Directory

1924 CE

The death of Vladimir Lenin sparks a Soviet power struggle, aiding Joseph Stalin’s rise; the Abolition of the Caliphate by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk accelerates Turkey’s secularization; the 1924 Summer Olympics are held in Paris, introducing the first Olympic Village; the Second Zhili–Fengtian War intensifies China’s Warlord Era; the São Paulo Revolt of 1924 causes months of urban warfare; and the August Uprising in Georgia is brutally suppressed by Bolsheviks.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 20–30 – Kuomintang in China holds its first National Congress, initiating a policy of alliance with the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party.source
  • January 21 – The Earl of Athlone is appointed Governor-General of the Union of South Africa, and High Commissioner for Southern Africa.source
  • January 22 – Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.source
  • January 26 – Petrograd in the Soviet Union is renamed Leningrad; it will revert to Saint Petersburg in 1991.source
  • February 22 – Treaty of Rome: The Kingdom of Italy annexes the Free State of Fiume, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes absorbs Sušak.source
  • March 15 – Horacio Vásquez wins the Dominican Republic general election, becoming president, coinciding with the end of United States military occupation.source
  • March 25 – The Second Hellenic Republic is proclaimed in Greece.source
  • April 6 – Italian general election, 1924: Fascists win the elections in Italy with a two-thirds majority.source
  • April 13 – The Greek republic referendum favors formation of the Second Hellenic Republic.source
  • April 23 – The British Empire Exhibition opens in London; it is the largest colonial exhibition, with 58 countries of the empire dramatically represented.source
  • May 8 – Lithuania signs the Klaipėda Convention with the nations of the Conference of Ambassadors, taking the Klaipėda Region from East Prussia and making it into an autonomous region.source
  • May 10 – In the United States, J. Edgar Hoover is appointed head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.source
  • May 26 – The United States Immigration Act of 1924, commonly known as the Johnson-Reed Act, becomes effective. The act modifies the National Origins Quotas introduced in the Immigration Act of 1921.source
  • 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.source
  • June 30 – J. B. M. Hertzog becomes the third Prime Minister of South Africa.source
  • July 12 – United States occupation of the Dominican Republic (1916–24) comes to an end. The constitutional government headed by General Horacio Vázquez, elected in the elections held in March, is established.source
  • August 16 – The Dawes Plan is signed in Paris, temporarily resolving German reparations dispute.source
  • October 2 – The Geneva Protocol is adopted by the League of Nations Assembly as a means to strengthen the League, but later fails to be ratified.source
  • October 27 – The Uzbek SSR joins the Soviet Union.source
  • November 4 – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is elected as the first woman governor in the United States.source
  • November 4 – Stanley Baldwin becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom againsource
  • November 4 – 1924 United States presidential election: Republican Calvin Coolidge defeats Democrat John W. Davis and Progressive Wisconsin Senator, Robert M. La Follette Sr.source
  • November 21 – Ali Fethi Okyar forms a new government in Turkey (3rd government).source
  • November 26 – The Mongolian People's Republic is proclaimed.source

