The lockout of 800,000 British coal miners began, three days before the nationwide Trades Union Congress strike was to begin.[1]
The Ford Motor Company became the first major American company to introduce the 40-hour workweek and the two-day weekend, giving its workers Saturday off after having reduced the work day to 8 hours for six days a week. The reduction from 48-hours to 40 hours came with no reduction in pay.[2][3]
In Poland, five people were killed and 28 injured in fighting between socialists and communists during May Day events in Warsaw.[4]
Marion Wells, American fundraiser and conservative activist; in Brooklyn, New York City (d. 2016)
May 2, 1926 (Sunday)
The Leopard of Rudraprayag, a man-eating leopard that had killed more than 125 people in British India's United Provinces, was shot by famous big game hunter Jim Corbett, who had tracked the big cat for 10 weeks.[7]
At one minute to midnight, the call by Britain's Trades Union Congress for its members to walk out on strike took effect. An estimated 1.7 million people began would join the strike in support of the locked out miners.[1][9][10][11]
In British India, Miangul Abdul Wadud was recognized by the colonial government as the ruler of the princely state of Swat, and the successor to the late Syed Abdul Jabbar Shah. Wadud would rule until 1949, shortly after the princely state was integrated into Pakistan upon the division of British India.[12]
Thousands of shipyard workers walked out on strike in London.Volunteers took over jobs left vacant by the strike, including bus driving.
Britain came to a standstill on the first full day of the general strike, with at least 1,500,000 employees of the railway industry and other public transport not showing up for work. The underground subway lines, rail stations, streetcars and buses were closed and the streets of London were devoid of street cars or buses and most commuters walked to work.[16] Throughout Britain, passenger and freight railway transport were suspended for the duration of the strike.[17] Members of 205 labor and trade unions honored the strike call, including the 750,000 of the Miners' Federation, more than 327,000 of the National Union of Railway Workers, almost 335,000 of the United Textile Workers Association.[18]
June Middleton, Australian polio survivor who spent more than 60 years in an iron lung, contracting polio at age 22 and remaining in need of the machine for the rest of her life; in Melbourne (d.2009)[22]
May 5, 1926 (Wednesday)
Two new newspapers, the British Worker (supporting the general strike) and the British Gazette (condemning it) appeared in Britain to fill the void left by the other dailies that only published in very limited form during the strike.
Maurice Green, American virologist and founder of the Institute of Molecular Virology at the St. Louis University School of Medicine]]; in New York City (d.2017)[26]
Fyodor Funtikov, 50, Azerbaijan anti-Communist known for ordering the 1918 execution of the "26 Baku Commissars", was executed in Baku after having returned to the Russian SFSR.[29]
Charles S.L. Baker, 66, American inventor known for creating the friction heater (b. 1859)[30]
Germany's Reichstag voted on the Fürstenenteignung the proposal to seize the dynastic properties of the former ruling houses of the German Empire. The expropriation of properties was scheduled to be voted upon in a public referendum on June 29, and passage of the bill would have made the referendum moot. With bourgeois political parties in the majority, the Reichstag vote failed, with 142 for and 236 against.[32]
Limited services returned around Britain as volunteers and strike-breaking workers stepped in, notably to help distribute food and provide other necessities.[34]
Died:S. I. Smith, 83, American zoologist who identified and classified numerous species of crustaceans (primarily crabs and lobsters), including Cardisoma crassum (the "mouthless crab"), and Uca pugnax (the "Atlantic marsh fiddler crab")[35]
On the sixth day of the United Kingdom general strike, Liberal Party MP Herbert Samuel, authorized to negotiate on behalf of the British government, met with Trades Union Congress (TUC) leader Walter Citrine and Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) leader A. J. Cook to tentatively agree to a set of proposals to end the work shutdown. While the TUC members approved the plan, the Miners Federation rejected it.
In the Soviet Union, Léon Theremin demonstrated his experimental television system which electrically transmitted and then projected near-simultaneous moving images on a five-foot square screen as part of his thesis.[38]
The first feature film in color[40], the silent movie The Black Pirate, premiered at both the Selwyn Theatre in New York and at the Tivoli Cinema in London.[41][42] Produced by and starring Douglas Fairbanks, The Black Pirate, the film was one of the highest grossing of the year, but also one of the most expensive up to that time.[43]
Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin addressed the British public about the ongoing strike in an evening radio broadcast. Such a broadcast in a time of emergency was the first of its kind in the United Kingdom.[44]
The prototype of the U.S. Navy's secret weapon, the Mark 6 exploder, was given its first test firing, attached to a Mark 10 torpedo and aimed at the submarine USSL-8. On the first try, the torpedo went underneath the target submarine but did not explode. A second test was successful.
