August 29, 1924: On the Arabian Peninsula, Nejd, led by the House of Saud, launches attack on neighboring Hejaz
Flags of Nejd and Hejaz
The following events occurred in August 1924:
August 1, 1924 (Friday)
Lenin's second mausoleum
A larger, more elaborate housing for
Lenin's Mausoleum, built from wood, was opened to the public in
Moscow.[1] Previously, a temporary structure had housed Lenin's body. The new structure would serve as Lenin's resting place until the opening of the permanent
mausoleum in
October 1930.
John Clive Ward, British-born Australian physicist who made significant contributions to quantum field theory and quantum electrodynamics, and for whom the
Ward–Takahashi identity is named; in
East Ham,
London (d. 2000)[5]
Another entrant in the first
round-the-world flight attempt dropped out of the race as, the airplane Boston was forced to make an emergency landing in the Atlantic Ocean and sank while being towed for repairs. The crew was rescued, but only two airplanes remained in the race.[7][8]
The
Allied Powers agreed in principle to the
Dawes Plan and invited Germany to the London conference.[9]
The city of
Boca Raton, Florida, was incorporated, initially with the name "Bocaratone". The name would be changed to Boca Raton on May 26, 1925.[10]
Carroll O'Connor and James Baldwin
Born:
Carroll O'Connor (John Carroll O'Connor), American TV actor known for portraying Queens resident
Archie Bunker in the situation comedy All in the Family, and as Mississippi police chief Bill Gillespie in the TV drama In the Heat of the Night; winner of four Emmy Awards for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series, and one Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama series; in
Manhattan,
New York City (d. 2001)[11]
On the tenth anniversary of its
declaration of war against France, Germany observed its first memorial day, with a ceremony outside the
Reichstag and two minutes of silence at noon. Communists disrupted the moment of silence, and police moved in with their clubs to restore order.[18][19]
Berlin Jews held a separate service for Jewish soldiers, as a Jewish preacher was forbidden from delivering a prayer in the Reichstag ceremony.[18]
A group of
150 Soviet troops crossed the border into
Poland and attacked the town of
Stołpce (now
Stowbtsy in
Belarus) in a mission to free two jailed members of the Communist Party of Western Belarus, who had been seeking to reclaim territory lost in the Polish-Soviet War in 1921. Seven policemen in Stołpce were killed and three wounded, but the attackers failed to free the two prisoners.[20]
Jamaican-born political leader
Marcus Garvey was indicted by a grand jury for filing an allegedly fraudulent income tax return for 1921.[23]
The British flying team of navigator
Archibald Stuart-MacLaren, pilot W. N. Plenderleith and flight engineer Sergeant W. H. Andrews ended when their amphibious plane had to make a forced landing in the
Bering Sea and was badly damaged.[24] They were rescued from
Bering Island by the Royal Navy ship HMCS
Thiepval.[25]
August 5, 1924 (Tuesday)
The first appearance of Annie
The American newspaper comic strip Little Orphan Annie, created by
Harold Gray and syndicated by New York's Daily News, made its first appearance. Named for
James Whitcomb Riley's 1885 poem "
Little Orphant Annie", but not related to the well-known verse, the popular feature would be adapted to
an NBC Radio show on the Blue Network from in 1931 to 1942, to two films (in 1932 and 1938) and to the successful
Broadway musicalAnnie in 1977. After Gray's death in 1968, Little Orphan Annie was continued by other artists but would finally cease on June 13, 2010.[26]
The German delegation, including Chancellor
Wilhelm Marx and Foreign Minister
Gustav Stresemann, joined the London reparations conference.[27]
Billie Hayes (stage name for Billie Armstrong Brosch), American comedian, TV and stage actress known for portraying "Witchiepoo" on the H.R. Pufnstuf series, and "Mammy Yokum" in the 1956 Broadway musical Li'l Abner; in
Du Quoin, Illinois (d. 2021)[33]
Con artist
Charles Ponzi, known for the "
Ponzi scheme", was released from prison in
Plymouth, Massachusetts after serving less than four years of a five year federal sentence. He then reported to the District Attorney in
Boston, where he faced 10 indictments by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and was arrested again. A benefactor from West Roxbury put up his bond of $14,000 and Ponzi was freed until a trial date could be set.[35]
Died:Bruce Grit (John Edward Bruce), 68, African-American newspaper publisher, journalist, historian and writer.[38] Born as a slave in
Maryland in 1856 as a slave, he grew up to help create the Argus Weekly (Washington DC); the Sunday Item and the Republican (Norfolk, Virginia).[39]
August 8, 1924 (Friday)
The United Kingdom signed the General Treaty and the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation, with the Soviet Union, giving British exports
most favoured nation status in exchange for the granting of a loan to the Soviet government.[40]
Died:Karansinhji II Vajirajji, 78, the
Thakur of the princely state of
Lakhtar for 78 years, the sixth longest of any ruler in world history. He was succeeded by his son Balvirsinhji Karansinhji.[45]
The
Canton Merchants' Corps Uprising began in the Republic of China as the British freighter Harvard arrived in
Canton (now Guangzhou) with guns and ammunition that had been purchased by the merchants. Before the cargo could be unloaded, the city's police seized the shipment. The merchant's corps then called a strike across all of the
Guangdong Province, and violence over the next two months claimed 2,000 casualties.
