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Top Song(s)
• Bing Crosby - Pennies From Heaven
• Fred Astaire - The Way You Look Tonight
• Leadbelly - Goodnight, Irene
• Benny Goodman - Goody Goody
• Billie Holiday - Summertime
Top Film(s)
• Modern Times
• My Man Godfrey
• Mr. Deeds Goes To Town
• Swing Time
• After the Thin Man
Best Selling Book(s)
• Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
• Keep the Aspidistra Flying - George Orwell
• The A.B.C. Murders - Agatha Christie
• Jamaica Inn - Daphne du Maurier
• The Story of Ferdinand - Munro Leaf
Famous Deaths
• January 15 - Henry Foster, British Conservative Party politician, former Governor-General of Australia
• February 19 – Billy Mitchell, American general, military aviation pioneer
• March 18 – Eleftherios Venizelos, Greek statesman, several times Prime Minister
• May 14 – Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, British soldier, administrator
• July 9 – Auguste Adib Pacha, two-time prime minister of Lebanon
• August 23 – Julio Ruiz de Alda, Spanish aviator, Falangist politician
• September 21 - Amalia Abad Casasempere, Spanish Roman Catholic laywoman, martyr
• October 20 – Anne Sullivan, American teacher of Helen Keller
• November 27 – Edward Bach, British physician, homeopath and bacteriologist
• December 9 - Juan de la Cierva, Spanish civil engineer, aviator, aeronautical engineer and inventor
Medical/Science/Technology
• Radium E (bismuth-210) becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.
• The first nerve agent, Tabun, is discovered by a research team headed by Dr Gerhard Schrader.
• Inge Lehmann argues that the Earth's molten interior has a solid inner core.
• Economist John Maynard Keynes buys a trunk of Isaac Newton's papers at auction.
• Dutch mathematician Cornelis Simon Meijer introduces the Meijer G-function.
• First remains of a Staurikosaurus are found by Llewellyn Ivor Price in Brazil.
• First publication recognizing stress as a biological condition.
• American researcher Thomas Francis Jr. isolates influenza B virus.
• António Egas Moniz publishes his first report of performing a prefrontal leukotomy on a human patient.
• Harry Himsworth distinguishes the two principal types of diabetes.
Political Events
• January 6 - Barbara Hanley becomes Canada's 1st woman mayor in Webbwood, Ontario.
• January 9 - US Army adopts M1 semi-automatic rifle, designed by John Garand as new standard issue weapon.
• January 20 – The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King Edward VIII.
• February 16 – 1936 Spanish general election: The left-wing Popular Front coalition takes a majority.
• March 7 – In violation of the Treaty of Versailles and Locarno Treaties, Nazi Germany reoccupies the Rhineland.
• May 10 - Manuel Azaña elected the second President of the Spanish Republic.
• June 29 – United States Maritime Commission is formed.
• June 29 - George M. Cohan is the first artist to be presented with a US Congressional Gold Medal.
• August 26 – The Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 is signed.
• November 3 – Franklin D. Roosevelt is reelected to a second term.
National Events
• January 4 – Billboard magazine publishes its first music hit parade.
• March 1 – Construction of Hoover Dam is completed.
• April 5 – A tornado hits Tupelo, Mississippi, killing 216 and injuring over 700.
• May 12 – The Santa Fe railroad inaugurates the all-Pullman Super Chief passenger train.
• June 6 – Aviation gasoline 1st produced commercially Paulsboro, New Jersey.
• June 19 - Max Schmeling knocks out Joe Louis in the 12th round of their heavyweight boxing match.
• July 11 – Triborough Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic.
• October 11 – Earl Bascom, rodeo cowboy and artist, designs and builds Mississippi's first permanent rodeo arena.
• November 23 – Cover date of the first issue of Life in the United States under the management of Henry Luce.
• December 3 – Radio station WQXR is officially founded in New York City.
Worldwide Events
• January 16 - Spanish socialists, communists and anarchists form Unidad Popular.
• January 28 – State funeral of George V of the United Kingdom.
• April 15 – The Tulkarm shooting, followed by Jewish retaliation, begins the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.
• May 7 – Italy annexes Ethiopia.
• May 27 – British luxury liner RMS Queen Mary leaves Southampton for her maiden transatlantic crossing.
• August 1 – The 1936 Summer Olympics open in Berlin, Germany.
• August 3 – African-American athlete Jesse Owens wins the 100-meter dash at the Berlin Olympics.
• October 25 – The Rome-Berlin Axis is formed.
• November 2 - The BBC launches the world's first regular television service.
• November 25 – The Anti-Comintern Pact is signed by Germany and Japan.