October 1924

October 1, 1924 (Wednesday)

• Ireland's Defence Forces were formed within the Irish Free State by the unification of the Irish Army, the Irish Naval Service, the Irish Air Corps and the Reserve Defence Forces.
• Stanley Baldwin's Conservative Party tabled a motion of censure against Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and his Labour government over its handling of the Campbell Case. The UK Liberal Party broke from its coalition with Labour and announced that the Liberals would not vote to ratify the treaties that the UK had signed with the Soviet Union.
• Baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned New York Giants player Jimmy O'Connell and coach Cozy Dolan over a bribery scandal. They were charged with offering Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Heinie Sand $500 to throw a game on September 27 to help the Giants win the National League pennant.
• Born:
• * Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States, from 1977 to 1981; in Plains, Georgia
• * William Rehnquist, 16th Chief Justice of the United States from 1986 to 2005, Associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice, 1972–1986; in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• * Gerry O'Hara, British film director; in Boston, Lincolnshire
• * Bob Geigel, American professional wrestling promoter and three time president of the National Wrestling Alliance between 1978 and 1987; in Algona, Iowa
• Died:
• * Charles C. Smith, 64, African American boxer and holder of the World Colored Heavyweight Championship from 1876 to 1878
• * John Quiller Rowett, 48, British philanthropist, committed suicide after several business failures.

  October 2, 1924 (Thursday)

• The Geneva Protocol for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes received preliminary approval at the League of Nations. The agreement required formal approval to be given by all governments concerned, and was understood to have little meaning until the conclusion of the world disarmament conference was concluded the next year. The Protocol included a very controversial piece of wording added at the insistence of Japan, which allowed for the restriction of immigration to become a matter of international jurisdiction if it endangered the peace.
• Cesáreo Onzari of the Argentina national football team scored the first goal from a corner kick in international play after the rules of soccer football had been amended on June 14 by the International Football Association Board. The first goal in a professional league game had come on August 23. Onzari's goal came against Uruguay, which had recently won the 1924 Olympic title. For this reason the direct goal from a corner kick is called an Olympic goal or gol olímpico in Latin America.
• Baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis said the World Series would go forward despite the bribery scandal. "Inside of four days after the attempted bribery of Sand of the Phillies had occurred, the guilty persons had been placed on baseball's ineligible list. Surely our speedy action in the matter must indicate that the game is being kept clean", he said.
• Died: William B. Ross, 50, Governor of Wyoming since 1923, died of complications from an appendectomy he had undergone one week earlier. He was temporarily succeeded by Secretary of State Frank Lucas pending a special election Governor Ross's widow, Nellie Tayloe Ross, ran in the election and won the governorship.

  October 3, 1924 (Friday)

• Britain's Evening Standard blasted the Geneva Protocol and called on Australia, Canada and New Zealand to quit the League of Nations over it, pointing out that if Australia refused to submit to Japan's demand that it alter its immigration policy, the British fleet might be called upon to impose a naval blockade in the name of the League.
• A conference in London between the United Kingdom and Egypt on the issue of Egyptian independence ended without success.
• A feud erupted between major league baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis and American League president Ban Johnson. Johnson told the media that he would pursue an independent investigation of the circumstances under which the New York Giants won the pennant, and that they should be forbidden from playing in the World Series. Johnson called Landis a "wild-eyed, crazy nut" who was "protecting the crooks" by failing to investigate the scandal more thoroughly.
• Born:
• * Harvey Kurtzman, American cartoonist and writer known for being the original editor of Mad magazine; in Brooklyn
• * Betty Lee Sung, Asian American rights activist; in Baltimore

  October 4, 1924 (Saturday)

• In the Second Zhili–Fengtian War, Zhang Zuolin won a major victory at Fengtian.
• The First Division Monument was dedicated in Washington, D.C. During his dedication speech, U.S. President Calvin Coolidge briefly commenting on the Geneva Protocol, saying, "We do not propose to entrust to any other power or combination of powers any authority to make up our minds for us."
• Died: Burt E. Skeel, 30, American racing pilot, was killed while competing in the Pulitzer Trophy Race at Wilbur Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. Skeel's Curtiss Aircraft flyer lost both wings as he was traveling at high speed at an atltitude of.