Conflict & Security

  • May 26 – Harry Grindell Matthews attempts to demonstrate his "death ray" to the War Office in the United Kingdom.source
  • July 19 – Napalpí massacre: Around 400 indigenous people of Toba ethnicity are massacred in Argentina.source
  • August 28 – August Uprising: Georgia rises against rule by the Soviet Union in an abortive rebellion, in which several thousands die.source
  • September 9–11 – The Kohat riots break out in India.source
  • September 9 – The Hanapepe massacre occurs on Kauai, Hawaii.source
  • October 25 – The British press publishes the Zinoviev letter, released the previous day by the Foreign Office. This purports to be a directive from Grigory Zinoviev, head of the Communist International in Moscow, to the Communist Party of Great Britain.source
  • November 19 – Major-General Sir Lee Stack, British Governor-General of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and Sirdar of the Egyptian Army, is shot in Cairo by a gang of Egyptian nationalist students, dying the following day.source
  • December 1 – A Soviet-backed communist 1924 Estonian coup d'état attempt fails in Estonia.source
  • December 20 – In Germany, Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison after serving nine months for his crucial role in the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923.source
  • Autumn – In the United States, the final raid of the Renegade period of the Apache Wars takes place, bringing the American Indian Wars to a close, after 315 years.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • June 5 – Ernst Alexanderson sends the first facsimile across the Atlantic Ocean, which goes to his father in Sweden.source
  • June 8 – British mountaineers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine are last seen "going strong for the top" of Mount Everest by teammate Noel Odell at 12:50 P.M. They are never seen alive again.source
  • September 28 – U.S. Army pilots John Harding and Erik Nelson complete the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe. It has taken them 175 days and 74 stops before their return to Seattle.source
  • Spring – Francophone explorer, spiritualist and former operatic soprano Alexandra David-Néel, disguised as a male pilgrim, makes a 2-month stay in the forbidden city of Lhasa, Tibet.source

Religion & Belief

  • March 3 – The Ottoman Caliphate, a remnant of the Ottoman Empire abolished on November 1, 1922, and one of the historical claims of succession to the Islamic State of Muhammad, comes to an end with the deposition of Abdülmecid II, Caliph of the Ottoman dynasty. This marks the end of an era, giving way to the drastic political transformations of Turkey under President Atatürk's reforms.source
  • October 19 – Abdul Aziz, founder of Saudi Arabia, declares himself protector of holy places in Mecca.source

Economy & Finance

  • February 14 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR), based in the U.S. state of New York, is renamed International Business Machines (IBM).source
  • May 11 – Mercedes-Benz is formed by the merging of companies owned by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • February 5 – GMT: A radio time signal is broadcast for the first time, from the Royal Greenwich Observatory.source
  • February 22 – Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House.source
  • October 6 – 1-RO begins regular radio broadcasting services in Italy.source

Science & Discovery

  • October 12–15 – Zeppelin LZ-126 makes a transatlantic delivery flight from Friedrichshafen, Germany, to Lakehurst, New Jersey.source
  • October – The skull of the Taung Child is discovered in South Africa.source
  • December 30 – American astronomer Edwin Hubble announces that Andromeda, previously believed to be a nebula, is actually another galaxy, and that the Milky Way is only one of many such galaxies in the universe.source

Crime & Justice

  • January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after.source
  • April 1 – Adolf Hitler is sentenced to 5 years in Landsberg Prison in Germany for his participation in the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch (he serves less than 9 months).source
  • May 30 – Italian socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti speaks out against fascism. A few days later he is kidnapped and murdered in Rome.source
  • October 25 – Authorities of the British Raj in India arrest Subhas Chandra Bose and jail him for the next 2 years.source
  • November 10 – The Trial of the 149 begins in Estonia, eventually resulting in the conviction of 129 communists, including several members of the Riigikogu.source
  • December 19 – German serial killer Fritz Haarmann is sentenced to death for the murder and dismemberment of at least 24 young males in Hanover.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • December 24 – 1924 Imperial Airways de Havilland DH.34 crash: An airliner crashes soon after takeoff from London's Croydon Airport killing all eight people aboard. This leads to the first public inquiry into a civil aviation accident ever held in the United Kingdom.source
  • December 24 – Babbs Switch fire: A flash fire at a Christmas celebration in a one-room schoolhouse in Babbs, Oklahoma, United States, kills 36 people, mostly small children.source

Climate & Environment

  • June 13 – In Hungary, a devastating tornado, "Wildkansas", strikes, in 3 hours leaving a 500–1500m wide and 70 km long path of destruction from landfall at Bia to its end near Vác, completely destroying the village of Páty. 9 people are killed, 50 injured and many left homeless by one of the strongest tornadoes ever not only in Hungary but in Europe, estimated as F4.source
  • November – The last known sighting of a California grizzly bear is recorded, by Colonel John R. White at Sequoia National Park.source

