1926 in the United States

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US flag 48 stars.svg
1926
in
the United States

Decades:
  • 1900s
  • 1910s
  • 1920s
  • 1930s
  • 1940s
See also:

Events from the year 1926 in the United States.

Incumbents[]

Federal Government[]

  • President: Calvin Coolidge (R-Massachusetts)
  • Vice President: Charles G. Dawes (R-Illinois)
  • Chief Justice: William Howard Taft (Ohio)
  • Speaker of the House of Representatives: Nicholas Longworth (R-Ohio)
  • Senate Majority Leader: Charles Curtis (R-Kansas)
  • Congress: 69th

Events[]

January–March[]

  • February 1 – Land on Broadway and Wall Street in New York City is sold at a record $7 per sq inch.
  • March 16 – Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fuel rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.

April–June[]

  • April 12 – By a vote of 45–41, the United States Senate unseats Iowa Senator Smith W. Brookhart and seats Daniel F. Steck, after Brookhart has served for over one year.
  • April 30 – African-American pilot Bessie Coleman is killed after falling 2,000 feet (610 m) from an airplane.
  • May 10 – Planes piloted by Major Harold Geiger and Horace Meek Hickam, students at the Air Corps Tactical School, collide in mid-air over Langley Field, Virginia. Hickam parachutes to safety.
  • May 18 – Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears while visiting a beach at Venice, California; on June 23 she is found stumbling in the desert of Agua Prieta, Mexico just south of Douglas, Arizona, claiming she has been kidnapped, drugged, tortured and held for ransom, but has escaped.[1][2]
  • May 12 – The United States Congress passes the Air Commerce Act, licensing pilots and planes.
  • June 19 – DeFord Bailey is the first African-American to perform on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry.
  • June 23 – The College Board administers the first SAT, a major standardized test for university and college admission in the U.S.

July–September[]

  • July 1 – Benjamin Franklin Bridge opens.
  • July 12 – A lightning strike destroys an ammunition depot in Dover, New Jersey.
  • July 26 – The National Bar Association incorporates in the United States.
  • August 6 – In New York City, the Warner Brothers' Vitaphone system premieres with the movie Don Juan starring John Barrymore.
  • August 18 – A weather map is televised for the first time, sent from NAA Arlington to the Weather Bureau Office in Washington, D.C.
  • September 11 – Aloha Tower is officially dedicated at Honolulu Harbor in the Territory of Hawai'i.
  • September 16 – Philip Dunning and George Abbott's play Broadway premieres in New York City.
  • 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).
  • September 20 – Twelve cars full of gangsters open fire at the Hawthorne Inn, Al Capone's Chicago headquarters. Only one of Capone's men is wounded.

October–December[]

  • October 10 – The St. Louis Cardinals defeat the New York Yankees, 4 games to 3, to win their first World Series Title. This World Series ended when Babe Ruth attempted to steal second base and is the only World Series to end this way.
  • October 14 – Poland presents President Calvin Coolidge with a 111 volume gift called a "Polish Declaration of Admiration and Friendship for the United States of America" comprising some 15,000 bound sheets with the signatures of an estimated 5,500,000 Polish citizens on the occasion of America's 150th anniversary of independence.
  • November 10 – In San Francisco, California, a necrophiliac serial killer named Earle Nelson (dubbed "Gorilla Man") kills and then rapes his 9th victim, a boardinghouse landlady named Mrs. William Edmonds.
  • November 11 – The plan for a United States Numbered Highway System is approved by the American Association of State Highway Officials, so establishing U.S. Route 66.
  • November 15 – The NBC radio network opens with 24 stations (formed by Westinghouse, General Electric and RCA).
  • November 27 – In Williamsburg, Virginia, the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg begins.
  • December 23 – Conservative Nicaraguan President Adolfo Díaz requests U.S. military assistance in the Nicaraguan civil war (1926–27). U.S. Marines immediately set up neutral zones in Puerto Cabezas and at the mouth of the Rio Grande to protect American and foreign lives and property.[3][4]

Undated[]

  • Microbiologist Selman Waksman publishes Enzymes.
  • The Pike School in Andover, Massachusetts, is founded.
  • Lundy's Restaurant is founded at Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.

