The following events occurred in December 1936:
- The Edward VIII abdication crisis finally came out into the open in Britain when the Bishop of Bradford Alfred Blunt, speaking at his diocesan conference about the upcoming royal coronation, said of the king that "Some of us wish that he gave more positive signs of his awareness." The Yorkshire Post used the speech to question the king's behaviour and the rest of the British press soon followed suit, finally breaking their policy of self-imposed censorship.
- 5,000 Germans landed at Cádiz to fight for Franco.
- Nazi Germany passed several new laws. Membership in the Hitler Youth was made mandatory and the death penalty was introduced for those who hoarded their wealth abroad.
- The Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Peace opened in Buenos Aires, Argentina. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt opened the conference with an address that included The More Abundant Life phrase.
- British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin informed the King that a morganatic marriage would not be accepted. Edward now had three choices: end his relationship with Wallis Simpson, marry against the advice of his ministers who would then resign, or abdicate.
- Born: Tsutomu Yamazaki, Japanese actor, in Matsudo, Chiba, Japan
- Died: Rosario Garibaldi Bosco, 70, Italian politician and writer; John Ringling, 70, American co-founder of Ringling Brothers Circus
- The First Battle of the Corunna Road ended indecisively.
- President Roosevelt visited Montevideo.
- Wallis Simpson left England and boarded a boat for France. Over the next two days Simpson and her entourage drove to Cannes, doing their best to dodge reporters along the way.
- Born: Clay Dalrymple, baseball player, in Chico, California
- Edward VIII signed the Instrument of Abdication. As recited in the House of Commons that day, it read: "I, Edward VIII, of Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Emperor of India, do hereby declare My irrevocable determination to renounce the Throne for Myself and for My descendants, and My desire that effect should be given to this Instrument of Abdication immediately. In token whereof I have hereunto set My hand this tenth day of December, nineteen hundred and thirty-six, in the presence of the witnesses whose signatures are subscribed."
- The 1936 Nobel Prizes were awarded in Stockholm. The recipients were Victor F. Hess of Austria and Carl David Anderson of the United States for Physics, Peter Debye of the Netherlands (Chemistry), Henry Hallett Dale of the United Kingdom and Otto Loewi of Austria (Physiologiy or Medicine) and Eugene O'Neill of the United States (Literature). In Oslo the Peace Prize was awarded to Carlos Saavedra Lamas of Argentina for his work ending the Chaco War. Carl von Ossietzky was retroactively awarded the Peace Prize for 1935, but he did not attend. The Norwegian royal family was conspicuously absent from the ceremony as well, probably at the request of the Government which feared German reprisals.
- Died: Bobby Abel, 79, English cricketer; Luigi Pirandello, 69, Italian dramatist and author
- Anthony Eden disclosed to the House of Commons that 5,000 gas masks had been sold to the Spanish Republic. The government hastened to add that the gas masks were equally available to Franco's forces at the same prices because they were classified as "medical supplies" and not munitions.
- The Public Order Act received Royal Assent.
- In Cannes, Wallis Simpson spoke to the media for the first time since her divorce, although she took no questions. She mostly talked about the weather and the beauty of the French Riviera. Herman Rogers, who was hosting Mrs. Simpson at the villa where the reception took place, said she would be staying there for several months.
- Died: Elsa Einstein, 60, second wife of Albert Einstein
- Cuban President Miguel Mariano Gómez vetoed a bill that would have introduced an army-sponsored 9-cent tax on each bag of sugar to fund the construction of rural schools run by the military. Gómez explained in his veto message that it was "the duty of the educational and not the military institutions" to teach Cuban children. Opponents of Gómez immediately began impeachment proceedings against him, accusing the president of trying to unconstitutionally force congress to defeat the tax bill as well as embezzling public funds.
- The Junkers Ju 88 had its first flight.
- The U.S. Supreme Court decided United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp..
- The Battle of Lopera began.
- United Airlines Trip 34: A United Air Lines Boeing 247 crashed into a hill south of Newhall, California during rainy weather, killing all 12 aboard.
- The Spanish government decided to hold the Palos despite a German threat of reprisals.
- Mahatma Gandhi emerged from two years of silence to make a political speech. He cryptically said, "Show me the way and I am prepared to return to jail. I am prepared to be hanged. If you do all I want you to do, the Viceroy will say: 'I am wrong â I thought you people were terrorists, and if you like we Britishers will return by the next steamer.' We would then say to Lord Linlithgow and the British: 'India is big enough to hold you and more like you.' That is my Swaraj." Gandhi denied that his speech indicated that he was returning to public life.
- Died: Hans von Seeckt, 70, German general
- The Battle of Lopera ended in Nationalist victory.
- The first coast-to-coast broadcast by the Mutual Broadcasting System, America's third national radio network, occurs.
- Spain released the Palos but held part of the cargo.
- Born: Mary Tyler Moore, actress, in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2017)
- Died: Lucy, Lady Houston, 79, British philanthropist
- Died International Brigader Tommy Wood, age 17, died following wounds sustained at the Battle of Lopera.
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