What Happened in December 1926

Historical Events

Agatha Christie Disappears

Dec 3 Detective novelist Agatha Christie mysteriously disappears for 11 days

Dec 3 Manchester Guardian (German Reichswehr/Red Army work together)
Dec 4 CFL Grey Cup: Ottawa Senators retain Championship with 10-7 win over U of Toronto Blues
Dec 7 Gas refrigerator patented
Dec 9 USGA legalizes steel shaft golf clubs
Dec 10 1st radio broadcast in the Sprinfield area (WCBS)

Mein Kampf

Dec 10 2nd part of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf published

Dec 11 Leo O'Connor is unbeaten on 143 as Queensland wins their first Sheffield Shield match by 5 wickets vs NSW at the Sydney Cricket Ground
Dec 14 Thomas Madsen-Mygdal head of the Liberal Party forms a government in Denmark
Dec 15 Fascist national symbol elevated in Italy

Le Pauvre Matelot

Dec 16 Darius Milhaud's opera "Le Pauvre Matelot" premieres in Paris

Landis MLB Contract Renewed

Dec 16 MLB owners renew contract with Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis for a second 7-years term

1st MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis

Dec 16 WOW-AM in Omaha NE begins radio transmissions
Dec 17 Antanas Smetona assumes power in Lithuania as the ‎1926 coup d'état‎ is successful
Dec 17 German Marx government falls due to cooperation with red army
Dec 17 KYA-AM in San Francisco CA begins radio transmissions
Dec 17 Lithuanian military state under gen Augustine Woldemaras
Dec 19 National Football League Championship: Frankford Yellow Jackets (14-1-2) win first past the post title
Dec 20 Sidney Howard's "Silver Cord" premieres in NYC

Cardinals Trade Hornsby

Dec 20 St. Louis Cardinals trade future Baseball Hall of Fame infielder Rogers Hornsby to NY Giants for Frankie Frisch & Jimmy Ring; concerns over Hornsby's gambling

MLB Hall of Fame 2nd Baseman and Manager Rogers Hornsby

Dec 23 KEX-AM in Portland OR begins radio transmissions

Prince Hirohito Assumes Throne

Dec 25 Crown Prince Hirohito of Japan assumes the throne upon his father, Emperor Yoshihito's, death

Dec 27 Depot Square in Bronx renamed Botanical Square
Dec 27 Latkin Square in Bronx named for 1st US Jewish soldier to die in WW I
Dec 28 Arthur Mailey takes 4-362 off 64 overs (no maidens) NSW v Vic
Dec 28 Imperial Airways begins England-India mail & passenger service
Dec 28 Ponsford scores 352 & Ryder 295 against NSW
Dec 28 Victoria all out for 1107 against NSW at the MCG Crowd 22,348
Dec 29 Vatican puts French fascist Charles Maurras' work on the index
Dec 29 Victoria (1107) beat NSW (221 & 230) by an innings 656 runs
Dec 30 Chicago Tribune reports the Tigers threw a 4-game series to the White Sox in 1917 to help Chicago win the pennant (never substantiated)
Dec 30 Paul Eliot Green's "In Abraham's Bosom" premieres in NYC

Events in 1926

Famous Birthdays

Dec 1 Keith Michell, Australian actor and theater director (6 Wives of Henry VIII), born in Adelaide, South Australia (d. 2015)
Dec 1 Robert Symonds, American actor and associate director of the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center, born in Bristow, Oklahoma (d. 2007)
Dec 2 Hobie Billingsley, American ISHOF diving coach (Indiana University 1959-89; 6 x NCAA team championships; US Olympic team 1968, 72, 76), born in Erie, Pennsylvania (d. 2022) [1]
Dec 3 Hans Otte, German composer and pianist (The Book of Sounds, Book of Hours), born in Plauen, Germany (d. 2007)
Dec 3 Walter Ormeño, Peruvian soccer goalkeeper (Peru 1949-57; Boca Juniors, Rosario Central), born in Lima, Peru (d. 2020)
Dec 7 Victor Kermit Kiam II, American businessman (Remington Shavers) and NFL team owner (New England Patriots, 1988–91), born in New Orleans, Louisiana (d. 2001)
Dec 7 Wolfgang Ludewig, German composer, born in Marburg, Germany (d. 2017)

