August 1924


The following events occurred in August 1924:

August 1, 1924 (Friday)

August 2, 1924 (Saturday)

August 3, 1924 (Sunday)

August 4, 1924 (Monday)

August 5, 1924 (Tuesday)

August 6, 1924 (Wednesday)

  • The Treaty of Lausanne, a peace treaty between Turkey and the Allied Powers signed on July 24, 1923, went into effect, thus completing the restoration of peace following the First World War.
  • 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.
  • Born: Ella Jenkins, U.S. folk singer; in St. Louis

August 7, 1924 (Thursday)

August 8, 1924 (Friday)

August 9, 1924 (Saturday)

August 10, 1924 (Sunday)

August 11, 1924 (Monday)

August 12, 1924 (Tuesday)

  • 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.
  • 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. 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. Later convicted of manslaughter instead of murder, McCoy would serve eight years in prison until his parole in 1932.
  • Born:
  • *Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, President of Pakistan from 1978 to 1988; in Jalandhar, British India
  • *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
  • *Jimmy Doyle, American welterweight boxer who was fatally injured in a 1947 fight against Sugar Ray Robinson for the world welterweight title; in Los Angeles

August 13, 1924 (Wednesday)

August 14, 1924 (Thursday)

August 15, 1924 (Friday)

August 16, 1924 (Saturday)

  • 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 outside of Rome. 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Died: Roy Daugherty, 54, former Western outlaw, was killed in a gunfight with lawmen.

August 17, 1924 (Sunday)

August 18, 1924 (Monday)

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Died: LeBaron B. Colt, 78, U.S. Senator for Rhode Island since 1913 and former federal judge

August 19, 1924 (Tuesday)

August 20, 1924 (Wednesday)

August 21, 1924 (Thursday)

  • The world flyers, U.S. Army Lieutenants Lowell Smith and Erik Nelson landed in Greenland at Frederiksdal, 12 hours after departing Reykjavík in Iceland. The only other competitors, a crew of three commanded by Antonio Locatelli of Italy, went down in the sea in Greenland, where they were rescued later by the.
  • 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."

August 22, 1924 (Friday)

August 23, 1924 (Saturday)

August 24, 1924 (Sunday)

August 25, 1924 (Monday)

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."
  • Died: Eugène Py, 65, French film pioneer

August 27, 1924 (Wednesday)

August 28, 1924 (Thursday)

August 29, 1924 (Friday)

August 30, 1924 (Saturday)

August 31, 1924 (Sunday)