Events from the year 1926 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal government President: Calvin Coolidge (R-Massachusetts) Vice President: Charles G. Dawes (R-Illinois) Chief Justice: William Howard Taft (Ohio) Speaker of the House of Representatives: Nicholas Longworth (R-Ohio) Senate Majority Leader: Charles Curtis (R-Kansas) Congress: 69th

State governments Governors and lieutenant governors Governors

Lieutenant governors

Events

January–March February 1 – Land on Broadway and Wall Street in New York City is sold at a record $7 per sq inch. March 16 – Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fuel rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.

April–June April 12 – By a vote of 45–41, the United States Senate unseats Iowa Senator Smith W. Brookhart and seats Daniel F. Steck, after Brookhart has served for over one year. April 30 – African-American pilot Bessie Coleman is killed after falling from an airplane. May 10 – Planes piloted by Major Harold Geiger and Horace Meek Hickam, students at the Air Corps Tactical School, collide in mid-air over Langley Field, Virginia. Hickam parachutes to safety. May 18 – Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears while visiting a beach at Venice, California; on June 23 she is found stumbling in the desert of Agua Prieta, Mexico just south of Douglas, Arizona, claiming she has been kidnapped, drugged, tortured and held for ransom, but has escaped. May 20 – The United States Congress passes the Air Commerce Act, licensing pilots and planes. June 19 – DeFord Bailey is the first African-American to perform on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry. June 23 – The College Board administers the first SAT, a major standardized test for university and college admission in the U.S.

July–September July 1 – Benjamin Franklin Bridge opens. July 4 – The United States sesquicentennial is celebrated. July 12 – A lightning strike destroys an ammunition depot in Dover, New Jersey. July 26 – The National Bar Association incorporates in the United States. August 6 – In New York City, the Warner Brothers' Vitaphone system premieres with the movie Don Juan starring John Barrymore. August 18 – A weather map is televised for the first time, sent from NAA Arlington to the Weather Bureau Office in Washington, D.C. September 11 – Aloha Tower is officially dedicated at Honolulu Harbor in the Territory of Hawai'i. September 16 – Philip Dunning and George Abbott's play Broadway premieres in New York City. September 18 – Great Miami Hurricane: A strong hurricane devastates Miami, Florida, leaving over 100 dead and causing several hundred million dollars in damage (equal to nearly $100 billion today). September 20 – Twelve cars full of gangsters open fire at the Hawthorne Inn, Al Capone's Chicago headquarters. Only one of Capone's men is wounded. September 25 – The Detroit Cougars, a professional ice hockey club (National Hockey League) and predecessor of the Detroit Red Wings, is founded.

October–December October 10 – The St. Louis Cardinals defeat the New York Yankees, 4 games to 3, to win their first World Series Title. This World Series ended when Babe Ruth attempted to steal second base and is the only World Series to end this way. October 14 – Poland presents President Calvin Coolidge with a 111 volume gift called a "Polish Declaration of Admiration and Friendship for the United States of America" comprising some 15,000 bound sheets with the signatures of an estimated 5,500,000 Polish citizens on the occasion of America's 150th anniversary of independence. November 2 – Bibb Graves is elected the 38th governor of Alabama defeating J. A. Bingham. November 10 – In San Francisco, California, a necrophiliac serial killer named Earle Nelson (dubbed "Gorilla Man") kills and then rapes his 9th victim, a boardinghouse landlady named Mrs. William Edmonds. November 11 – The plan for a United States Numbered Highway System is approved by the American Association of State Highway Officials, so establishing U.S. Route 66. November 15 – The NBC radio network opens with 24 stations (formed by Westinghouse, General Electric and RCA). November 27 – In Williamsburg, Virginia, the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg begins. December 23 – Conservative Nicaraguan President Adolfo Díaz requests U.S. military assistance in the Nicaraguan civil war (1926–27). U.S. Marines immediately set up neutral zones in Puerto Cabezas and at the mouth of the Rio Grande to protect American and foreign lives and property.