Joachim Fest (1926-2006)

Dec 8 German historian and journalist (Hitler biography, Speer: The Final Verdict), born in Berlin, Germany

Dec 9 Henry Way Kendall, American physicist (Nobel 1990-pioneering investigations concerning deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons, which have been of essential importance for the development of the quark model in particle physics), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1999)
Dec 9 Jan Křesadlo, Czech-British psychologist and writer, born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (d. 1995)
Dec 10 Dag Schjelderup-Ebbe, Norwegian musicologist, educator, and composer, born in Oslo, Norway (d. 2013)
Dec 10 Guitar Slim [Eddie Jones], blues guitarist ("The Things That I Used to Do"), born in Greenwood, Mississippi (d. 1959)
Dec 10 Harry Fowler, British actor (Great: Isambard Kingdom Brunel), born in Lambeth, London (d. 2012)
Dec 11 Richard "Dick" Tufeld, American voice actor (Lost in Space - "Robot"), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 2012)
Dec 11 Richard Devon, American character actor (Magnum Force, Battle of Blood Island), born in Glendale, California (d. 2010)
Dec 11 Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton, American rhythm-and-blues singer and songwriter (Hound Dog, Ball & Chain, Stronger than Dirt), born in Ariton, Alabama (d. 1984)
Dec 12 Laurie Davidson, New Zealand yacht designer (Black Magic 1995; Team New Zealand 2000; America's Cup HOF 2007), born in Auckland, New Zealand (d. 2021)
Dec 13 Carl Erskine, American baseball pitcher (MLB All-Star 1954; World Series 1955; 2 x no-hitters; Brooklyn/LA Dodgers; Buck O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award), born in Anderson, Indiana (d. 2024) [1]
Dec 13 George Rhoden, Jamaican athlete (Olympic gold 400m, 4 x 400m relay 1952), born in Kingston, Jamaica
Dec 14 Frank King, West Indian cricketer (WI fast bowler in 14 Tests in 50's, 29 wkts), born in Delamere Land, Brighton, St Michael, Barbados (d. 1990)
Dec 16 Alfred Koerppen, German organist, composer, and educator (Hannover Hochschule für Musik und Theater, 1948-91), born in Wiesbaden, Germany (d. 2022)
Dec 16 James McCracken, American operatic tenor (Otello), born in Gary, Indiana (d. 1988)
Dec 16 Josef Hadar, Israeli violinist and composer (Evening of Roses), born in Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine (now Israel) (d. 2006)
Dec 17 Jeremy Brooks, English writer (Jampot Smith), born in Southampton (d. 1994)
Dec 17 Patrice Wymore, American actress (The Big Tree), born in Miltonvale, Kansas (d. 2014)
Dec 17 Ray Jablonski, American baseball player (d. 1985)
Dec 17 Stephen Lewis, British stage and screen comic actor, screenwriter and playwright (In The Buses - "Blakey"; Last of the Summer Wine - "Smiler"), born in Poplar, England (d. 2015)
Dec 18 Jock Aird, Scottish soccer defender (4 caps Scotland, 2 New Zealand; Burnley), born in Glencraig, Scotland (d. 2021)
Dec 19 Bobby Layne, American College and Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback (3 x NFL champion; 6 x Pro Bowl; Detroit Lions), born in Santa Anna, Texas (d. 1986)
Dec 19 Herb Stempel, American game show contestant and television industry whistleblower (Twenty-One), born in New York City (d. 2020) [1]
Dec 20 David Levine, American artist (New York Review of Books caricatures), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2009)
Dec 20 Geoffrey Howe, British politician (Chancellor and Foreign Secretary under Thatcher), born in Aberavon, Glamorganshire (d. 2015)
Dec 20 Otto Graf Lambsdorff, German politician (Free Democratic Party), born in Aachen, Germany
Dec 21 Joe Paterno, American College Football HOF coach (Penn State 1966-2011; NCAA C'ship 1982, 86; Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of 1986), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2012)
Dec 21 John Herbert McDowell, American composer for ballet, TV and the stage, born in Washington, D.C. (d. 1985)
Dec 22 Lee Salk, Russian-American child psychologist and author, born in New York, New York (d. 1992)
Dec 23 Raymond Daveluy, Canadian organist (St. Joseph's Montreal, 1960-2002), composer and educator, born in Victoriaville, Quebec (d. 2016)
Dec 23 Robert Bly, American poet (Loving a Woman in Two Worlds), and writer (Iron John: A Book About Men), born in Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota (d. 2021) [1]
Dec 23 Ron Gowans, Australian jazz saxophonist, born in Sydney (d. 2009)
Dec 24 Paul Buissonneau, French-born Quebec theatre director, born in Paris, France (d. 2014)
Dec 24 Ronald Draper, South African cricketer (South African batsman v Australia 1949-50), born in Oudtshoorn, South Africa
Dec 25 Enrique Jorrín, Cuban charanga violinist and pop-dance music composer, considered the father of the cha-cha-chá, born in Candelaria, Cuba (d. 1987)
Dec 26 Ali Javan, Iranian American physicist and inventor (Helium-Neon Laser), born in Tehran, Iran (d. 2016) [1]
Dec 26 Earle Brown, American composer (open form), born in Lunenburg, Massachusetts (d. 2002)
Dec 26 Edgar D Ngoyi, South African ANC leader (17 yrs in Robbeneiland Jail)
Dec 26 Zlatko Pibernik, Croatian composer and music teacher, born in Zagreb, Croatia (d. 2010)
Dec 27 Jerome Courtland, American actor (Tonka, Tharus), born in Knoxville, Tennessee (d. 2012)
Dec 28 Donald Carr, English cricket all-rounder (2 Tests, 1 x 50, 2 wickets; Derbyshire CCC) and official (secretary Test and County Cricket Board 1976-86), born in Wiesbaden, Germany (d. 2016)
Dec 30 Stanley Tracey, British jazz pianist and composer (Under Milk Wood), born in Denmark Hill, South London, England (d. 2013)