Ongoing[]

  • Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)
  • U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915–1934)
  • Prohibition (1919–1933)
  • Roaring Twenties (1920–1929)

Births[]

January[]

Patricia Neal
Steve Reeves
  • January 2
    • Harold Bradley, American country music session guitarist (d. 2019)
    • Howard Caine, American actor (d. 1993)
  • January 5
    • Hosea Williams, civil rights leader, activist, minister, businessman, philanthropist, scientist, and politician (d. 2000)
    • William De Witt Snodgrass, poet (d. 2009)
  • January 6
    • Ralph Branca, baseball player (d. 2016)
    • Pat Flaherty, race car driver (d. 2002)
  • January 8
    • Chester Feldman, television game show producer (d. 1997)
    • Evelyn Lear, soprano (d. 2012)
    • Soupy Sales, comedian (d. 2009)
  • January 11Grant Tinker, television executive (d. 2016)
  • January 12Ray Price, American country music singer and songwriter (d. 2013)
  • January 14Tom Tryon, American actor, novelist (d. 1991)
  • January 17Newton N. Minow, attorney
  • January 20Patricia Neal, actress (d. 2010)[5]
  • January 21Steve Reeves, American actor (d. 2000)
  • January 24Ruth Asawa, sculptor (d. 2013)

February[]

Nancy Gates
Verne Gagne
  • February 1 – Nancy Gates, American actress (d. 2019)
  • February 3 – Richard Yates, novelist (d. 1992)
  • February 7 – Bill Hoest, cartoonist (d. 1988)
  • February 8 – Neal Cassady, American writer (d. 1968)
  • February 10 – Mimi Sheraton, food critic
  • February 12
    • Charles Van Doren, American professor, subject of film Quiz Show (d. 2019)
    • Joe Garagiola Sr., baseball player (d. 2016)
  • February 13 – Bill Mercer, sportscaster
  • February 14 – Al Brodax, film, television producer (d. 2016)
  • February 17 – Lee Hoiby, composer (d. 2011)
  • February 18
    • A. R. Ammons, poet and academic (d. 2001)
    • Wallace Berman, painter and illustrator (d. 1976)
    • Len Ford, American football player (d. 1972)
  • February 20
    • Whitney Blake, American actress (d. 2002)
    • Richard Matheson, American author (d. 2013)
    • Bob Richards, American track and field athlete
  • February 22 – Nelson Bunker Hunt, businessman (d. 2014)
  • February 23 – Lawrence Holofcener, sculptor, poet, lyricist, playwright, novelist, actor and director (d. 2017)
  • February 26
    • Verne Gagne, American professional wrestler (d. 2015)
    • Henry Molaison, American memory disorder patient (d. 2008)
    • Doris Belack, American actress (d. 2011)

March[]

Ralph Abernathy
Jerry Lewis
  • March 1Pete Rozelle, National Football League commissioner (d. 1996)
  • March 2Murray Rothbard, economist (d. 1995)
  • March 3
    • Craig Dixon, athlete
    • James Merrill, poet (d. 1995)
  • March 4
    • DeVan Dallas, politician (d. 2016)
    • Richard DeVos, billionaire, co-founder of Amway (d. 2018)
    • Fran Warren, popular singer (d. 2013)
  • March 5Joan Shawlee, actress (d. 1987)
  • March 6Alan Greenspan, economist
  • March 8Dick Teed, Major League Baseball player (d. 2014)
  • March 9Joe Franklin, radio, television personality (d. 2015)
  • March 11
    • Ralph Abernathy, African-American civil rights leader (d. 1990)
    • Thomas Starzl, American physician (d. 2017)
  • March 12George Ariyoshi, American politician, lawyer
  • March 15
    • Ben Johnston, composer (d. 2019)
    • Norm Van Brocklin, American football player (d. 1983)
  • March 16
    • Charles Goodell, American politician (d. 1987)
    • Jerry Lewis, American comedian, humanitarian and philanthropist (d. 2017)
  • March 20Marge Calhoun, surfer (d. 2017)