Austrian police said they had uncovered a Soviet
slush fund used for stirring up unrest and revolt in the Balkans.[49]
Britain and Turkey agreed to submit their territorial dispute over the
Mosul question, regarding the border between Turkey and the
British mandate for Iraq and of which side should take possession of the mostly
Kurdish territory of the Ottoman Empire's former
Mosul Vilayet, to the
League of Nations.[52] An agreement on division would be reached on August 20.[53]
Anti-British riots broke out in
Atbarah in
Sudan. British troops fired on rioting Egyptian railway labourers, killing 10 of them.[54]
In the
Hyderabad State of
British India, rioting that would injure 400 people at kill at least 10 in
Gulbarga (now Kalaburagi in
Karnataka state). The date coincided with the
Ashura holiday on the Islamic calendar and with a practice by Hindus in Hyderabad to carry a holy idol from the
Sharana Basaveshwara Temple in a procession through the streets on Mondays.[55] The riots then spread during the week to throughout British India and Burma.[56][57]
The
Paris newspaper Le Journal claimed to have indisputable proof that the Soviet Union had established a secret tribunal assigned with the task of creating revolutionary activity in European colonies.[60]
Retired boxer
Kid McCoy, who held the world middleweight title from 1896 to 1899, came home drunk to his Los Angeles apartment and shot his lover, Teresa Mors, after she told him what her friends thought of him.[61] The next day, McCoy went to an antique shop owned by the estranged husband of Mors, looking to kill him as well, and took 11 hostages while waiting for his intended target. After a while, McCoy fled until police apprehended him.[62] Later convicted of manslaughter instead of murder, McCoy would serve eight years in prison until his parole in 1932.[62]
Derek Shackleton, English cricketer in first-class cricket and seven Test cricket matches, leading wicket-taker in four seasons from 1962 to 1965; in
Todmorden,
Yorkshire[63] (d. 2007)
Jimmy Doyle (ring name for James Delaney), American welterweight boxer who was fatally injured in a 1947 fight against
Sugar Ray Robinson for the world welterweight title; in
Los Angeles (d. 1947)
August 13, 1924 (Wednesday)
A mutiny charge against
John Ross Campbell was dropped when
Travers Humphreys, prosecutor for the Crown, informed the court that "Since process has been issued in this case it has been represented that the object and intention of the article in question was not to endeavour to seduce men in the fighting forces from their duty and allegiance, or to induce them to disobey lawful orders, but that it was comment upon armed military force being used by the State for the suppression of industrial disputes." Humphreys said that he had been instructed not to offer any evidence upon the charge, and so Campbell was freed.[64]Sir Patrick Hastings, the
Attorney General, had stopped the prosecution after learning that Campbell was an injured war veteran, and that prosecution was opposed by
Labour government. He concluded that a trial before a jury was likely to fail; backbenchers.[29]
Eduardo Fajardo, Spanish film, stage and TV actor who appeared in 183 films, 75 plays, and over 2,000 TV episodes in a 55-year career; in
Meis (d. 2019)[71]
Emmanuel Oyedele (E. O.) Ashamu, Nigerian tribal leader and owner of Industrial Chemists Ltd., as well as Oke Afa farms, Premier Farms and Oyo Feeds; in
Oyo (d. 1992)
Eligio Ayala was reinstalled as
President of Paraguay, after having resigned on March 17 in favor of
Luis Alberto Riart. Ayala resumed office after being confirmed in a popular vote without any opposition.
The body of Italian opposition leader
Giacomo Matteotti, who had been kidnapped on June 10 after making speeches against Fascist Prime Minister
Benito Mussolini, was found in a shallow ditch about 14 miles (23 km) outside of Rome.[78] Three members of the Fascist Party—
Amerigo Dumini of the Fascist secret police, the
Ceka; Giuseppe Viola, and Amleto Poveromo would be convicted of Matteotti's murder, and be released from prison 11 months later by a general amnesty proclaimed by King Victor Emmanuel III.[79]
Boris Savinkov, a Russian terrorist with the paramilitary wing of the outlawed
Socialist Revolutionary Party, was arrested in
Minsk by the Soviet secret police agency
OGPU after being tricked into returning to the Soviet Union by a police agent.[80]
An agreement to enact the
Dawes Plan was signed in London by the European powers, pending formal ratification by the respective parliaments of the countries concerned. The French and Belgians agreed to end their
occupation of the Ruhr in one year's time.[81]
Died:Roy Daugherty, 54, former Western outlaw, was killed in a gunfight with lawmen.
