1924: Events and Inventions

January 21, 1924. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of the Soviet Union, dies at the age of 54. His death leaves the Soviet government with a power struggle: possible leaders include Leon Trotsky, general of the Red Army and Josef Stalin, general secretary of the COmmunist Party. Stalin immediately begins to purge (kill) his rivals to clear the way for his leadership.

April 6, 1924. Fascists win the elections in Italy with a â…” majority.

April 6-September 28, 1924. The first aerial circumnavigation of the world is conducted by a team of aviators of the United States Army Air Service. The trip takes 175 days, covering 27,340 miles, without crossing the equator into the southern hemisphere. Four planes left Seattle in April, and two of the four returned to Seattle in September to complete the trip.

'Mount Everest from base camp one' photo (c) 2007, Rupert Taylor-Price - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

June, 1924. During the 1924 British Mount Everest Expedition, George Mallory and his climbing partner Sandy Irvine both disappear somewhere high on the North-East ridge during their attempt to make the first ascent of the world’s highest mountain. Mallory is famously quoted as having replied to the question “Why do you want to climb Mount Everest?” with the retort “Because it’s there!”. Whether Mallory and Irvine reached Everest’s summit is unknown.

August, 1924. France and Belgium agree to withdraw their troops from the Ruhr within a year, and Germany promises to pay off the war debts it owes mostly to those two countries.

August 28, 1924. Georgia rises against the Soviet Union in a rebellion, in which several thousands die. The rebellion is unsuccessful.

September, 1924. Indian nationalist Mohandas Gandhi goes on a hunger strike to protest fighting between Hindus and Muslims in British India.

December, 1924. People in the United States can now use disposable paper tissues made by Kleenex to catch those winter sneezes.

'M31 - Andromeda Galaxy' photo (c) 2008, Jyrki Kymäläinen - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/

December 30, 1924. Astronomer Edwin Hubble announces that Andromeda, previously believed to be a nebula, is actually another galaxy, and that the Milky Way is only one of many such galaxies in the universe.

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