Born in 1926

Famous Weddings

Alfred Hitchcock

Dec 2 Film director and producer Alfred Hitchcock (27) weds director Alma Reville (27) at Brompton Oratory in London

Carlo Gambino

Dec 5 Gangster Carlo Gambino (24) weds his first cousin Catherine Castellano

George Murphy

Dec 18 Actor George Murphy (24) weds ballroom dancing partner Juliette Henkel

Famous Deaths

Dec 1 Hans Heinrich XIV Hochberg, German composer, dies at 83
Dec 3 Charles Ringling, American circus owner (Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus), dies at 63
Dec 4 Ivana Kobilca, Slovenian-born painter (b. 1861)

Claude Monet (1840-1926)

Dec 5 French impressionist painter (Water Lilies, Haystacks, Poplars), dies from lung cancer at 86

Dec 8 Jan Six, Dutch art historian and art collector (Six Collection), dies at 69
Dec 10 Nikola Pašić, Serbian nationalist and premier (over many periods from 1891 to 1926), dies at 80
Dec 12 Jean Richepin, French poet and writer (Contes sans morale), dies at 77
Dec 14 Theo van Rysselberghe, Belgian painter (pointillism), dies at 64

William Larned (1872-1926)

Dec 16 American tennis player (US Nationals 1901-02, 07-11), dies of a self inflicted gun shot wound at 53

Dec 17 Alexander Kastalsky, Russian composer, dies at 70
Dec 24 Johan Castberg, Norwegian politician (Castbergian Child Laws protecting extra-martial children), dies at 64 [1]
Dec 25 Yoshihito [Taishō], 123rd Emperor of Japan (1912-26), dies at 47

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)

Dec 29 Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist (Ana, The City, Duino Elegies), dies at 51

On This Day