Events
- 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 24 - St. Petersburg, Russia is renamed Leningrad
- January 25 - The 1924 Winter Olympics open in Chamonix, France (in the French Alps), inaugurating the Winter Olympic Games.
- January 26 - Petrograd becomes Leningrad
- January 27 - Lenin is buried in a mausoleum in the Red Square
- February 1 - UK recognizes Soviet Union
- February 4 - Mohandas Gandhi in 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 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 Poincare starts in France
- 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 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).
- August 18 - France begins to withdraw its troops from Germany
- June 10 - Fascists kidnap and kill Italian socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti in Rome.
- June 16 - Whampoa Military Academy is founded
- 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 24 - British Foreign Office publishes Zinoviev Letter
- 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 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.
- 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
Year in topic
- 1924 in aviation
- 1924 in film
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) considers making a silent film of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. MGM and Frank J. Baum failed to come to an agreement so the rights were sold to Chadwick Pictures.
- 1924 in literature
- 1924 in music
- 1924 in sports
- February 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.
- February 24 - Johnny Weissmuller finishes the 100-meter swimming event in seconds breaking the world record.
Births
- January 3 - Hank Stram, American football coach, broadcaster
- January 6 - Earl Scruggs, bluegrass performer
- 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 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 1 - Deke Slayton, astronaut († 1993)
- March 27 - Sarah Vaughan, singer (d. 1990)
- March 28 - Freddie Bartholomew, actor (d. 1992)
- March 30 - Alan Davidson, author (d. 2003)
- April 3 - Doris Day, actress
- April 3 - Marlon Brando, actor
- April 7 - Johannes Mario Simmel, Austrian writer
- April 24 - Clement Freud, British writer, radio personality and politician
- May 12 - Tony Hancock, comedian (d. 1968)
- May 17 - Hannes Messemer, actor (d. 1991)
- May 19 - Sandy Wilson, British composer
- May 22 - Charles Aznavour, singer, actor, composer
- 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, United States President
- June 20 - Audie Murphy, WW II hero, actor, (d. 1971)
- July 4 - Eva Marie Saint, actress: North by Northwest, On the Waterfront
- August 12 - Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, Leader of Pakistan, (d. 1988)
- September 22 - Rosamunde Pilcher, Novelist
- October 1 - Jimmy Carter, United States President
- October 11 - Mal Whitfield, American athlete
- November 13 - Motoo Kimura, population geneticist
- November 20 - Benoit Mandelbrot, mathematician
- November 24 - Mel Patton, American athlete
- December 2 - Alexander M. Haig, Jr., US politician
- 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
- May 4 - E. Nesbit - English author
- May 15 - Paul 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
- Physics - Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn
- Chemistry - not awarded
- Medicine - Willem Einthoven
- Literature - Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont
- Peace - Not awarded.
External links
A young man's observations of life journeying from Australia to Europe via the Mayo Clinic