1936
Butlins was founded with the opening of the first holiday camp in Skegness.
Falkman & His Apache Band broadcast.
The first episodes of Keyboard Talks and The Sensible Mother's Problem broadcast.
England defeated the New Zealand All Blacks for the first time in a Rugby Union international match, thirteen-nil at Twickenham. Alexander Obolensky scored two tries.
The first episode of Imaginary Biographies broadcast. George Formby's 'Riding In The TT Races'/'The Isle Of Man' released.
The Agatha Christie novel The ABC Murders was first published.
Ian La Frenais born in Monkseaton. Edward Hunter Davies born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire.
A Survey Of The Third Round Of The FA Cup broadcast.
The GPO Film Unit documentary Night Mail, incorporating poetry by WH Auden and music by Benjamin Britten, was premiered at the Cambridge Arts Theatre.
Richard Kimber Franklin born in Marylebone.
Issy Bonn 'the Hebrew vocal raconteur' appeared on Music-Hall. As did Claude Dampier, 'the professional idiot.' Michael John Leigh Barlow born in Blackpool.
George V died at Sandringham. Reports that his final words were 'bugger Bognor!' are, almost certainly, apocryphal. Ralph Ramsey Watson born in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.
Ngaire Dawn Porter born in Napier, New Zealand.
General Francisco Franco was selected as Spain's representative to attend the funeral of George V.
Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo born in New York.
Charles Barton's Timothy's Quest - starring Eleanore Whitney, Dickie Moore and Virginia Weilder and WS Van Dyke's Rose-Marie - starring Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy and Reginald Owen - premiered.
The January 1932 record for the most goals scored in the Football League on a single day was equalled with two hundred and nine goals being scored in forty four matches. There were forty six goals in the First Division, the same number in the Second Division, sixty eight in the Third Division North and forty nine in the Third Division South. Highlights included West Bromwich Albion beating Liverpool six-one, West Ham United's six-nil victory over Bury, Watford's six-one victory at Swindon Town and Coventry City's six-one win against Queens Park Rangers. Chester beat York City twelve-nil, Walsall defeated Hartlepools United six-nil and Chesterfield won an eleven goal thriller at Crewe Alexandra (six-five). Aldershot's game against Bristol City produced the day's only goalless draw.
The General Theory Of Employment, Interest & Money by the economist John Maynard Keynes was published.
Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times premiered at the Rivoli Theatre, Broadway. Wa;ses beat England two-one in the Home International championship at Molineux. Dai Astley gave Walses the lead before Ray Bowden equalised. Wolves' Bryn Jones scored the winner for the visitors. England played most of the second-half with ten men after Ted Drakle was injured. Veterans of past Welsh teams - including Caesar Jenkyns, Billy Meredith, Ted Vizard, Fred Keenor, Stanley Davies, Jack Powell and George Latham - were amongst the guests at the match. Both teams wore black armbands as a mark of respect for the late King. The football world was shocked and stunned by the tragic death of Sunderland's twenty two-year-old goalkeeper, Jimmy Thorpe. Four days earlier, he had been kicked several times on the head by Chelsea players as he shielded the ball whilst lying in the goalmouth. Though he completed the match, his injuries eventually precipitated a diabetic attack which led to heart failure. The goalkeeper had been in exceptional form as Sunderland had dominated the First Division and he had played in their last fifty two matches. Unbelievably, the FA initially blamed Sunderland for fielding a diabetic player, but revised their rules, two months later, so that players could no longer attempt to kick the ball when a goalkeeper was in possession of it. Sunderland went on to win the First Division title and Thorpe's medal was presented to his widow, May.
The Olympic Winter Games opened in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. As each delegation of the 28 participating countries marched past Adolf Hitler in the opening ceremony he gave the Nazi salute. Archie Mayo's The Petrified Forest - starring Leslie Howard, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart - premiered.
Clive Walter Swift born in Liverpool.
Burton Leon Reynolds born in Lansing, Michigan.
James W Horne's The Bohemian Girl - starring Laurel and Hardy and Darla Hood - premiered.
Bob Hill's Taming The Wild - starring Rod La Rocque and Maxine Doyle - premiered. Leslie Hutchinson's version of Eric Maschwitz and Jack Strachey's 'These Foolish Things (Remind Me Of You)' and George Formby's 'The Pleasure Cruise'/'The Wash-House At The Back' released.
The USA's failure to beat Canada in the final group match meant that the British men's Ice Hockey team won and unexpected Winter Olympic gold at Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
The comic strip The Phantom made its first appearance. John Dudley Leyton born in Frinton-On-Sea.
The groundbreaking science fiction film Things To Come - written by HG Wells, directed by William Cameron Menzies and starring Raymond Massey, Ralph Richardson, Cedric Hardwicke, Pearl Argyle and Margaretta Scott - premiered in London. The musical Follow The Fleet - starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and featuring Irving Berlin's 'Let's Face The Music & Dance' premiered.
The Story Of Louis Pasteur - starring Paul Muni - premiered.
Gerald Arthur James born in Brixton.
Susan Anna Black born in London.
Virginia Elizabeth Maskell born in Shepherd's Bush.
Walter Raleigh Willock Gilbert born in Devon.
Michael Curtiz's The Walking Dead - starring Boris Karloff - premiered.
The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles. Mutiny On The Bounty won Best Picture. Robert Dean Stockwell born in North Hollywood. The Supermarine Spitfire fighter plane had its first flight.
Auriol Smith born in Harrow.
Spanish army officers including Emilio Mola and Francisco Franco held a secret meeting in Madrid to discuss launching a coup against the government.
George Pearson's Checkmate - starring Maurice Evans, Felix Aylmer, Evelyn Foster, Sally Gray and Donald Wolfit - premiered.
France increased its military presence along the Maginot Line.
Henry Hathaway's The Trail of The Lonesome Pine - starring Fred MacMurray, Sylvia Sidney and Henry Fonda - premiered.
The Falange was banned in Spain. Police arrested two hundred Fascistsi who were accused of using violence to stir up the recent outbreaks of rioting, including José Antonio Primo de Rivera.
William Wyler's These Three - starring Miriam Hopkins, Merle Oberon, Joel McCrea and Bonita Granville - premiered.
Ursula Andress born in Ostermundigen, Switzerland.
Rainford Hugh Perry born in Jamaica.
John Roger Hammond born in Stockport.
Robert Leonard's The Great Zeigfeld - starring William Powell and Myrna Loy - premiered.
The RMS Queen Mary ran aground twice at Clydebank, despite the River Clyde having been specially dredged beforehand.
John Malcolm born in Stirling.
Reynoldstown won the Grand National for the second straight year.
Mark Burns born in Bromsgrove.
The Italian bombing of Harar was discussed in the House of Commons. Hugh Dalton of the Labour Party asked Foreign Minister Anthony Eden if he was aware that 'British public opinion is increasingly stirred by these horrible atrocities which are being perpetrated and when are His Majesty's Government going to take any further step to end it, at least by refusing to supply British oil to these murderous airmen?' Eden replied that the government was 'just as anxious to bring this war and the miserable suffering consequent upon it, to an end.' Peter Collinson born in Lincolnshire.
Anthony Edward Lewis born in Birmingham. Richard Hauptmann was executed by electric chair at the New Jersey State Prison. He had been convicted of the murder of the twenty-month-old son of Charles Lindbergh. Although the child had been killed after abduction, a ransom was paid and it was two months before the boy's body was found.
The airship LZ 129 Hindenburg completed its first transatlantic flight, arriving in Rio de Janeiro.England and Scotland drew one-all in the Home International championship at Wembley. George Camsell scored for the hosts and Tommy Walker of Heart of Midlothian equalised with a penalty in the second-half after a clumsy tackle by Eddie Hapgood on Johnny Crum. Sunderland maintained their eight point lead at the top of the First Division, thrashing Portsmouth five-nil.
Desire - starring Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper - premiered. George Formby's 'A Farmer's Boy'/'Radio Bungalow Town' released.
Joe Payne scored ten goals during a twelve-nil victory by Luton Town over Bristol Rovers. 'In schools where headmistresses inflict corporal punishment on boys of eight or nine, the lads all go out laughing at the punishment they receive because not one of them dare acknowledge that a woman could hurt a "man" of nine. If he acknowledged that he would have lost the dignity and recognition of his own importance.' This revelation of the boy psychology was made by FH Russell, of Bristol, at the Schoolmasters' Conference at Sheffield. The Daily Mirror reported that the conference demanded all boys above infant age should be taught by men teachers. Russell said that to a boy of eight, nine or ten, sex was the first of the most fundamental requirements. His reactions were vital to the whole of his life. He wanted at that age to get away from the woman's control. If the State refused the demand of that boy's soul for the control of a man, the State was definitely injuring his development. Roland Price and Harry Revier's Lash of The Penitentes premiered.
A production of Macbeth, commonly nicknamed Voodoo Macbeth and directed by Orson Welles, premiered at the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem.
Frank Capra's Mister Deeds Goes To Town - starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur - premiered. Derrick George Sherwin born in High Wycombe.
Tug Wilson played his five hundred and sixty sixth (and final) game from Brighton & Hove Albion in their four-one victory over Bristol Rovers in the Third Division South. Wilson's appearance record for The Seagulls remains a club record to this date. Kenneth William Farrington born in Dulwich.
George Orwell's Keep The Aspidistra Flying published. Roy Battersby born in London.
Glen Travis Campbell born in Delight, Arkansas.
Roy Kelton Orbison born in Vernon, Texas.
Jill Dorothy Ireland born in London. Edgar Harvey Armitage born in Blackpool.
Arsenal won the FA Cup, beating Sheffield United one-nil at Wembley. Sunderland won the First Division title by eight points, even though they lost the final game of the season four-nil at runners-up Derby County. Bob Gurney and Raich Carter both scored thirty one goals for The Mackem Filth. Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers were relegated from the First Division and, therefore, became the last two of the founder members of the Football League to lose top flight status for the first time. Manchester United and Charlton Athletic were promoted from Division Two.
The final Italian drive on the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, immortalised in Fascist propaganda as 'The March Of The Iron Will', began.
Emperor Haile Selassie, his wife Menen Asfaw and key members of the Ethiopian government departed Addis Ababa by train and fled to Djibouti in French Somaliland. After five years in exile, Selassie returned to lead his country to independence at the end of the war. Raymond Smith born in Trealaw, Glamorgan.
The Sergei Prokofiev composition Peter & The Wolf premiered in Moscow. Arnold George Dorsey born in Madras.
Joe DiMaggio made his major league debut with the New York Yankees.
Joanna Elizabeth Dunham born in Luton. England lost two-one to Austria in a friendly international in Vienna. George Camsell scored his seventeenth goal for England in a mere eight internationals, but Rudolf Viertl and Rudolf Geiter were on-target for the hosts. Chelsea's Dick Spence and Harold Hobbis of Charlton Athletic made their England debuts.
Amy Johnson reclaimed her England to South Africa flight record when she landed her Percival Gull Six at Cape Town three days and six hours after leaving Kent.
Jockey Ralph Neves was thrown from his horse at Bay Meadows Racetrack in San Mateo, California and pronounced dead at the scene. His apparent corpse was taken away, but a doctor revived him with a shot of adrenaline. A famous headline in the next day's San Francisco Examiner read, Neves, Called Dead In Fall, Denies It.