Two priests and two policemen were reported killed and many injured in rioting in
Mandalay,
Burma, that occurred over the course of a political procession led by a Buddhist priest associated with a movement for
home rule.[82]
The occupied German towns of
Offenburg and
Appenweier were evacuated by French troops as a gesture of good faith on France's part to enact the London pact.[84]
The remaining two planes attempting to
fly around the world were damaged attempting to take off from
Reykjavík to
Greenland because they were too loaded down with gasoline.[85]
Died:LeBaron B. Colt, 78, U.S. Senator for Rhode Island since 1913 and former federal judge
Born:Willard Boyle, Canadian physicist and 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics laureate for "the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor, which has become an electronic eye in almost all areas of photography"; in
Amherst, Nova Scotia (d. 2011)
August 20, 1924 (Wednesday)
U.S. Senator
Nathaniel B. Dial and his challenger for the Democratic Party's nomination, John J. McMahan, were both arrested for disorderly conduct in
Gaffney, South Carolina after a campaign meeting broke up amid threats of violence. Dial approached McMahan brandishing a chair after he charged that McMahan had called him a "dirty liar".[89]
The
Victoria-Vélez Treaty was signed by the Foreign Ministers of Panama (Nicolás Victoria Jaén) and Colombia (Jorge Vélez) and setting a permanent boundary between the two nations. Panama had formerly been part of Colombia as the
Departamento del Istmo and the border was based on the separation of Istmo from the
Chocó Department of Colombia.[90]
U.S. President Coolidge made public a letter he wrote to the
National Negro Business League, praising the African-American population for "the assumption of a full and honorable part in the economic life of the nation" and his belief in equal rights for all races, though not with any assistance from the federal government. Coolidge wrote, "it may fairly said that the colored people themselves have already substantially solved these phases of their problem," and added that "If they will but go forward along the lines of their progress in recent decades... their future would be well cared for." Commenting that "Our constitution guarantees equal rights to all our citizens without discrimination on account of race or color. I have taken my oath to support that constitution," he praised the "economic emancipation being splendidly wrought out by the colored people for themselves; so I believe their full political rights will be won through the inevitable logic of their position and rightfulness of their claims."[92]
Communists in the
Reichstagfilibustered Chancellor
Wilhelm Marx by causing a loud disturbance of hoots and jeers when he tried to speak on the London conference ahead of a vote on the matter. The session was suspended and police were called in, but no clause could be found by which to arrest those who were causing the disturbance and the Reichstag adjourned for the day.[95]
As Mars was making its closest approach to Earth, radio stations heard what were believed to be "signals which apparently were operated by some intelligent force, yet which could be identified with no earthly telegraph code" on their receivers.[96] Engineers pointed out after the reports that the radio receiving technology available on Earth at the time would not be able to pick up a telegraph signal from more than 10,000 miles (16,000 km) away and that acquiring signals from 34 million miles away would be "highly improbable, if not impossible."[97]
Percival Lowell's 1909 sketches of the "canals" of Mars
The planets
Mars and
Earth were the closest they had been since August 18, 1845, and the closest since high-power telescopes had been constructed, coming within 0.373
astronomical units of each other,[99] equivalent to 34,630,000 miles (55,730,000 km), at about 0100 UTC.[100] Mars and Earth would not be as close as 0.373 au again until August 28, 2003.[99]
Miriam Ferguson, first woman to be nominated by a major party for state governor
Miriam A. "Ma" Ferguson won the
runoff election for the Democratic Party nomination for
Governor of Texas, defeating Felix D. Robertson after the two candidates had received the highest plurality of votes in the July 26 primary without either receiving a majority. Ferguson's win in the heavily Democrat U.S. state virtually guaranteed that she would become the first woman to be elected governor of a U.S. state, with the general election set for November 4.
In a speech in
Maine, U.S. vice presidential candidate
Charles G. Dawes responded to
John W. Davis' challenge of the previous day by also denouncing the
Ku Klux Klan by name. He then said that the issue had "no proper place in this or any other campaign."[104]
Died:Elizabeth Avery Colton, 51, American educator, author and advocate for women's colleges, died of a spinal tumor.[111]
August 25, 1924 (Monday)
German Chancellor
Wilhelm Marx told the
Reichstag that he would ratify the
London agreement whether the Reichstag approved it or not, even if it caused a dissolution of parliament and lead to new elections.[112]
John Owen, 63, American sprinter who held the world record for the 100-yard dash (9.8 seconds) in 1890, was killed in a horseback riding accident.[114]
August 26, 1924 (Tuesday)
The Montreal Star published an interview with
Henry Ford in which he was quoted as saying that the
Ku Klux Klan was "a victim of lying propaganda" and "if the truth were known about it, it would be looked up to as a body of patriots."[115]
Built for the U.S. Navy, paid for by the German government and constructed by the Zeppelin Company as part of World War I reparations, the dirigible
USS Los Angeles made its first flight.[116]
The
August Uprising, an attempt by
Georgian independence activists to overthrow the Soviet Communist government of the
Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, began a day earlier than planned when activists in the mining town of
Chiatura rose up against the local Communists. Nearby units of the Soviet Red Army went on alert with the element of surprise no longer available to the Georgians.[119][120]
The German
Reichstag voted, 314 to 117, to accept the London protocol on the
Dawes report. The vote was not expected to pass so easily but moderate right-wing factions gave it their support, giving rise to rumors that they had extracted concessions of cabinet posts in exchange for their vote.
