecting Lydda, Ramleh, Nablus, Amman, and Es-Salt.Mandatory Palestinesource
  • 31 August - 1926 Horta earthquakePortugalsource
  • September 18 – Great Miami Hurricane: A strong hurricane devastates Miami, leaving over 100 dead and causing several hundred million dollars in damage (equal to nearly $100 billion in the modern day).source
  • September 18 – Great Miami Hurricane: A strong hurricane devastates Miami, Florida, leaving over 100 dead and causing several hundred million dollars in damage (equal to nearly $100 billion today).United Statessource
  • October 10 – The Sabie Game Reserve is renamed to Kruger National Park.South Africasource
  • October 20 – A hurricane kills 650 in Cuba.source

Culture & Society

  • January 8 – Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuy ascends the throne as Bảo Đại, the last monarch of the Nguyễn dynasty of the Kingdom of Vietnam.source
  • 15 February – C.D. Águila, a Salvadoran football club, was established.El Salvadorsource
  • February 20 – The Berlin International Green Week, a food and agriculture fair, debuts in Germany.source
  • 27 April – A memorial to the British 54th Division is unveiled in Gaza.Mandatory Palestinesource
  • May 4 – The United Kingdom general strike begins at midnight, in support of a strike by coal miners.source
  • 12 May – The establishment of Taiwan Provincial Ilan School of Agriculture and Forestry in Taihoku Prefecture.Taiwansource
  • June 19 – King Roger, an opera about Roger II of Sicily by Karol Szymanowski, is premiered at the Grand Theatre in Warsaw.source
  • September 19 – Giuseppe Meazza (San Siro) Stadium, well known among sports venues in Italy, officially opens in Milan.source
  • September 25 – Henry Ford announces the 8-hour, 5-day work week.source
  • September 25 – The League of Nations Slavery Convention abolishes all types of slavery.source
  • October 12–November 2 – The Central American and Caribbean Games take place in Mexico City.Mexicosource
  • October 14 – A. A. Milne's children's book Winnie-the-Pooh is published in London, featuring the eponymous bear.source
  • 18 October – Queen Maria, accompanied by Prince Nicholas and Princess Ileana disembark in New York for a tour the United States.Romaniasource
  • October 19 – The 1926 Imperial Conference opens in London.source
  • 19 November - Establishment of Anadia FCPortugalsource
  • December 7 – The Council for the Preservation of Rural England, later the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), is founded by Patrick Abercrombie to limit urban sprawl and ribbon development.source
  • December 26 – World première of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius's tone poem Tapiola by Walter Damrosch and the New York Philharmonic, the last substantial composition to be made public by the composer for the remaining 30 years of his life.source
  • Estonian Radio Symphony Orchestra established, playing their first concert in December.Estoniasource
  • Lyceum Club Femenino was established in MadridSpainsource

Births

  • January 3 – Sir George Martin, English record producer (died 2016)source
  • 2 February – Lia Laats, actress (died 2004)Estoniasource
  • March 16 – Jerry Lewis, American comedian, humanitarian and philanthropist (known for The Nutty Professor) (died 2017)source
  • April 6 – Ian Paisley, Northern Irish politician (died 2014)source
  • 6 April – Ian Paisley, founder of the Democratic Unionist Party and First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2007 to 2008 (died 2014)Northern Irelandsource
  • April 21 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom (died 2022)source
  • May 8 – Sir David Attenborough, British broadcaster, naturalist, and producersource
  • May 26 – Miles Davis, African-American Jazz musician (died 1991)source
  • June 1 – Marilyn Monroe, American actress (died 1962)source
  • August 3 – Tony Bennett, American singer (died 2023)source
  • August 13 – Fidel Castro, Cuban revolutionary and politician (died 2016)source
  • August 15 – Sukanta Bhattacharya, Bengali poet and playwright (died 1947)source
  • August 17 – Jiang Zemin, former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (paramount leader) and President of China (died 2022)source
  • September 3 – Uttam Kumar, Bengali actor (died 1980)source
  • September 23 – John Coltrane, American jazz saxophonist (died 1967)source
  • October 15 – Michel Foucault, French philosopher (died 1984)source
  • 29 October – Necmettin Erbakan, prime minister (54th government of Turkey)Turkeysource
  • 31 October – Saima Karimova, Russian geologist (died 2013)Soviet Unionsource

Deaths

  • 5 February - Theodor Nette, Soviet diplomatic courier of NKID (born 1896)Soviet Unionsource
  • February 8 – William Bateson, British geneticist (born 1861)source
  • March 14 – El Virilla train accident in Costa Rica: 385 people are killed and 93 injured when an overloaded pilgrim special derails on a bridge. The SS Ile de france Was Launched at Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyards in Saint Nazaire, France As one of the first ships to embrace the Art Deco stylesource
  • May 16 – Mehmed VI, Ottoman Sultan (born 1861)source
  • May 25 – Symon Petliura, Ukrainian independence fighter (born 1879)source
  • June 10 – Antoni Gaudí, Spanish architect (born 1852)source
  • June 14 – Mary Cassatt, American painter and printmaker (born 1844)source
  • 19 June – Meir Pa'il, Israeli politician and Palmach officer (died 2015).Mandatory Palestinesource
  • July 12 – Gertrude Bell, British archaeologist, writer, spy and administrator; known as the "Uncrowned Queen of Iraq" (born 1868)source
  • July 26 – Robert Todd Lincoln, American statesman and businessman, son of 16th President Abraham Lincoln (born 1843)source
  • August 23 – Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor (born 1895)source
  • 26 August – Nazım Bey (born in 1870), MD and politicianTurkeysource
  • 19 October – Victor Babeș, bacteriologist and physician (born 1854).Romaniasource
  • October 20 – Eugene V. Debs, American labor and political leader (born 1855)source
  • October 31 – Magician Harry Houdini dies of gangrene and peritonitis that has developed after his appendix ruptured.source
  • October 31 – Harry Houdini, Hungarian-born American escapologist (born 1874)source
  • November 3 – Annie Oakley, American sharpshooter and entertainer (born 1860)source
  • December 5 – Claude Monet, French painter (born 1840)source
  • December 25 – Emperor Taishō dies and is succeeded by his eldest son, Hirohito who becomes 124th Emperor. This event marks the end of the Taishō period and the beginning of the Shōwa period. Hirohito, Emperor Shōwa reigned as Emperor of Japan until his death in 1989.Japansource