The Year 1926 in Review: Fun Facts, Trivia, and Historic Highlights

This quick read is a collection of fun facts, trivia, and historic events from the year 1926. Discover the year’s top news stories, most influential people, sports facts, entertainment trivia, grocery prices, and much more.

1. In 1926, Babe Ruth, Rudolph Valentino, and Agatha Christie were all on center stage. Beef tenderloin and butterscotch cake were crowd-pleasers, and James and Helen were two of the most popular baby names.
2. Bacon cost 50 cents a pound, eggs were 56 cents a dozen, and maple syrup was 49 cents a pint.
3. Calvin Coolidge (R-Massachusetts) was the U.S. president, and Charles G. Dawes (R-Illinois) was the nation’s vice president.
4. Average cost of a new car: About $515
5. Average cost of a new home: About $6,296
6. Average earnings: Full-time weekly earnings for men averaged $41.51; for women, full-time weekly earnings averaged $24.28.
7. Average monthly rent: About $15
8. Average price of gold: $20.67 per troy ounce
9. Average retail price for a gallon of gas: 23 cents
10. Cost of a first-class stamp: Two cents
11. Inflation rate: 1.14 percent
12. Minimum wage: By 1926, fifteen states had passed minimum wage laws, including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Oregon. Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico also passed minimum wage laws by 1926.
13. Unemployment rate: 1.8 percent
14. American companies and brands established in 1926 included the IGA grocery store chain, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), Nutro Products, Schick razors, and United Airlines.
15. Consumer products launched during the year included Camay bar soap, Maull's barbecue sauce, Purina Dog Chow, Old Gold cigarettes, the PH lamp, Raisin Bran, and Schick razors.
16. Between 1923 and 1930, about 60 percent of American households purchased radios. Radios became a central part of American family life, and families often gathered around their radios to listen to news, weather, sports, serial stories, political speeches, and music.
17. January 16: BBC Radio's Broadcasting the Barricades was probably the "first fake news broadcast" in history. It depicted a workers' revolution in London, which included the lynching of several government ministers.
18. January 26: John Logie Baird gave "the first public demonstration of television” in his laboratory in London.
19. February 1: At the corner of Broadway and Wall Street in New York City, land was selling at the record price of $7.00 per square inch.
20. February 26: President Coolidge signed the United States Revenue Act of 1926 into law. The bill reduced inheritance and personal income taxes, eliminated the gift tax, and "ended public access to federal income tax returns."
21. March 9: Bertha Landes was elected as the first female mayor of Seattle and also became the first woman to be the chief executive of a major American city.
22. March 16: Robert Goddard launched the first liquid fuel rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts.
23. In April, radio station KOSJ in Santa Barbara, California, began broadcasting.
24. April 19: Canadian Johnny Miles won the 30th Boston Marathon.
25. April 21: Elizabeth II, the future queen of England, was born in Mayfair, London.
26. May 1: The Ford Motor Company became "one of the first companies in America to adopt a five-day, 40-hour week for workers in its automotive factories." The policy was "extended" to Ford's office workers the following August.
27. May 5: Sinclair Lewis received a Pulitzer Prize for his novel, Arrowsmith.
28. May 8: A fire broke out and caused major damage to a section of Fenway Park, which was the home of the Boston Red Sox baseball team.
29. May 12: Ronald Amundsen and his 15-strong crew, aboard the aircraft Norge, made the first successful flight across the North Pole.
30. May 31: Frank Lockhart won the first rain-shortened Indianapolis 500.
31. June 1: Norma Jean Mortenson, better known as Marilyn Monroe, was born in Los Angeles.
32. June 17: At the 2nd National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC, the winner was 13-year-old Pauline Bell of Clarkson, Kentucky, who correctly spelled the word "cerise."
33. June 19: DeFord Bailey became the first African American to perform on the acclaimed Grand Ole Opry radio program.
34. June 23: The College Board administered the first Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) to 8,000 high school students.
35. July 1: The Benjamin Franklin Bridge, which connects Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey, opened to vehicular traffic.
36. August 6: Radio station KWKH in Shreveport, Louisiana, began broadcasting.
37. August 23: Rudolph Valentino, an Italian-American actor who was nicknamed the “Latin Lover,” passed away at the age of 31. Valentino's untimely death caused "mass hysteria" among his fans. An estimated 100,000 people filled the streets of Manhattan to pay their respects at his funeral.