Albert Finney born in Salford. Glenda May Jackson born in Birkenhead. Mussolini announced the annexation of Ethiopia and proclaimed Italian East Africa in a triumphantly boastful speech from the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia. Yet, of course, he ended his days hanging upside down from a lamp-post perhaps relecting that sometimes, it's best to keep one big fat gob shut. England lost three-two to Belgium in a friendly international in Brussels. George Camsell and Harold Hobbis scored for the visitors. Bernard Joy, who had just joined Arsenal from Casuals FC, Jimmy Cunliffe of Everton and Manchester City's Sam Barkas made their England debuts. A twenty four-year-old prostitute, Connie Hinds was found dead in her bed in Soho, having been strangled and with her face brutally battered with an iron. She was the third prostitute to be murdered in Soho in the previous six months, but no one was ever brought to justice for any of the grisly crimes.
Elliott Nugent's And So They Were Married - starring Melvyn Douglas, Mary Astor, Edith Fellows and Jackie Moran - premiered.
The horror film Dracula's Daughter was released.
Charles Lucky Luciano was found very guilty of being a bad'un and got fifty years stir in Sing Sing.
Show Boat starring Irene Dunne, Allan Jones and Charles Winninger premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Walden Robert Cassotto born in New York.
Roy Hudd born in Croydon. Sylvia Margaret Kay born in Stockport.
Dennis Lee Hopper born in Los Angeles.
Norma Ann Sykes born in Stockport.
James Henry Thomas resigned as Secretary of State for the Colonies after becoming embroiled in a political scandal involving leaked budget details. Jayne Catherine Sofiano born in Jerusalem.
Jennifer Ruth Williams born in Pontypool. Ian Kennedy Martin born in Rothesay, Isle of Bute.
Robert Russell born in Kent.
Leonard Fields' Streamline Express - starring Victor Jory and Evelyn Venable - premiered.
Peter Ellis born in Bristol.
Gustaaf Deloor of Belgium was the winner of the Vuelta a España. The bicycle race would not be held again until 1941 due to the Spanish Civil War.
Gerald Anthony Scarfe born in St John's Wood.
Haile Selassie arrived by train at Waterloo station to a huge crowd cheering and displaying welcome banners.
Léon Blum became Prime Minister of France. Blum immediately had a crisis on his hands when a wave of strikes across the country took on the character of a general strike.
Sir Samuel Hoare, who had resigned as Foreign Secretary in December over the Hoare–Laval Pact fiasco, returned to Stanley Baldwin's cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty to replace the retiring Viscount Monsell. Fritz Lang's Fury - starring Sylvia Sidney, Spencer Tracy and Bruce Cabot - premiered.
The British Union of Fascists held a - not particularly well-attended - rally in Hyde Park, London to protest Haile Selassie's presence in the country. Some of them got their heads kicked right-in by anti-fascists. Which was, obviously, very sad. William Keighley's Bullets Or Ballots - starring Edward G Robinson, Joan Blondell and Humphrey Bogart - premiered.
Dwight Emerson Gregory Whylie born in Kingston, Jamaica.
Nell Mary Dunn born in London.
The novel Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell was published in the United States.
The London International Surrealist Exhibition opened.
The Vickers Wellington bomber plane made its first flight. Alfred Hitchcock's Secret Agent - starring Madeleine Carroll, Peter Lorre, John Gielgud and Robert Young - released.
József Sándor Éles born in Tatabánya, Hungary. Hugh John Whitemore born in Tunbridge Wells.
Kenneth Charles Loach born in Nuneaton. Heinrich Himmler was appointed Chief of the German Police.
Anthony Eden told the House of Commons that there was 'no longer any utility' in continuing sanctions against Italy, causing cries of 'Shame!' and 'Treachery!' from the Labour benches. Eden explained that the decision was made to 'prevent the European situation from deteriorating.' Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin said that his government was 'hoping to bring the French, the Germans and ourselves into conference for the better security of the peace of Europe. The part that Germany can play for good or for evil in Europe is immense, and if we believe the opportunity is presented, let us do what we can to use it for good.'
Max Schmeling knocked out Joe Louis in the twelfth round of their heavyweight bout at Yankee Stadium. Joseph Santley's We Went To College - starring Charles Butterworth, Walter Abel, Hugh Herbert and Una Merkel - premiered.
George Fitzmaurice's Suzy - starring Jean Harlow and Cary Grant - premiered. Colin Philip Lowrie born in Ashton-Under-Lyme, Lancashire. Maureen Smith born in London.
Real Madrid beat Barcelona two-one in the Copa del Presidente de la República Final. The tournament would not be held again until 1939 due to the Spanish Civil War.
A conference opened in Montreaux to discuss Turkey's request to be allowed to refortify the Dardanelles. Kristoffer Kristofferson born in Brownsville, Texas. Bernard Bobroff born in Stepney.
Al Capone - currently banged up in Alcatraz - was stabbed in the back by fellow inmate James C Lucas with a blade from a pair of barber's shears. The wound was not serious.
The Focke-Wulf Fw 61 helicopter had its first flight.
WS Van Dyke'sSan Francisco - starring Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy and William Hamilton and Edward Killy's Bunker Bean - starring Louise Latimer, Lucille Ball and Owen Davis Jr - premiered.
Prince De Wang was installed as the puppet ruler of Japanese-controlled Inner Mongolia.
James David Rudkin born in London.
Donald Victor Taylor born in Marylebone. England won the first of a three test series against India at Lord's by nine wickets. Harold Gimblett made highest debut and top-scored in England's second innings with sixty seven. Gubby Allen took ten wickets in the match.
Salvador Dalí gave a lecture at the London International Surrealist Exhibition titled Authentic Paranoiac Fantasies. He brought two Russian wolfhounds on leashes and wore a deep-sea diving suit, apparently to 'symbolise descending to the depths of the subconscious.' However, he found it impossible to breathe inside the diving helmet. Dalí nearly suffocated before his companions realised something was wrong and freed him, which the audience enjoyed immensely in the belief that it was all part of the act. Percy Fender played his five hundred and fifty seventh and final first class cricket match for the MCC against Cambridge University at Lord's. In a career that began in 1910 as an all-rounder, he was a middle-order batsman who bowled mainly leg spin and completed the cricketer's double seven times. Noted as a belligerent batsman, in 1920 he hit the fastest recorded first-class century, reaching three figures in thirty five minutes. On the basis of his Surrey captaincy, contemporaries judged him the best captain in England. He scored nineteen thousand and thirty four runs and took eighteen hundred and ninety four wickets. He played thirteen tests for England between 1921 and 1930.
Fred Perry beat Gottfried von Cramm of Germany in straight sets to win the Men's Singles title at Wimbledon. Perry became the first Wimbledon champion to win three consecutive men's titles since Tony Wilding won four straight in 1910–13. He would also be the last British player to win the title until 2013. Slovak Jewish journalist Stefan Lux committed suicide in the General Assembly of the League of Nations by shooting himself in the chest. He left behind a note explaining that his act was carried out to draw attention to the plight of Jews in Germany.
Anthony McVay Simpson born in Pendlebury. The British government announced that German airships would no longer be allowed to fly over Britain 'except in cases of emergency due to weather.' The decision was made after the Hindenburg chose a course over England during a recent flight to the United States and back, drawing concerns that German officers aboard could be studying military bases and learning government secrets. An explosion at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich killed five people.
Iain Carmichael Wilson born in Greenock.
The HMY Britannia, the favourite yacht of the late George V, was scuttled near the Isle of Wight. The king had requested shortly before his death that the yacht follow him to the grave.
John Edward Stride born in London.
Viscount Cranborne responded to a question in the House of Commons by saying that he 'understood' Heligoland was being refortified by Germany (in violation of Article one hundred and fifteen of the Treaty of Versailles). Germany issued an official statement the same day denying 'rumours that Heligoland will be made a forbidden area for military reasons' and that bathing establishments would be closed.
The government announced plans to mass-produce gas masks with the goal of one for every citizen. The masks would be stockpiled in centres around the country and then issued free of charge when the government deemed it necessary.
An apparent attempt to assassinate Edward VIII was foiled on Constitution Hill. As the King's horse passed the crowd while returning to Buckingham Palace from a colours ceremony in Hyde Park, a man raised a revolver. A woman grabbed the man's arm and shouted, alerting a nearby constable who knocked the weapon from his hand and gave his a jolly good kicking. The man, subsequently identified as George Andrew McMahon, told police he had 'no intention' of harming the king and was 'only making a protest.' Adolf Hitler later sent Edward a telegram offering his 'heartiest congratulations' on his escape.
Francisco Franco and other high-ranking officers in the Spanish Army launched a coup against the Second Spanish Republic. The conspirators in the Army of Africa moved to seize control of Spanish Morocco as the Spanish Civil War began.
In Madrid, the Siege of Cuartel de la Montaña began. The Free City of Danzig suspended its constitution. Senate President Arthur Greiser ordered the move to crush opposition to the Nazi-controlled government.
Dolores Ibárruri made a passionate radio speech calling on Spaniards to fight against the military uprising. Her speech concluded with the famous words, ¡No pasarán! ('They shall not pass'), which became the rallying cry of the Republicans throughout the Civil War.
Suzy - starring Jean Harlow and Cary Grant - premiered. Diana Davies born in Manchester.
Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne, arrived in Berlin. Although ostensibly a goodwill visit, the American Embassy had invited Lindbergh in the hope that the German Air Ministry would try to impress him by inviting him to inspect their planes and air bases. That way, Lindbergh could take notes on the Luftwaffe's capabilities and report back to the US government.
Three MPs were ejected from the House of Commons during an incident of 'grave disorder' in the twenty seventh hour of a marathon session. On the topic of the government's unemployment assistance programme, Home Secretary John Simon spoke of the responsibility of children to support their parents when John McGovern shouted: 'Why does the King not support his mother? He must be a despicable individual.' George Buchanan then accused Simon of lying and refused to withdraw the charge. His colleague, Campbell Stephen, then stood and called the government 'robbers and murderers of the working class' and described Simon as 'a lying scoundrel.' Following a fifteen-minute recess, all three were suspended from the House.
Eleanor Holm was suspended from the US Olympic swimming team for attending drinking parties while aboard the SS Manhattan transporting the American athletes to Germany. Holm's teammates arranged a petition asking American Olympic Committee Chairman - and well-known Nazi sympathiser - Avery Brundage to reinstate her. German officials told Brundage, 'she has been punished enough and discipline is bound to prevail after this public warning.' But, he wasn't having it and she remained banned.
The first speaking clock service was introduced in the United Kingdom. Alexander Hall's Yours For The Asking - starring George Raft, Dolores Costello and Ida Lupino - premiered.
James Brian Finch born in Standish, Lancashire. Keith Faulkner born in Richmond, Surrey.
The Canadian National Vimy Memorial was unveiled in France. Edward VIII, making his first trip abroad since becoming king, spoke at the event in a speech broadcast around the world. The Comintern agreed to establish International Brigades to fight the fascists in Spain.
General Franco granted an interview to Jay Allen of the Chicago Tribune in which he claimed that his government was neither monarchist nor fascist, but 'Nationalist Spanish' and that he had launched the rebellion to 'save Spain from Communism.' When asked what form his government would take, Franco replied it would be 'a military dictatorship' with a plebiscite later on 'for the nation to decide what it wanted.' The second test at Old Trafford was drawn. Having dismissed India for two hundred and three (Hedley Verity, four for forty one), England scored five hundred and seventy one for eight. Wally Hammond hit one hundred and sixty seven, Joe Hardstaff ninety four, Sam Worthington eighty seven and Walter Robins seventy six. However, centuries by Vijay Merchant and Syed Mushtaq Ali took India to safety. Arthur Fagg, Laurie Fishlock and Alf Gover made their test debuts.
Mervyn LeRoy's Anthony Adverse - starring Fredric March and Olivia De Havilland - premiered.
Two days before the Summer Olympics were due to start in Berlin, Ernest L Jahncke of the United States became the first person ever expelled from the International Olympic Committee, removed for his outspoken opposition to holding the Olympics in Germany. John Ford's Mary Of Scotland - starring Katherine Hepburn and Fredric March - premiered in New York.
