Category Archives: 1920s

English novelist Agatha Christie temporarily goes missing 90 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Dec 3 1926)


Video: 'DW - Step Back in Time: The Mystery of the Missing Crime Queen'

(Friday, December 3, 1926, at around 9:45 p.m. GMT) — A real-life mystery began tonight as English novelist Agatha Christie, 36, drove away from her home in Sunningdale, Berkshire, and disappeared. Continue reading English novelist Agatha Christie temporarily goes missing 90 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Dec 3 1926)

NBC debuts with a radio network of 24 stations 90 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Nov 15 1926)


Video: 'NBC's 60th Anniversary Celebration (1986)'

(Monday, November 15, 1926, 8:00 p.m. EST) — The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) radio network debuted tonight with a network of 24 stations (formed by Westinghouse, General Electric and RCA). Continue reading NBC debuts with a radio network of 24 stations 90 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Nov 15 1926)

Magician Harry Houdini, 52, dies in Detroit 90 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Oct 31 1926)


Video: 'Harry Houdini: Biography'

(Sunday, October 31, 1926, Halloween, 1:26 p.m. EST)Harry Houdini (born Erik Weisz), world famous as a magician, a defier of locks and sealed chests and an exposer of spiritualistic frauds, died today in Room 401 at Detroit’s Grace Hospital of gangrene and peritonitis resulting from a ruptured appendix. He was 52. Continue reading Magician Harry Houdini, 52, dies in Detroit 90 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Oct 31 1926)

National Broadcasting Company (NBC) incorporated 90 years ago #OnThisDay #OTD (Sep 9 1926)


Video: 'NBC's 60th Anniversary Celebration (1986)'

(Thursday, September 9, 1926) — The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) was incorporated today by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), becoming the oldest major broadcast network in the United States. Continue reading National Broadcasting Company (NBC) incorporated 90 years ago #OnThisDay #OTD (Sep 9 1926)

Legendary movie star Rudolph Valentino, 31, dies in New York City 90 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Aug 23 1926)


Video: 'Rudolph Valentino - Dead at 31'

(Monday, August 23, 1926, 12:10 p.m. EDT) — Legendary silent film star Rudolph Valentino, 31, died today at the New York Polyclinic Hospital where he had undergone a double operation for acute appendicitis and gastric ulcers on Aug. 15, 1926. He was 31. Continue reading Legendary movie star Rudolph Valentino, 31, dies in New York City 90 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Aug 23 1926)

First feature-length film with synchronized sound premieres in New York 90 years ago this hour (Aug 6 1926)


Video: 'Don Juan (1926) - Available Now on DVD'

(Friday, August 6, 1926, 8:30 p.m. EDT) — Warner Bros. premiered its Vitaphone sound-on-disc movie system tonight at the Warners’ Theatre in New York City with a showing of Don Juan, featuring synchronized music and sound effects but no recorded dialogue.

Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson vanishes in Venice, California 90 years ago today (May 18 1926)


Video: 'AIMEE SEMPLE MCPHERSON - American Masters (plus sermon)' (May 18, 1926, at 35:47)

(Tuesday, May 18, 1926) — The nationally famous Christian evangelist preacher Aimee Semple McPherson, 35, vanished today while visiting a beach in Venice, California.

McPherson was widely believed at the time to have drowned, but reappeared more than a month later, saying she’d escaped after being kidnapped and held for ransom, an account that was received with skepticism.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II born in Mayfair, London 90 years ago this hour (Apr 21 1926)


Video: ‘Documentary 2015 | Queen Elizabeth II – One of The World’s Most Influential Women’

(Wednesday, April 21, 1926, 2:40 a.m. GMT) — Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II was born today in Mayfair, London, the first child of The Duke and Duchess of York, who later became King George VI and the Queen Mother.

Christened Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, the princess became monarch upon the death of her father in 1952, beginning a 64-year-old reign surpassing that of Queen Victoria.

First successful trans-Atlantic radio-telephone conversations take place 90 years ago this hour (Mar 7 1926)

(Sunday, March 7, 1926, 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. EST/1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. GMT) — For the first time, extended and successful conversations were held by telephone between New York and London this morning at a demonstration of progress in the transatlantic radio telephone by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, the Radio Corporation of America and the British General Post Office.