1924 - Definition and Overview

Events

January

• January 7 - Great fire in London harbour
• January 8 - Heavy blizzards in England
• January 10 - British submarine L-34 sinks in the English Channel - 43 dead.
• January 21 - Vladimir Lenin dies and Joseph Stalin begins to purge his rivals to clear way for his leadership.
• January 22 - Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister.
• January 23 - Soviet Union officially declares that Lenin died January 21.
• January 25 - The 1924 Winter Olympics open in Chamonix, France (in the French Alps), inaugurating the Winter Olympic Games.
• January 26 - Petrograd (St. Petersburg) is renamed Leningrad.
• January 27 - Lenin is buried in a mausoleum in the Red Square.

February

• February 1 - UK recognizes Soviet Union.
• February 4 - Mohandas Gandhi is released prematurely on medical grounds.
• February 5 - GMT: Hourly time signals from Royal Greenwich Observatory are broadcasted for the first time.
• February 8 - Death penalty: The first state execution using gas in the United States takes place in Nevada.
• February 14 - IBM corporation founded.
• February 16 - 26 - Dock strike in US harbors.
• February 22 - Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House.

March

• March 1 - Diana Vreeland, fashion editor and columnist, marries Thomas Reed Vreeland at St. Thomas's church in New York.
• March 3 - Caliph Abdul Mejid II of the Ottoman Empire is deposed. The last remnant of the old regime gives way to the reformed Turkey of President Kemal Atatürk.
• March 9 - Italy annexes Fiume
• March 25 - Greece proclaims it is a republic.
• March 29 - Government of Raymond Poincaré starts in France.

April

• April 1 - Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years in jail for his participation in the Beer Hall Putsch. However he was only in jail for nine months.
• April 6 - Fascists win elections in Italy with 2/3 majority.
• April 13 - Referendum in Greece favors the formation of Hellenic Republic.
• April 27 - Group of Alawites kill some Christian nuns in Syria – French troops march against them.
• May 3 - The Aleph Zadik Aleph, the oldest Jewish youth fraternity, founded.
• May 4 - The 1924 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies held in Paris, France.
• May 10 - J. Edgar Hoover is appointed head the Bureau of Investigation.
• May 21 - University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a thrill killing.

June

• June 2 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.
• June 5 - Ernst Alexanderson sends the first facsimile across the Atlantic Ocean (to his father in Sweden).
• June 8 - George Mallory and Andrew Irvine are last seen "going strong for the top" of Mount Everest by teammate Noel Odell at 12:50 PM. The two mountaineers were never seen alive again.
• June 10 - Fascists kidnap and kill Italian socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti in Rome.
• June 16 - Whampoa Military Academy is founded.

August

• August 18 - France begins to withdraw its troops from Germany.

September

• September 9 - 8-hour work day in Belgium

October

• October 2 - The Geneva Protocol is adopted as a means to strengthen the League of Nations.
• October 19 - Abdul Azis declares himself protector of holy places in Mecca.
• October 22 - Toastmasters is founded.
• October 24 - British Foreign Office publishes Zinoviev Letter.

November

• November 4 - Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming elected as the first woman governor in the United States.
• November - Calvin Coolidge defeats John W. Davis in the U.S. presidential election
• November 19 - In Los Angeles, California, famous silent film director Thomas Ince ("The Father of the Western") dies, reportedly of a heart attack, in his bed (rumors soon surface that he was shot dead by publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst).
• November 27 - In the New York City the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held.

December

• December 12 - Failed communist takeover attempt in Estonia
• December 24 - Air crash in Croydon air field - 8 dead.
• December 24 - Albania becomes a republic.
• December 30 - Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies.

Unknown date

• Andre Breton founds surrealism, defining it as "pure psychic automatism"
• Voting in federal elections becomes compulsory in Australia
• US bootleggers begin to use Thompson SMGs
• Fritz Haarmann sentenced to death for 27 murders

Births

January

• January 3 - Hank Stram, American football coach, broadcaster
• January 6 - Earl Scruggs, bluegrass performer
• January 11 - Sam B. Hall, American politician (d. 1994)
• January 11 - Slim Harpo, musician
• January 12 - Olivier Gendebien, race car driver (d. 1998)
• January 16 - Katy Jurado, actress (d. 2002)
• January 21 - Telly Savalas, actor (d. 1994)
• January 26 - Annette Strauss, philanthropist, former mayor of Dallas, Texas (d. 1998)
• January 27 - Sabu, actor (d. 1963)
• January 29 - Luigi Nono, composer (d. 1990)
• January 30 - Lloyd Alexander, writer