Don Rickles, American TV and film comedian who specialized in insult comedy; in Queens, New York City (d. 2017)
May 9, 1926 (Sunday)
Byrd and Bennett
Explorer Richard E. Byrd and co-pilot Floyd Bennett attempted make the first flight over the North Pole, taking off from Spitsbergen in the Fokker F.VII monoplane Josephine Ford in Norway. They returned to Spitzbergen 15 hours and 57 minutes later, claiming that they had flown the 1,535 miles (2,470km) to the Pole, flying over it, and then circling it "around the world" for 13 minutes.[48] While both men were immediately hailed as national heroes [49], some experts have since been skeptical of the claim, with aviator Bernt Balchen concluding in 1958 that the plane was unlikely to have covered the entire distance and back in that short an amount of time, and an examination of Byrd's diary in 1996 by Dennis Rawlins.[50][51] An entry in Byrd's diary discovered in 1996 suggested that the plane actually turned back 150 miles (240km) short of the North Pole due to an oil leak.[52][53] Another attempt to fly over the Pole would be made three days later by different pilots on the airship Norge.
After Druze Muslims in Syria killed eight French soldiers in the Great Syrian Revolt, the French Army used heavy weaponry to shell a Druze neighborhood in Damascus, killing hundreds of civilians along with about 100 rebels.[54] As a result, the area of the old city between the sections of Al-Hamidiyah Souq and Medhat Pasha Souq was burned to the ground, an event known since then as al-Hariqa ("the fire"). Reporter George Seldes viewed 308 bodies, and suggested there might be more dead under the rubble—and that a maximum might be one thousand. "When the Muslims, who had rebelled, threatened to kill all Christians", he wrote, "General Maurice Sarrail gave the civilian population time to evacuate, then ordered Fort Gouraud to fire some warning shots, then shell the rebel sector." [55]
Astronomers Max Wolf and Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth became the first persons on Earth to observe see the supernovaSN 1926A, which had taken place in the Messier 61 galaxy more than 50 million years earlier. Seven other supernovae have been observed in Messier 61 since then.[56]
The Flying Scotsman express train, traveling on the route between Edinburgh and King's Cross, London with more than 300 passengers, was derailed in Northumberland by a group of locked-out miners who pulled up the tracks, after passing Cramlington. Because the locomotive was moving slowly and the volunteer engineer spotted the missing rail, only one of the passengers was injured, but two of the train's coaches overturned in the first act of sabotage during Britain's General Strike.[58][59]
The Preakness Stakes thoroughbred horse race, at the time the first of the American Triple Crown events, was won by the horse Display, ridden by jockey John Maiben. Display won by a head over the pre-race favorite, Blondin.[60]. The Kentucky Derby was held five days later, with six of the 13 Preakness competitors, including Display and Blondin.[61]
France became the first nation to ratify the 1925 Geneva Protocol against the use of poison gases and biological weapons in war.[62]
In Britain, Mr. Justice Asbury granted an injunction to the National Sailors' and Firemen's Union to enjoin the General-Secretary of its Tower Hill branch from calling its members out on strike. Astbury ruled that the strike was not protected by the Trade Disputes Act 1906 and that the strike in the plaintiff union had been called in contravention of its own rules.[70] The ruling came as a heavy blow to the cause of the firemen and sailors union, as well as other unions.[71]
In one of the most widely-condemned lynchings in the United States, |Henry Patterson, an African-American, was falsely accused of attacking a white woman, then chased by a mob of more than 40 white men in LaBelle, Florida and shot to death. His body was then paraded down LaBelle's main street and hanged from a tree in front of the Hendry County courthouse. The alleged victim later told friends that she was merely frightened when Patterson approached her. Newspaper publisher Mary Hayes Davis published the details of the lynching in The Hendry County News, and the report was republished in the Tampa Morning Tribune, then sent to other newspapers by the wire services."[72]
The May Coup began in Poland. A state of emergency was declared by Prime Minister Witos as units loyal to Marshal Józef Piłsudski marched on Warsaw and captured bridges over the Vistula River. At 5:00 in the afternoon, Marshal Pilsudski met with Poland's PresidentStanisław Wojciechowski in a discussion on the Poniatowski Bridge and demanded the resignation of the Witos cabinet within two hours. Wojciechowski, in turn, demanded that the Marshal order his troops to surrender as a condition of the Witos resignation, which was declined. Fighting began at 7:00 in the evening.[80]"
Due to worsening weather in the U.S. Alaska Territory, the crew of the airship Norge decided to land rather than press on to their goal of reaching Nome. Pilot Umberto Nobile decided to attempt a landing at Teller, Alaska, on a frozen lagoon, and at 8:30 in the evening local time (14 May at 0730 UTC), in what one author described as "probably one of the most outstanding examples of airmanship of the airship era," [84] Nobile, Natale Cecioni and Renato Alessandri guided the ship down steadily and held it in place while the crew disembarked, one at a time, to safety.