David William Halliwell born in Brighouse, Yorkshire.
The Opening Ceremony of the Berlin Olympics was broadcast on the National Programme.
On the first day of competition at the Berlin Olympics, Adolf Hitler congratulated German gold medallists Tilly Fleischer and Hans Woellke, then invited all three Finnish medallists in the ten thousand metres to his box to congratulate them as well. However, he left before congratulating the gold medallist in high jump, Cornelius Johnson of the United States. An international controversy broke out over whether Hitler had snubbed Johnson for being African-American. International Olympic Committee President Henri de Baillet-Latour told Hitler to either congratulate all medallists or none at all. Hitler chose the latter and no athletes were invited to his box for the rest of the Olympics.
Jesse Owens won the one hundred metres, the first of his four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics. Herr Hitler didn't like it. Ooo, mad-vexed so he was. Edward Petherbridge born in Bradofrd.
Jesse Owens won gold in the long jump. An often-told story states that Germany's Luz Long gave Owens some advice after he almost failed to qualify for the final. The veracity of the story has been questioned, but it is known that Owens and Long embraced in front of Hitler and subsequently became friends.
New Zealand's Jack Lovelock won the Olympic fifteen hundred metres gold - urged on by his friend Harold Abrahams who was commentating for the BBC ('Come on, Jack!') The first volunteers of the Luftwaffe arrived at Cádiz to fight for the Nationalists. To keep Germany's involvement secret the volunteers were officially discharged from the Luftwaffe so they could go to Spain as 'tourists.'
Edward VIII left Šibenik on a cruise of the Adriatic Sea. Wallis Simpson was among his guests, but the British press refrained from writing about their relationship.
Joachim von Ribbentrop was made the German ambassador to Britain.
The first International Brigades volunteers arrived in Spain. Ernest Michael Coles born in Willesden. Elizabeth Shepherd born in London.
The Battle of Almendrajelo ended in a Nationalist victory followed by a massacre. Stanley Baldwin announced a British embargo of arms to Spain. Italy won gold in football at the Berlin Olympics.
Charles Robert Redford born in Santa Monica. England won the thirst test at The Oval by nine wickets. England scored five hundred and seventy one for eight (Wally Hammond two hundred and seventeen, Sam Worthington one hundred and twenty eight). Jim Sims and Gubby Allen both took seven wickets in the match.
The first of three show trials known as The Trial of the Sixteen began in Moscow. Federico García Lorca, the acclaimed Spanish poet, was shot and killed by Nationalist forces in Grenada.
George Cukor's adaptation of Romeo & Juliet - starring Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, John Barrymore and Basil Rathbone - premiered. Philip James Voss born in Leicester.
Frances Cuka born in London.
Michael Powell's The Man Behind The Mask - starring Hugh Williams, Jane Baxter and Maurice Schwartz - premiered.
The BBC broadcast its first variety show, Here's Looking At You. Radiolympic broadcast.
Derbyshire won the cricket County Championship of cricket for the first time since 1874. The Gorgeous Hussy - starring Joan Crawford and Robert Taylor - premiered.
The Soviet government demanded that Norway expel Leon Trotsky, accusing him of breaking his pledge to not engage in counter-revolutionary activities. Pihl Mead played his eight hundred and fourteenth and final first class cricket match. In a career which began in 1905, he scored fifty five thousand and sixty one runs and took two hundred and seventy seven wickets, mostly for Hampshire. He also played seventeen times for England between 1911 and 1928. In his last innings, Mead made a superbly skilful fifty two against Yorkshire's Hedley Verity on a badly worn wicket.
Jay Allen's famous account of the Massacre of Badajoz was published. 'Eighteen hundred men - there were women too - were mowed down there in some twelve hours. There is more blood than you would think in eighteen hundred bodies.' The destroyer USS Kane which was in Spanish waters assisting in the evacuation of American nationals, was attacked by an unidentified aircraft. A total of six bombs were dropped which landed near the ship but did no damage. The US State Department claimed the 'altercation' was 'probably a case of mistaken identity.' The head of Thomas Jefferson on the Mount Rushmore sculpture was dedicated in a ceremony attended by President Roosevelt.
Victory by an innings and sixty six runs over Leicestershire at the Oakham School Ground gave Derbyshire the first county championship title. Success in the County Championship saw the culmination of efforts by Arthur Richardson since he became captain in 1931. Derbyshire had come second in the championship the previous year with a better set of results. Middlesex and Yorkshire made strong challenges in the closing weeks of the 1936 season which kept tensions high, especially after Derby lost their penultimate game - against Somerset at Wells - by one wicket. When he heard that the Championship had been settled the Duke of Devonshire, the Derbyshire President, left a shooting party at Bolton Abbey in a hurry to get to Derby and join the public reception given to the players on their return. Stan Worthington and Leslie Townsend tied as top scorers in the County Championships. Bill Copson's one hundred and forty wickets made him top bowler for the county, ahead of Tommy Mitchell and Alf Pope. Gloucestershire finished fourth. Middlesex's Patsy Hendren was the leading run-scorer whilst Wally Hammond topped the first class batting averages. Surrey's Alf Gover was the leading wicket-taker (one hundred and seventy one). Harold Larwood headed the first class bowling averages. The first Edward VIII postage stamps was issued.
The General Died At Dawn - starring Gary Cooper and Madeleine Carroll and William Beaudine's Educated Evans - starring Max Miller - premiered.
The Last Of The Mohicans - starring Randolph Scott - premiered.
Eight spectators were killed in the annual Tourist Trophy Race in Northern Ireland when driver Jack Chambers lost control of his Riley on the wet track and crashed into the crowd. The race was never held again. This is also the purported date that the famous photograph The Falling Soldier was taken by Robert Capa during the Spanish Civil War, although the authenticity of the photo has been called into question.
Howard Hawks's The Road To Glory - starring Fredric March, Lionel Barrymore and June Lang and George Stevens's Swing Time - starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers - premiered.
Gregory La Cava's My Man Godfrey - starring William Powell, Carole Lombard and Gail Patrick - premiered.
Charles Hardin Holley born in Lubbock, Texas. George Formby's 'When I'm Cleaning Windows'/'Keep Your Seats Please' released.
The first official Speedway World Championship motorcycle race was held at Wembley, won by Lionel Van Praag of Australia.
The Nationalists captured San Sebastián to win complete control of the Basque region. The Battle of Majorca ended in Nationalist victory. Fred Perry beat Don Budge in the men's singles final of the US National Championships. Perry was the first foreigner to ever win the championship.
Coral Rosemary Atkins born in Richmond Upon Thames.
Walter Marvin Koenig born in Chicago. Thomas Nicol Williamson born in Hamilton, Scotland.
Nazi authorities ordered all German churches to eliminate the word 'Hallelujah' from prayers because it was 'Hebrew and alien.'
Andrew Wynford Davies born in Cardiff.
William Wyler's Dodsworth - starring Walter Huston - premiered.
James Maury Henson born in Greenville, Mississippi.
Stalin appointed Nikolai Yezhov as the new head of the NKVD. Under Yezhov's direction The Great Purge would be widely expanded. Lloyd Bacon's Cain & Mabel - starring Marion Davies and Clark Gable - premiered.
George Formby recorded his best-known song, 'When I'm Cleaning Windows' for Decca. Ronald Gordon Honeycombe born in Karachi.
Britain declared martial law in Palestine to fight the Arab revolt.
Pinewood Film Studios opened. The first director to use the facilities was Herbert Wilcox, completing London Melody featuring Anna Neagle, portions of which had already been filmed in Elstree, before a fire halted production. The first film to be made entirely at Pinewood was Talk Of The Devil, directed by Carol Reed.
Francisco Franco was officially invested with the title of Chief of State in the throne room at Burgos. He made a short and simple speech vowing to 'try to raise Spain to the place that corresponds to her history and her rank in earlier times.' Duncan Edwards born in Dudley.
Valiant Is The Word - starring Gladys George - premiered.
Stephen Michael Reich born in New York.
The Battle of Cable Street between Baronet Oswald Ernald Mosley's despicable British Union of Fascists blackshirt scum and thousands of anti-fascist demonstrators took place. With lots of fascists getting seriously chinned. The first episode of I Was There broadcast on The Regional Programme.
The Jarrow Crusade began. Over two hundred miners marched from Tyneside to London to protest about unemployment and poverty. They arrived on 31 October. Despite an initial sense of failure among the marchers, in subsequent years the Jarrow March became recognised by historians and politicians as a defining event. It helped to foster the change in attitudes which prepared the way to social reform measures after the Second World War. A new phrase entered the English lexicon via an article in the Daily Express written by William Forrest, a Scottish journalist covering the Spanish Civil War. Forrest reported: 'Insurgent General Franco has said that, in addition to his four columns in the field he was a column in Madrid. How strong is this fifth column? No one knows.' Other newspapers also picked up on Franco's reported comments (actually, they seem to have come via a radio broadcast by another Nationalist General, Emilio Mola in which he boasted of the efficiency of the fascist 'fifth column' inside the beleaguered Republican capital. Soon afterwards, Ernest Hemmingway boosted its usage with his play The Fifth Column and the phrase gained global currency as shorthand for the dangers of hidden pro-fascist spies and saboteurs and their rotten doings. Václav Havel born in Prague.
Fascist shithead Oswald Mosley and fascist shithead Diana Mitford were secretly married in Berlin in a ceremony attended by Adolf Hitler.
The first episode of The World Goes By broadcast on The Regional Programme.
Brian Blessed born in Mexborough. The first episode of the television programme Picture Page was broadcast.
Libelled Lady - starring Jean Harlow and William Powell - premiered.
The London Gazette announced that women over eighteen could be employed filling three inch mortar bombs. It was first time since the Great War that British women were allowed to work in munitions factories. Frank McDonald's Isle Of Fury - starring Humphrey Bogart and Margaret Lindsay - premiered. Judith Rosemary Locke Chalmers born in Gatley, Cheshire.
Two hundred fascists instigated a new wave of violence in London's East End, attacking Jews and smashing and looting the windows of Jewish shops until they were dispersed by police. Ten thousand leftists participated in an anti-Fascist demonstration in Victoria Park. Fifty Fascist youths attempted a rush to snatch a red flag and some people were slashed with razors. And, there was a great wailing and kicking of teeth.
Cross-channel train-ferry service, The Boat Train, began between Dover and Dunkirk. The service made it possible to ride in the same sleeping car from London all the way to Paris.
The British press observed an unofficial policy of self-censorship and refrained from publishing reports of Wallis Simpson's forthcoming divorce proceedings. In the United States the story was front-page news. The story was also reported freely in France.
Newspaper proprietor Max Beaverbrook met Edward VIII and declared that he would help to 'enforce' a 'voluntary' media blackout on the King's relationship with Mrs Simpson. Peter Bowles born in London.
Dolores Brenda Mantey born in Liverpool. Wales beat am inexperienced England side two-one in the Home International championship at Ninian Park. Cliff Bastin gave England the lead but goals from Birmingham's Seymour Morris and Pat Glover of Grimsby Town gave Wales the victory. George Holdcroft of Preston North End, Leeds United's Bert Sproston, Ted Catlin of Sheffield Wednesday, Wolverhampton Wanderers' Tom Smalley, Bill Scott of Brentford and Stoke City's Freddie Steele all made their international debuts. In the First Division, the Tees-Wear derby produced a remarkable game at Ayresome Park with Middlesbrough and Sunderland sharing ten goals. George Camsell scored three for the hosts. Joe Payne netted his third hat-trick of the season in Luton Town's four-one victory over Watford in the Third Division (South). Lord Beaverbrook, the publisher of the Daily Express, advised King Edward that his relationship with Wallis Simpson would not be mentioned in any of Britain's newspapers. The rest of the world, however, was busy speculating on the threat to the monarchy if the King were to marry her, once her divorce from Mister Simpson was finalised.
