* Meir Atlas ( 1848 – 1926 ), Rabbi of Shavel in Lithuania and one of the founders of the Telz Yeshiva

* 1926 – Varney Airlines makes its first commercial flight ( Varney is the root company of United Airlines ).

* 1926 – Sergio Franchi, Italian singer and actor ( d. 1990 )

* 1926 – Gil Kane, Latvian cartoonist ( d. 2000 )

* 1926 – Ian Paisley, Northern Irish politician

* 1926 – Cloris Leachman, American actress

* 1926 – Pat Coombs, English actress ( d. 2002 )

* 1926 – Kristen Nygaard, Norwegian computer scientist ( d. 2002 )

* 1926 – Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel.

* 1926 – In New York, New York, the Warner Brothers ' Vitaphone system premieres with the movie Don Juan starring John Barrymore.

* 1926 – Elisabeth Beresford, English author ( d. 2010 )

* 1926 – Frank Finlay, English actor

* 1926 – Clem Labine, American baseball player ( d. 2007 )

* 1926 – János Rózsás, Hungarian writer

* 1926 – Norman Wexler, American screenwriter ( d. 1999 )

* 1860 – Annie Oakley, American target shooter ( d. 1926 )

* 1926 – Fidel Castro, Cuban lawyer and politician, 15th President of Cuba

In a rain-hit series in 1926, England managed to eke out a 1 – 0 victory with a win in the final Test at The Oval.

Australia's ageing post-war team broke up after 1926, with Collins, Charlie Macartney and Warren Bardsley all departing, and Gregory breaking down at the start of the 1928 – 29 series.

* 1926 – Betsy Bloomingdale, American philanthropist

In Serbia Nikola Pašić ( 1845 – 1926 ) and his Radical Party dominated Serbian politics after 1903 ; they also monopolized power in Yugoslavia from 1918 to 1929 ; during the dictatorship of the 1930s, it furnished the prime minister.

* 1843 – Robert Todd Lincoln, American lawyer and politician, 35th United States Secretary of War ( d. 1926 )

* 1926 – Theo Adam, German opera singer

* 1850 – Reginald Heber Roe, Australian academic and educator ( d. 1926 )

* 1926 – Tony Bennett, American singer

* 1926 – Richard Anderson, American actor

Richard Hovey's " Men of Dartmouth " was elected as the best of Dartmouth's songs in 1896, and became the school's official song in 1926.

* 1926 – Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claim to have flown over the North Pole ( later discovery of Byrd's diary seems to indicate that this did not happen ).

The first claimed flight over the Pole was made on 9 May 1926 by US naval officer Richard E. Byrd and pilot Floyd Bennett in a Fokker tri-motor aircraft.

* 1926 – Richard Jaeckel, American actor ( d. 1997 )

* 1926 – James E. Akins, American diplomat and adviser to Richard Nixon ( d. 2010 )

The three previous claims to have arrived at the North Pole — by Frederick Cook in 1908 ; Robert Peary in 1909 ; and Richard Evelyn Byrd in 1926 ( just a few days before the Norge )— are all disputed, as being either of dubious accuracy or outright fraud.

Diaghilev commissioned ballet music from composers such as Nikolai Tcherepnin ( Narcisse et Echo, 1911 ), Claude Debussy ( Jeux, 1913 ), Maurice Ravel ( Daphnis et Chloé, 1912 ), Erik Satie ( Parade, 1917 ), Manuel de Falla ( El Sombrero de Tres Picos, 1917 ), Richard Strauss ( Josephslegende, 1914 ), Sergei Prokofiev ( Ala and Lolly, rejected by Diaghilev and turned into the Scythian Suite ; Chout, 1915 revised 1920 ; Le pas d ' acier, 1926 ; and The Prodigal Son, 1929 ), Ottorino Respighi ( La Boutique fantasque, 1918 ), Francis Poulenc ( Les biches, 1923 ) and others.

One of the earliest important discoveries ( suggested by Richard Dixon Oldham in 1906 and definitively shown by Harold Jeffreys in 1926 ) was that the outer core of the earth is liquid.

** Richard Yates, American writer ( b. 1926 )

* German — Gottowt, John: The Black Lottery Ticket, or Pierrot's Last Night on the Town ( 1913 ); Löwenbein, Richard: Marionettes ( 1918 ); Piel, Harry: The Black Pierrot ( 1913, 1926 ); Wich, Ludwig von: The Cuckolded Pierrot ( 1917 ; view The Cuckolded Pierrot ).

Their operation had the all-important landing rights for Havana, having acquired American International Airways, a small airline established in 1926 by John K. Montgomery and Richard B. Bevier as a seaplane service from Key West, Florida, to Havana.

Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, PC ( born 6 April 1926 ) is a politician and former church minister from Northern Ireland.

* Richard Matheson ( born 1926 ), author and screenwriter.

* Richard Anderson ( born 1926 ), best known for his role as Oscar Goldman, in both The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman TV series and subsequent TV movies.

Wallace Beery's notable silent films include Arthur Conan Doyle's dinosaur epic The Lost World ( 1925 ; as Professor Challenger ), Robin Hood with Douglas Fairbanks ( Beery played King Richard the Lionheart in this film and a sequel the following year called Richard the Lion-Hearted ), Last of the Mohicans ( 1920 ), The Round-Up ( 1920 ; with Roscoe Arbuckle ), Old Ironsides ( 1926 ), Now We're in the Air ( 1927 ), The Usual Way ( 1913 ), Casey at the Bat ( 1927 ), and Beggars of Life ( 1928 ) with Louise Brooks.

Harry Robbins " Bob " Haldeman ( better known as H. R. Haldeman ; October 27, 1926 – November 12, 1993 ) was an American political aide and businessman, best known for his service as White House Chief of Staff to President Richard Nixon.

** Dr Hu Tsu Tau Richard 胡賜道 / 胡赐道 ( 1926 -; Yongding, Fujian ; born in Singapore ), Finance Minister, 1985 – 2001

By a special authorized Act of Congress, the medal was presented to Commander ( later Rear Admiral ) Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett for their flight over the North Pole in 1926.

Richard Donald Crenna ( November 30, 1926 – January 17, 2003 ) was an American motion picture, television, and radio actor and occasional television director.

* Richard H. Dodge ( 1926 – 2003 ), author

Edsel also helped to finance exploratory expeditions, including the historic flight of Admiral Richard Byrd over the North Pole in 1926.

Approached in 1926 by publisher R. R. Donnelley to produce an illustrated edition of Richard Henry Dana, Jr .' s Two Years Before the Mast, Kent suggested Moby-Dick instead.