Britain started to return to normal on the first day back from the general strike, though many transport services were late in their resumption. Voluntary workers were still keeping buses and trains running.[86] Miners remained locked out.
At the Belweder Palace in Warsaw, Poland's, President Stanisław Wojciechowski and Prime Minister Wincenty Witos resigned their positions at 7:00 in the evening to prevent the fighting in Warsaw from becoming a country-wide civil war. Along with the rest of their government officials, they escaped to Wilanow.[89] Over three days of fighting, 164 civilians were killed, along with 25 officers and 173 soldiers of the Polish Army.[90]. Maciej Rataj took over Wojciechowski's office as acting President.
Starting at 8:30 in the evening, Radio station Zagreb (now Croatian Radio), the first broadcast station in Southeast Europe, began broadcasting from Zagreb in Yugoslavia at a wavelength of 350 meters, equivalent to a frequency of 860 kHz on the AM radio band.[91][92]
Bubbling Over won the 1926 Kentucky Derby, at the time the second race of the American Triple Crown of thoroughbred horse racing, five days after the running of the Preakness Stakes.
Born:
Sir Peter Shaffer, English playwright and screenwriter (d. 2016)
Glen Michael (stage name for Cecil Buckland), British children's television show host known for the Scottish Television program Glen Michael's Cartoon Cavalcade; in Paignton, Devonshire (d.2025)[101]
Necla Sultan, French-born Turkish socialite, Egyptian princess consort and granddaughter of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed VI, who died on the day of her birth; in Nice (d.2006)[102]
Died:Mehmed VI, 65, the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, who reigned from 1918 until being deposed upon the abolition of the monarchy by the Republic of Turkey in 1922, died in exile in Italy.[103] His 13-year-old son Şehzade Mehmed Ertuğrul made no pretense of claiming the abolished throne.[104]
IAPMO, the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, was formed by a group of plumbing inspectors to create universal standards and building codes for builders of plumbing equipment.[106]
Geneviève de Brabant, written in 1900 by Erik Satie, with lyrics by Patrice Contamine de Latour, was given its first performance, after having been discovered following Satie's death in 1925.[107] The work premiered at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris as "an opera for marionettes", in that the legend of Genevieve had been traditionally adapted for puppet shows. During the same event, Satie's orchestral composition Cinq Grimaces pour Le Songe d'une nuit d'été ("Five Grimaces for A Midsummer Night's Dream") was premiered by conductor Roger Désormière.[108] Latour was unable to attend the performance because of illness, and died one week afterward.[107]
The nationally famous Christian evangelist Aimee Semple McPhersondisappeared after last being seen swimming at Venice Beach, California, near Los Angeles.[111]. Initial speculation was that she had drowned, and a memorial service was held the Angelus Temple she had founded.[112]. After more than five weeks, McPherson would reappear in Mexico near the U.S. border on June 23, claiming that she had been kidnapped and held for ransom.
Elinor Hallé, 69, English sculptor and co-inventor (with Anne Acheson) of the process of plaster casts for immobilization of broken limbs[115]
James Thomson Bottomley, 81, Irish-born British physicist known for his creation of four-digit logarithm tables for the most accurate multiplication and division calculations of the 19th century[116]
The Air Commerce Act, providing for the first licensing of pilots and for commercial airplanes, was signed into law by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge after having passed both houses of the U.S. Congress.[121] The Act created the Aeronautics Branch within the U.S. Department of Commerce to implement and enforce regulations.
