January 27, 1926. Scottish inventor M. John Baird demonstrates his new machine capable of the wireless transmission of moving pictures using a cathode ray tube. The invention is called by its inventor, television.
February 25, 1926. Francisco Franco becomes the youngest general in the Spanish army.
March 16, 1926. Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fuel (gasoline and liquid oxygen) rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.
April 7, 1926. An assassination attempt against Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini fails. Italian Fascist Party member march in the streets and vow their loyalty to Mussolini. The Pope says that Mussolini is obviously being protected by God.
May 3-12, 1926. General Strike in Britain. A coal miners’ strike begins on the 1st of May, and on the 3rd a general strike in support of the coal miners is called. The general strike causes the shutdown of mines, transportation, iron and steel works and other industries and paralyzes the country for 10 days. The general strike ends when public opinion goes against the striking workers, but one million coal miners are still on strike.
June 13, 1926. Marshall Joseph Pilsudski takes dictatorial power in Poland. Many Poles believe that the Polish army will under Pilsudski’s command will soon attack SOviet Russia.
September, 1926. Nationalist Chinese Kuomintang troops under General Chiang Kai-shek capture hang-kow and begin the unification of China. China has been suffering for the past several years, since 1916, under the fighting of warlords in various regions who refuse to answer to a central government.
October 23, 1926. Leon Trotsky is removed from the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Josef Stalin is becoming more and more powerful.
December 25, 1926. Japan gains a new emperor after the death of Emperor Yoshihito who had ruled Japan for the past 14 years. Twenty-five year old Emperor Hirohito, who has been regent for his ailing father for the past five years, will now become Japanese head of state on his own.
Notable deaths in 1925: Harry Houdini, Rudolph Valentino, Eugene Debs, Annie Oakley, Mary Cassatt, Claude Monet.