Michael Curtiz's adaptation of The Charge Of The Light Brigade - starring Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland and David Niven - premiered.
Simon James Holliday Gray born in Hayling Island, Hampshire.
The British press continued to tiptoe around the first stirrings of the Edward VIII abdication crisis. London publication The News Week wrote that 'the effects of the unofficial censorship have been disastrous, giving the impression abroad that there is something to hide.' The weekly publication Cavalcade, which had been running articles about the King's relationship with Mrs Simpson for weeks, ran a short notice of Simpson's divorce and mentioned that 'thousands of words had been published' in the United States about it. The Guardian ran an article about the possibility of the King's coronation potentially being postponed but avoided any direct explanation for why such a postponement might take place.
William George Perks born in Lewisham.
A bumper - one hundred page - issue of the Radio Times previewed the following week's start of the BBC television service with a number of articles that included The Coming Of Television by Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Carpendale, CB, the Deputy Director General and Looking Forward by Gerald Cock, the Director of Television.
William Wyler's These Three - starring Miriam Hopkins, Merle Oberon, Joel McCrea, Catherine Doucet, Bonita Granville and Carmencita Johnson - premiered.
A judge in Ipswich granted Wallis Simpson a divorce from her husband, Ernest, on the grounds that he had been unfaithful. She would be free to marry again after six months. The Guardian reported the story but buried it on page ten.
Harry Lachman's Our Relations - starring Laurel and Hardy - premiered.
J Elder Wills' Everything In Life - starring Gitta Alpar, Neil Hamilton and Lawrence Grossmith - premiered.
The opening night of BBC Television, the world's first High Definition television service. Broadcasts initially alternated on a weekly basis between John Logie Baird's two hundred and forty-line mechanical method and the (much superior) Marconi-EMI's four hundred and five-line electronic system. The first episode of Picture Page broadcast, presented by The Switchboard Girl (Joan Miller).
The first episode of Starlight broadcast. Nick Grinde's The Captain's Kid - starring May Robson, Sybil Jason and Guy Kibbee - premiered.
A defamation case opened in the High Court brought by Richard S Lambert against Lt Col Cecil Levita. Lambert sued Levita after the Lieutenant Colonel suggested that Lambert was unfit to be associated with the British Film Institute because he believed in Gef, the talking mongoose. Levita denied uttering the words attributed to him, but said they would have been fully justified if he did. Lambert eventually won his case and was awarded seven and a half grand by the jury.
The information film Television Comes To London broadcast for the first time.
Howard Hawks and William Wyler's Come & Get It and Glenn Tryon's Easy To Take premiered.
Four masked men stole the Wallace Sword from the Wallace Monument in Scotland. Joseph Santley's We Went To College - starring Charles Butterworth, Walter Abel and Una Merkel - premiered.
Citizen Soldiers Of London broadcast. MP John McGovern asked Chancellor of the Exchequer Neville Chamberlain if he considered it 'wise' to proceed with the expenditure of Edward VIII's coronation 'in view of the gambling that is going on at Lloyd's as to whether or not this Coronation will ever take place.' Chamberlain ignored the question.
The Vic-Wells Company's production of the ballet Job featured the TV debut of Robert Helpmann.
Alan Turing's paper On Computable Numbers was formally presented to the London Mathematical Society, introducing the concept of The Turing Machine. Theodora Goes Wild - starring Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas - premiered.
Go West, Young Man - starring Mae West - premiered. Ingrid Hafner born in London.
Frederick Garrity born in Manchester. The Captain's Kid - starring May Robson and Sybil Jason - premiered.
Edward VIII summoned Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin to the palace and, reportedly, told him that he wished to marry Wallis Simpson. Baldwin said the British public would not accept Simpson as Queen. Cecil B DeMille's The Plainsman - starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur - premiered.
Labour MP William Adamson asked President of the Board of Trade Walter Runciman if there was 'any special scrutiny of books and printed literature imported from other countries.' Runciman, pretending to be unaware that this was a reference to the censorship of foreign newspapers and magazines reporting on the King's relationship with Wallis Simpson, asked Adamson to provide particulars to his office in order to get an answer. Adamson's colleague, Ellen Wilkinson, then asked Runciman 'why, in the case of two American magazines of high repute imported into this country during the last few weeks, at least two and sometimes three pages have been torn out. And, what is this thing the British public are not allowed to see?' 'My department has nothing to do with that,' Runciman lied. John Campbell Wells born in Ashford.
Edward VIII visited Dowlais in South Wales where he saw the abandoned site of the Dowlais Ironworks. The King was visibly shocked by the poverty he witnessed and famously declared that 'something must be done.' England beat Ireland three-one in the Home International championship at the Victoria Ground, Stoke. Raich Carter (a diving header), Cliff Bastin and Fred Worrall scored for the hosts, Oldham Athletic's Tom Davis replying for Ireland. Stoke City's Joe Johnson made his international debut. Amidst the continued fighting in Madrid in the Spanish Civil War, Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy simultaneously 'recognised' Generalissimo Franco as the new leader of Spain.
War Secretary Duff Cooper warned that Britain would have to resort to conscription if military recruitment numbers did not increase. The Garden Of Allah - starring Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Basil Rathbone, C Aubrey Smith and John Carradine - premiered.
Love On The Run - starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable - and Winterset - starring Burgess Meredith - premiered.
John Bird born in Bulwell, Nottinghamshire.
Robert Johnson entered a studio in San Antonio, Texas and recorded for the first time. Oner the following two days, the first songs he cut included 'Terraplane Blues', 'I Believe I'll Dust My Broom', 'Ramblin' On My Mind', 'Preaching Blues (Up Jumped The Devil)' and his most famous song, 'Cross Road Blue'.
The TV début of Kenneth and George Western on Starlight. Whether they performed their classic, 'We're Frightfully BBC', is not known.
Pennies From Heaven - starring Bing Crosby, Madge Evans, Louis Armstrong and Edith Fellows - premiered. Crosby's recording of the movie's title song (written by Arthur Johnston and Johnny Burke) topped the American music charts for ten weeks. Henry King's Lloyd's Of London - starring Freddie Bartholomew, Madeleine Carroll and Tyrone Power - premiered.
The Daily Mirror became the first British newspaper to put Wallis Simpson on its front page. The story, which only identified her as 'a former United States society woman now living in London,' was about the death threats she was getting and the precautions detectives were taking of opening all packages she received.
Born To Dance - starring Eleanor Powell, James Stewart and Virginia Bruce and featuring the first performance of Cole Porter's 'I've Got You Under My Skin' and Michael Hankinson's The Scarab Murder Case - starring Wilfrid Hyde-White, Wally Patch and Kathleen Kelly - premiered.
The first episode of Theatre Parade - scenes from The Royalty Theatre production of Marigold - broadcast. The Crystal Palace in London was destroyed by fire. Huge numbers of people turned out to watch the blaze.
The Edward VIII abdication crisis finally came into the open in Britain when the Bishop of Bradford, Alfred Blunt, speaking at his diocesan conference about the upcoming royal coronation, said of the King that 'Some of us wish that he gave more positive signs of his awareness.' The Yorkshire Post used the speech to question the King's behaviour and the rest of the British press soon followed, breaking their policy of self-imposed censorship.
Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage premiered. England defeated Hungary six-two in a friendly international at Highbury. Ted Drake scored a hat-trick with further goals from Eric Broo, Cliff Britton and Raich Carter. Grimsby Town's goalkepper George Tweedy made his England debut.
Comments of the Bishop of Bradford, the Right Reverend Doctor Alfred Blunt, when he lamented King Edward VIII's indifference to the church and its potential damaging effect on his coronation, inadvertently set in motion the constitutional crisis in which the King would ultimately abdicate. Although the Bishop had been unaware of the King's affair with Wallis Simpson when he wrote the speech, his specific comments about the King needing to 'show more awareness' of his need to be 'faithful to his duty,' were interpreted as a thinly-veiled reference to his intentions to marry the twice-divorced American. The national press seized on the opportunity to debate the situation publicly for the first time.
LesLie Pearce's You Must Get Married - starring Frances Day and Neil Hamilton - premiered.
Mexico announced that it had given permission for Leon Trotsky to enter the country and 'remain as long as he desires.'
E Martin Browne's adaptation of TS Eliot's Murder In The Cathedral broadcast.
The ballet Façade - featuring Margot Fontayne - broadcast.
A KLM Royal Dutch Airlines passenger plane crashed at Croydon Airport soon after take-off in heavy fog, killing fifteen of seventeen aboard. The accident was attributed to pilot error. Autogyro inventor Juan de la Cierva was among the dead. England won the first Ashes test at Brisbane by three hundred and thirty two runs. Maurice Leyland scored one hundred and twenty six whilst Bill Voce took ten wickets in the match and Gubby Allen eight.
King Edward VIII - close personal friend of Herr Hitler - announced his decision to abdicate the throne for 'the woman I love' to the nation. Or, that portion of the nation that could afford a wireless, anyway. He was introduced by John Reith - who, reportedly, wasn't a fan - as 'His Royal Highness, Prince Edward'. His reign had lasted three hundred and twenty seven days. He was succeeded by his brother, Colin Firth. On BBC1, Burnt Sepia, an 'all-coloured cabaret' featured - for the first time on television - performances by a number of black acts including Garland Wilson, Mabel Scott, Cyril Lewis, Harris & Howell and Buddy Bradley's Sepia Cronies. John Cromwell's Banjo On My Knee - starring Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Walter Brennan and Buddy Ebsen and General Spanky - starring George McFarland - premiered. George Formby's 'Sitting On The Sands All Night'/'Five & Twenty Years' released.
King George VI announced he would create his brother the Duke of Windsor. George Cukor's Camille - starring Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor - premiered. Denise Dorothy Coffey born in Aldershot.
The Archbishop of Canterbury made controversial remarks about Edward's abdication during a radio address when he called it 'sad' that the ex-King 'should have sought his happiness in a manner inconsistent with the Christian principles of marriage and within a social circle whose standards and ways of life are alien to all the best instincts and traditions of his people.' The speech was widely condemned.
Through mediation by the International Red Cross, both sides in the Spanish Civil War agreed to exchange prisoners.
Thomas Hicks born in Bermondsey. Rosemary Martin born in Birmingham.
Anthony Eden disclosed to the House of Commons that five thousand gas masks had been sold to the Spanish Republic. The government hastened to add that the gas masks were equally available to Franco's forces at the same prices because they were classified as 'medical supplies' and not munitions. The Public Order Act received Royal Assent.
Eric Gillett read The Mill On The Floss in the Serial Story strand.
Scenes from E Martin Browne's production of Murder In The Cathedral broadcast.
Henry Koster's Three Smart Girls - starring Barbara Reed, Nan Grey, Deanna Durbin and Ray Milland - premiered. Julia Bullas born in Prestwich.
Peter Tinniswood born in Liverpool.
Nancy Logan In Songs At The Pianoforte broadcast. James Burke born in Derry. England won the second Ashes test at Sydney by an innings and twenty two runs. England scored four hundred and twenty six for six with Wally Hammond hitting an undefeated two hundred and thirty one. Bill Voce, Gubby Allen, Hedley Verity and Hammond then bowled out Australia twice. James Burke born in Derry.
Hector Stewart and Roy McLoughlin's Men From The Other Side - starring Carol Goodner and Hartley Power - broadcast.
The Villarreal Offensive ended in Republican failure. Alfred E Green's More Than A Secretary - starring Jean Arthur, George Brent and Dorothea Kent - premiered. Scrooge - starring Barnsby Williams - brooadcast.