Erich Ludendorff marched out after the vote and called it "infamous".[122]
The collision of two Indian railway trains killed 107 passengers and two employees, near
Harappa in the
Punjab Province in what is now
Pakistan.[123]
Sultan Abdulaziz Ibn Saud of Nejd and King Hussein bin Ali of Hejaz
The
Sultanate of Nejd, led by King
Abdulaziz ibn Saud, launched
an attack on the neighboringKingdom of Hejaz, ruled by King Hussein bin Ali and the location of both the holy city of
Mecca and the city of
Jeddah. The mission of conquest came after citizens of Nejd had been barred by the King of Hejaz from making the pilgrimage to Mecca.[124] Troops from Nejd, commanded by
Sultan bin Bajad al-Otaybi, proceeded into the Hejaz city of
Taif and captured it in a few days, then carried out a
massacre of the outnumbered defenders. Hejaz would be conquered within three months, and Nejd would annex the kingdom to create the kingdom of
Saudi Arabia.
KOMZET (Komitet po zemelnomu ustroystvu yevreyskikh trudyashchikhsya), the Soviet Union's "Committee for the Settlement of Jewish Workers", was established to forcibly relocate Jewish people in Russia and the other Soviet republics.[126]
With
hyperinflation in Germany out of control in the
Weimar Republic, the almost worthless German
papiermark was finally taken out of circulation. The Reichsbank replaced the
Rentenmark of 1923 (whose value had fallen by two-thirds in one year) with the new
Reichsmark coin, which was exchanged at 1:1 ratio with the Rentenmark and at a 1,000,000,000,000:1 (one trillion to 1) with the
papiermark.[129]
The
Dawes Plan was formally put into effect with a signing in
London by diplomatic representatives of Germany and the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, Portugal and Yugoslavia.[130]
In accordance with its agreement to the Dawes Plan, Germany created the government-owned Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft to operate Germany's railways and to use its profits to contribute to paying off the nation's war reparations.[131]
Lebanese citizenship was legally created by decree of
France's
High Commissioner of the Levant for the French Mandate of Lebanon and Syria,
Maxime Weygand. Citing Article 30 of the
Treaty of Lausanne clause with respect for former territories of the
Ottoman Empire, based in Turkey, Weygand declared "any person who was a Turkish subject and who resided in the territories of Lebanon on August 30, 1924, is confirmed as a Lebanese subject and is henceforth considered to have lost Turkish citizenship."[134]
Paavo Nurmi set a new world record for the 10,000 metre race, running a time of 30:06.2. Finnish officials had not allowed Nurmi to compete in the 10,000m in the
Paris Olympics in July, due to fears for his health.[138]
^Dixon, Jeffrey S.; Sarkees, Meredith Reid (2015). A Guide to Intra-state Wars: An Examination of Civil, Regional, and Intercommunal Wars, 1816–2014.
CQ Press. pp. 475–476.
^Longrigg, Stephen Hemsley (1956). Iraq, 1900 to 1950: A Political, Social, and Economic History. Oxford University Press. pp. 148–151.
ISBN9780598936608.
^
abSeldes, George (August 4, 1924). "Reds Break Up Berlin Prayer for War Dead". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
^Martin, Tony (1976). Race First: The Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Majority Press. p. 187.
ISBN0-912469-23-4.
^
abDobson, Jeremy (2009). Why Do the People Hate Me So?: The Strange Interlude Between the Two Great Wars in the Britain of Stanley Baldwin.
Leicester: Troubadour Publishing Ltd. pp. 102–103.
ISBN978-1-84876-239-8.
^"Ponzi Leaves Jail, But Freedom Is Brief— 'Get Rich Quick' Swindler Goes at Once to Office of District Attorney", Philadelphia Inquirer, August 7, 1924, p.3
^"Japan and Soviet Seek to Resume Relations; Tokio Minister Reported to Have Offered Plan for Evacuation of Saghalien", Philadelphia Inquirer, August 8, 1924, p.3
^"J.E. Bruce, Prominent Negro, Buried in Oakland Yesterday; Was A Leader of His Race and Former Resident of Yonkers— Active In Newspaper And Political Work", Yonkers (NY) Statesman, August 11, 1924, p.1
^Ralph L. Crowder, John Edward Bruce: Politician, Journalist, and Self-Trained Historian of the African Diaspora (New York University Press, 2004)
^Christine A. White,British and American Commercial Relations with Soviet Russia, 1918-1924 (University of North Carolina Press, 1992)
^John Earl and Michael Sell, Guide to British Theatres 1750–1950 (Theatres Trust, 2000) pp. 110
^
abHannon, Michael (May 2010).
