1924

1845–1958	Germany [earth sciences]	German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt lays the basis of modern geography with the publication of Kosmos/Cosmos, in which he arranges geographic knowledge in a systematic fashion.
1924	[fiction]	The English writer E M Forster publishes his novel A Passage to India.
1924	USA [food and drink]	Clarence Birdseye founds the General Sea Foods Co. in the USA to undertake the preparation and sale of frozen fish.
1924	USA [cinema and film]	US inventor and radio engineer Lee DeForest invents the the Phonofilm system, which records sound optically on film.
1924	USA [cinema and film]	The film company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, a merger of the Metro and the Goldwyn studios, with the addition of Louis M Mayer Productions, is formed, thanks to negotiations by Marcus Loews, president of Loew's Inc, a theatre company. Louis Mayer becomes head of the studio, a position he holds for three decades.
1924	[companies and organizations]	The German firm Leitz introduces the Leica camera, the first commercially produced camera that takes 35-mm film.
1924	Bechuanaland [anthropology]	Australian-born South African anthropologist Raymond Dart discovers the skull of an early hominid at Tuang, Botswana, which he calls Australopithecus africanus. It is now believed to be one of the oldest human ancestors.
1924	[astronomy]	US astronomer Edwin Hubble demonstrates that certain Cepheid variable stars are several hundred thousand light years away and thus outside the Milky Way galaxy.
1924	[ballet]	The US composer George Antheil completes his Ballet mécanique/Mechanical Ballet, scored for aeroplane propellers, anvils, motor horns, and several musical instruments.
1924	[orchestral music]	The Italian composer Ottorino Respighi completes his orchestral work Pini di Roma/The Pines of Rome.
1924	[orchestral music]	The US composer George Gershwin completes his orchestral work Rhapsody in Blue.
1924	USA [plays]	The play Desire under the Elms, by the US dramatist Eugene O'Neill, is first performed, at the Greenwich Village Theater in New York City. All God's Chillun Got Wings receives also its first performance in the same year.
1924	Ireland [plays]	The play Juno and the Paycock, by the Irish dramatist Sean O'Casey, is first performed, at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland.
1924	[poetry]	The French writer St-John Perse publishes his epic poem Anabase/Anabasis.
1924	USA [radio]	Two million radio sets are in use in the USA.
1924	[technology]	The Scottish engineer John Logie Baird produces televised images in outline.
1924	USA [technology]	The Russian-born US engineer Vladimir Zworykin patents the kinescope television receiver. It develops into the modern television picture tube.
21 January 1924	USSR [political events]	A struggle for the leadership of the USSR begins following the death of the Soviet leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
21 January 1924	[births and deaths]	Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, founder of the Russian Communist Party, leader of the Russian Revolution, and head of the Soviet Union 1917–24, dies in Gorky, near Moscow, USSR (53).
23 January 1924	United Kingdom [political events]	Ramsay MacDonald forms the first Labour government in Britain (without an overall majority), with Philip Snowden as chancellor of the Exchequer.
25 January 1924	France, Czechoslovakia [political events]	A French-Czechoslovak alliance is formed; France wishes to create a defensive ring around Germany.
25 January 1924	France, Norway, Finland, Austria, USA, Switzerland, Canada, Sweden [Olympic Games]	The 1st Winter Olympic Games open at Chamonix, France, attended by 258 competitors, 13 of whom are women, from 16 nations. Norway and Finland win 4 gold medals each; Austria, 2; and the USA, Switzerland, Canada, and Sweden, 1 each. Clas Thunberg of Finland wins five speed skating medals, including three golds.
3 February 1924	[births and deaths]	(Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the USA 1913–21, a Democrat, dies in Washington, DC (67).
3 March 1924	Turkey [political events]	The Turkish national assembly expels the Ottoman dynasty and abolishes the caliphate and other religious institutions.
25 March 1924	Greece [political events]	Greece is proclaimed a republic (confirmed by plebiscite on 13 April; Admiral Pavlos Koundouriotis becomes president).
3 April 1924	[births and deaths]	Marlon Brando, US actor, born in Omaha, Nebraska.
9 April 1924	Germany [political events]	Committees under the US financier Charles Dawes and British politician Reginald McKenna make reports on the World War I reparations issue; the Dawes Plan reduces Germany's debt to 1 million gold marks.
May 1924	USA [political events]	US Congress passes the Johnson–Reed Immigration Act, setting the annual immigration quota at 2% of the US population (based on the 1890 census) from any given country. Exceptions are Japanese immigrants, who are totally excluded, and immigrants from Canada and Latin America, for whom there are no limits.
4 May - 27 July 1924	France, USA, Finland, UK, Italy [Olympic Games]	The 8th Olympic Games are held in Paris, France, attended by 3,092 competitors, 136 of whom are women, from 44 countries. The USA wins 45 gold medals; Finland, 14; France, 13; Britain, 9; and Italy, 8. The star of the games is Paavo Nurmi of Finland who wins gold medals in the 1,500 metres, 5,000 metres, 3,000 metres team race, and 10,000 metres individual and team cross-country events. Harold Abrahams of Britain is the first European to win the 100 metres.
12 June 1924	[births and deaths]	George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st president of the USA 1989–93, a Republican, born in Greenwich, Connecticut.
15 June 1924	USA [motor vehicles]	The Ford Motor Company announces the production of its 10 millionth automobile.
3 August 1924	[births and deaths]	Joseph Conrad (pen-name of Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski), Polish-born British novelist whose works include Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, and Chance, dies in Canterbury, Kent, England (66).
30 August 1924	Germany [banking and finance]	The German Reichsbank becomes independent of the government and introduces a new mark, following the complete devaluation of the old one by hyperinflation.
30 September 1924	[births and deaths]	Truman Capote, US playwright and novelist, born in New Orleans, Louisiana (–1984).
1 October 1924	[births and deaths]	Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the USA 1977–81, a Democrat, born in Plains, Georgia.
25 October 1924	UK, USSR [political events]	The British newspaper the Daily Mail publishes the ‘Zinovyev Letter’, a document inciting revolutionary activity in the army and Ireland, which is said to be from Grigory Zinovyev, chairman of the External Committee of the Comintern (the Soviet-controlled Communist International). It is later proved to be a forgery.
4 November 1924	United Kingdom [political events]	Ramsay MacDonald resigns as British prime minister following Labour's electoral defeat; a week later Stanley Baldwin forms a Conservative government with Austen Chamberlain as foreign secretary and Winston Churchill as chancellor of the Exchequer.
4 November 1924	USA [elections]	The Republican candidate Calvin Coolidge wins the US presidential election with 382 electoral votes over John W Davis, Democrat, with 136 votes, and Robert M LaFollette, Progressive, with 13; the popular vote is Coolidge 15,725,016, Davis 8,386,503, and LaFollette, 4,822,856. Republicans maintain majorities in the House (247–183) and Senate (56–39).
18 November 1924	Germany, France [political events]	The evacuation of the Ruhr area of Germany by French troops is completed (the Ruhr having been occupied in 1923 because of Germany's default in payment of World War I reparations).