(Sunday, March 1, 1936) — German Minister of Postal Affairs Paul Freiherr von Eltz-Rübenach inaugurated the first videophone conversation today in Berlin with Leipzig’s chief burgomaster.
Germany’s Gegensehn-Fernsprechanlagen (visual telephone system), was developed by Dr. Georg Schubert, who headed the development department at the Fernseh-AG, a technical combine for television broadcasting technology.
(Saturday, February 8, 1936, 10:25 a.m. EST) — Charles Curtis, the 31st Vice President of the United States (1929-1933, under President Herbert Hoover), died today of a heart attack in in Washington, D.C. He was 76 (click here to watch moving pictures of Curtis).
(Friday, February 7, 1936) — U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 7285 today authorizing a flag for the office of the vice president.
Video: 'Modern Times' trailer
(Wednesday, February 5, 1936, 8:30 p.m. EST) — The gala world premiere of Modern Times, a comedy film written and directed by Charlie Chaplin in which his iconic Little Tramp character struggles to survive in the modern, industrialized world, was held tonight at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City.
The film starred Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman, Stanley Sandford and Chester Conklin.
(Wednesday, January 29, 1936) — The first inductees of baseball’s Hall of Fame, including Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, were named today in Cooperstown, New York (although a public announcement was delayed until Feb. 2, 1936).
Video: 'The Death Of His Majesty King George V (1936)'
(Monday, January 20, 1936, at 11:55 p.m. GMT) — Britain’s King George V, 70, died tonight in his bedroom at Sandringham House in Norfolk after his physician, Lord Dawson of Penn, injected the mortally ill monarch with morphine and cocaine to hasten his death.
The king was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward VIII, who would abdicate the throne 11 months later to marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson.
Video: 'A Night at the Opera' trailer
(Friday, December 6, 1935, doors opened at 10:15 a.m. EST) — A Night at the Opera, a comedy film about three zanies who turn an operatic performance into chaos in their efforts to promote their protege’s romance with the leading lady, opened today at the Capitol in New York City.
Directed by Sam Wood, the film starred Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Kitty Carlisle, Allan Jones and Margaret Dumont.
Video: 'Pan American Clipper (Sikorsky S-42) 1935 Pan American Airway, aka Flying Clipper, Pan Am Clipper'
(Friday, November 21, 1935, 3:46 p.m. PST) — A flying boat, the China Clipper, took off today from Alameda, California, carrying more than 100,000 pieces of mail on the first trans-Pacific airmail flight.
Video: 'AFL vs. CIO split in 1935'
(Saturday, November 9, 1935) — United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis and other labor leaders formed the Committee for Industrial Organization (later renamed the Congress of Industrial Organizations) today in Washington.
