To complete the setting of Shirley's diary before I start posting her daily entries, it's important to understand the world that she lived in. Here's what was happening locally, nationally, and internationally that year.
Michigan:
Frank Fitzgerald, Republican, was the governor.
The Green Hornet radio shows debuted in Detroit.
The Michigan Wolverines baseball team compiled a 20-5 record and won the Big Ten Conference championship.
The Detroit Red Wings hockey team compiled a 24-16-8 record and finished in first place in the NHL American Division and then went on to win the Stanley Cup against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
A new state record for high temperatures was set during the July 13-14 heat wave. At Mio, in northern Michigan, it soared to 113°F.
The United Auto Workers began the Flint Sit-Down Strike.
The Muskegon County School Library system was created by James TenBrink, the County School Commissioner, out of concern that there were no public and few school libraries in Muskegon County outside of the City of Muskegon. This eventually became the current Muskegon Area District Library.
United States:
The country was in its eighth year of the Great Depression.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in the fourth year of his first term. He was reelected to his second term in November.
The Hoover Dam was completed.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania suffered the worst flooding in its history on St. Patrick's Day.
Richard Hauptmann, who was convicted of kidnapping and murdering the Lindbergh baby, was executed.
Margaret Mitchell published Gone With the Wind.
Life magazine debuted.
The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened to traffic in California.
Radiation was used to treat disease (leukemia) for the first time.
An influenza epidemic occurred during 1936-1937.
The first National Football League draft was held. The second American Football League was founded. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Boston Redskins 21–6 for the NFL championship. In baseball, the New York Yankees defeated the New York Giants, 4–2.
The Great Ziegfeld won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Luise Rainer won Best Actress for her role of Anna Held in that movie. Frank Capra won Best Director for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Paul Muni won Best Actor for his lead role in The Story of Louis Pasteur.
World:
Europe and Asia were gearing up for World War II, which would officially be declared in Europe in 1939. Italy had already invaded Ethiopia in 1935, and Japan was at war with China in 1937.
King George V of the United Kingdom died, and his son Edward VIII (David) ascended the throne. King Edward eventually abdicated by the end of the year, choosing to marry an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson.
The IV Olympic Winter Games opened in Garmisch-Prtenkirchen, Germany.
Nazi Germany reoccupied the Rhineland in violation of the Treaty of Versailles and Locarno Treaties.
Peter and the Wolf, a Russian fairy tale musically composed by Sergei Prokofiev, debuted in Moscow. Soviet Union.
The British luxury liner, the RMS Queen Mary, made her maiden voyage across the Atlantic.
Alan Turing submitted his paper "On Computable Numbers" to the London Mathematical Society for publication, introducing the concept of the Turing machine, a model of a general-purpose computer.
The Spanish Civil War began.
The 1936 Summer Olympics opened in Berlin. African-American athlete Jesse Owens won the 100-meter dash. The U.S. men's national basketball team won the first Olympic basketball tournament in the final game.
Beryl Markham became the first woman to make an east-to-west solo transatlantic flight, from England to Nova Scotia.
Stalin began his Great Purge in the Soviet Union.
The Rome-Berlin Axis was formed.
The BBC launched the world's first regular high-definition television service.
Hitler mandated that all German boys aged 10 to 18 join the Hitler Youth paramilitary organization.
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