Modern Era
Baird's Television (1926): The First Public Demonstration
The first public demonstration of live television images with tonal gradation; Baird's mechanical system was later replaced by electronic television.
Region
Europe
Modern Era
General Strike of 1926: Britain's Nine Days of Industrial Action
The Trades Union Congress called off the strike after nine days without guarantees; the miners fought on alone until they were forced back to work on worse terms late in 1926.
Modern Era
Lindbergh's Transatlantic Flight (1927): Spirit of St. Louis
Lindbergh completed the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight, won the $25,000 Orteig Prize and became a world celebrity.
Modern Era
Discovery of Penicillin (1928): Alexander Fleming's Mouldy Plate
Fleming identified penicillin's antibacterial effect; the Oxford team developed it into a drug, mass-produced from 1943–44, opening the antibiotic era.
Modern Era
Holodomor (1932-1933): The Great Famine in Soviet Ukraine
An estimated 3.5 to 5 million people died in Ukraine; the famine was concealed by the Soviet state and is now recognised by Ukraine and many other countries as genocide.
Modern Era
Enabling Act (1933): How Hitler Became Dictator by Law
The Reichstag voted 444 to 94 to give Hitler's government power to pass laws without parliament, ending parliamentary democracy in Germany.
Modern Era
Hitler Becomes Chancellor (1933): How the Nazis Took Power
Hitler was appointed head of a coalition cabinet with only three Nazi ministers, and within months he had dismantled Weimar democracy.
Modern Era
Reichstag Fire (1933): The Blaze That Helped Hitler Seize Power
The Reichstag Fire Decree of 28 February 1933 suspended basic rights, enabling mass arrests of Communists and paving the way for the Nazi dictatorship.
Modern Era
Night of the Long Knives (1934): Hitler's Purge of the SA
The SA leadership and other opponents were murdered, the army backed Hitler, and after Hindenburg's death in August 1934 Hitler became Germany's undisputed Fuhrer.
Modern Era
Italian Invasion of Ethiopia (1935): Mussolini's Colonial War
Italy occupied Addis Ababa and annexed Ethiopia in May 1936; League of Nations sanctions failed, and Italian rule lasted until 1941.
Modern Era
Nuremberg Laws (1935): Nazi Germany's Racial Laws Against Jews
German Jews lost their citizenship rights and were banned from marrying or having relationships with non-Jewish Germans, giving racial persecution a legal basis.
Modern Era
Abdication of Edward VIII (1936): The King Who Gave Up the Throne
Edward VIII abdicated after 326 days as king; his brother became George VI, and Edward, created Duke of Windsor, married Wallis Simpson in 1937.