Video: 'The General' (trailer)
(Friday, December 31, 1926, New Year’s Eve) — The General, an American silent comedy film about a Confederate engineer who fights to save his train and his girlfriend from the Union army, premiered today in two small theaters in Tokyo, Japan. Continue reading ‘The General’ opens in Tokyo 90 years ago #OnThisDay #OTD (Dec 31 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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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.
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.
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.
Video: ‘Launch of 1st Liquid-Fuel Rocket — March 16, 1926’
(Tuesday, March 16, 1926) — Rocket science pioneer Robert H. Goddard successfully tested the first liquid-fueled rocket today at his Aunt Effie’s farm in Auburn, Massachusetts.
