The month of January has been home to many historical events over the years. Here’s a look at some that helped to shape the world in January 1924.
Millionaire oil broker Courtland S. Dines is shot in the abdomen at his home on January 1. When police arrived on the scene, they found alcohol on the premises, causing a scandal during the Prohibition era.
Flooding causes the water level of the Seine to rise in Paris, forcing the closure of railway stations on January 2.
The exiled King Ferdinand is granted permission to return to Sofia by the Bulgarian government on January 2, prompting an immediate objection to the move by the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
The automobile manufacturer Walter P. Chrysler introduces his first car, the Chrysler Six Model B-70 sedan, on January 5 at the 24th Annual New York Automobile Show.
The British submarine HMS L24 sinks during a training exercise on January 10. The sub collided with the battleship HMS Resolution, and all 43 crew members aboard perish in the accident.
Bengali activist for Indian independence Gopinath Saha shoots and kills Englishman Ernest Day, a civilian, in Calcutta on January 12. Saha believed he was shooting Calcutta police commissioner Charles Tegart, who was helping to lead the fight against the independence movement. Saha is arrested and subsequently tried and sentenced to death.
The SMS Berlin embarks on a two-month tour of the North Atlantic Ocean on January 15. It is the first German Navy warship since the end of World War One to depart on an overseas voyage.
Ailing Russian leader Leon Trotsky is rumored to have been arrested on January 18. Despite the rumors, Trotsky is ultimately revealed to have been traveling to the Black Sea in an effort to overcome his illness.
Richard Connell’s short story “The Most Dangerous Game” appears in the weekly magazine Collier’s on January 19. The story’s theme of the hunter who becomes the hunted has since been adapted for countless stories.
Following a stroke, semi-retired leader and founder of the Soviet Union Vladimir Lenin dies on January 21 at his estate in Gorki.
On January 23, Britain and the United States sign a treaty that allows American authorities to search British ships suspected of rum-running.
Oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny testifies on January 24 that he lent Senator Albert B. Fall $100,000. Doheny’s admission exacerbates the Teapot Dome Scandal that enveloped the administration of United States President Warren G. Harding.
The first Winter Olympics open in Chamonix, France, on January 25.
Prince Regent Hirohito marries Princess Nagako in an elaborate royal wedding in Tokyo on January 26. Within two years, Hirohito would become the 124th Emperor of Japan, a position he would retain, despite controversy, until his death in 1989.
Lenin is laid to rest in a state funeral in Moscow’s Red Square on January 27. Mourners brave frigid conditions, as the temperature drops to -35 F during the funeral.
Benito Mussolini addresses 10,000 Blackshirts in the Palazzo Venezia in Rome on January 28. Mussolini predicts complete victory for the Fascists as he campaigns for a general election in Italy.
On January 31, within weeks of his wife’s death, Prussian state executioner Paul Spaethe dresses in formal evening wear and lights 45 candles. Each candle signifies a person Spaethe had beheaded, and once each candle is lit, Spaethe takes his own life with a revolver.
