1926

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1890s  1900s  1910s  – 1920s –  1930s  1940s  1950s
Years:	1923 1924 1925 – 1926 – 1927 1928 1929

Events

• January 1 – Ireland's first regular radio service, 2RN (later Radio Éireann), begins broadcasting.
• January 8 – Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud becomes the King of Hejaz
• January 12 – Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll premiere their radio program Sam 'n' Henry, in which the two white performers portrayed two black characters from Harlem looking for extra money during the Depression. It was a precursor to Gosden and Correll's more popular later program, Amos 'n' Andy.
• January 16 – BBC radio play about worker's revolution causes a panic in London
• January 26 – John Logie Baird demonstrates a mechanical television system.
• January 31 – British and Belgian troops leave Cologne
• February 9 – Flooding on London suburbs
• March 6 – The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon is destroyed by fire
• March 16 – Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts
• April 7 – Failed assassination attempt against Mussolini
• April 12 – By a vote of 45 to 41, the United States Senate unseats Iowa Senator Smith W. Brookhart and seats Daniel F. Steck, after Brookhart had already served for over one year.
• April 16 – Train crash in San Jose, Costa Rica – 178 dead
• April 21 – Princess Elizabeth born in London
• April 25 – Reza Khan is crowned Shah of Iran under the name "Pahlevi."

Nobel Prizes

• Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger, Danish doctor, won the 1926 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, (b. 1867) (d. 1928)

Births

January

George Martin

Patricia Neal

Steve Reeves

Abdus Salam

• January 1 - Claudio Villa, Italian singer (d. 1987)
• January 3 – George Martin, "5th Beatle": producer of The Beatles' records, later inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (d. 2016)
• January 11 – Ahmad Fuad Mohieddin, Prime Minister of Egypt (d. 1984)
• January 20 – Patricia Neal, American stage and film actress (d. 2010)
• January 21 – Steve Reeves, American actor and bodybuilder (d. 2000)
• January 29 – Franco Cerri, Italian jazz guitarist
• January 29 – Abdus Salam, Pakistani Nobel Prize in Physics winner (d. 1996)

February

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

Garret FitzGerald

Leslie Nielsen

• February 2 – Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, 20th President of France (d. 2020)
• February 7 - Konstantin Feoktistov, Russian cosmonaut (d. 2009)
• February 9 - Garret FitzGerald, Irish Taoiseach (d. 2011)
• February 11 – Leslie Nielsen, Canadian actor and comedian (d. 2010)
• February 16 - Margot Frank, sister of Anne Frank (d. 1945)
• February 16 – John Schlesinger, British movie director (d. 2003)
• February 20 - Richard Matheson, American author (d. 2013)

March

Andrzej Wajda

Jerry Lewis

Dario Fo

• March 6 – Andrzej Wajda, Polish film director (d. 2016)
• March 16 – Jerry Lewis, American actor and comedian (d. 2017)
• March 24 – Dario Fo, Italian writer (d. 2016)
• March 27 – Clarence Henry, American boxer

April

Hugh Hefner

Elizabeth II

Harper Lee

Cloris Leachman

• April 3 – Timothy Bateson, English actor (d. 2009)
• April 7 – James Garner, American actor (d. 2014)
• April 9 – Hugh Hefner, American publisher, founder of Playboy magazine (d. 2017)
• April 21 – Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth realms.
• April 28 – Harper Lee, American writer (d. 2016)
• April 30 – Cloris Leachman, American actress (d. 2021)

May

David Attenborough

Don Rickles

Miles Davis

Abdoulaye Wade

• May 8 – David Attenborough, British documentary movie maker, broadcaster and naturalist
• May 8 – Don Rickles, American stand-up comedian (d. 2017)
• May 25 – Claude Akins, American actor (d. 1994)
• May 26 – Miles Davis, American jazz trumpeter (d. 1991)
• May 29 – Abdoulaye Wade, 3rd President of Senegal

June

Marilyn Monroe

Allen Ginsberg

Efraín Ríos Montt

Mel Brooks

• June 1 – Marilyn Monroe, American actress, singer and model (d. 1962)
• June 3 – Allen Ginsberg, American poet and writer (d. 1997)
• June 16 – Efraín Ríos Montt, President of Guatemala (d. 2018)
• June 28 – Mel Brooks, American actor, screenwriter, movie director and movie producer

July

Nuon Chea

Leopoldo Galtieri

• July 7 – Nuon Chea, Cambodian politician, Acting Prime Minister of Cambodia (d. 2019)
• July 10 – Fred Gwynne, American actor (d. 1993)
• July 15 – Leopoldo Galtieri, 44th President of Argentina (d. 2003)

August

Fidel Castro

• August 13 – Fidel Castro, President of Cuba (d. 2016)

October

• October 15 - Michel Foucault, French philosopher (d. 1984)
• October 18 – Chuck Berry, American singer and songwriter (d. 2017)
• October 25 - Galina Vishnevskaya, Russian opera singer (d. 2012)
• October 26 – Robert Baker, American boxer (d. 2002)

November

• November 30 - Andrew W. Schally, Polish Nobel Prize in Medicine winner
• November 30 - Richard Crenna, American actor (d. 2003)

December

• December 24 - Ronald Draper, South African cricketer
• December 26 – Gina Pellón, Cuban painter

Deaths

• January 3 – Emmet D. Boyle, American Governor of Nevada (b. 1879)
• January 4 – Margherita of Savoy, Queen of the Kingdom of Italy (b. 1851)
• February 15 – Piero Gobetti, Italian journalist (b. 1901)
• June 9 – Sanford Dole, American politician and businessman (b. 1844)
• August 23 – Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor (b. 1895)
• November 3 – Annie Oakley, American sharpshooter (b. 1860)
• December 6 – Claude Monet, French painter (b. 1840)
• December 29 - Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian writer (b. 1875)
• Iraj Mirza, Iranian poet (b. 1874)

Movies

• The Scarlet Letter