1924 - What happened in 1924 ?

January 1924

Monday 07:

George Gershwin completes Rhapsody in Blue.

Monday 21:

Vladimir Lenin dies and Joseph Stalin begins to purge his rivals to clear way for his leadership.

Tuesday 22:

Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister.

Thursday 24:

St. Petersburg, Russia is renamed Leningrad.

Friday 25:

The 1924 Winter Olympics open in Chamonix, France (in the French Alps), inaugurating the Winter Olympic Games.

February 1924

Friday 01:

United Kingdom recognizes USSR.

Tuesday 05:

The Royal Greenwich Observatory begin broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the "BBC pips".

Tuesday 12:

Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a political speech on radio.

Thursday 14:

IBM corporation founded.

Sunday 17:

In Miami, Florida, Johnny Weissmuller sets a new world record in the 100-yard freestyle swimming competition with a time of 52-2/5 seconds.

March 1924

Wednesday 05:

Shefqet Verlaci becomes Prime Minister of Albania.

Sunday 09:

Italy annexes Fiume.

Tuesday 25:

Greece proclaims itself a republic.

April 1924

Tuesday 01:

First revenue flight for Belgium's Sabena Airlines

Tuesday 15:

Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas.

Thursday 17:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios is formed from a merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and the Louis B. Mayer Company.

May 1924

Sunday 04:

The 1924 Summer Olympics open in Paris, France.

Saturday 10:

J. Edgar Hoover is appointed the Director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, and remains so until his death in 1972.

Wednesday 21:

University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing."

Tuesday 27:

The Music Corporation of America (MCA) is founded.

Saturday 31:

The Soviet Union signs an agreement with the Peking government, referring to Outer Mongolia as an "integral part of the Republic of China", whose "sovereignty" therein the Soviet Union promises to respect

June 1924

Monday 02:

U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.

Thursday 05:

Ernst Alexanderson sends the first facsimile across the Atlantic Ocean (to his father in Sweden).

Tuesday 10:

Fascists kidnap and kill Italian socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti in Rome.

Sunday 15:

Native Americans are proclaimed United States citizens.

Thursday 26:

American occupying forces leave the Dominican Republic.

August 1924

Saturday 23:

The distance between Earth and Mars is the smallest since the 10th century.

September 1924

Wednesday 17:

The Border Defence Corps was established in the Second Polish Republic for the defence of the eastern border against armed Soviet raids and local bandits.

October 1924

Thursday 02:

The Geneva Protocol is adopted as a means to strengthen the League of Nations.

Tuesday 07:

160 consecutive days of 100 degrees at Marble Bar, Australia begins.

Wednesday 22:

Toastmasters International is founded.

Saturday 25:

The forged Zinoviev Letter is published in the Daily Mail, wrecking the British Labour Party's hopes of re-election.

November 1924

Tuesday 04:

Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming elected as the first woman governor in the United States.

Wednesday 19:

In Los Angeles, California, famous silent film director Thomas Ince ("The Father of the Western") dies of a heart attack in his bed (rumors soon surface that he was shot dead by publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst.)

Thursday 27:

In New York City the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held.

December 1924

Wednesday 24:

Albania becomes a republic

Tuesday 30:

Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies.