1924 History, Trivia and Fun Facts

Quick Facts from 1924:

• Key Event in American History: J. Edgar Hoover was appointed as the head of the Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
• Opened in 1892, Ellis Island closed as an immigration entry point to the United States.
• The Indian Citizenship Act passed, which conferred citizenship on all Native Americans born within the United States.
• Two American airplanes, The Chicago and The  New Orleans completed an over 26,000 mile trip in 175 days from and to Seattle, Washington, going all the way around the world.
• Big Universe Event: Astronomer Edwin Hubble concluded that the Andromeda Nebula was actually another Galaxy.
• Willem Einthoven won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the electrocardiogram.
• The first Winter Olympics was held in Chamonix, France. The Paris Summer Olympic Games also took place.
• Influential Musical Artists include Isam Jones, Al Jolson, Paul Whiteman, Marion Harris, and Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians.
• The Movies to Watch include Greed, Aelita: Queen of Mars, The Thief of Bagdad, The Navigator and Sherlock Jr.
• The Most Famous Person in America was probably
• Notable books include: The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley
• Price of Franco American Spaghetti (can) in 1924: 10 cents
• The Funny Guy was: Buster Keaton
• Times Change: President Jimmy” Carter was born at the Wise Clinic in Plains, Georgia on October 1, 1924, making him the first U.S. president to be born in a hospital.

Firsts, Inventions, and Wonders:
The word scofflaw entered the English language in 1924.

Philip Morris launched the Marlboro brand in 1924 as a woman’s cigarette.

Little Orphan Annie comic strip by Harold Gray, published in the New York Daily News

The word milquetoast is named after cartoon character Caspar Milquetoast, created by H.T. Webster in his comic strip The Timid Soul.

Wyoming was the first US state to elect a woman, Nellie Tayloe Ross, as governor.

Calvin Coolidge was the first President of the United States to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House.

Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin was first performed in New York City at Aeolian Hall, by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra.

The Flossie Flirt Doll was produced by The Ideal Toy Company.

Friendship and Freedom was the first gay-interest periodical in the United States.

Jimmy Carter was the first US President to be born in a hospital.

Pop Culture News:
Ace Hardware stores opened in Illinois.

The Wrigley Building in Chicago, Illinois, United States was completed.

A variation of 1913’s tasty treat, the Pep-O-Mint Life Saver, new flavors were added – Lime, Lemon, and Orange to the disc-shaped treats. The hole was added in 1927. Pineapple and cherry were added in 1935.

Iodine was added to table salt in the US beginning in 1924 as an antidote to goiters caused by iodine deficiency and it had the unanticipated side effect of raising the national IQ average.

Kleenex disposable tissues were originally introduced as a cold cream remover. The pop-up box was released in 1928. They were rebranded for blowing your nose, making the handy pocket pack of tissues in 1932.

Master Lock introduced the laminated padlock in 1924. Company founder Harry Soref supposedly advised fellow Harry (Houdini) to hide lock keys under his tongue when the key couldn’t have been sleight-of-handed between his fingers.

The United States is the current reigning Rugby Olympic Champion, earning the title in the 1924 Olympics, which was the last time it was held.

The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) was renamed International Business Machines (IBM).

Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures & Louis B Mayer Co merged to form Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM).

The original 20th-century flagpole sitta was Alvin “Shipwreck” Kelly (NOT the Kentucky footballer) and he sat on his first flagpole for 13 hours and thirteen minutes in Hollywood, California. The original Flagpole Sitter may have been St. Simeon Stylites. He spent over 3 decades sitting on an elevated deck to ‘escape the pressures of daily living.’ The latest records we have seen were for Poland’s Dan Baraniuk, who sat on a pole for 196 days in 2002 and H. David Werder who spent more than 439 days in on top of a pole in 1984.

Australia began implementing compulsory voting for federal elections, and the average turnout is over 90%.

Richard Leo Simon and Max Lincoln Schuster published The Cross Word Puzzle Book, which was the world’s first collection of crossword puzzles.

Harry’s New York Bar in Paris, which holds a straw poll for American tourists during the presidential elections each election, since 1924. The results have only been wrong twice: in 1976 and 2004.

The Odd & Scandalous News:
The murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, Chicago University law students, inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s 1949 film The Rope, 1959’s Compulsion, 1992’s Swoonand 2002’s Murder By Numbers.

The California State animal, the California Grizzly Bear has been extinct since 1924

Indigenous Native Americans were not granted US citizenship until 1924.

Pep, a Labrador, was sentenced to Life without Parole for killing the cat of the Pennsylvania Governor and was admitted to Eastern State Penitentiary

Between 1924 and 1935, Greece had 23 changes in government and 13 coups.