On the 11th December 1936, King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom announced his abdication in a worldwide radio broadcast. He had signed the Instruments of Abdication on the 10th, but it only became official when he gave royal assent to His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936 after it was passed by Parliament the next day.

Edward abdicated in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Simpson had divorced her first husband in 1927, and was married to a second when her relationship with the then Prince of Wales began. Edward was in a serious relationship with Wallis when ...