Undated Microbiologist Selman Waksman publishes Enzymes. The Pike School in Andover, Massachusetts, is founded. Lundy's Restaurant is founded at Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.

Ongoing Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937) U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915–1934) Prohibition (1920–1933) Roaring Twenties (1920–1929)

Births January

January 2 Harold Bradley, American country music session guitarist (d. 2019) Howard Caine, American actor (d. 1993) January 5 Hosea Williams, civil rights leader, activist, minister, businessman, philanthropist, scientist, and politician (d. 2000) W. D. Snodgrass, poet (d. 2009) January 6 Ralph Branca, baseball player (d. 2016) Pat Flaherty, race car driver (d. 2002) January 8 Chester Feldman, television game show producer (d. 1997) Evelyn Lear, soprano (d. 2012) Soupy Sales, comedian (d. 2009) January 11 – Grant Tinker, television executive (d. 2016) January 12 – Ray Price, American country music singer and songwriter (d. 2013) January 14 – Tom Tryon, American actor, novelist (d. 1991) January 17 – Newton N. Minow, attorney (d. 2023) January 20 Patricia Neal, actress (d. 2010) David Tudor, American pianist, composer (d. 1996) January 21 Saul Mandel, illustrator, artist, animator and graphic designer (d. 2011) Steve Reeves, American actor (d. 2000) January 24 – Ruth Asawa, sculptor (d. 2013) January 29 – Bob Falkenburg, tennis player and entrepreneur (d. 2022)Bob Falkenburg, California kid who won Wimbledon at 22, dies January 31 – Chuck Willis, singer and songwriter (d. 1958) (some sources give his year of birth as 1928)

February

February 1 – Nancy Gates, American actress (d. 2019) February 3 Richard Yates, American novelist (d. 1992) Glen Tetley, American dancer and choreographer (d. 2007) February 7 – Bill Hoest, cartoonist (d. 1988) February 8 – Neal Cassady, American writer (d. 1968) February 10 – Mimi Sheraton, food critic (d. 2023) February 12 Charles Van Doren, American professor, subject of film Quiz Show (d. 2019) Joe Garagiola, baseball player (d. 2016) February 13 – Bill Mercer, sportscaster (d. 2025) February 14 Al Brodax, film, television producer (d. 2016) Moneta Sleet Jr., press photographer (d. 1996) February 17 Peter T. Flawn, geologist and educator (d. 2017) Lee Hoiby, composer (d. 2011) February 18 A. R. Ammons, poet and academic (d. 2001) Wallace Berman, painter and illustrator (d. 1976) Len Ford, American football player (d. 1972) February 20 Whitney Blake, American actress (d. 2002) Richard Matheson, American author (d. 2013) Bob Richards, American track and field athlete (d. 2023) February 22 – Nelson Bunker Hunt, businessman (d. 2014) February 23 Lawrence Holofcener, sculptor, poet, lyricist, playwright, novelist, actor and director (d. 2017) Claire Shulman, American politician (d. 2020) February 26 Verne Gagne, American professional wrestler (d. 2015) Henry Molaison, American memory disorder patient (d. 2008) Doris Belack, American actress (d. 2011)

March

March 1 – Pete Rozelle, National Football League commissioner (d. 1996) March 2 – Murray Rothbard, economist (d. 1995)David Stout, Obituary: Murray N. Rothbard, Economist And Free-Market Exponent, 68 , The New York Times, January 11, 1995. March 3 Craig Dixon, athlete (d. 2021) James Merrill, poet (d. 1995) March 4 DeVan Dallas, politician (d. 2016) Richard DeVos, billionaire, co-founder of Amway (d. 2018) Fran Warren, popular singer (d. 2013) March 5 – Joan Shawlee, actress (d. 1987) March 6 – Alan Greenspan, economist (d. 2026) March 8 – Dick Teed, Major League baseball player (d. 2014) March 9 – Joe Franklin, radio, television personality (d. 2015) March 11 Ralph Abernathy, African-American civil rights leader (d. 1990) Thomas Starzl, American physician (d. 2017) March 12 – George Ariyoshi, American politician, lawyer (d. 2026) March 15 Ben Johnston, composer (d. 2019) Norm Van Brocklin, American football player (d. 1983) March 16 Charles Goodell, politician (d. 1987) Jerry Lewis, comedian, humanitarian and philanthropist (d. 2017) Geraldine Weiss, trader (d. 2022)Remembering Geraldine Weiss and Her Winning Dividend Strategy March 17 – Jaynne Bittner, baseball player (d. 2017) March 18 – Peter Graves, American actor (d. 2010) March 20 – Marge Calhoun, surfer (d. 2017) March 25 – Gene Shalit, film and book critic and television personality (d. 2026) March 27 – Harry Connick Sr., attorney (d. 2024) March 30 – Peter Marshall, entertainer (d. 2024)'Hollywood Squares' host, breathes his last at 98