Christmas Day was celebrated with Television Party, a live demonstration of turkey carving and Sir Ernest Shackelton's A Lonely Christmas In The Arctic. The National Programme featured Joe Loss & His Band. After The Thin Man - starring William Powell and Myrna Loy - premiered.
George Orwell arrived in Barcelona with the intention of writing journalistic reports for the foreign press, but what he saw inspired him to join a leftist militia and fight against fascism. Orwell later collected his experiences into Homage To Catalonia. Lloyd Bacon and Busby Berkeley's Gold Diggers Of 1937 and Alfred Green's More Than A Secretary - starring Jean Arthur, George Brent and Dorothea Kent - premiered.
Mahatma Gandhi emerged from two years of silence to make a speech. 'Show me the way and I am prepared to return to gaol. I am prepared to be hanged. If you do all I want you to do, the Viceroy will say: "I am wrong - I thought you people were terrorists and if you like we Britishers will return by the next steamer." We would then say to Lord Linlithgow and the British: "India is big enough to hold you and more like you." That is my Swaraj.' Jack Conway's adaptation of A Tale Of Two Cities - starring Ronald Colman and Elizabeth Allen - premiered.
The Irish Players' production of The Workhouse Ward broadcast.
Mary Tyler Moore born in New York. Cartoons: Bert Thomas broadcast.
The Pattern of 1936 - a review of trade and unemployment, in the form of a discussion between John Hilton and Cecil Lewis - broadcast. Frederick Pyne born in London.
London Characters broadcast. Gypsy Love broadcast.
Butlins was founded with the opening of the first holiday camp in Skegness.
Falkman & His Apache Band broadcast.
The first episodes of Keyboard Talks and The Sensible Mother's Problem broadcast.
England defeated the New Zealand All Blacks for the first time in a Rugby Union international match, thirteen-nil at Twickenham. Alexander Obolensky scored two tries.
The first episode of Imaginary Biographies broadcast. George Formby's 'Riding In The TT Races'/'The Isle Of Man' released.
The Agatha Christie novel The ABC Murders was first published.
Ian La Frenais born in Monkseaton. Edward Hunter Davies born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire.
A Survey Of The Third Round Of The FA Cup broadcast.
The GPO Film Unit documentary Night Mail, incorporating poetry by WH Auden and music by Benjamin Britten, was premiered at the Cambridge Arts Theatre.
Richard Kimber Franklin born in Marylebone.
Issy Bonn 'the Hebrew vocal raconteur' appeared on Music-Hall. As did Claude Dampier, 'the professional idiot.' Michael John Leigh Barlow born in Blackpool.
George V died at Sandringham. Reports that his final words were 'bugger Bognor!' are, almost certainly, apocryphal. Ralph Ramsey Watson born in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.
Ngaire Dawn Porter born in Napier, New Zealand.
General Francisco Franco was selected as Spain's representative to attend the funeral of George V.Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo born in New York.
Charles Barton's Timothy's Quest - starring Eleanore Whitney, Dickie Moore and Virginia Weilder and WS Van Dyke's Rose-Marie - starring Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy and Reginald Owen - premiered.
The January 1932 record for the most goals scored in the Football League on a single day was equalled with two hundred and nine goals being scored in forty four matches. There were forty six goals in the First Division, the same number in the Second Division, sixty eight in the Third Division North and forty nine in the Third Division South. Highlights included West Bromwich Albion beating Liverpool six-one, West Ham United's six-nil victory over Bury, Watford's six-one victory at Swindon Town and Coventry City's six-one win against Queens Park Rangers. Chester beat York City twelve-nil, Walsall defeated Hartlepools United six-nil and Chesterfield won an eleven goal thriller at Crewe Alexandra (six-five). Aldershot's game against Bristol City produced the day's only goalless draw.
The General Theory Of Employment, Interest & Money by the economist John Maynard Keynes was published.
Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times premiered at the Rivoli Theatre, Broadway. Wa;ses beat England two-one in the Home International championship at Molineux. Dai Astley gave Walses the lead before Ray Bowden equalised. Wolves' Bryn Jones scored the winner for the visitors. England played most of the second-half with ten men after Ted Drakle was injured. Veterans of past Welsh teams - including Caesar Jenkyns, Billy Meredith, Ted Vizard, Fred Keenor, Stanley Davies, Jack Powell and George Latham - were amongst the guests at the match. Both teams wore black armbands as a mark of respect for the late King. The football world was shocked and stunned by the tragic death of Sunderland's twenty two-year-old goalkeeper, Jimmy Thorpe. Four days earlier, he had been kicked several times on the head by Chelsea players as he shielded the ball whilst lying in the goalmouth. Though he completed the match, his injuries eventually precipitated a diabetic attack which led to heart failure. The goalkeeper had been in exceptional form as Sunderland had dominated the First Division and he had played in their last fifty two matches. Unbelievably, the FA initially blamed Sunderland for fielding a diabetic player, but revised their rules, two months later, so that players could no longer attempt to kick the ball when a goalkeeper was in possession of it. Sunderland went on to win the First Division title and Thorpe's medal was presented to his widow, May.
The Olympic Winter Games opened in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. As each delegation of the 28 participating countries marched past Adolf Hitler in the opening ceremony he gave the Nazi salute. Archie Mayo's The Petrified Forest - starring Leslie Howard, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart - premiered.
Clive Walter Swift born in Liverpool.
Burton Leon Reynolds born in Lansing, Michigan.
James W Horne's The Bohemian Girl - starring Laurel and Hardy and Darla Hood - premiered.
Bob Hill's Taming The Wild - starring Rod La Rocque and Maxine Doyle - premiered. Leslie Hutchinson's version of Eric Maschwitz and Jack Strachey's 'These Foolish Things (Remind Me Of You)' and George Formby's 'The Pleasure Cruise'/'The Wash-House At The Back' released.
The USA's failure to beat Canada in the final group match meant that the British men's Ice Hockey team won and unexpected Winter Olympic gold at Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
The comic strip The Phantom made its first appearance. John Dudley Leyton born in Frinton-On-Sea.
The groundbreaking science fiction film Things To Come - written by HG Wells, directed by William Cameron Menzies and starring Raymond Massey, Ralph Richardson, Cedric Hardwicke, Pearl Argyle and Margaretta Scott - premiered in London. The musical Follow The Fleet - starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and featuring Irving Berlin's 'Let's Face The Music & Dance' premiered.
The Story Of Louis Pasteur - starring Paul Muni - premiered.
Gerald Arthur James born in Brixton.
Susan Anna Black born in London.
Virginia Elizabeth Maskell born in Shepherd's Bush.
Walter Raleigh Willock Gilbert born in Devon.
Michael Curtiz's The Walking Dead - starring Boris Karloff - premiered.
The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles. Mutiny On The Bounty won Best Picture. Robert Dean Stockwell born in North Hollywood. The Supermarine Spitfire fighter plane had its first flight.
Auriol Smith born in Harrow.
Spanish army officers including Emilio Mola and Francisco Franco held a secret meeting in Madrid to discuss launching a coup against the government.
George Pearson's Checkmate - starring Maurice Evans, Felix Aylmer, Evelyn Foster, Sally Gray and Donald Wolfit - premiered.
France increased its military presence along the Maginot Line.
Henry Hathaway's The Trail of The Lonesome Pine - starring Fred MacMurray, Sylvia Sidney and Henry Fonda - premiered.
The Falange was banned in Spain. Police arrested two hundred Fascistsi who were accused of using violence to stir up the recent outbreaks of rioting, including José Antonio Primo de Rivera.
William Wyler's These Three - starring Miriam Hopkins, Merle Oberon, Joel McCrea and Bonita Granville - premiered.
Ursula Andress born in Ostermundigen, Switzerland.
Rainford Hugh Perry born in Jamaica.
John Roger Hammond born in Stockport.
Robert Leonard's The Great Zeigfeld - starring William Powell and Myrna Loy - premiered.
John Malcolm born in Stirling.
Reynoldstown won the Grand National for the second straight year.
Mark Burns born in Bromsgrove.
The Italian bombing of Harar was discussed in the House of Commons. Hugh Dalton of the Labour Party asked Foreign Minister Anthony Eden if he was aware that 'British public opinion is increasingly stirred by these horrible atrocities which are being perpetrated and when are His Majesty's Government going to take any further step to end it, at least by refusing to supply British oil to these murderous airmen?' Eden replied that the government was 'just as anxious to bring this war and the miserable suffering consequent upon it, to an end.' Peter Collinson born in Lincolnshire.
Anthony Edward Lewis born in Birmingham. Richard Hauptmann was executed by electric chair at the New Jersey State Prison. He had been convicted of the murder of the twenty-month-old son of Charles Lindbergh. Although the child had been killed after abduction, a ransom was paid and it was two months before the boy's body was found.
The airship LZ 129 Hindenburg completed its first transatlantic flight, arriving in Rio de Janeiro.England and Scotland drew one-all in the Home International championship at Wembley. George Camsell scored for the hosts and Tommy Walker of Heart of Midlothian equalised with a penalty in the second-half after a clumsy tackle by Eddie Hapgood on Johnny Crum. Sunderland maintained their eight point lead at the top of the First Division, thrashing Portsmouth five-nil.
Desire - starring Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper - premiered. George Formby's 'A Farmer's Boy'/'Radio Bungalow Town' released.
Joe Payne scored ten goals during a twelve-nil victory by Luton Town over Bristol Rovers. 'In schools where headmistresses inflict corporal punishment on boys of eight or nine, the lads all go out laughing at the punishment they receive because not one of them dare acknowledge that a woman could hurt a "man" of nine. If he acknowledged that he would have lost the dignity and recognition of his own importance.' This revelation of the boy psychology was made by FH Russell, of Bristol, at the Schoolmasters' Conference at Sheffield. The Daily Mirror reported that the conference demanded all boys above infant age should be taught by men teachers. Russell said that to a boy of eight, nine or ten, sex was the first of the most fundamental requirements. His reactions were vital to the whole of his life. He wanted at that age to get away from the woman's control. If the State refused the demand of that boy's soul for the control of a man, the State was definitely injuring his development. Roland Price and Harry Revier's Lash of The Penitentes premiered.
A production of Macbeth, commonly nicknamed Voodoo Macbeth and directed by Orson Welles, premiered at the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem.
Frank Capra's Mister Deeds Goes To Town - starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur - premiered. Derrick George Sherwin born in High Wycombe.
Tug Wilson played his five hundred and sixty sixth (and final) game from Brighton & Hove Albion in their four-one victory over Bristol Rovers in the Third Division South. Wilson's appearance record for The Seagulls remains a club record to this date. Kenneth William Farrington born in Dulwich.
George Orwell's Keep The Aspidistra Flying published. Roy Battersby born in London.
Glen Travis Campbell born in Delight, Arkansas.
Roy Kelton Orbison born in Vernon, Texas.
Jill Dorothy Ireland born in London. Edgar Harvey Armitage born in Blackpool.
Arsenal won the FA Cup, beating Sheffield United one-nil at Wembley. Sunderland won the First Division title by eight points, even though they lost the final game of the season four-nil at runners-up Derby County. Bob Gurney and Raich Carter both scored thirty one goals for The Mackem Filth. Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers were relegated from the First Division and, therefore, became the last two of the founder members of the Football League to lose top flight status for the first time. Manchester United and Charlton Athletic were promoted from Division Two.
The final Italian drive on the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, immortalised in Fascist propaganda as 'The March Of The Iron Will', began.
Emperor Haile Selassie, his wife Menen Asfaw and key members of the Ethiopian government departed Addis Ababa by train and fled to Djibouti in French Somaliland. After five years in exile, Selassie returned to lead his country to independence at the end of the war. Raymond Smith born in Trealaw, Glamorgan.