"Leopold and Loeb Case (1924)"(PDF). University of Minnesota Law Library. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 2014-09-23. Retrieved January 16, 2015.
^Evans, Arthur (August 20, 1924). "Dawes Raps La Folletteism". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
^"Music". The Nebraska State Journal. 1924-10-05. p. 28. Retrieved 2020-07-13 – via Newspapers.com.
^Fergusson, Adam (2010). When money dies: the nightmare of deficit spending, devaluation, and hyperinflation in Weimar Germany. New York: PublicAffairs.
ISBN978-1-58648-994-6.
August 29, 1924: On the Arabian Peninsula, Nejd, led by the House of Saud, launches attack on neighboring Hejaz
Flags of Nejd and Hejaz
The following events occurred in August 1924:
August 1, 1924 (Friday)
Lenin's second mausoleum
A larger, more elaborate housing for
Lenin's Mausoleum, built from wood, was opened to the public in
Moscow.[1] Previously, a temporary structure had housed Lenin's body. The new structure would serve as Lenin's resting place until the opening of the permanent
mausoleum in
October 1930.
John Clive Ward, British-born Australian physicist who made significant contributions to quantum field theory and quantum electrodynamics, and for whom the
Ward–Takahashi identity is named; in
East Ham,
London (d. 2000)[5]
Another entrant in the first
round-the-world flight attempt dropped out of the race as, the airplane Boston was forced to make an emergency landing in the Atlantic Ocean and sank while being towed for repairs. The crew was rescued, but only two airplanes remained in the race.[7][8]
The
Allied Powers agreed in principle to the
Dawes Plan and invited Germany to the London conference.[9]
The city of
Boca Raton, Florida, was incorporated, initially with the name "Bocaratone". The name would be changed to Boca Raton on May 26, 1925.[10]
Carroll O'Connor and James Baldwin
Born:
Carroll O'Connor (John Carroll O'Connor), American TV actor known for portraying Queens resident
Archie Bunker in the situation comedy All in the Family, and as Mississippi police chief Bill Gillespie in the TV drama In the Heat of the Night; winner of four Emmy Awards for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series, and one Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama series; in
Manhattan,
New York City (d. 2001)[11]
On the tenth anniversary of its
declaration of war against France, Germany observed its first memorial day, with a ceremony outside the
Reichstag and two minutes of silence at noon. Communists disrupted the moment of silence, and police moved in with their clubs to restore order.[18][19]
Berlin Jews held a separate service for Jewish soldiers, as a Jewish preacher was forbidden from delivering a prayer in the Reichstag ceremony.[18]
A group of
150 Soviet troops crossed the border into
Poland and attacked the town of
Stołpce (now
Stowbtsy in
Belarus) in a mission to free two jailed members of the Communist Party of Western Belarus, who had been seeking to reclaim territory lost in the Polish-Soviet War in 1921. Seven policemen in Stołpce were killed and three wounded, but the attackers failed to free the two prisoners.[20]
Jamaican-born political leader
Marcus Garvey was indicted by a grand jury for filing an allegedly fraudulent income tax return for 1921.[23]
The British flying team of navigator
Archibald Stuart-MacLaren, pilot W. N. Plenderleith and flight engineer Sergeant W. H. Andrews ended when their amphibious plane had to make a forced landing in the
Bering Sea and was badly damaged.[24] They were rescued from
Bering Island by the Royal Navy ship HMCS
Thiepval.[25]
August 5, 1924 (Tuesday)
The first appearance of Annie
The American newspaper comic strip Little Orphan Annie, created by
Harold Gray and syndicated by New York's Daily News, made its first appearance. Named for
James Whitcomb Riley's 1885 poem "
Little Orphant Annie", but not related to the well-known verse, the popular feature would be adapted to
an NBC Radio show on the Blue Network from in 1931 to 1942, to two films (in 1932 and 1938) and to the successful
Broadway musicalAnnie in 1977. After Gray's death in 1968, Little Orphan Annie was continued by other artists but would finally cease on June 13, 2010.[26]
The German delegation, including Chancellor
Wilhelm Marx and Foreign Minister
Gustav Stresemann, joined the London reparations conference.[27]
Billie Hayes (stage name for Billie Armstrong Brosch), American comedian, TV and stage actress known for portraying "Witchiepoo" on the H.R. Pufnstuf series, and "Mammy Yokum" in the 1956 Broadway musical Li'l Abner; in
Du Quoin, Illinois (d. 2021)[33]
Con artist
Charles Ponzi, known for the "
Ponzi scheme", was released from prison in
Plymouth, Massachusetts after serving less than four years of a five year federal sentence. He then reported to the District Attorney in
Boston, where he faced 10 indictments by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and was arrested again. A benefactor from West Roxbury put up his bond of $14,000 and Ponzi was freed until a trial date could be set.[35]
Died:Bruce Grit (John Edward Bruce), 68, African-American newspaper publisher, journalist, historian and writer.[38] Born as a slave in
Maryland in 1856 as a slave, he grew up to help create the Argus Weekly (Washington DC); the Sunday Item and the Republican (Norfolk, Virginia).[39]
August 8, 1924 (Friday)
The United Kingdom signed the General Treaty and the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation, with the Soviet Union, giving British exports
most favoured nation status in exchange for the granting of a loan to the Soviet government.[40]
Died:Karansinhji II Vajirajji, 78, the
Thakur of the princely state of
Lakhtar for 78 years, the sixth longest of any ruler in world history. He was succeeded by his son Balvirsinhji Karansinhji.[45]
The
Canton Merchants' Corps Uprising began in the Republic of China as the British freighter Harvard arrived in
Canton (now Guangzhou) with guns and ammunition that had been purchased by the merchants. Before the cargo could be unloaded, the city's police seized the shipment. The merchant's corps then called a strike across all of the
Guangdong Province, and violence over the next two months claimed 2,000 casualties.