April

April 1 Charles Bressler, American operatic tenor and educator (d. 1996) Anne McCaffrey, American-born Irish author (d. 2011) April 3 Gus Grissom, American astronaut (d. 1967) R. W. Schambach, American televangelist, speaker and author (d. 2012) April 4 Addo Bonetti, politician and soldier (d. 2021)Addo E. Bonetti Bill Ryan, American journalist (d. 1997) April 5 – Roger Corman, American filmmaker, producer, actor and businessman (d. 2024) April 6 Alexander Butterfield, American public official, Watergate whistleblower (d. 2026) Randy Weston, American jazz pianist and composer (d. 2018) April 8 Sue Casey, American actress (d. 2019) Shecky Greene, American actor and comedian (d. 2023) April 9 Hugh Hefner, American magazine editor, founder of Playboy (d. 2017) Harris Wofford, American politician, U.S. Senator from 1991 to 1995 (d. 2019) April 11 – David Manker Abshire, United States Army officer (d. 2014) April 12 – Jane Withers, American actress (d. 2021) April 15 – Walter Dee Huddleston, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1973 to 1985 (d. 2018) April 21 – Wayne E. Meyer, American rear-admiral (d. 2009) April 22 – Charlotte Rae, American actress, singer (d. 2018) April 23 – J. P. Donleavy, American novelist (d. 2017 in Ireland) April 24 – Marilyn Erskine, actress April 27 Alvin Baldus, American Democratic politician (d. 2017) Tim LaHaye, evangelist, speaker and author (d. 2016) April 28 James Bama, American artist, illustrator (d. 2022) Greg Gates, American Olympic rower (d. 2020) Harper Lee, American novelist (d. 2016) April 29 Paul Baran, American internet pioneer (d. 2011) Carrie Meek, American politician and educator (d. 2021)Former US Rep. Carrie Meek dies at 95 April 30 – Cloris Leachman, American actress (d. 2021)

May

May 5 Ann B. Davis, American actress (d. 2014) Bing Russell, American actor (d. 2003) May 8 – Don Rickles, American stand-up comedian, actor (d. 2017) May 10 – Tichi Wilkerson Kassel, American film personality, publisher of The Hollywood Reporter (d. 2004) May 11 – Caesar Trunzo, American soldier and politician (d. 2013) May 12 Earl Hutto, American politician (d. 2020) Marilyn Knowlden, American child actress (d. 2025) May 18 – Douglas Henry, American politician (d. 2017) May 19 – Mark Andrews, U.S. Senator from North Dakota from 1981 to 1987 (d. 2020) May 21 – Robert Creeley, American poet (d. 2005) May 23 – Aileen Hernandez, African American civil rights activist (d. 2017) May 25 Claude Akins, American actor (d. 1994) Bill Sharman, American basketball player, coach (d. 2013) May 26 – Miles Davis, African-American jazz musician (d. 1991) May 30 Johnny Gimble, country musician, fiddler (d. 2015) Marilyn Hagerty, newspaper columnist (d. 2025) Tony Terran, trumpet player, session musician (d. 2017)

June

June 1 Andy Griffith, American actor (d. 2012)