1926

Events from the year **1926 in the United States**.

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: William W. Brandon (Democratic)
* Governor of Arizona: George W. P. Hunt (Democratic)
* Governor of Arkansas: Tom Jefferson Terral (Democratic)
* Governor of California: Friend Richardson (Republican)
* Governor of Colorado: Clarence Morley (Republican)
* Governor of Connecticut: John H. Trumbull (Republican)
* Governor of Delaware: Robert P. Robinson (Republican)
* Governor of Florida: John W. Martin (Democratic)
* Governor of Georgia: Clifford Walker (Democratic)
* Governor of Idaho: Charles C. Moore (Republican)
* Governor of Illinois: Len Small (Republican)
* Governor of Indiana: Edward L. Jackson (Republican)
* Governor of Iowa: John Hammill (Republican)
* Governor of Kansas: Ben S. Paulen (Republican)
* Governor of Kentucky: William J. Fields (Democratic)
* Governor of Louisiana: Henry L. Fuqua (Democratic) (until October 11), Oramel H. Simpson (Democratic) (starting October 11)
* Governor of Maine: Owen Brewster (Republican)
* Governor of Maryland: Albert C. Ritchie (Democratic)
* Governor of Massachusetts: Alvan T. Fuller (Republican)
* Governor of Michigan: Alex Groesbeck (Republican)
* Governor of Minnesota: Theodore Christianson (Republican)
* Governor of Mississippi: Henry L. Whitfield (Democratic)
* Governor of Missouri: Samuel Aaron Baker (Republican)
* Governor of Montana: John E. Erickson (Democratic)
* Governor of Nebraska: Adam McMullen (Republican)
* Governor of Nevada: James G. Scrugham (Democratic)
* Governor of New Hampshire: John Gilbert Winant (Republican)
* Governor of New Jersey: George Sebastian Silzer (Democratic) (until January 19), A. Harry Moore (Democratic) (starting January 19)
* Governor of New Mexico: Arthur T. Hannett (Democratic)
* Governor of New York: Al Smith (Democratic)
* Governor of North Carolina: Angus Wilton McLean (Democratic)
* Governor of North Dakota: Arthur G. Sorlie (Republican)
* Governor of Ohio: A. Victor Donahey (Democratic)
* Governor of Oklahoma: Martin E. Trapp (Democratic)
* Governor of Oregon: Walter M. Pierce (Democratic)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: Gifford Pinchot (Republican)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Aram J. Pothier (Republican)
* Governor of South Carolina: Thomas Gordon McLeod (Democratic)
* Governor of South Dakota: Carl Gunderson (Republican)
* Governor of Tennessee: Austin Peay (Democratic)
* Governor of Texas: Miriam A. Ferguson (Democratic)
* Governor of Utah: George Dern (Democratic)
* Governor of Vermont: Franklin S. Billings (Republican)
* Governor of Virginia: Elbert Lee Trinkle (Democratic) (until February 1), Harry F. Byrd (Democratic) (starting February 1)
* Governor of Washington: Roland H. Hartley (Republican)
* Governor of West Virginia: Howard M. Gore (Republican)
* Governor of Wisconsin: John J. Blaine (Republican)
* Governor of Wyoming: Nellie Tayloe Ross (Democratic)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: Charles S. McDowell (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of California: Clement Calhoun Young (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Sterling Byrd Lacy (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: J. Edwin Brainard (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Delaware: James H. Anderson (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: H. C. Baldridge (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Fred E. Sterling (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: F. Harold Van Orman (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Clem F. Kimball (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: De Lanson Alson Newton Chase (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Henry Denhardt (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Oramel H. Simpson (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Philip H. Gilbert (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Frank G. Allen (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: George W. Welsh (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: William I. Nolan (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Dennis Murphree (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Philip Allen Bennett (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Montana: W. S. McCormack (political party unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: George A. Williams (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Maurice J. Sullivan (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico: Edward G. Sargent (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: Seymour Lowman (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Jacob E. Long (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: Walter Maddock (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Charles H. Lewis (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: David J. Davis (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Nathaniel W. Smith (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: E. B. Jackson (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: Alva Clark Forney (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: Lucius D. Hill (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Barry Miller (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Walter K. Farnsworth (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Junius Edgar West (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Washington: W. Lon Johnson (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Henry A. Huber (Republican)

## 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.
* 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.
* September 25 – The Detroit Cougars, a professional ice hockey club (National Hockey League) and predecessor of the Detroit Red Wings, is founded.

### 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.

## Memoriam

* January 21 – Marie C. Brehm, prohibitionist, suffragist, and politician (aged 66; Pasadena, CA, USA)
* January 26 – John Flannagan, Roman Catholic priest (aged 66; Davenport, IA, USA)
* January 30 – Barbara La Marr, silent film actress (aged 29; Altadena, CA, USA)
* February 21 – Charles Ellis Johnson, photographer (aged 68; San Jose, CA, USA)
* March 2 – Victory Bateman, stage and silent screen actress (aged 60; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* March 11 – Maibelle Heikes Justice, novelist and screenwriter (aged 55; New York City, NY, USA)
* March 12 – E. W. Scripps, newspaper publisher (aged 71; Monrovia, Liberia)
* March 16 – Sergeant Stubby, World War I hero war dog (aged 10; New York City, NY, USA)
* April 11 – Luther Burbank, botanist (aged 77; Santa Rosa, CA, USA)
* April 30 – Bessie Coleman, first African-American woman civil aviator (aged 34; Jacksonville, FL, USA)
* May 10 – Alton B. Parker, judge and political candidate (aged 73; New York City, NY, USA)
* May 19 – Joseph C. Sibley, livestock breeder, farmer, and politician (aged 76; Franklin, PA, USA)
* May 26 – Frank Nelson Cole, mathematician (aged 64; New York City, NY, USA)
* July 10 – Sarah P. Monks, naturalist and educator (aged 85; San Pedro, CA, USA)
* July 12 – John W. Weeks, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1913 to 1919, 48th United States Secretary of War (aged 66; Lancaster, NH, USA)
* July 26 – Robert Todd Lincoln, statesman and businessman, son of Abraham Lincoln (aged 82; Manchester, VT, USA)
* July 30 – Albert B. Cummins, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1908 to 1926 (aged 76; Des Moines, IA, USA)
* September 15 – Daniel W. Lawler, mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota (aged 67; St. Paul, MN, USA)
* October 20 – Eugene V. Debs, labor leader (aged 70; Elmhurst, IL, USA)
* October 22 – John G. Shedd, businessman (aged 76; Chicago, IL, USA)
* October 23 – Olympia Brown, suffragette (aged 91; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* October 24 – Charles Marion Russell, "cowboy artist" (aged 62; Great Falls, MT, USA)
* October 31 – Harry Houdini, illusionist and stunt performer, known for escape acts (aged 52; Detroit, MI, USA)
* November 3 – Annie Oakley, performance artist (aged 66; Greenville, OH, USA)
* November 12 – Joseph Gurney Cannon, politician (aged 90; Danville, IL, USA)
* November 15 – Lafayette Young, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1910 to 1911 (aged 78; Des Moines, IA, USA)
* 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 (aged 80; San Diego, CA, USA)
* December 31 – Henry A. du Pont, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1906 to 1917 (aged 88; Greenville, DE, USA)