April[]

Gus Grissom
Hugh Hefner
Harper Lee
  • April 1
    • Charles Bressler, operatic tenor and educator (d. 1996)
    • Anne McCaffrey, American-born Irish author (d. 2011)
  • April 3
    • Gus Grissom, American astronaut (d. 1967)[6]
    • R. W. Schambach, American televangelist, speaker and author (d. 2012)
  • April 4Addo Bonetti, politician and soldier (d. 2021)[7]
  • April 5Roger Corman, American filmmaker, producer, actor and businessman
  • April 6Randy Weston, American jazz pianist and composer (d. 2018)
  • April 8Sue Casey, American actress (d. 2019)
  • April 9
    • Hugh Hefner, American magazine editor, founder of Playboy (d. 2017)[8]
    • Harris Wofford, American politician, U.S. Senator from 1991 to 1995 (d. 2019)
  • April 11David Manker Abshire, United States Army officer (d. 2014)
  • April 12Jane Withers, American actress
  • April 15Walter Dee Huddleston, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1973 to 1985 (d. 2018)
  • April 21Wayne E. Meyer, American Rear-Admiral (d. 2009)
  • April 22Charlotte Rae, American actress, singer (d. 2018)
  • April 23J. P. Donleavy, American novelist (d. 2017 in Ireland)
  • April 27
    • Alvin Baldus, American Democratic politician (d. 2017)
    • Tim LaHaye, American evangelist, speaker and author (d. 2016)
  • April 28
    • James Bama, American artist, illustrator
    • Greg Gates, American Olympic rower (d. 2020)
    • Harper Lee, American novelist (d. 2016)
  • April 29
    • Paul Baran, American internet pioneer (d. 2011)
  • April 30Cloris Leachman, American actress (d. 2021)

May[]

Don Rickles
Miles Davis
  • May 5
    • Ann B. Davis, American actress (d. 2014)
    • Bing Russell, American actor (d. 2003)
  • May 8Don Rickles, American stand-up comedian, actor (d. 2017)
  • May 10Tichi Wilkerson Kassel, American film personality, publisher of The Hollywood Reporter (d. 2004)
  • May 11Caesar Trunzo, U.S. soldier and politician (d. 2013)
  • May 12Earl Dewitt Hutto, American politician (d. 2020)
  • May 18Douglas Henry, American politician (d. 2017)
  • May 19Mark Andrews, U.S. Senator from North Dakota from 1981 to 1987 (d. 2020)
  • May 21Robert Creeley, American poet (d. 2005)
  • May 23Aileen Hernandez, African American civil rights activist (d. 2017)
  • May 25
    • Claude Akins, American actor (d. 1994)
    • Bill Sharman, American basketball player, coach (d. 2013)
  • May 26Miles Davis, African-American jazz musician (d. 1991)
  • May 30
    • Tony Terran, American trumpet player, session musician (d. 2017)
    • Johnny Gimble, American country musician, fiddler (d. 2015)

June[]

Andy Griffith
Marilyn Monroe
Mel Brooks
  • June 1
    • Andy Griffith, American actor (d. 2012)
    • Marilyn Monroe, American actress and icon (d. 1962)[9]
    • Richard S. Schweiker, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania from 1969 to 1981 (d. 2015)
  • June 3Allen Ginsberg, American poet (d. 1997)
  • June 6Sholom Rivkin, American rabbi (d. 2011)
  • June 9
    • Georgia Holt, American singer and actress
    • Happy Rockefeller, Second Lady of the United States as wife of Nelson A. Rockefeller (d. 2015)
  • June 10June Haver, American actress and singer (d. 2005)
  • June 13
    • Paul Lynde, American actor and comedian (d. 1982)
    • June Krauser, American swimmer (d. 2014)
  • June 14Don Newcombe, American baseball player (d. 2019)
  • June 16William F. Roemer, Jr., United States FBI agent (d. 1996)
  • June 18Murray A. Straus, American sociologist and professor (University of New Hampshire), creator of the Conflict tactics scale (d. 2016)[10]
  • June 19
    • Erna Schneider Hoover, American mathematician and inventor
    • Arno Mayer, American historian and writer
  • June 22
    • George Englund, American film editor, director, producer and actor (d. 2017)
    • Ray Szmanda, American radio and television announcer (d. 2018)
  • June 24
    • Blackie Gejeian, American race car driver, race car builder, and hot rod enthusiast (d. 2016)
    • Barbara Scofield, American tennis player
  • June 28
    • Satoru Abe, American sculptor and painter
    • George Booth, American cartoonist
    • Mel Brooks, American actor, comedian, and screenwriter