The Sergei Prokofiev composition Peter & The Wolf premiered in Moscow. Arnold George Dorsey born in Madras.
Joe DiMaggio made his major league debut with the New York Yankees.
Joanna Elizabeth Dunham born in Luton. England lost two-one to Austria in a friendly international in Vienna. George Camsell scored his seventeenth goal for England in a mere eight internationals, but Rudolf Viertl and Rudolf Geiter were on-target for the hosts. Chelsea's Dick Spence and Harold Hobbis of Charlton Athletic made their England debuts.
Amy Johnson reclaimed her England to South Africa flight record when she landed her Percival Gull Six at Cape Town three days and six hours after leaving Kent.
Jockey Ralph Neves was thrown from his horse at Bay Meadows Racetrack in San Mateo, California and pronounced dead at the scene. His apparent corpse was taken away, but a doctor revived him with a shot of adrenaline. A famous headline in the next day's San Francisco Examiner read, Neves, Called Dead In Fall, Denies It.
Albert Finney born in Salford. Glenda May Jackson born in Birkenhead. Mussolini announced the annexation of Ethiopia and proclaimed Italian East Africa in a triumphantly boastful speech from the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia. Yet, of course, he ended his days hanging upside down from a lamp-post perhaps relecting that sometimes, it's best to keep one big fat gob shut. England lost three-two to Belgium in a friendly international in Brussels. George Camsell and Harold Hobbis scored for the visitors. Bernard Joy, who had just joined Arsenal from Casuals FC, Jimmy Cunliffe of Everton and Manchester City's Sam Barkas made their England debuts. A twenty four-year-old prostitute, Connie Hinds was found dead in her bed in Soho, having been strangled and with her face brutally battered with an iron. She was the third prostitute to be murdered in Soho in the previous six months, but no one was ever brought to justice for any of the grisly crimes.
Elliott Nugent's And So They Were Married - starring Melvyn Douglas, Mary Astor, Edith Fellows and Jackie Moran - premiered.
Charles Lucky Luciano was found very guilty of being a bad'un and got fifty years stir in Sing Sing.
Show Boat starring Irene Dunne, Allan Jones and Charles Winninger premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Walden Robert Cassotto born in New York.
Roy Hudd born in Croydon. Sylvia Margaret Kay born in Stockport.
Dennis Lee Hopper born in Los Angeles.
Norma Ann Sykes born in Stockport.
James Henry Thomas resigned as Secretary of State for the Colonies after becoming embroiled in a political scandal involving leaked budget details. Jayne Catherine Sofiano born in Jerusalem.
Jennifer Ruth Williams born in Pontypool. Ian Kennedy Martin born in Rothesay, Isle of Bute.
Robert Russell born in Kent.
Leonard Fields' Streamline Express - starring Victor Jory and Evelyn Venable - premiered.
Peter Ellis born in Bristol.
Gustaaf Deloor of Belgium was the winner of the Vuelta a España. The bicycle race would not be held again until 1941 due to the Spanish Civil War.
Gerald Anthony Scarfe born in St John's Wood.
Haile Selassie arrived by train at Waterloo station to a huge crowd cheering and displaying welcome banners.
Léon Blum became Prime Minister of France. Blum immediately had a crisis on his hands when a wave of strikes across the country took on the character of a general strike.
Sir Samuel Hoare, who had resigned as Foreign Secretary in December over the Hoare–Laval Pact fiasco, returned to Stanley Baldwin's cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty to replace the retiring Viscount Monsell. Fritz Lang's Fury - starring Sylvia Sidney, Spencer Tracy and Bruce Cabot - premiered.
The British Union of Fascists held a - not particularly well-attended - rally in Hyde Park, London to protest Haile Selassie's presence in the country. Some of them got their heads kicked right-in by anti-fascists. Which was, obviously, very sad. William Keighley's Bullets Or Ballots - starring Edward G Robinson, Joan Blondell and Humphrey Bogart - premiered.
Dwight Emerson Gregory Whylie born in Kingston, Jamaica.
Nell Mary Dunn born in London.
The novel Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell was published in the United States.
The London International Surrealist Exhibition opened.
The Vickers Wellington bomber plane made its first flight. Alfred Hitchcock's Secret Agent - starring Madeleine Carroll, Peter Lorre, John Gielgud and Robert Young - released.
József Sándor Éles born in Tatabánya, Hungary. Hugh John Whitemore born in Tunbridge Wells.
Kenneth Charles Loach born in Nuneaton. Heinrich Himmler was appointed Chief of the German Police.
Anthony Eden told the House of Commons that there was 'no longer any utility' in continuing sanctions against Italy, causing cries of 'Shame!' and 'Treachery!' from the Labour benches. Eden explained that the decision was made to 'prevent the European situation from deteriorating.' Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin said that his government was 'hoping to bring the French, the Germans and ourselves into conference for the better security of the peace of Europe. The part that Germany can play for good or for evil in Europe is immense, and if we believe the opportunity is presented, let us do what we can to use it for good.'
Max Schmeling knocked out Joe Louis in the twelfth round of their heavyweight bout at Yankee Stadium. Joseph Santley's We Went To College - starring Charles Butterworth, Walter Abel, Hugh Herbert and Una Merkel - premiered.
George Fitzmaurice's Suzy - starring Jean Harlow and Cary Grant - premiered. Colin Philip Lowrie born in Ashton-Under-Lyme, Lancashire. Maureen Smith born in London.
Real Madrid beat Barcelona two-one in the Copa del Presidente de la República Final. The tournament would not be held again until 1939 due to the Spanish Civil War.
A conference opened in Montreaux to discuss Turkey's request to be allowed to refortify the Dardanelles. Kristoffer Kristofferson born in Brownsville, Texas. Bernard Bobroff born in Stepney.
The Focke-Wulf Fw 61 helicopter had its first flight.
WS Van Dyke'sSan Francisco - starring Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy and William Hamilton and Edward Killy's Bunker Bean - starring Louise Latimer, Lucille Ball and Owen Davis Jr - premiered.
Prince De Wang was installed as the puppet ruler of Japanese-controlled Inner Mongolia.
James David Rudkin born in London.
Donald Victor Taylor born in Marylebone. England won the first of a three test series against India at Lord's by nine wickets. Harold Gimblett made highest debut and top-scored in England's second innings with sixty seven. Gubby Allen took ten wickets in the match.
Salvador Dalí gave a lecture at the London International Surrealist Exhibition titled Authentic Paranoiac Fantasies. He brought two Russian wolfhounds on leashes and wore a deep-sea diving suit, apparently to 'symbolise descending to the depths of the subconscious.' However, he found it impossible to breathe inside the diving helmet. Dalí nearly suffocated before his companions realised something was wrong and freed him, which the audience enjoyed immensely in the belief that it was all part of the act. Percy Fender played his five hundred and fifty seventh and final first class cricket match for the MCC against Cambridge University at Lord's. In a career that began in 1910 as an all-rounder, he was a middle-order batsman who bowled mainly leg spin and completed the cricketer's double seven times. Noted as a belligerent batsman, in 1920 he hit the fastest recorded first-class century, reaching three figures in thirty five minutes. On the basis of his Surrey captaincy, contemporaries judged him the best captain in England. He scored nineteen thousand and thirty four runs and took eighteen hundred and ninety four wickets. He played thirteen tests for England between 1921 and 1930.
Fred Perry beat Gottfried von Cramm of Germany in straight sets to win the Men's Singles title at Wimbledon. Perry became the first Wimbledon champion to win three consecutive men's titles since Tony Wilding won four straight in 1910–13. He would also be the last British player to win the title until 2013. Slovak Jewish journalist Stefan Lux committed suicide in the General Assembly of the League of Nations by shooting himself in the chest. He left behind a note explaining that his act was carried out to draw attention to the plight of Jews in Germany.
Anthony McVay Simpson born in Pendlebury. The British government announced that German airships would no longer be allowed to fly over Britain 'except in cases of emergency due to weather.' The decision was made after the Hindenburg chose a course over England during a recent flight to the United States and back, drawing concerns that German officers aboard could be studying military bases and learning government secrets. An explosion at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich killed five people.
Iain Carmichael Wilson born in Greenock.
John Edward Stride born in London.
Viscount Cranborne responded to a question in the House of Commons by saying that he 'understood' Heligoland was being refortified by Germany (in violation of Article one hundred and fifteen of the Treaty of Versailles). Germany issued an official statement the same day denying 'rumours that Heligoland will be made a forbidden area for military reasons' and that bathing establishments would be closed.
The government announced plans to mass-produce gas masks with the goal of one for every citizen. The masks would be stockpiled in centres around the country and then issued free of charge when the government deemed it necessary.
An apparent attempt to assassinate Edward VIII was foiled on Constitution Hill. As the King's horse passed the crowd while returning to Buckingham Palace from a colours ceremony in Hyde Park, a man raised a revolver. A woman grabbed the man's arm and shouted, alerting a nearby constable who knocked the weapon from his hand and gave his a jolly good kicking. The man, subsequently identified as George Andrew McMahon, told police he had 'no intention' of harming the king and was 'only making a protest.' Adolf Hitler later sent Edward a telegram offering his 'heartiest congratulations' on his escape.
Francisco Franco and other high-ranking officers in the Spanish Army launched a coup against the Second Spanish Republic. The conspirators in the Army of Africa moved to seize control of Spanish Morocco as the Spanish Civil War began.
In Madrid, the Siege of Cuartel de la Montaña began. The Free City of Danzig suspended its constitution. Senate President Arthur Greiser ordered the move to crush opposition to the Nazi-controlled government.
Dolores Ibárruri made a passionate radio speech calling on Spaniards to fight against the military uprising. Her speech concluded with the famous words, ¡No pasarán! ('They shall not pass'), which became the rallying cry of the Republicans throughout the Civil War.
Suzy - starring Jean Harlow and Cary Grant - premiered. Diana Davies born in Manchester.
Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne, arrived in Berlin. Although ostensibly a goodwill visit, the American Embassy had invited Lindbergh in the hope that the German Air Ministry would try to impress him by inviting him to inspect their planes and air bases. That way, Lindbergh could take notes on the Luftwaffe's capabilities and report back to the US government.
The first speaking clock service was introduced in the United Kingdom. Alexander Hall's Yours For The Asking - starring George Raft, Dolores Costello and Ida Lupino - premiered.
James Brian Finch born in Standish, Lancashire. Keith Faulkner born in Richmond, Surrey.
The Canadian National Vimy Memorial was unveiled in France. Edward VIII, making his first trip abroad since becoming king, spoke at the event in a speech broadcast around the world. The Comintern agreed to establish International Brigades to fight the fascists in Spain.
General Franco granted an interview to Jay Allen of the Chicago Tribune in which he claimed that his government was neither monarchist nor fascist, but 'Nationalist Spanish' and that he had launched the rebellion to 'save Spain from Communism.' When asked what form his government would take, Franco replied it would be 'a military dictatorship' with a plebiscite later on 'for the nation to decide what it wanted.' The second test at Old Trafford was drawn. Having dismissed India for two hundred and three (Hedley Verity, four for forty one), England scored five hundred and seventy one for eight. Wally Hammond hit one hundred and sixty seven, Joe Hardstaff ninety four, Sam Worthington eighty seven and Walter Robins seventy six. However, centuries by Vijay Merchant and Syed Mushtaq Ali took India to safety. Arthur Fagg, Laurie Fishlock and Alf Gover made their test debuts.
Mervyn LeRoy's Anthony Adverse - starring Fredric March and Olivia De Havilland - premiered.