The Railway Labor Act was signed into law by U.S. President Coolidge, abolishing the Railroad Labor Board. The "Wilson-Parker Act" had been drawn up by the Association of Railway Executives and Railway Brotherhoods", and provided for five-member federal mediation board for resolving controversies.[122]
An estimated 30,000 members of the Communist Party of Germany demonstrated in Berlin. About 50,000 members of Der Stahlhelm held a demonstration of their own in Düsseldorf.[130]
May 24, 1926 (Monday)
The Mexican government announced the nationalization of minerals and petroleum resources, which clouded the property rights of foreign resource extraction companies and increased tensions between Mexico and the United States.[127]
The opening ceremonies for the Sesquicentennial Exposition, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, were held in Philadelphia.
↑"Industry Stands Still— Biggest National Strike In History Of Nation Begins; England's Trade Paralysed; Essential Services Carried On To-day By Volunteers", Torbay Herald & Express (Torquay, Devon), May 4, 1926, p.1
↑"Men Who Are Affected. By General Strike Order. Over 200 Unions.", Dorset Daily Echo and Weymouth Dispatch, May 4, 1926, p.1, p.3
↑McNab, Robert (2004). Ghost Ships: A Surrealist Love Triangle. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. p.163. ISBN0-300-10431-6.
↑Eisenschitz, Bernard (1970). Douglas Fairbanks, 1883-1939: Anthologie du cinéma[Douglas Fairbanks, 1883-1939: Anthology of Cinema] (in French). Vol.5. Paris: L'Avant-Scène. p.538.
↑Hall, Mordaunt (March 9, 1926). "The Screen". New York Times. Retrieved September 1, 2025.
↑Wildenberg, Thomas; Polmar, Norman (2010), Ship Killer: A History of the American Torpedo, Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, pp.65–65, ISBN978-1-59114-688-9
↑Rawlins, Dennis (January 2000). "Byrd's Heroic 1926 Flight & Its Faked Last Leg"(PDF). DIO, the International Journal of Scientific History. 10: 2–106 [54, 69–76, 84–88, 99, 105]. Retrieved July 13, 2007.
↑"Edinburgh to London East Train Wrecked; Authorities State Rail Was Pulled Up", The Ottawa Citizen, May 11, 1926, p.1 ("LONDON, May 11— The first case of serious sabotage since the general strike began was reported today. The famous "Flying Scotsman," running from Edinburgh to London, having on board 400 passengers, was wrecked yesterday...")
↑Bronstein, Jon; Harris, Andrew (2012). Empire, State and Society: Britain Since 1830. Wiley-Blackwell. p.176. ISBN978-1-4051-8180-8.
↑"Amundsen's Dirigible Crosses North Pole and Flies on to Alaska; Big Airship Crosses the North Pole, Flags of Three Nations Are Lowered as Sun Breaks through a Thick Fog", The Toronto Daily Star, May 12, 1926, p.1
↑"GENERAL STRIKE IN GREAT BRITAIN CALLED OFF— Trades Congress Cancels the Strike and Negotiations Will Be Resumed", The Toronto Daily Star, May 12, 1926, p.1
↑Ross, J. Andrew (2015). Joining the Clubs: The Business of the National Hockey League to 1945. Syracuse University Press. p.134. ISBN9780815633839.
↑Gallagher, Michael (1985). Political Parties in the Republic of Ireland. Manchester University Press. p.12. ISBN978-0-71901-797-1.
↑Whelan, Noel (2011). A History of Fianna Fáil: The Outstanding Biography of the Party. Gill Books. ISBN978-0-71715-198-1.
↑Ó Beacháin, Donnacha (2011). Destiny of the Soldiers – Fianna Fáil, Irish Republicanism and the IRA, 1926–1973: The History of Ireland's Largest and Most Successful Political Party. Gill Books. ISBN978-0-71715-166-0.
↑"U. S. BUENOS AIRES EMBASSY BOMBED— Police Place Blame Upon Sacco Friends", The Tampa (FL) Daily Times, May 17, 1926, p.1
↑Felipe Pigna, The Myths of Argentine History (Editorial Planeta, 2005) p.106 ISBN 987-545-228-9
↑"Turkish Ex-Sultan Dies While in Exile; Mohammed VI Is Victim of Heart Attack in Italy, Whither He Fled When Dethroned in 1922", The New York Times, May 17, 1926, p.21
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