July[]

John Dingell
Harry Dean Stanton
Hilary Putnam
  • July 1
    • Fernando J. Corbató, American computer scientist (d. 2019)
    • Robert Fogel, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)
  • July 3Rae Allen, American actress, director, and singer
  • July 4Lake Underwood, race car driver and businessman (d. 2008)
  • July 5
    • Roy Hawes, American first baseman in Major League Baseball (d. 2017)
    • Mario Picone. American pitcher (d. 2013)
  • July 8John Dingell, American politician (d. 2019)
  • July 10
    • Carleton Carpenter, American actor and dancer
    • Donald Geary, American ice hockey player (d. 2015)
    • Fred Gwynne, American actor and author (d. 1993)
    • Harry MacPherson, American pitcher (d. 2017)
    • Tony Settember, American racing driver (d. 2014)
  • July 11
    • Frederick Buechner, American author and theologian
    • Joe Houston, American saxophonist (d. 2015)
  • July 14Harry Dean Stanton, American actor (d. 2017)
  • July 16Irwin Rose, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 2015)
  • July 17
    • William Pierson, American television, motion picture and stage actor (d. 2004)
    • Charles Zwick, American civil servant (d. 2018)
  • July 18Nita Bieber, American actress (d. 2019)
  • July 19
    • Helen Gallagher, American actress, dancer, and singer
    • Robert E. Lavender, American Justice (d. 2020)
  • July 23Johnny Groth, American baseball player and scout (d. 2021)
  • July 27Marlow Cook, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1968 to 1974 (d. 2016)
  • July 31
    • Bernard Nathanson, American medical doctor and activist (d. 2011)
    • Hilary Putnam, American philosopher, mathematician and computer scientist (d. 2016)

August[]

Tony Bennett
Stan Freberg
  • August 1Meg Randall, American actress (d. 2018)
  • August 3Tony Bennett, American musician
  • August 6
    • Janet Asimov, American writer and psychiatrist (d. 2019)
    • Norman Wexler, American screenwriter (d. 1999)
  • August 7
    • John Otho Marsh Jr., American politician, 14th United States Secretary of the Army (d. 2019)
    • Stan Freberg, American author, recording artist and comedian (d. 2015)
  • August 9Frank M. Robinson, American science fiction and techno-thriller writer (d. 2014)
  • August 11Ron Bontemps, American basketball player (d. 2017)
  • August 12
    • Douglas Croft, actor (d. 1963)
    • John Derek, American actor and film director (d. 1998)
    • Wallace Markfield, American writer (d. 2002)
  • August 14Buddy Greco, jazz and pop singer and pianist (d. 2017)
  • August 21Carolyn Leigh, lyricist (d. 1983)
  • August 22Lois Hall, American actress (d. 2006)
  • August 26Robert Vickrey, American artist and author (d. 2011)
  • August 27Albert H. Owens Jr., American oncologist (d. 2017)
  • August 29
    • Don Doll, American football player and coach (d. 2010)
    • Betty Lynn, American actress

September[]

