1936

1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday in the Gregorian calendar.

 Births 
January 2 – Roger Miller, American singer (d. 1992)
January 28 – Alan Alda, American actor
March 9 – Mickey Gilley, American singer, Nightclub owner (d. 2022)
March 26 - Giora Feidman, Israeli clarinetist
May 7 – Tony O'Reilly, Irish billionaire (d. 2024)
May 16 - Edmond Classen, Dutch actor (d. 2014)
May 17 – Dennis Hopper, American actor (d. 2010)
June 2 – Sally Kellerman, American actress (d. 2022)
July 10 - Lois Lilienstein, Canadian singer and musician (Sharon, Lois & Bram) (d. 2015)
December 22 – Wojciech Frykowski, Polish actor (d. 1969)
September 21 – Yury Luzhkov, Mayor of Moscow (d. 2019)
October 10 – Gerhard Ertl, German physicist, Nobel prize winner (chemistry)
December 17 – Pope Francis, former pope of the Catholic Church (d. 2025)

 Deaths 
January 16 - Albert Fish (executed by electrocution)
January 18 – Rudyard Kipling, British writer
March 9 – Sri Yukteswar Giri, Indian guru

 Events 
January 15 – The first building to be completely covered in glass is completed in Toledo, Ohio, for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company.
January 16 – Serial killer Albert Fish is executed in Sing Sing.
January 20 – Death of George V of the United Kingdom. His son Edward VIII succeeds him as King of the United Kingdom, King of Ireland and Emperor of India.
January 24 – Albert Serraut's government begins in France.
January 31 – The Green Hornet radio show debuts.
February 4 – Radium E. becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.
February 6 – The 1936 Winter Olympic Games opens in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
February 10-15 – Italian troops defeat Abyssinian army in Enderta.
From February 14, 1936, to March 1, 1945, AG Weser launched a total of 162 U-boats.
February 19 – Manuel Aznar's government begins in Spain.
February 26 – 1400 Japanese soldiers invade government offices in Tokyo. They demand arrest of general Kazushige Ugaki and that general Sadao Araki made head of the Kwantung Army and death of the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, the minister of Finance and Inspector General of Military Education.
February 29 – Emperor Hirohito orders the Japanese army to arrest 123 conspirators in Tokyo government offices – 19 of them are executed in July.
Summer – The central and southern United States are hit by a major heat wave.
 September 7 – The last known thylacine ("Tasmanian tiger"), named Benjamin, dies in Hobart Zoo in Tasmania.
December 11 – King Edward VIII gives up his throne to marry the woman he loves.

 Movies released 
After the Thin Man

Hit songs
 "The Way You Look Tonight" – by Dorothy Fields and Jerome Kern, from the movie Swing Time, won the Academy Award for the best song.

Nobel Prizes
 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine won by Henry Hallett Dale, and Otto Loewi.