Culture & Society

  • January 25 – The first Winter Olympics, the 1924 Winter Olympics, open in Chamonix, in the French Alps.source
  • March 24 – Jean Sibelius conducts the world premiere of his Symphony No. 7 in Stockholm.source
  • March 29 – In France, the Third Ministry of Raymond Poincaré begins.source
  • May 4 – The 1924 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies are held in Paris, France.source
  • June 7–16 – Rudolf Steiner delivers his Agriculture Course at Koberwitz beginning of the organic agriculture movement.source
  • June 20 – The International Chess Federation (FIDE) is founded.source
  • July 10 – Paavo Nurmi of Finland wins the 1,500 and 5,000 m runs within two hours at the Paris Olympics.source
  • September 9 – The 8-hour work day is introduced in Belgium.source
  • October 9 – Municipal Grant Park Stadium, in Chicago, Illinois (later known as Soldier Field) is officially dedicated.source
  • October 15 – The first Surrealist Manifesto is published, in which André Breton defines the movement as "pure psychic automatism".source
  • The International Union of Official Organizations for Tourist Propaganda is established.source

Births

  • January 1 – Francisco Macías Nguema, 1st President of Equatorial Guinea (d. 1979)source
  • January 8 – Kim Dae-jung, 15th President of South Korea, recipient of Nobel Peace Prize (d. 2009)source
  • April 13 – Stanley Donen, American film director and choreographer (d. 2019)source
  • June 3 – Karunanidhi, Indian politician, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, referred to as Kalaignar (d. 2018)source
  • August 2 – James Baldwin, African-American author, novelist, playwright and activist (d. 1987)source
  • August 23 – Robert Solow, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2023)source
  • September 9 – Russell M. Nelson, 17th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 2025)source
  • September 11 – Rudolf Vrba, Slovak-Jewish Holocaust survivor, escapee from Auschwitz (d. 2006)source
  • October 1 – William Rehnquist, 16th Chief Justice of the United States (d. 2005)source
  • December 4 – Jakub Nowakowski, Polish zoologist, participant of the Warsaw Uprisingsource
  • December 6 – Wally Cox, American television, motion picture actor (d. 1973)source
  • December 7 – Mário Soares, 105th Prime Minister of Portugal, 17th President of Portugal (d. 2017)source
  • December 25 – Atal Bihari Vajpayee, 10th Prime Minister of India (d. 2018)source
  • December 25 – Rod Serling, American television screenwriter (The Twilight Zone) (d. 1975)source

Deaths

  • March 29 – Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, Irish composer, resident in United Kingdom (b. 1852)source
  • March 31 – Nilo Peçanha, Brazilian politician and 7th President of Brazil (b. 1867)source
  • June 3 – Franz Kafka, Austrian author (The Trial) (b. 1883)source
  • June 9 – George Mallory, British mountain climber (lost on Mount Everest) (b. 1886)source
  • June 10 – Giacomo Matteotti, Italian socialist politician (assassinated) (b. 1885)source
  • August 3 – Joseph Conrad, Polish-born author (b. 1857)source
  • September 1 – Samuel Baldwin Marks Young, American general, first Chief of Staff of the United States Army (b. 1840)source
  • September 15 – Frank Chance, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1877)source
  • September 24 – Manuel Estrada Cabrera, 13th President of Guatemala (b. 1857)source
  • October 12 – Anatole France, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1844)source
  • November 20 – Ebenezer Cobb Morley, English sportsman and the father of the Football Association and modern football (b. 1831)source
  • November 21 – Florence Harding, First Lady of the United States (b. 1860)source
  • December 4 – Cipriano Castro, Venezuelan military officer, politician and 38th President of Venezuela (b. 1858)source
  • December 6 – Gene Stratton-Porter, American author, screenwriter and naturalist (b. 1863)source