February

• February 2 - Elfi von Dassanowsky, Austrian-American producer and musician
• February 3 - Andrzej Szczypiorski, writer (d. 2000)
• February 11 - Mary Tregear, Oriental art historian
• February 17 - Margaret Truman, novelist, daughter of President Harry S. Truman
• February 19 - Lee Marvin, actor (d. 1987)
• February 20 - Gloria Vanderbilt, cosmetics entrepreneur
• February 21 - Robert Mugabe, first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe
• February 29 - Al Rosen, baseball player

March

• March 1 - Deke Slayton, astronaut († 1993)
• March 7 - Kobo Abe, Japanese novelist (d. 1993)
• March 27 - Sarah Vaughan, singer (d. 1990)
• March 28 - Freddie Bartholomew, actor (d. 1992)
• March 30 - Alan Davidson, author (d. 2003)

April

• April 3 - Doris Day, actress
• April 3 - Marlon Brando, actor
• April 7 - Johannes Mario Simmel, Austrian writer
• April 15 - Sir Neville Marriner, English conductor and violinist
• April 24 - Clement Freud, British writer, radio personality and politician
• April 25 - Albert King, blues musician

May

• May 12 - Tony Hancock, comedian (d. 1968)
• May 17 - Hannes Messemer, actor (d. 1991)
• May 19 - Sandy Wilson, British composer
• May 22 - Charles Aznavour, French singer, actor, composer

June

• June 1 - Dr. William Sloane Coffin, radical clergyman
• June 3 - Torsten Wiesel, scientist, winner of 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• June 12 - George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st United States President
• June 20 - Audie Murphy, WW II hero, actor, (d. 1971)
• June 29 - Flo Sandon's, Italian singer

July

• July 4 - Eva Marie Saint, actress
• July 5 - Janos Starker, Hungarian cellist
• July 13 - Carlo Bergonzi, Italian tenor

August

• August 12 - Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, leader of Pakistan, (d. 1988)
• August 29 - Consuelo Velázquez, Mexican songwriter and lyricist (d. 2005)

September

• September 22 - Rosamunde Pilcher, Novelist
• September 22 - Charles Keeping, illustrator

October

• October 1 - Jimmy Carter, United States President
• October 1 - William Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
• October 10 - Ed Wood, American filmmaker (d. 1978)
• October 11 - Mal Whitfield, American athlete
• October 12 - Doris Grau, actress, script supivisor and voice actress (d. 1995)
• October 15 - Mark Lenard, actor (d. 1996)

November

• November 13 - Motoo Kimura, population geneticist
• November 20 - Benoit Mandelbrot, mathematician
• November 24 - Mel Patton, American athlete

December

• December 2 - Alexander M. Haig, Jr., US politician
• December 25 - Rod Serling, screenwriter of the science-fiction TV series, The Twilight Zone
• December 25 - Atal Behari Vajpayee, tenth prime minister of India
• December 25 - Moktar Ould Daddah, first president of Mauritania
• Tuanku Al-Mutassimu Billahi Muhibbudin Sultan Abdul Halim Al-Muadzam Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Badlishah, later Sultan of Kedah and 5th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.

Deaths

• January 21 - Vladimir Lenin, first leader of the USSR
• February 3 - Woodrow Wilson, US President
• March 1 - Louise-Marie Amélie, daughter of Leopold II of Belgium, wife of Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1858)
• May 4 - E. Nesbit - English author
• May 15 - Paul-Henri-Benjamin d'Estournelles de Constant, French diplomat
• May 22 - Bobby Franks - murder victim
• May 24 - Victor Herbert - Irish dramatist
• June 3 - Franz Kafka - Austrian author
• June 10 - George Mallory - English mountain climber
• June 11 - Théodore Dubois, composer and teacher
• July 27 - Ferruccio Busoni, pianist and composer
• August 3 - Joseph Conrad - Polish born author
• August 17 - Paul Urysohn, Russian mathematician
• September 15 - Frank Chance - Chicago Cubs Manager/First baseman
• October 12 - Anatole France - Nobel Prize winner
• November 29 - Giacomo Puccini - Italian grand opera composer
• December 7 - Gene Stratton-Porter - author
• December 31 - Sir Samuel William Knaggs - civil servant (West Indies)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Manne Siegbahn
• Chemistry - not awarded
• Medicine - Willem Einthoven
• Literature - Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont
• Peace - Not awarded.

External link

• A young man's observations of life journeying from Australia to Europe via the Mayo Clinic (http://bpresent.com/harry/)