Two days before the Summer Olympics were due to start in Berlin, Ernest L Jahncke of the United States became the first person ever expelled from the International Olympic Committee, removed for his outspoken opposition to holding the Olympics in Germany. John Ford's Mary Of Scotland - starring Katherine Hepburn and Fredric March - premiered in New York.
David William Halliwell born in Brighouse, Yorkshire.
The Opening Ceremony of the Berlin Olympics was broadcast on the National Programme.
On the first day of competition at the Berlin Olympics, Adolf Hitler congratulated German gold medallists Tilly Fleischer and Hans Woellke, then invited all three Finnish medallists in the ten thousand metres to his box to congratulate them as well. However, he left before congratulating the gold medallist in high jump, Cornelius Johnson of the United States. An international controversy broke out over whether Hitler had snubbed Johnson for being African-American. International Olympic Committee President Henri de Baillet-Latour told Hitler to either congratulate all medallists or none at all. Hitler chose the latter and no athletes were invited to his box for the rest of the Olympics.
Jesse Owens won gold in the long jump. An often-told story states that Germany's Luz Long gave Owens some advice after he almost failed to qualify for the final. The veracity of the story has been questioned, but it is known that Owens and Long embraced in front of Hitler and subsequently became friends.
New Zealand's Jack Lovelock won the Olympic fifteen hundred metres gold - urged on by his friend Harold Abrahams who was commentating for the BBC ('Come on, Jack!') The first volunteers of the Luftwaffe arrived at Cádiz to fight for the Nationalists. To keep Germany's involvement secret the volunteers were officially discharged from the Luftwaffe so they could go to Spain as 'tourists.'
Edward VIII left Šibenik on a cruise of the Adriatic Sea. Wallis Simpson was among his guests, but the British press refrained from writing about their relationship.
Joachim von Ribbentrop was made the German ambassador to Britain.
The first International Brigades volunteers arrived in Spain. Ernest Michael Coles born in Willesden. Elizabeth Shepherd born in London.
The Battle of Almendrajelo ended in a Nationalist victory followed by a massacre. Stanley Baldwin announced a British embargo of arms to Spain. Italy won gold in football at the Berlin Olympics.
Charles Robert Redford born in Santa Monica. England won the thirst test at The Oval by nine wickets. England scored five hundred and seventy one for eight (Wally Hammond two hundred and seventeen, Sam Worthington one hundred and twenty eight). Jim Sims and Gubby Allen both took seven wickets in the match.
The first of three show trials known as The Trial of the Sixteen began in Moscow. Federico García Lorca, the acclaimed Spanish poet, was shot and killed by Nationalist forces in Grenada.
George Cukor's adaptation of Romeo & Juliet - starring Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, John Barrymore and Basil Rathbone - premiered. Philip James Voss born in Leicester.
Frances Cuka born in London.
Michael Powell's The Man Behind The Mask - starring Hugh Williams, Jane Baxter and Maurice Schwartz - premiered.
The BBC broadcast its first variety show, Here's Looking At You. Radiolympic broadcast.
Derbyshire won the cricket County Championship of cricket for the first time since 1874. The Gorgeous Hussy - starring Joan Crawford and Robert Taylor - premiered.
The Soviet government demanded that Norway expel Leon Trotsky, accusing him of breaking his pledge to not engage in counter-revolutionary activities. Pihl Mead played his eight hundred and fourteenth and final first class cricket match. In a career which began in 1905, he scored fifty five thousand and sixty one runs and took two hundred and seventy seven wickets, mostly for Hampshire. He also played seventeen times for England between 1911 and 1928. In his last innings, Mead made a superbly skilful fifty two against Yorkshire's Hedley Verity on a badly worn wicket. Jay Allen's famous account of the Massacre of Badajoz was published. 'Eighteen hundred men - there were women too - were mowed down there in some twelve hours. There is more blood than you would think in eighteen hundred bodies.' The destroyer USS Kane which was in Spanish waters assisting in the evacuation of American nationals, was attacked by an unidentified aircraft. A total of six bombs were dropped which landed near the ship but did no damage. The US State Department claimed the 'altercation' was 'probably a case of mistaken identity.' The head of Thomas Jefferson on the Mount Rushmore sculpture was dedicated in a ceremony attended by President Roosevelt.
Victory by an innings and sixty six runs over Leicestershire at the Oakham School Ground gave Derbyshire the first county championship title. Success in the County Championship saw the culmination of efforts by Arthur Richardson since he became captain in 1931. Derbyshire had come second in the championship the previous year with a better set of results. Middlesex and Yorkshire made strong challenges in the closing weeks of the 1936 season which kept tensions high, especially after Derby lost their penultimate game - against Somerset at Wells - by one wicket. When he heard that the Championship had been settled the Duke of Devonshire, the Derbyshire President, left a shooting party at Bolton Abbey in a hurry to get to Derby and join the public reception given to the players on their return. Stan Worthington and Leslie Townsend tied as top scorers in the County Championships. Bill Copson's one hundred and forty wickets made him top bowler for the county, ahead of Tommy Mitchell and Alf Pope. Gloucestershire finished fourth. Middlesex's Patsy Hendren was the leading run-scorer whilst Wally Hammond topped the first class batting averages. Surrey's Alf Gover was the leading wicket-taker (one hundred and seventy one). Harold Larwood headed the first class bowling averages. The first Edward VIII postage stamps was issued.
The General Died At Dawn - starring Gary Cooper and Madeleine Carroll and William Beaudine's Educated Evans - starring Max Miller - premiered.
The Last Of The Mohicans - starring Randolph Scott - premiered.
Eight spectators were killed in the annual Tourist Trophy Race in Northern Ireland when driver Jack Chambers lost control of his Riley on the wet track and crashed into the crowd. The race was never held again. This is also the purported date that the famous photograph The Falling Soldier was taken by Robert Capa during the Spanish Civil War, although the authenticity of the photo has been called into question.
Gregory La Cava's My Man Godfrey - starring William Powell, Carole Lombard and Gail Patrick - premiered.
Charles Hardin Holley born in Lubbock, Texas. George Formby's 'When I'm Cleaning Windows'/'Keep Your Seats Please' released.
The first official Speedway World Championship motorcycle race was held at Wembley, won by Lionel Van Praag of Australia.
The Nationalists captured San Sebastián to win complete control of the Basque region. The Battle of Majorca ended in Nationalist victory. Fred Perry beat Don Budge in the men's singles final of the US National Championships. Perry was the first foreigner to ever win the championship.
Coral Rosemary Atkins born in Richmond Upon Thames.
Walter Marvin Koenig born in Chicago. Thomas Nicol Williamson born in Hamilton, Scotland.
Nazi authorities ordered all German churches to eliminate the word 'Hallelujah' from prayers because it was 'Hebrew and alien.'
Andrew Wynford Davies born in Cardiff.
William Wyler's Dodsworth - starring Walter Huston - premiered.
James Maury Henson born in Greenville, Mississippi.
Stalin appointed Nikolai Yezhov as the new head of the NKVD. Under Yezhov's direction The Great Purge would be widely expanded. Lloyd Bacon's Cain & Mabel - starring Marion Davies and Clark Gable - premiered.
George Formby recorded his best-known song, 'When I'm Cleaning Windows' for Decca. Ronald Gordon Honeycombe born in Karachi.
Britain declared martial law in Palestine to fight the Arab revolt.
Pinewood Film Studios opened. The first director to use the facilities was Herbert Wilcox, completing London Melody featuring Anna Neagle, portions of which had already been filmed in Elstree, before a fire halted production. The first film to be made entirely at Pinewood was Talk Of The Devil, directed by Carol Reed.
Francisco Franco was officially invested with the title of Chief of State in the throne room at Burgos. He made a short and simple speech vowing to 'try to raise Spain to the place that corresponds to her history and her rank in earlier times.' Duncan Edwards born in Dudley.
Valiant Is The Word - starring Gladys George - premiered.
Stephen Michael Reich born in New York.
The Battle of Cable Street between Baronet Oswald Ernald Mosley's despicable British Union of Fascists blackshirt scum and thousands of anti-fascist demonstrators took place. With lots of fascists getting seriously chinned. The first episode of I Was There broadcast on The Regional Programme.
The Jarrow Crusade began. Over two hundred miners marched from Tyneside to London to protest about unemployment and poverty. They arrived on 31 October. Despite an initial sense of failure among the marchers, in subsequent years the Jarrow March became recognised by historians and politicians as a defining event. It helped to foster the change in attitudes which prepared the way to social reform measures after the Second World War. A new phrase entered the English lexicon via an article in the Daily Express written by William Forrest, a Scottish journalist covering the Spanish Civil War. Forrest reported: 'Insurgent General Franco has said that, in addition to his four columns in the field he was a column in Madrid. How strong is this fifth column? No one knows.' Other newspapers also picked up on Franco's reported comments (actually, they seem to have come via a radio broadcast by another Nationalist General, Emilio Mola in which he boasted of the efficiency of the fascist 'fifth column' inside the beleaguered Republican capital. Soon afterwards, Ernest Hemmingway boosted its usage with his play The Fifth Column and the phrase gained global currency as shorthand for the dangers of hidden pro-fascist spies and saboteurs and their rotten doings. Václav Havel born in Prague.
The first episode of The World Goes By broadcast on The Regional Programme.
Brian Blessed born in Mexborough. The first episode of the television programme Picture Page was broadcast.
Libelled Lady - starring Jean Harlow and William Powell - premiered.
The London Gazette announced that women over eighteen could be employed filling three inch mortar bombs. It was first time since the Great War that British women were allowed to work in munitions factories. Frank McDonald's Isle Of Fury - starring Humphrey Bogart and Margaret Lindsay - premiered. Judith Rosemary Locke Chalmers born in Gatley, Cheshire.
Two hundred fascists instigated a new wave of violence in London's East End, attacking Jews and smashing and looting the windows of Jewish shops until they were dispersed by police. Ten thousand leftists participated in an anti-Fascist demonstration in Victoria Park. Fifty Fascist youths attempted a rush to snatch a red flag and some people were slashed with razors. And, there was a great wailing and kicking of teeth.
Cross-channel train-ferry service, The Boat Train, began between Dover and Dunkirk. The service made it possible to ride in the same sleeping car from London all the way to Paris.
The British press observed an unofficial policy of self-censorship and refrained from publishing reports of Wallis Simpson's forthcoming divorce proceedings. In the United States the story was front-page news. The story was also reported freely in France.
Newspaper proprietor Max Beaverbrook met Edward VIII and declared that he would help to 'enforce' a 'voluntary' media blackout on the King's relationship with Mrs Simpson. Peter Bowles born in London.
Dolores Brenda Mantey born in Liverpool. Wales beat am inexperienced England side two-one in the Home International championship at Ninian Park. Cliff Bastin gave England the lead but goals from Birmingham's Seymour Morris and Pat Glover of Grimsby Town gave Wales the victory. George Holdcroft of Preston North End, Leeds United's Bert Sproston, Ted Catlin of Sheffield Wednesday, Wolverhampton Wanderers' Tom Smalley, Bill Scott of Brentford and Stoke City's Freddie Steele all made their international debuts. In the First Division, the Tees-Wear derby produced a remarkable game at Ayresome Park with Middlesbrough and Sunderland sharing ten goals. George Camsell scored three for the hosts. Joe Payne netted his third hat-trick of the season in Luton Town's four-one victory over Watford in the Third Division (South). Lord Beaverbrook, the publisher of the Daily Express, advised King Edward that his relationship with Wallis Simpson would not be mentioned in any of Britain's newspapers. The rest of the world, however, was busy speculating on the threat to the monarchy if the King were to marry her, once her divorce from Mister Simpson was finalised.
Michael Curtiz's adaptation of The Charge Of The Light Brigade - starring Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland and David Niven - premiered.
Simon James Holliday Gray born in Hayling Island, Hampshire.
