1924

1924 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar).

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 - The United Kingdom recognizes Soviet Union.
• February 1 - Australian Loans Council meets for the first time
• 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 - The 1400-year-old Islamic caliphate is abolished when 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 1 - First revenue flight for Belgium's SABENA Airlines.
• 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

• 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.
• June 23 - American airman Russell L. Maughan flew from New York to San Francisco in 21 hours and 48 minutes on a dawn-to-dusk flight in a Curtiss pursuit plane.

August-October

• August 18 - France begins to withdraw its troops from Germany.
• September 9 - 8-hour work day in Belgium
• 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-February

• January 2 - Sabine Baring-Gould, English composer, novelist (b. 1834)
• January 3 - Hank Stram, American football coach, broadcaster
• January 6 - Earl Scruggs, American musician
• January 11
  • Sam B. Hall, American politician (d. 1994)
  • Slim Harpo, American musician (d. 1970)
• January 12 - Olivier Gendebien, Belgian Formula One driver (d. 1998)
• January 16 - Katy Jurado, Mexican actress (d. 2002)
• January 19 - Jean-Francois Revel, French author
• January 21 - Telly Savalas, American actor (d. 1994)
• January 26 - Annette Strauss, American philanthropist and mayor of Dallas, Texas (d. 1998)
• January 27 - Sabu, actor (d. 1963)
• January 29 - Luigi Nono, Italian composer (d. 1990)
• January 30 - Lloyd Alexander, American writer
• 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, American novelist
• February 19 - Lee Marvin, American actor (d. 1987)
• February 20 - Gloria Vanderbilt, American cosmetics entrepreneur
• February 21 - Robert Mugabe, first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe
• February 29 - Al Rosen, baseball player

March-May

• March 1 - Deke Slayton, astronaut (d. 1993)
• March 7 - Kobo Abe, Japanese novelist (d. 1993)
• March 15 - Walter Gotell, German actor (d. 1997)
• March 27 - Sarah Vaughan, American jazz singer (d. 1990)
• March 28 - Freddie Bartholomew, British actor (d. 1992)
• March 30 - Alan Davidson, British author (d. 2003)
• April 1 - Brendan Byrne, Governor of New Jersey
• April 3 - Marlon Brando, American actor (d. 2004)
  • Doris Day, American actress
• April 4 - Gil Hodges, American baseball player (d. 1972)
• 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, American blues musician (d. 1992)
• May 11 - Antony Hewish, English radio astronomer, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics
• May 12 - Tony Hancock, English comedian (d. 1968)
• May 17 - Hannes Messemer, actor (d. 1991)
• May 19 - Sandy Wilson, British composer
• May 22 - Charles Aznavour, French singer, actor, and songwriter

June-August

• June 1 - Dr. William Sloane Coffin, American radical clergyman
• June 3 - Torsten Wiesel, Swedish scientist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• June 12 - George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st United States President
• June 18 - George Mikan, Basketball Hall of Famer (d. 2005)
• June 20 - Chet Atkins, American country guitar player (d. 2001)
• June 20 - Audie Murphy, American World War II hero and actor (d. 1971)
• June 29 - Flo Sandon's, Italian singer
• July 4 - Eva Marie Saint, American actress
• July 5 - Janos Starker, Hungarian cellist
• July 13 - Carlo Bergonzi, Italian tenor
• July 19 - Stanley K. Hathaway, American politician
• August 1 - Georges Charpak, Ukrainian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• August 2 - John Carroll O'Connor, American actor (d. 2001)
• August 12 - Derek Shackleton, English cricketer
• August 12 - Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, leader of Pakistan (d. 1988)
• August 15 - Robert Bolt, English writer (d. 1995)
• August 29 - Consuelo Velázquez, Mexican songwriter (d. 2005)

September-October

• September 2 - Daniel arap Moi, President of Kenya
• September 8 - Mimi Parent, surrealist painter (d. 2005)
• September 11 - Tom Landry, American football player and coach (d. 2000)
• September 19 - Don Harron, Canadian entertainer
• September 22 - Charles Keeping, English illustrator (d. 1988)
  • Rosamunde Pilcher, English novelist
• October 1 - Jimmy Carter, American President
  • William Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States
• October 10 - Ed Wood, American filmmaker (d. 1978)
• October 11 - Mal Whitfield, American athlete
• October 12 - Doris Grau, American actress (d. 1995)
• October 15 - Mark Lenard, American actor (d. 1996)

November-December

• November 13 - Motoo Kimura, Japanese population geneticist (d. 1994)
• November 19 - William Russell, British actor
• November 20 - Benoit Mandelbrot, Polish-born mathematician
• November 24 - Mel Patton, American athlete
• December 2 - Alexander M. Haig, Jr., American politician
• December 25 - Rod Serling, American television screenwriter (d. 1975)
• December 25 - Atal Behari Vajpayee, tenth Prime Minister of India
• December 25 - Moktar Ould Daddah, first President of Mauritania (d. 2003)
• December 29 - Robert Knox Little, Inventor, CEO of RKL Controls, Inc.]] (d. 1990)
• Tuanku Al-Mutassimu Billahi Muhibbudin Sultan Abdul Halim Al-Muadzam Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Badlishah, Sultan of Kedah and 5th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia
• Abdullah, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, crown prince of Saudi Arabia

Deaths

• January 21 - Vladimir Lenin, first leader of the USSR (b. 1870)
• February 3 - Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States (b. 1856)
• April 21 - Eleonora Duse, Italian actress (b. 1858)
• May 4 - E. Nesbit, English author (b. 1858)
• May 15 - Paul-Henri-Benjamin d'Estournelles de Constant, French diplomat (b. 1852)
• May 24 - Victor Herbert, Irish dramatist (b. 1859)
• June 3 - Franz Kafka, Austrian author (b. 1883)
• June 10 - George Mallory, English mountain climber (lost on Mount Everest) (b. 1886)
• June 11 - Théodore Dubois, French composer and teacher (b. 1837)
• July 23 - Frank Frost Abbott, American classical scholar (b. 1860)
• July 27 - Ferruccio Busoni, Italian pianist and composer (b. 1866)
• August 3 - Joseph Conrad, Polish-born author (b. 1857)
• August 17 - Paul Urysohn, Russian mathematician (b. 1898)
• September 15 - Frank Chance, baseball player and manager (b. 1877)
• October 12 - Anatole France, French author, Nobel Prize winner in literature (b. 1844)
• November 4 - Gabriel Fauré, French composer (b. 1845)
• November 29 - Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer (b. 1858)
• December 7 - Gene Stratton Porter, American author (b. 1863)
• December 31 - Sir Samuel William Knaggs, British civil servant (b. 1856)

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