Austrian police said they had uncovered a Soviet
slush fund used for stirring up unrest and revolt in the Balkans.[49]
Britain and Turkey agreed to submit their territorial dispute over the
Mosul question, regarding the border between Turkey and the
British mandate for Iraq and of which side should take possession of the mostly
Kurdish territory of the Ottoman Empire's former
Mosul Vilayet, to the
League of Nations.[52] An agreement on division would be reached on August 20.[53]
Anti-British riots broke out in
Atbarah in
Sudan. British troops fired on rioting Egyptian railway labourers, killing 10 of them.[54]
In the
Hyderabad State of
British India, rioting that would injure 400 people at kill at least 10 in
Gulbarga (now Kalaburagi in
Karnataka state). The date coincided with the
Ashura holiday on the Islamic calendar and with a practice by Hindus in Hyderabad to carry a holy idol from the
Sharana Basaveshwara Temple in a procession through the streets on Mondays.[55] The riots then spread during the week to throughout British India and Burma.[56][57]
The
Paris newspaper Le Journal claimed to have indisputable proof that the Soviet Union had established a secret tribunal assigned with the task of creating revolutionary activity in European colonies.[60]
Retired boxer
Kid McCoy, who held the world middleweight title from 1896 to 1899, came home drunk to his Los Angeles apartment and shot his lover, Teresa Mors, after she told him what her friends thought of him.[61] The next day, McCoy went to an antique shop owned by the estranged husband of Mors, looking to kill him as well, and took 11 hostages while waiting for his intended target. After a while, McCoy fled until police apprehended him.[62] Later convicted of manslaughter instead of murder, McCoy would serve eight years in prison until his parole in 1932.[62]
Derek Shackleton, English cricketer in first-class cricket and seven Test cricket matches, leading wicket-taker in four seasons from 1962 to 1965; in
Todmorden,
Yorkshire[63] (d. 2007)
Jimmy Doyle (ring name for James Delaney), American welterweight boxer who was fatally injured in a 1947 fight against
Sugar Ray Robinson for the world welterweight title; in
Los Angeles (d. 1947)
August 13, 1924 (Wednesday)
A mutiny charge against
John Ross Campbell was dropped when
Travers Humphreys, prosecutor for the Crown, informed the court that "Since process has been issued in this case it has been represented that the object and intention of the article in question was not to endeavour to seduce men in the fighting forces from their duty and allegiance, or to induce them to disobey lawful orders, but that it was comment upon armed military force being used by the State for the suppression of industrial disputes." Humphreys said that he had been instructed not to offer any evidence upon the charge, and so Campbell was freed.[64]Sir Patrick Hastings, the
Attorney General, had stopped the prosecution after learning that Campbell was an injured war veteran, and that prosecution was opposed by
Labour government. He concluded that a trial before a jury was likely to fail; backbenchers.[29]
Eduardo Fajardo, Spanish film, stage and TV actor who appeared in 183 films, 75 plays, and over 2,000 TV episodes in a 55-year career; in
Meis (d. 2019)[71]
Emmanuel Oyedele (E. O.) Ashamu, Nigerian tribal leader and owner of Industrial Chemists Ltd., as well as Oke Afa farms, Premier Farms and Oyo Feeds; in
Oyo (d. 1992)
Eligio Ayala was reinstalled as
President of Paraguay, after having resigned on March 17 in favor of
Luis Alberto Riart. Ayala resumed office after being confirmed in a popular vote without any opposition.
The body of Italian opposition leader
Giacomo Matteotti, who had been kidnapped on June 10 after making speeches against Fascist Prime Minister
Benito Mussolini, was found in a shallow ditch about 14 miles (23 km) outside of Rome.[78] Three members of the Fascist Party—
Amerigo Dumini of the Fascist secret police, the
Ceka; Giuseppe Viola, and Amleto Poveromo would be convicted of Matteotti's murder, and be released from prison 11 months later by a general amnesty proclaimed by King Victor Emmanuel III.[79]
Boris Savinkov, a Russian terrorist with the paramilitary wing of the outlawed
Socialist Revolutionary Party, was arrested in
Minsk by the Soviet secret police agency
OGPU after being tricked into returning to the Soviet Union by a police agent.[80]
An agreement to enact the
Dawes Plan was signed in London by the European powers, pending formal ratification by the respective parliaments of the countries concerned. The French and Belgians agreed to end their
occupation of the Ruhr in one year's time.[81]
Died:Roy Daugherty, 54, former Western outlaw, was killed in a gunfight with lawmen.
