1936

--The runaway best seller of the year was Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, which in 6 months surpassed the sales of the previous best seller in American history, Uncle Tom's Cabin.

--Charles Chaplin's Modern Times was released.

Feb. 17 Fourteen thousand Goodyear rubber workers staged a sit-down strike in Akron, O., demanding recognition of their CIO union. The tactic was suggested by a Hungarian rubber worker who had read about its use in Europe.

Summer Jesse Owens, a black, won 4 gold medals in track events at the Olympics in Berlin. Hitler had expected these games to be a showcase that would prove the superiority of the Aryan race and the Nazi system.

June 27 Franklin Roosevelt, nominated again as the Democratic presidential candidate, said in his acceptance speech:

Concentration of economic power in all embracing corporations....represents private enterprise become a kind of private government which is a power unto itself--a regimentation of other people's money and other people's lives.

July 17 Fascist forces led by Gen. Francisco Franco started the Spanish Civil War in an attempt to overthrow the republican Government. Franco was aided by German bombers and Italian troops.

Nov. 3 FDR won the election, defeating Republican Alf Landon. Roosevelt carried every State except Maine and Vermont. Above 80% of the press opposed his reelection as President. Dec. 30 Auto workers in Flint, Mich., organized a sit-down strike that spread through the General Motors factories across the country. Production ground to a halt and the most decisive labor struggle of the decade began.

In 1936 publisher Henry Luce paid $92,000 to the owners of Life magazine because he sought the name for Time Inc. Wanting only the old Life’s name in the sale, Time Inc. sold Life’s subscription list, features, and goodwill to The Judge. Convinced that pictures could tell a story instead of just illustrating text, Luce launched Life on November 23, 1936. The third magazine published by Luce, after Time in 1923 and Fortune in 1930, Life gave birth to the photo magazine in the U.S., giving as much space and importance to pictures as to words. The first issue of Life, which sold for 10 cents, featured five pages of Alfred Eisenstaedt’s pictures.

When the first issue of Life magazine appeared on the newsstands, the U.S. was in the midst of the Great Depression and the world was headed toward war. Adolf Hitler was firmly in power in Germany. In Spain, Gen. Francisco Franco’s rebel army was at the gates of Madrid; German Luftwaffe pilots and bomber crews, calling themselves the Condor Legion, were honing their skills as Franco’s air arm. Italy’s Benito Mussolini annexed Ethiopia. Luce ignored tense world affairs when the new Life was unveiled: the first issue depicted the Fort Peck Dam in Montana photographed by Margaret Bourke-White.