Donald A. Glaser
John Coltrane
Julie London
  • September 1Stanley Cavell, American philosopher (d. 2018)
  • September 3
    • Joseph P. Kolter, American politician (d. 2019)
    • Alison Lurie, American author and academic (d. 2020)
  • September 4Robert J. Lagomarsino, American politician (d. 2021)
  • September 6
    • Maurice Prather, American photographer (d. 2001)
    • Clancy Sigal, American writer (d. 2017)
  • September 7
    • Ronnie Gilbert, American folk singer and songwriter (d. 2015)
    • Don Messick, American voice actor (d. 1997)
  • September 9Charles Duncan Jr., American entrepreneur and politician
  • September 14
    • Dick Dale, American singer and musician (d. 2014)
    • John F. Kurtzke, American neurologist (d. 2015)
  • September 16
    • John Knowles, American author (d. 2001)
    • Robert H. Schuller, American televangelist, motivational speaker and author (d. 2015)
  • September 17Bill Black, American bass player and bandleader, a pioneer of rock and roll music (d. 1965)
  • September 18
    • Joe Kubert, author and illustrator, founded The Kubert School (d. 2012)[11]
    • Bob Toski, golfer
  • September 19
    • James Lipton, American television personality and writer (d. 2020)
    • Duke Snider, American baseball player (d. 2011)
  • September 21Donald A. Glaser, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)
  • September 22Bill Smith, American clarinet player and composer (d. 2020)
  • September 23John Coltrane, African-American jazz saxophonist (d. 1967)
  • September 25Charles J. Colgan, American politician and businessman (d. 2017)
  • September 26Julie London, American jazz and pop singer, screen actress and model (d. 2000)
  • September 28Jerry Clower, American country comedian (d. 1998)
  • September 29Philip Ruppe, American politician
  • September 30Dave Hunt, American apologist, speaker, radio commentator and author (d. 2013)

October[]

Jean Peters
Julie Adams
Chuck Berry
  • October 1Max Morath, American musician
  • October 4Senaida Wirth, American female professional baseball player (d. 1967)
  • October 10Richard Jaeckel, American actor (d. 1997)
  • October 11Earle Hyman, American film and television actor (d. 2017)
  • October 13Jesse L. Brown, first African-American aviator in the United States Navy (d. 1950)
  • October 15
    • Jeffrey Hayden, American television director and producer (d. 2016)
    • Jean Peters, American actress (d. 2000)
  • October 16Charles Dolan, American billionaire
  • October 17
    • Julie Adams, American actress (d. 2019)
    • Beverly Garland, American actress and businesswoman (d. 2008)
  • October 18
    • Chuck Berry, African-American guitarist, singer and songwriter, a pioneer of rock and roll music (d. 2017)
    • Pauline Pirok, American female professional baseball player (d. 2020)
  • October 19Marjorie Tallchief, American ballerina
  • October 21Bob Rosburg, American golfer (d. 2009)
  • October 25
    • Jimmy Heath, American saxophonist and composer (d. 2020)
    • Biff McGuire, American actor (d. 2021)
    • , American attorney and politician (d. 2018)
  • October 27H. R. Haldeman, 4th White House Chief of Staff (d. 1993)
  • October 28Bowie Kuhn, American Commissioner of Baseball (d. 2007)

November[]

Betsy Palmer
Jeffrey Hunter
  • November 1Betsy Palmer, American actress (d. 2015)
  • November 2
    • Myer Skoog, American basketball player (d. 2019)
    • Charlie Walker, American country music singer-songwriter (d. 2008)
  • November 4Carmen A. Orechio, American politician (d. 2018)
  • November 8
    • Darleane C. Hoffman, American nuclear chemist
    • Jack Mendelsohn, American writer-artist (d. 2017)
  • November 9Stu Griffing, American Olympic rower
  • November 13Harry Hughes, American politician (d. 2019)
  • November 14Tom Hatten, American radio and television personality (d. 2019)
  • November 16Amy Applegren, American professional baseball player (d. 2011)
  • November 19Jeane Kirkpatrick, American ambassador (d. 2006)
  • November 23R. L. Burnside, American musician (d. 2005)
  • November 25
    • Jeffrey Hunter, American actor (d. 1969)
    • Poul Anderson, American science fiction author (d. 2001)
  • November 30Richard Crenna, American actor (d. 2003)

