Decades: 1880s - 1890s - 1900s - 1910s - 1920s - 1930s - 1940s - 1950s - 1960s - 1970s - 1980s
Years: 1931 - 1932 - 1933 - 1934 - 1935 - 1936 - 1937 - 1938 - 1939 - 1940 - 1941
Events
- January 15 -- The first building to be completely covered in glass is completed in Toledo, Ohio, for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company.
- January 20 - Edward VIII becomes King of the United Kingdom
- January 31 - The Green Hornet radio show debuts.
- February 4 - Radium E. becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.
- February 6 - 1936 Winter Olympic Games open in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
- March 1 - Hoover Dam completed.
- March 7 - World War II: In violation of the Locarno Pact and the Treaty of Versailles, Germany reoccupies the Rhineland.
- March 8 - The first stock car race is held in Daytona Beach, Florida.
- April 3 - Richard Bruno Hauptmann is executed for the kidnapping and death of the baby son of Anne and Charles Lindbergh.
- November - Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats Alfred M. Landon in the U.S. presidential election.
- December 30 - The United Auto Workers union stages its first sit-down strike.
- Inge Lehmann argues that the Earth's molten interior has a solid core.
- The Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Turkish Straits is signed.
- Francisco Franco and other generals attempt a coup d'etat against the Spanish Republic and start the Spanish Civil War.
- Germany reoccupies the Rhineland.
- Abdication of King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom leads to accession of King George VI of the United Kingdom.
- 1936 in film
- January 6 - Porky Pig premieres
- The Great Ziegfeld
- Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
- Romeo and Juliet
- A Tale of Two Cities
- 1936 in literature
- The Allegory of Love by C. S. Lewis
- Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
- Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
- Life magazine is first published
- 1936 in music
- January 4 - Billboard magazine publishes its first music hit parade
- 1936 in sports
- January 29 - First inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced
- February 8 - Jay Berwanger becomes the first person to be selected by a National Football League draft, by the Philadelphia Eagles.
- Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany
- Jesse Owens wins four gold medals in Berlin Olympics
- 1936 in television
- July 7 - NBC's first attempt at actual programming is a 30-minute variety show featuring speeches, dance ensembles, monologues, vocal numbers, and film clips.
- Approximately 2000 television sets are in use around the world
- January 3 - Georgina Spelvin, pornographic film actress
- January 10 - Stephen Ambrose, historian and Dwight Eisenhower biographer
- January 10 - Robert Wilson, physicist, radio astronomer
- January 22 - Joseph Wambaugh, author
- January 23 - Jerry Kramer, American football star
- January 27 - Troy Donahue, actor (+ 2001)
- January 28 - Alan Alda, actor
- February 11 - Burt Reynolds, United States actor
- February 17 - Jim Brown, American football star
- February 21 - Barbara Jordan, American politician (+ 1996)
- February 23 - Majel Barrett, United States actress
- February 29 - Henri Richard, ice hockey player
- March 4 - Jim Clark, racing driver
- March 5 - Dean Stockwell, actor
- March 6 - Marion Barry Jr., mayor of Washington, DC
- March 11 - Reverend Ralph Abernathy, civil rights leader (+ 1990)
- March 11 - Antonin Scalia, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court
- March 17 - Ladislav Kupkovic, composer
- March 18 - Frederik Willem de Klerk, South African politician
- March 19 - Ursula Andress, actress
- March 24 - David Suzuki, environmentalist
- March 28 - Mario Vargas Llosa, author and politician
- April 22 - Glen Campbell, musician
- April 23 - Roy Orbison, singer
- May 9 - Glenda Jackson, actress and politician
- May 12 - Frank Stella, painter
- May 14 - Bobby Darin, singer
- September 7 - Buddy Holly, United States singer
- October 3 - Steve Reich, composer
- October 16 - Andrei Chikatilo, Russianserial killer
- November 20 - Don DeLillo, United States author
- January 16 - Albert Fish, serial killer (electrocuted)
- January 18 - Rudyard Kipling, British writer
- January 20 - King George V of the United Kingdom
- February 19 - Billy Mitchell, military aviation pioneer
- April 3 - Bruno Hauptmann, convicted of killing Charles Lindbergh Jr.
- June 11 - Robert E. Howard, American fantasy author
- June 14 - Gilbert Keith Chesterton, author
- Wilhelm Gustloff, Swiss Nazi Party leader
- Grazia Deledda, Sardinian (Italy) writer - Nobel prize for literature (1926)