Two priests and two policemen were reported killed and many injured in rioting in
Mandalay,
Burma, that occurred over the course of a political procession led by a Buddhist priest associated with a movement for
home rule.[82]
The occupied German towns of
Offenburg and
Appenweier were evacuated by French troops as a gesture of good faith on France's part to enact the London pact.[84]
The remaining two planes attempting to
fly around the world were damaged attempting to take off from
Reykjavík to
Greenland because they were too loaded down with gasoline.[85]
Died:LeBaron B. Colt, 78, U.S. Senator for Rhode Island since 1913 and former federal judge
Born:Willard Boyle, Canadian physicist and 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics laureate for "the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor, which has become an electronic eye in almost all areas of photography"; in
Amherst, Nova Scotia (d. 2011)
August 20, 1924 (Wednesday)
U.S. Senator
Nathaniel B. Dial and his challenger for the Democratic Party's nomination, John J. McMahan, were both arrested for disorderly conduct in
Gaffney, South Carolina after a campaign meeting broke up amid threats of violence. Dial approached McMahan brandishing a chair after he charged that McMahan had called him a "dirty liar".[89]
The
Victoria-Vélez Treaty was signed by the Foreign Ministers of Panama (Nicolás Victoria Jaén) and Colombia (Jorge Vélez) and setting a permanent boundary between the two nations. Panama had formerly been part of Colombia as the
Departamento del Istmo and the border was based on the separation of Istmo from the
Chocó Department of Colombia.[90]
U.S. President Coolidge made public a letter he wrote to the
National Negro Business League, praising the African-American population for "the assumption of a full and honorable part in the economic life of the nation" and his belief in equal rights for all races, though not with any assistance from the federal government. Coolidge wrote, "it may fairly said that the colored people themselves have already substantially solved these phases of their problem," and added that "If they will but go forward along the lines of their progress in recent decades... their future would be well cared for." Commenting that "Our constitution guarantees equal rights to all our citizens without discrimination on account of race or color. I have taken my oath to support that constitution," he praised the "economic emancipation being splendidly wrought out by the colored people for themselves; so I believe their full political rights will be won through the inevitable logic of their position and rightfulness of their claims."[92]
Communists in the
Reichstagfilibustered Chancellor
Wilhelm Marx by causing a loud disturbance of hoots and jeers when he tried to speak on the London conference ahead of a vote on the matter. The session was suspended and police were called in, but no clause could be found by which to arrest those who were causing the disturbance and the Reichstag adjourned for the day.[95]
As Mars was making its closest approach to Earth, radio stations heard what were believed to be "signals which apparently were operated by some intelligent force, yet which could be identified with no earthly telegraph code" on their receivers.[96] Engineers pointed out after the reports that the radio receiving technology available on Earth at the time would not be able to pick up a telegraph signal from more than 10,000 miles (16,000 km) away and that acquiring signals from 34 million miles away would be "highly improbable, if not impossible."[97]
Percival Lowell's 1909 sketches of the "canals" of Mars
The planets
Mars and
Earth were the closest they had been since August 18, 1845, and the closest since high-power telescopes had been constructed, coming within 0.373
astronomical units of each other,[99] equivalent to 34,630,000 miles (55,730,000 km), at about 0100 UTC.[100] Mars and Earth would not be as close as 0.373 au again until August 28, 2003.[99]
Miriam Ferguson, first woman to be nominated by a major party for state governor
Miriam A. "Ma" Ferguson won the
runoff election for the Democratic Party nomination for
Governor of Texas, defeating Felix D. Robertson after the two candidates had received the highest plurality of votes in the July 26 primary without either receiving a majority. Ferguson's win in the heavily Democrat U.S. state virtually guaranteed that she would become the first woman to be elected governor of a U.S. state, with the general election set for November 4.
