John C. Menzies1st January 2025: This is a reflection on pivotal events in human history 100 years ago – 1924. This was a pivotal year in many ways, but much remains the same in human affairs, particulalry the chaos of politics. The most significant event in science in 1924 was the proof by Edwin Hubble that many objects previously thought to be clouds of dust and gas and classified as “nebulae” were actually galaxies beyond the Milky Way. He used the strong direct relationship between a classical Cepheid variable’s luminosity and pulsation period (discovered in 1908 by Henrietta Swan Leavitt) for scaling galactic and extragalactic distances.
1924 Timeline
Below is a timeline sourced from Historic Newspaper, Wikipedia and various as credited. Some of the dates are controversial with some later publications suggesting that various innovations were more likely credited to earlier workers. As in all things, the affairs of humanity are complex.
January 1924
January 21: Russian Revolutionary and Premier leader Vladimir Lenin dies of a stroke at age 53.
January 24: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini bans the non-fascist work union.
January 25: The first Winter Olympic Games open in Chamonix.
January 25: The French government signs a treaty of mutual co-operation with Czechoslovakia
January 27: The hideous mausoleum of Lenin is placed in Red Square, Moscow.
January 29: Carl Taylor patents an ice cream cone rolling machine, praise be to Carl!
February 1924
February 2: The Turkish National Assembly abolishes the caliphate that had been claimed by sultans of the Ottoman Empire for more than four centuries.
February 3: Woodrow Wilson dies in his home in Washington at the age of 67.
February 5: Time signals start being broadcasted hourly by the Royal Greenwich Observatory.
February 21: Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean dictator and tyrant is born.
February 24: Mahatma Gandhi is released from jail.
February 25: Louis de Broglie introduces the wave-model of atomic structure, based on the ideas of wave–particle duality
February 26: Beer Hall Putsch trial of Hitler begins in Munich
February 28: U.S. begins military intervention in Honduras.
March 1924
March 1: Germany lifts ban on Communist Party KPD
March 3: Germany and Turkey sign a treaty.
March 4: Claydon Sunny publishes the world’s most famous song, Happy Birthday to You.
March 4: Johnson & Johnson begin mass production of Band-Aid.
March 5: The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Corp changes its name to IBM.
March 27: Canada formally recognizes the USSR
April 1924
April 1: Adolf Hitler sentenced to 5 years in prison for Beer Hall Putsch, General Ludendorff presses establishment connections and is acquitted.
April 1: The Royal Canadian Air Force is created
April 3: Marlon Brando was born in Omaha, Nebraska
April 6: Four planes leave Seattle on the first successful around-the-world flight.
April 18: Simon & Schuster publish the first crossword puzzle
April 27: A group of Alawites kill many nuns in Syria, and French troops retaliate and kill Alawites.
May 1924
May 4: Communists and fascists win the general election in Germany.
May 10: J. Edgar Hoover is appointed to head the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
May 11: Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft and Benz & Cie for a joint venture joint venture to later merge into Mercedes Benz.
June 1924
June 2: Indian Citizenship Act signed, which declares all Native Americans to be American citizens.
June 7: George Mallory disappears 245m from Everest’s summit.
June 10: The first political convention is broadcast on radio
June 15: Ford Motor Company manufactures its 10 millionth automobile.
July 1924
July 1: Direct, regular transcontinental airmail service forms between New York and San Francisco.
July 10: Denmark claims sovereignty of Greenland.
July 11: A Hindu-Muslim rebellion takes place in Delhi, India.
July 15: Satyendra. N. Bose and Albert Einstein publish papers in Zeitschrift für Physik applying Bose–Einstein statistics to light quanta and to atomic models and predicting existence of the Bose–Einstein condensate.
July 20: American vice consul, Robert Imbrie, was accused of poisoning a fountain in Tehran which killed several people. He was attacked by a mob and killed. Martial law is declared.
August 1924
August 8: British-Russian trade agreement is signed.
August 18: France starts withdrawing troops from the Ruhr in Germany following years of protests and violence
September 1924
September 3: Civil War breaks out in China.
September 6: Purported assassination attempt on Benito Mussolini fails, later disputed
September 24: Boston-Logan airport opens
September 25: Louis de Broglie introduces the wave-model of atomic structure, based on the ideas of wave–particle duality
September 28: Four U.S. Army Air Service planes, including the Seattle, completed the first successful flight around the world, starting and ending at Seattle’s Sand Point Field (now Magnuson Park)
October 1924
October 2: The Geneva Protocol banning the use of chemical and biological weapons is approved by the League of Nations.
October 5: The first inactive tetanus vaccine (tetanus toxoid, TT) is produced by Gaston Ramon, C. Zoeller and P. Descombey
October 15: Statue of Liberty declared a national monument.
October 24: The Nobel prize for physiology or medicine is awarded to Dutchman Willem Einthoven “for his discovery of the mechanism of the electrocardiogram”.
November 1924
November 24: General Feng Yu-Hsiang seizes Peking China.
November 26: Mongolia becomes a Republic.
November 27: First Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is held in NYC.
November 30: The first photo facsimile is transmitted across the Atlantic by radio from London to New York City. The first photo facsimile transmitted across the Atlantic by radio was a photograph of President Calvin Coolidge
November 30: All French and Belgium troops are withdrawn from their occupation of the Ruhr.
December 1924
December 1: Communists attempt but fail to overthrow the government of Estonia
December 7: The Social Democrats win the election in Germany.
December 15: Winston Churchill writes a letter to Prime Minister Baldwin, stating the chance of war with Japan was low and that it would not happen in “our lifetimes”
December 17: The first diesel electric locomotive enters service in the Bronx, New York City and was operated by the Central Railroad of New Jersey
December 19: The last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost manufactured in England was sold in London. The Silver Ghost, a luxury touring car, was introduced by Rolls-Royce in 1906
December 20: Adolf Hitler is freed from jail early, having only served 9 months of a 5-year sentence for Beer Hall Putsch. His earlier failed coup brought attention to his name, and he spent his time in prison writing Mein Kampf (My Struggle).
December 30: Edwin Hubble, an eminent astronomer, revolutionized our understanding of the cosmos by formally announcing the existence of galaxies beyond the Milky Way at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. The subsequent paper was published in 1926. Hubble used the strong direct relationship between a classical Cepheid variable’s luminosity and pulsation period (discovered in 1908 by Henrietta Swan Leavitt) for scaling galactic and extragalactic distances.
December 31: Italian Benito Mussolini of the Far-Left orders the suppression of opposition newspapers.
