WHAT ALL HAPPENED MAY TO DECEMBER 1936
Find out what all happened May to December 1936

Prime Minister of Greece Ioannis Metaxas suspends parliament and the Constitution and establishes the 4th of August Regime. (4. August 1936)

King Edward VIII, in one of his few official duties before he abdicates the thrоne, officially unveils the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. (26. July 1936)

The Steel Workers Organizing Committee, a trade union, was founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Philip Murray was elected its first president. (7. June 1936)

Radio Prague, now the official international broadcasting station of the Czech Republic, goes on the air. (31. August 1936)

Initial flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first practical helicopter. (26. June 1936)

Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII signs the Instrument of Abdication. (10. December 1936)

The British Broadcasting Corporation initiates the BBC Television Service, the world's first regular, "high-definition" (then defined as at least 200 lines) service. Renamed BBC1 in 1964, the channel still runs to this day. (2. November 1936)

The Remington Rand strike, led by the American Federation of Labor, begins. (25. May 1936)

Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her hand. Her story soon becomes one of Japan's most notorious scandals. (21. May 1936)

Mrs Wallis Simpson files for divorce which would eventually allow her to marry King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, thus forcing his abdication from the throne. (27. October 1936)

Rainey Bethea is hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky in the last public execution in the United States. (14. August 1936)

The United Auto Workers union stages its first sitdown strike. (30. December 1936)

Xi'an Incident: The Generalissimo of the Republic of China, Chiang Kai-shek, is kidnapped by Zhang Xueliang. (12. December 1936)

In the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, Tommy Henderson begins speaking on the Appropriation Bill. By the time he sits down in the early hours of the following morning, he had spoken for 10 hours. (26. May 1936)

Italian troops occupy Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. (5. May 1936)

The International Surrealist Exhibition opens in London, England. (11. June 1936)

Generators at Boulder Dam (later renamed to Hoover Dam) begin to generate electricity from the Colorado River and transmit it 266 miles to Los Angeles. (9. October 1936)

Italian dictator Benito Mussolini proclaims the Rome-Berlin Axis, establishing the alliance of the Axis powers. (2. November 1936)

The first electric generator at Hoover Dam goes into full operation. (26. October 1936)

The Montreux Convention is signed in Switzerland, authorizing Turkey to fortify the Dardanelles and Bosphorus but guaranteeing free passage to ships of all nations in peacetime. (20. July 1936)