In a speech in
Maine, U.S. vice presidential candidate
Charles G. Dawes responded to
John W. Davis' challenge of the previous day by also denouncing the
Ku Klux Klan by name. He then said that the issue had "no proper place in this or any other campaign."[104]
Died:Elizabeth Avery Colton, 51, American educator, author and advocate for women's colleges, died of a spinal tumor.[111]
August 25, 1924 (Monday)
German Chancellor
Wilhelm Marx told the
Reichstag that he would ratify the
London agreement whether the Reichstag approved it or not, even if it caused a dissolution of parliament and lead to new elections.[112]
John Owen, 63, American sprinter who held the world record for the 100-yard dash (9.8 seconds) in 1890, was killed in a horseback riding accident.[114]
August 26, 1924 (Tuesday)
The Montreal Star published an interview with
Henry Ford in which he was quoted as saying that the
Ku Klux Klan was "a victim of lying propaganda" and "if the truth were known about it, it would be looked up to as a body of patriots."[115]
Built for the U.S. Navy, paid for by the German government and constructed by the Zeppelin Company as part of World War I reparations, the dirigible
USS Los Angeles made its first flight.[116]
The
August Uprising, an attempt by
Georgian independence activists to overthrow the Soviet Communist government of the
Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, began a day earlier than planned when activists in the mining town of
Chiatura rose up against the local Communists. Nearby units of the Soviet Red Army went on alert with the element of surprise no longer available to the Georgians.[119][120]
The German
Reichstag voted, 314 to 117, to accept the London protocol on the
Dawes report. The vote was not expected to pass so easily but moderate right-wing factions gave it their support, giving rise to rumors that they had extracted concessions of cabinet posts in exchange for their vote.
Erich Ludendorff marched out after the vote and called it "infamous".[122]
The collision of two Indian railway trains killed 107 passengers and two employees, near
Harappa in the
Punjab Province in what is now
Pakistan.[123]
Sultan Abdulaziz Ibn Saud of Nejd and King Hussein bin Ali of Hejaz
The
Sultanate of Nejd, led by King
Abdulaziz ibn Saud, launched
an attack on the neighboringKingdom of Hejaz, ruled by King Hussein bin Ali and the location of both the holy city of
Mecca and the city of
Jeddah. The mission of conquest came after citizens of Nejd had been barred by the King of Hejaz from making the pilgrimage to Mecca.[124] Troops from Nejd, commanded by
Sultan bin Bajad al-Otaybi, proceeded into the Hejaz city of
Taif and captured it in a few days, then carried out a
massacre of the outnumbered defenders. Hejaz would be conquered within three months, and Nejd would annex the kingdom to create the kingdom of
Saudi Arabia.
KOMZET (Komitet po zemelnomu ustroystvu yevreyskikh trudyashchikhsya), the Soviet Union's "Committee for the Settlement of Jewish Workers", was established to forcibly relocate Jewish people in Russia and the other Soviet republics.[126]
With
hyperinflation in Germany out of control in the
Weimar Republic, the almost worthless German
papiermark was finally taken out of circulation. The Reichsbank replaced the
Rentenmark of 1923 (whose value had fallen by two-thirds in one year) with the new
Reichsmark coin, which was exchanged at 1:1 ratio with the Rentenmark and at a 1,000,000,000,000:1 (one trillion to 1) with the
papiermark.[129]
The
Dawes Plan was formally put into effect with a signing in
London by diplomatic representatives of Germany and the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, Portugal and Yugoslavia.[130]
In accordance with its agreement to the Dawes Plan, Germany created the government-owned Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft to operate Germany's railways and to use its profits to contribute to paying off the nation's war reparations.[131]
Lebanese citizenship was legally created by decree of
France's
High Commissioner of the Levant for the French Mandate of Lebanon and Syria,
Maxime Weygand. Citing Article 30 of the
Treaty of Lausanne clause with respect for former territories of the
Ottoman Empire, based in Turkey, Weygand declared "any person who was a Turkish subject and who resided in the territories of Lebanon on August 30, 1924, is confirmed as a Lebanese subject and is henceforth considered to have lost Turkish citizenship."[134]
Paavo Nurmi set a new world record for the 10,000 metre race, running a time of 30:06.2. Finnish officials had not allowed Nurmi to compete in the 10,000m in the
Paris Olympics in July, due to fears for his health.[138]
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^"Japan and Soviet Seek to Resume Relations; Tokio Minister Reported to Have Offered Plan for Evacuation of Saghalien", Philadelphia Inquirer, August 8, 1924, p.3
^"J.E. Bruce, Prominent Negro, Buried in Oakland Yesterday; Was A Leader of His Race and Former Resident of Yonkers— Active In Newspaper And Political Work", Yonkers (NY) Statesman, August 11, 1924, p.1
^Ralph L. Crowder, John Edward Bruce: Politician, Journalist, and Self-Trained Historian of the African Diaspora (New York University Press, 2004)
^Christine A. White,British and American Commercial Relations with Soviet Russia, 1918-1924 (University of North Carolina Press, 1992)
^John Earl and Michael Sell, Guide to British Theatres 1750–1950 (Theatres Trust, 2000) pp. 110
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"Leopold and Loeb Case (1924)"(PDF). University of Minnesota Law Library. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 2014-09-23. Retrieved January 16, 2015.
^Evans, Arthur (August 20, 1924). "Dawes Raps La Folletteism". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
^"Music". The Nebraska State Journal. 1924-10-05. p. 28. Retrieved 2020-07-13 – via Newspapers.com.
^Fergusson, Adam (2010). When money dies: the nightmare of deficit spending, devaluation, and hyperinflation in Weimar Germany. New York: PublicAffairs.
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