Timeline December 1936

Events in December 1936 10

• 1864 – 1936 Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936) Died 31 December 1936, aged 72 Miguel de Unamuno was a Spanish philosopher, novelist and rector of the University of Salamanca. His works include The Tragic Sense of Life and Mist. After confronting Nationalist officers in October 1936, he spent his last weeks under house arrest.
• 1867 – 1936 Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) Died 10 December 1936, aged 69 Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist and novelist who won the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature. His play Six Characters in Search of an Author changed modern theatre. His novels include The Late Mattia Pascal.
• 1904 – 1936 Nikolai Ostrovsky (1904-1936) Died 22 December 1936, aged 32 Nikolai Ostrovsky was a Soviet writer. His novel How the Steel Was Tempered became a classic of socialist realism. He wrote it while blind and paralysed from injuries and illness.
• 1936 Soviet Constitution adopted The "Stalin Constitution" replaces the 1924 constitution The Congress of Soviets adopted a new constitution for the USSR. On paper it promised universal suffrage and civil rights. It was introduced as the Great Purge was growing.
• 1936 – 2009 David Carradine (1936-2009) Died 3 June 2009, aged 72 Carradine was an American actor best known for the 1970s television series Kung Fu and for his role as Bill in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films. He came from a prominent acting family and appeared in dozens of films over his career. He was found dead in a hotel room in Bangkok.
• 1936 Abdication of Edward VIII King gives up the throne to marry Wallis Simpson Edward VIII signed the Instrument of Abdication on 10 December, and Parliament gave it effect the next day, ending a reign of under a year. He chose to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson, whom the government and the Church of England would not accept as queen. His brother succeeded him as George VI.
• 1936 Xi'an Incident Chiang Kai-shek detained by his own generals The Nationalist generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng detained Chiang Kai-shek in Xi'an to force him to stop fighting the Communists and oppose Japan instead. He was released on 25 December after negotiations involving Communist representatives. The episode led to the Second United Front against Japan.
• 1936 – 2025 Pope Francis (1936-2025) Died 21 April 2025, aged 88 Leader of the Roman Catholic Church from 2013, the first pope from South America and the first Jesuit, who brought reform and a reputation for humility to the papacy.
• 1936 Elsa dies Heart and kidney failure at Mercer Street Elsa became ill shortly after the move to Princeton and died in December 1936. Einstein worked through the days after her death, which those around him read as grief rather than coldness. His sister Maja and stepdaughter Margot kept the house with him afterwards.
• 1936 – 2017 Mary Tyler Moore (1936-2017) Died 25 January 2017, aged 80 American actress known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show, and a pioneering figure for independent working women on television. She won multiple Emmy Awards and received an Academy Award nomination for Ordinary People. She died of complications from pneumonia.