December[]

Joe Paterno
  • December 9
    • Henry Way Kendall, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
    • Lorenzo Wright, American track and field athlete (d. 1972)[12]
  • December 10Guitar Slim, American New Orleans blues guitarist (d. 1959)
  • December 16James McCracken, American tenor (d. 1988)
  • December 17Patrice Wymore, American actress (d. 2014)
  • December 19Herbert Stempel, American game show contestant (d. 2020)
  • December 20David Levine, American artist and illustrator (d. 2009)
  • December 21
    • Elisabeth Elliot, American Christian author and speaker (d. 2015)
    • Joe Paterno, American football player and coach (d. 2012)
  • December 23Robert Bly, American poet

Unknown[]

  • Date unknown – David Johnson, photographer

Deaths[]

  • January 30 – Barbara La Marr, silent film actress (born 1896)
  • February 21 – Charles Ellis Johnson, photographer (born 1857)
  • March 2 – Victory Bateman, stage and silent screen actress (born 1865)
  • March 11 – Maibelle Heikes Justice, novelist and screenwriter (born 1871)
  • March 12 – E. W. Scripps, newspaper publisher (born 1854)
  • March 16 – Sergeant Stubby, World War I hero war dog (born 1916)
  • April 11 – Luther Burbank, botanist (born 1849)
  • May 10 – Alton B. Parker, judge and political candidate (born 1852)
  • May 26 – Frank Nelson Cole, mathematician (born 1861)
  • July 10 – Sarah P. Monks, naturalist and educator (born 1841)
  • July 26 – Robert Todd Lincoln, statesman and businessman, son of Abraham Lincoln (born 1843)
  • July 30 – Albert B. Cummins, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1908 to 1926 (born 1850)
  • October 20 – Eugene V. Debs, labor leader (born 1855)
  • October 22 – John G. Shedd, businessman (born 1850)
  • October 23 – Olympia Brown, suffragette (born 1835)
  • October 24 – Charles Marion Russell, "cowboy artist" (born 1864)
  • October 31 – Harry Houdini, illusionist and stunt performer, known for escape acts (born 1874)
  • November 3 – Annie Oakley, performance artist (born 1860)
  • November 15 – Lafayette Young, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1910 to 1911 (born 1848)
  • December 10 – Peter Remondino, Italian-born physician, author, first president of the San Diego Board of Health, co-founder of San Diego's first private hospital (born 1846)
  • December 31 – Henry A. du Pont, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1906 to 1917 (born 1838)

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Barfoot, Chas H. (2011). Aimee Semple McPherson and the Making of Modern Pentecostalism, 1890–1926. Equinox. p. 462. ISBN 978-1-84553-166-9.
  2. ^ "Kidnapping and Scandals". Aimee McPherson.com. Old Time Radio. 2016. Retrieved 2019-06-23.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ "Nicaragua (1909-present)". University of Central Arkansas. Retrieved 2015-01-03.
  4. ^ "U.S. Troops Take 2 Nicaraguan Ports". Chicago Daily Tribune. 1926-12-24. p. 1.
  5. ^ "Patricia Neal | Biography, Movies, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  6. ^ "Virgil I. Grissom | American astronaut". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  7. ^ Addo E. Bonetti
  8. ^ Jeffries, Stuart (28 September 2017). "Hugh Hefner obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  9. ^ "Marilyn Monroe | Biography, Movies, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  10. ^ http://cola.unh.edu/article/2016/05/passing-murray-straus Archived 2016-06-04 at the Wayback Machine Passing: Murray A. Straus
  11. ^ Contemporary Graphic Artists. Gale Research Company. 1986. p. 164. ISBN 978-0-8103-2189-2.
  12. ^ "Lorenzo Wright Bio, Stats, and Results | Olympics at Sports-Reference.com". web.archive.org. April 18, 2020.

External links[]

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