38. September 25: James Norris founded the Detroit Cougars, a professional ice hockey club that was the predecessor of the Detroit Red Wings. According to SportsTeamHistory.com, Norris "purchased the Victoria Cougars of the Western Hockey League and moved them to Detroit."
39. September 25: Radio station WKDM in New York City began broadcasting.
40. In October, radio station KRLD in Dallas, Texas, began broadcasting.
41. October 6: Babe Ruth became the first MLB player to hit three home runs in a World Series game.
42. October 6: Pittsburgh enforced the Pennsylvania "blue laws" by banning all sports from the city on Sundays. The ban lasted for eight years.
43. October 10: The St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series by defeating the New York Yankees, four games to three.
44. October 14: A. A. Milne published the ever-popular children's book, Winnie the Pooh.
45. October 22: Ernest Hemingway published his first novel, The Sun Also Rises.
46. October 24: Harry Houdini, the famous magician and escape artist, made his last performance at the Garrick Theater in Detroit. (On October 31, 1926, Houdini died from peritonitis resulting from appendicitis.)
47. November 8: WICC radio in Bridgeport, Connecticut, began broadcasting.
48. November 11: The iconic U.S. Route 66, one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System, opened to vehicular traffic. Route 66 runs for nearly 2,500 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica and is sometimes referred to as America's "Mother Road." (During the 1960s, Route 66 was a popular adventure crime drama on CBS television. Each episode of the series was filmed at a different location along the famed highway.)
49. November 12: Radio station KTHK in Sacramento, California, began broadcasting.
50. November 15: The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) went on the air with "a gala four-hour radio program" that originated from the ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.
51. December 3: British mystery writer Agatha Christie "mysteriously" disappeared for 11 days. An estimated 1,000 police officers and 15,000 volunteers conducted a search for Christie, eventually finding her in a hotel and registered under a different name.
52. December 13: Radio station WWVA in Wheeling, West Virginia, began broadcasting.
53. December 16: MLB owners re-elected Kennesaw Mountain Landis as the MLB commissioner for another seven seasons.
54. In 1926, Procter & Gamble introduced Camay bath soap.
55. Schick, a brand of safety razors and personal care products, was founded by Jacob Schick.
56. Walter Varney founded United Airlines, one of America’s major air carriers, in Boise, Idaho.
57. Kellogg’s Raisin Bran, a breakfast cereal that is made from raisins and bran flakes, appeared on grocery store shelves for the first time.
58. The Waters-Genter Company in Minneapolis introduced the first automatic pop-up toaster.
59. The Hormel Company in Austin, Minnesota, marketed the first canned ham.
60. Maull's barbecue sauce, which is quite popular in St. Louis, appeared on grocery store shelves for the first time.
61. Once again, Coca-Cola was America’s most popular soft drink, and the Model T Ford was America’s most popular car.
62. The USDA began live inspections of poultry and also introduced beef grading standards.
63. Parents magazine began publishing.
64. Famous people born in 1926 included Andy Griffith, Elizabeth II, Harper Lee, Hugh Hefner, Jerry Lewis, Julie London, Mel Brooks, Miles Davis, and Tony Bennett.
65. Bye Bye Blackbird was a popular song, Faust was a popular horror film, and Gentlemen Prefer Blonds was a popular fiction book.
66. In 1926 as well, the words accident-prone, baguette, car park, deactivate, emerald cut, fantasize, gladiola, hash browns, jumper cable, karate, little guy, and motor lodge all appeared in print for the first time.

References:

1. https://www.infoplease.com/year/1926
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1926_in_the_United_States
3. https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/1926
4. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/died-1926.php
5. https://www.movienightsathome.com/1920s-party-foods/
6. https://dudewalker.org/music/1926-2/
7. https://www.foodreference.com/html/html/food-history-1925.html
8. https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/1926
9. https://www.mclib.info/Research/Local-History-Genealogy/Historic-Prices/Historic-Prices-1920s/Historic-Prices-1926
10. https://www.seattletimes.com/life/food-drink/strong1920-1929

Disclaimer: In writing and editing this article, Gregory DeVictor has made every effort to ensure historical accuracy and not to mislead his audience. In addition, the contents of this article, including text, graphics, and captions, are for general informational purposes only.

© 2026 Gregory DeVictor