The British press continued to tiptoe around the first stirrings of the Edward VIII abdication crisis. London publication The News Week wrote that 'the effects of the unofficial censorship have been disastrous, giving the impression abroad that there is something to hide.' The weekly publication Cavalcade, which had been running articles about the King's relationship with Mrs Simpson for weeks, ran a short notice of Simpson's divorce and mentioned that 'thousands of words had been published' in the United States about it. The Guardian ran an article about the possibility of the King's coronation potentially being postponed but avoided any direct explanation for why such a postponement might take place.
William George Perks born in Lewisham.
A bumper - one hundred page - issue of the Radio Times previewed the following week's start of the BBC television service with a number of articles that included The Coming Of Television by Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Carpendale, CB, the Deputy Director General and Looking Forward by Gerald Cock, the Director of Television.
William Wyler's These Three - starring Miriam Hopkins, Merle Oberon, Joel McCrea, Catherine Doucet, Bonita Granville and Carmencita Johnson - premiered.
Harry Lachman's Our Relations - starring Laurel and Hardy - premiered.
J Elder Wills' Everything In Life - starring Gitta Alpar, Neil Hamilton and Lawrence Grossmith - premiered.
The opening night of BBC Television, the world's first High Definition television service. Broadcasts initially alternated on a weekly basis between John Logie Baird's two hundred and forty-line mechanical method and the (much superior) Marconi-EMI's four hundred and five-line electronic system. The first episode of Picture Page broadcast, presented by The Switchboard Girl (Joan Miller).
The first episode of Starlight broadcast. Nick Grinde's The Captain's Kid - starring May Robson, Sybil Jason and Guy Kibbee - premiered.
A defamation case opened in the High Court brought by Richard S Lambert against Lt Col Cecil Levita. Lambert sued Levita after the Lieutenant Colonel suggested that Lambert was unfit to be associated with the British Film Institute because he believed in Gef, the talking mongoose. Levita denied uttering the words attributed to him, but said they would have been fully justified if he did. Lambert eventually won his case and was awarded seven and a half grand by the jury.
The information film Television Comes To London broadcast for the first time.
Howard Hawks and William Wyler's Come & Get It and Glenn Tryon's Easy To Take premiered.
Four masked men stole the Wallace Sword from the Wallace Monument in Scotland. Joseph Santley's We Went To College - starring Charles Butterworth, Walter Abel and Una Merkel - premiered.
Citizen Soldiers Of London broadcast. MP John McGovern asked Chancellor of the Exchequer Neville Chamberlain if he considered it 'wise' to proceed with the expenditure of Edward VIII's coronation 'in view of the gambling that is going on at Lloyd's as to whether or not this Coronation will ever take place.' Chamberlain ignored the question.
The Vic-Wells Company's production of the ballet Job featured the TV debut of Robert Helpmann.
Alan Turing's paper On Computable Numbers was formally presented to the London Mathematical Society, introducing the concept of The Turing Machine. Theodora Goes Wild - starring Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas - premiered.
Go West, Young Man - starring Mae West - premiered. Ingrid Hafner born in London.
Frederick Garrity born in Manchester. The Captain's Kid - starring May Robson and Sybil Jason - premiered.
Edward VIII summoned Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin to the palace and, reportedly, told him that he wished to marry Wallis Simpson. Baldwin said the British public would not accept Simpson as Queen. Cecil B DeMille's The Plainsman - starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur - premiered.
Labour MP William Adamson asked President of the Board of Trade Walter Runciman if there was 'any special scrutiny of books and printed literature imported from other countries.' Runciman, pretending to be unaware that this was a reference to the censorship of foreign newspapers and magazines reporting on the King's relationship with Wallis Simpson, asked Adamson to provide particulars to his office in order to get an answer. Adamson's colleague, Ellen Wilkinson, then asked Runciman 'why, in the case of two American magazines of high repute imported into this country during the last few weeks, at least two and sometimes three pages have been torn out. And, what is this thing the British public are not allowed to see?' 'My department has nothing to do with that,' Runciman lied. John Campbell Wells born in Ashford.
Edward VIII visited Dowlais in South Wales where he saw the abandoned site of the Dowlais Ironworks. The King was visibly shocked by the poverty he witnessed and famously declared that 'something must be done.' England beat Ireland three-one in the Home International championship at the Victoria Ground, Stoke. Raich Carter (a diving header), Cliff Bastin and Fred Worrall scored for the hosts, Oldham Athletic's Tom Davis replying for Ireland. Stoke City's Joe Johnson made his international debut. Amidst the continued fighting in Madrid in the Spanish Civil War, Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy simultaneously 'recognised' Generalissimo Franco as the new leader of Spain.
War Secretary Duff Cooper warned that Britain would have to resort to conscription if military recruitment numbers did not increase. The Garden Of Allah - starring Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Basil Rathbone, C Aubrey Smith and John Carradine - premiered.
Love On The Run - starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable - and Winterset - starring Burgess Meredith - premiered.
John Bird born in Bulwell, Nottinghamshire.
Robert Johnson entered a studio in San Antonio, Texas and recorded for the first time. Oner the following two days, the first songs he cut included 'Terraplane Blues', 'I Believe I'll Dust My Broom', 'Ramblin' On My Mind', 'Preaching Blues (Up Jumped The Devil)' and his most famous song, 'Cross Road Blue'.
The TV début of Kenneth and George Western on Starlight. Whether they performed their classic, 'We're Frightfully BBC', is not known.
Pennies From Heaven - starring Bing Crosby, Madge Evans, Louis Armstrong and Edith Fellows - premiered. Crosby's recording of the movie's title song (written by Arthur Johnston and Johnny Burke) topped the American music charts for ten weeks. Henry King's Lloyd's Of London - starring Freddie Bartholomew, Madeleine Carroll and Tyrone Power - premiered.
The Daily Mirror became the first British newspaper to put Wallis Simpson on its front page. The story, which only identified her as 'a former United States society woman now living in London,' was about the death threats she was getting and the precautions detectives were taking of opening all packages she received.
Born To Dance - starring Eleanor Powell, James Stewart and Virginia Bruce and featuring the first performance of Cole Porter's 'I've Got You Under My Skin' and Michael Hankinson's The Scarab Murder Case - starring Wilfrid Hyde-White, Wally Patch and Kathleen Kelly - premiered.
The first episode of Theatre Parade - scenes from The Royalty Theatre production of Marigold - broadcast. The Crystal Palace in London was destroyed by fire. Huge numbers of people turned out to watch the blaze.
The Edward VIII abdication crisis finally came into the open in Britain when the Bishop of Bradford, Alfred Blunt, speaking at his diocesan conference about the upcoming royal coronation, said of the King that 'Some of us wish that he gave more positive signs of his awareness.' The Yorkshire Post used the speech to question the King's behaviour and the rest of the British press soon followed, breaking their policy of self-imposed censorship.
Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage premiered. England defeated Hungary six-two in a friendly international at Highbury. Ted Drake scored a hat-trick with further goals from Eric Broo, Cliff Britton and Raich Carter. Grimsby Town's goalkepper George Tweedy made his England debut.
Comments of the Bishop of Bradford, the Right Reverend Doctor Alfred Blunt, when he lamented King Edward VIII's indifference to the church and its potential damaging effect on his coronation, inadvertently set in motion the constitutional crisis in which the King would ultimately abdicate. Although the Bishop had been unaware of the King's affair with Wallis Simpson when he wrote the speech, his specific comments about the King needing to 'show more awareness' of his need to be 'faithful to his duty,' were interpreted as a thinly-veiled reference to his intentions to marry the twice-divorced American. The national press seized on the opportunity to debate the situation publicly for the first time.
LesLie Pearce's You Must Get Married - starring Frances Day and Neil Hamilton - premiered.
Mexico announced that it had given permission for Leon Trotsky to enter the country and 'remain as long as he desires.'
E Martin Browne's adaptation of TS Eliot's Murder In The Cathedral broadcast.
The ballet Façade - featuring Margot Fontayne - broadcast.
King Edward VIII - close personal friend of Herr Hitler - announced his decision to abdicate the throne for 'the woman I love' to the nation. Or, that portion of the nation that could afford a wireless, anyway. He was introduced by John Reith - who, reportedly, wasn't a fan - as 'His Royal Highness, Prince Edward'. His reign had lasted three hundred and twenty seven days. He was succeeded by his brother, Colin Firth. On BBC1, Burnt Sepia, an 'all-coloured cabaret' featured - for the first time on television - performances by a number of black acts including Garland Wilson, Mabel Scott, Cyril Lewis, Harris & Howell and Buddy Bradley's Sepia Cronies. John Cromwell's Banjo On My Knee - starring Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Walter Brennan and Buddy Ebsen and General Spanky - starring George McFarland - premiered. George Formby's 'Sitting On The Sands All Night'/'Five & Twenty Years' released.
King George VI announced he would create his brother the Duke of Windsor. George Cukor's Camille - starring Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor - premiered. Denise Dorothy Coffey born in Aldershot.
The Archbishop of Canterbury made controversial remarks about Edward's abdication during a radio address when he called it 'sad' that the ex-King 'should have sought his happiness in a manner inconsistent with the Christian principles of marriage and within a social circle whose standards and ways of life are alien to all the best instincts and traditions of his people.' The speech was widely condemned.
Through mediation by the International Red Cross, both sides in the Spanish Civil War agreed to exchange prisoners.
Thomas Hicks born in Bermondsey. Rosemary Martin born in Birmingham.
Eric Gillett read The Mill On The Floss in the Serial Story strand.
Scenes from E Martin Browne's production of Murder In The Cathedral broadcast.
Henry Koster's Three Smart Girls - starring Barbara Reed, Nan Grey, Deanna Durbin and Ray Milland - premiered. Julia Bullas born in Prestwich.
Peter Tinniswood born in Liverpool.
Nancy Logan In Songs At The Pianoforte broadcast. James Burke born in Derry. England won the second Ashes test at Sydney by an innings and twenty two runs. England scored four hundred and twenty six for six with Wally Hammond hitting an undefeated two hundred and thirty one. Bill Voce, Gubby Allen, Hedley Verity and Hammond then bowled out Australia twice. James Burke born in Derry.
Hector Stewart and Roy McLoughlin's Men From The Other Side - starring Carol Goodner and Hartley Power - broadcast.
The Villarreal Offensive ended in Republican failure. Alfred E Green's More Than A Secretary - starring Jean Arthur, George Brent and Dorothea Kent - premiered. Scrooge - starring Barnsby Williams - brooadcast.
George Orwell arrived in Barcelona with the intention of writing journalistic reports for the foreign press, but what he saw inspired him to join a leftist militia and fight against fascism. Orwell later collected his experiences into Homage To Catalonia. Lloyd Bacon and Busby Berkeley's Gold Diggers Of 1937 and Alfred Green's More Than A Secretary - starring Jean Arthur, George Brent and Dorothea Kent - premiered.
Mahatma Gandhi emerged from two years of silence to make a speech. 'Show me the way and I am prepared to return to gaol. I am prepared to be hanged. If you do all I want you to do, the Viceroy will say: "I am wrong - I thought you people were terrorists and if you like we Britishers will return by the next steamer." We would then say to Lord Linlithgow and the British: "India is big enough to hold you and more like you." That is my Swaraj.' Jack Conway's adaptation of A Tale Of Two Cities - starring Ronald Colman and Elizabeth Allen - premiered.
The Irish Players' production of The Workhouse Ward broadcast.
Mary Tyler Moore born in New York. Cartoons: Bert Thomas broadcast.
The Pattern of 1936 - a review of trade and unemployment, in the form of a discussion between John Hilton and Cecil Lewis - broadcast. Frederick Pyne born in London.
London Characters broadcast. Gypsy Love broadcast.