  October 5, 1924 (Sunday)

• A harsh ordinance was issued in British India aimed at suppressing "terrorists". Pro-independence nationalists such as Subhas Chandra Bose would be arrested under the new law.
• Carlos José Solórzano was elected to be President of Nicaragua, to take office on January 1.
• Seven people died and 48 were injured during rioting in Camagüey, Cuba, during a political rally for presidential candidate Mario Menocal ahead of the country's general election.
• Born:
• * I. Robert Lehman, Lithuanian-born American biochemist; in Tauragė
• * Bob Thaves, American comic strip artist known for Frank and Ernest; in Burt, Iowa

  October 6, 1924 (Monday)

• Radio Marconi, the first radio station in Italy for the general public, began broadcasting from Rome as a service of Unione radiofonica italiana. The station, with call sign 1-RO, transmitted at the 425 metre wavelength, equivalent to the 710 AM radio frequency. At 9:00 in the evening, Maria Luisa Boncompagni read an announcement that the first program would be an "inaugural symphony concert", followed by an introduction by Ines Viviani Donarelli that she and three other members of a string quartet would perform Joseph Haydn's Opus 7.
• Ali of Hejaz was proclaimed the new King of Hejaz after his father, King Hussein bin Ali fled from Mecca to Jeddah to avoid the conquest of Nejd by the neighboring Sultanate of Nejd, led by Ibn Saud.
• The classic German silent film Das Wachsfigurenkabinett, directed by Paul Leni, premiered in Austria.
• Born:
• * Margaret Fulton, Scottish-born Australian food writer; in Nairn, County of Nairn
• * Chris Rogers, Canadian horse racing jockey who won 2,043 races including the Queen's Plate in 1949, 1950 and 1954, later an inductee to the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame; in Hamilton, Ontario

  October 7, 1924 (Tuesday)

• The British Labour Party ruled out affiliation with the Communist Party by a card vote of 3,185,000 to 193,000 at Labour's national congress in London. "Communism is nothing practical. It is a product of czarism and war betrayal, and as such we will have nothing to do with it", Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald said.
• The Soviet Union's Council of People's Commissars, the Sovnarkom, declared an amnesty to all participants of the recent August Uprising against the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic on the condition that they surrender their weapons voluntarily.
• The United States accepted diplomatic relations with the Irish Free State, separately from the United Kingdom, as Timothy Smiddy was accepted by the U.S. as Minister Plenipotentiary from Ireland, with an office in Washington, D.C. The U.S. would not send a diplomat to Ireland until 1927.
• Born:
• * Yu Chi-song, South Korean politician and 1981 presidential candidate; in Pyeongtaek
• * Joyce Reynolds, American film actress and the star of the 1944 film Janie; in San Antonio, Texas
• Died:
• * T. E. Collcutt, 84, English architect
• * Charles L. Hutchinson, 70, American philanthropist and founder of the Art Institute of Chicago

  October 8, 1924 (Wednesday)

• Ramsay MacDonald and his Labour Party were defeated in the House of Commons by a vote of 364 to 198, on a vote of censure over the government's handling of the Campbell Case.
• Born:
• * Alphons Egli, President of Switzerland in 1986; in Lucerne
• * John Nelder, British statistician known for the Nelder–Mead method; in Brushford, Somerset, England
• * Lucy Bhreatnach, Basque-Spanish born Irish educator and language activist, co-founder of the very first Irish-language school in the Republic of Ireland, the Scoil Lorcáin ; in Algorta
• * Al Fritz, American bicycle designer for the Schwinn Bicycle Company, known for the popular Schwinn Sting-Ray bike; in Chicago
• * Paul H. Silverman, American medical researcher known for his discoveries on stem cells and on the human genome; in Minneapolis

  October 9, 1924 (Thursday)

• In the UK, King George V dissolved parliament at the request of Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, and scheduled new elections for the House of Commons for October 29.
• Soldier Field, a stadium with 60,000 seats, was dedicated in Chicago, as Grant Park Stadium. The stadium, which would become home to the NFL's Chicago Bears, would be renamed Soldier Field on Veterans Day in 1925.
• Born:
• * Navvab Safavi, Iranian Shia cleric and founder of the Fadayan-e Islam, known for ordering the assassinations of three Iranian Prime Ministers, two of them successfully; in Ghaniabad, Tehran
• * USAF Major General Robert A. Rushworth, American test pilot who was the most frequent operator of the North American X-15 experimental spaceplane for the Air Force and for NASA; in Madison, Maine
• * Melvyn R. Paisley, U.S. Department of the Navy assistant secretary from 1981 to 1987, later convicted of accepting bribes while in office; in Portland, Oregon
• Died: Jake Daubert, 40, American baseball player, 1913 National League Most Valuable Player, died of surgical complications from an appendectomy after avoiding surgery in order to play in the Cincinnati Reds' final home game.