Iodized salt, now used in
table salt worldwide, was introduced in the United States after Canadian-born pediatrician
David Murray Cowie became aware that the
Swiss addition of
sodium iodide or
potassium iodide to salt could safely remedy the problem of iodine deficiency that was a leading cause of thyroid problems. With problems including related
goiters prevalent in Michigan, Dr. Cowie was able to persuade several saltmakers (Diamond Crystal Salt, Mulkey Salt, Inland Delray Salt, Michigan Salt Works, and Ruggles and Rademaker) to use the Swiss process and distribute the product, starting in Michigan grocery stores.[2]
Art Fleming (stage name for Arthur Fleming Fazzin), American TV actor, newscaster and television game show host known for the original version of the Jeopardy!; in New York City (d. 2005)[5]
The
B'nai B'rith Youth Organization (BBYO) was founded in
Omaha,
Nebraska as a fraternal organization for Jewish teenagers, by college students who had created the Jewish fraternity
Aleph Zadik Aleph a year earlier, and would have 75,000 members and 250,000 alumni worldwide half a century later.[8]
The steamship
SS Catalina, known as "The Great White Steamer", and for making thousands of trips between
Los Angeles and
Santa Catalina Island in the U.S. state of California, was launched for the first time. Over the next 51 years, it would transport as many as 2,000 passengers at a time on the 2½ hour and 26 miles (42 km) trip to and from Santa Catalina, carrying 25 million people over the years, passengers than any other vessel anywhere in the world, according to the
Steamship Historical Society of America.[9]
In
Argentina, 150,000 workers participated in a
general strike protesting the mandatory deduction of 5% of their wages for a fund for old-age pensions.[10]
The "Bozenhardt incident" occurred in Berlin when German police raided the Soviet Trade Delegation.[11][12][13]
Zinaida Kokorina, the first female military pilot in history, made her first solo flight.[14]
Died:Mykola Mikhnovsky, 50, Ukrainian nationalist, was found hanged outside the home of his longtime political ally, Volodymyr Shemet, after having been arrested ad released by the Soviet secret police agency, the
GPU.[16]
The Soviet Union suspended trade with Germany as it had not received satisfaction over the Bozenhardt incident.[22]
Near
Iași,
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu opened the founding meeting of the new anti-Semitic
Romanian organization, Frăția de Cruce ("Brotherhood of the Cross").[23] The meeting was invaded by Romania's national police, the Poliția Română, on orders of the local police chief, Constantin Manciu. Codreanu and his associates were severely beaten and tortured before they were released, and he made plans to take revenge on Manciu, whom he would assassinate on October 24, 1924.
The strike in
Argentina ended in victory for the workers.[25]
May 7, 1924 (Wednesday)
The first issue of Liberty magazine, with a
cover date of May 10, appeared on newsstands.[26] The weekly general-interest magazine would decline in popularity, becoming a monthly magazine and ceasing publication until July 1950.
Alluri Sitarama Raju, 26, Indian independence activist, was executed by firing squad in the village of Koyyuru (now in the state of
Andhra Pradesh by orders of the British Indian government.[29]
May 8, 1924 (Thursday)
The
Klaipėda Convention was signed in Paris between the government of
Lithuania and representatives of the
Conference of Ambassadors from the Allied powers of World War One, recognizing Lithuania's January 19 annexation of the
Memel Territory between Germany and Lithuania, on condition that the annexed region would have limited autonomy.
Armstrong and de Forest
In a lawsuit between inventors
Edwin Howard Armstrong and
Lee de Forest on the question of who was entitled to the patent for the
regenerative circuit, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia reversed a finding by the interference board of the U.S. Patent Office, and held that de Forest had invented
regeneration. The decision would be upheld by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Federico Laredo Brú, leader of the short-lived Cuban rebellion, negotiated the terms of his surrender.[30]
The revised version of the
Sergei Prokofiev's
Piano Concerto No. 2 was premiered more than 10 years after the September 5, 1913, premiere of the original version.[31] Prokofiev had reconstructed the music after the only manuscript had been destroyed by a fire in 1917.
Died:Sophie Lyons, 75, American philanthropist and reformed swindler, was fatally injured in a home invasion by three men.[32]
May 9, 1924 (Friday)
U.S. President
Coolidge's attempt to delay the controversial anti-Japanese immigration bill, until March 1, 1925, was defeated in the
House of Representatives by a vote of 191 to 171.[33]
The futuristic
Westland Dreadnought, designed for Britain's
Westland Aircraft company by Russian-born inventor Nicolas Woyevodsky, crashed on its first, and only, flight. Test pilot Stuart Keep, who had taken the Dreadnought on short takeoff and landing hops, lost control of the aircraft at an altitude of 100 feet (30 m) and plummeted to the ground. Keep survived, but was seriously injured.[36]
J. Edgar Hoover, a 29-year-old lawyer, became the U.S. Justice Department's Acting Director of the Bureau of Investigation, the predecessor to the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).[39] Hoover, the Associate Director for William J. Burns, took office on a temporary basis after Burns resigned. U.S. Attorney General
Harlan Fiske Stone was reportedly expected to appoint former Bureau Director William J. Burns to the position, but would eventually choose the young prosecutor to the job. Hoover would direct the FBI for the next 48 years use the bureau to gather information on his political enemies.
A cave-in trapped five miners in the Black Iron Mine near
Gilman, Colorado. All five were rescued 80 hours later, on May 13.[40]
Born:
Edward T. Hall, British scientist known for exposing the
Piltdown Man as a fraud, and for inventing a wheelchair with a built-in respirator to allow quadraplegic persons to leave the confinement of bed; in
London (d.2001)[41]
Goliarda Sapienza, Italian novelist who achieved posthumous success more than a decade after her death with the publication of L'arte della gioia ("The Art of Joy"); in
Catania (d. 1996)
Died:George Kennan, 79, American explorer known for his ethnographies of many of the native people of Siberia[42]
May 11, 1924 (Sunday)
The first round of
voting for the 581-seat French Chamber of Deputies was held.[43] Runoff elections were held on May 25 for those seats where no candidate had won a majority.
The dedication of a restored monument to
Helmuth von Moltke in
Halle,
Saxony, Germany turned into a violent confrontation in which eight people died.[44]
John Stedronsky, 73, Austrian-born U.S. baseball player known for being the first Austrian major leaguer and for his career batting average of 0.83 [47]
May 12, 1924 (Monday)
French Prime Minister
Raymond Poincaré, taking the election results as a defeat, said he would resign once the newly elected deputies took their seats in June.[48]
In Canada,
Peter Smith, the former treasurer of the province of
Ontario, was arrested along with financier
Aemilius Jarvis, on charges of theft and conspiracy to defraud the provincial government, in what became known as the
Ontario Bond Scandal.[52] While Smith and Jarvis would be acquitted of theft and fraud, they would both be found guilty of conspiracy on October 24, with Smith being given a three year sentence and spending six months in jail.[53]
Bohemian F.C. of
Dublin, commonly called "Bohemians", won their first championship, finishing in first place in the 10-team
League of Ireland, the highest level of soccer football competition in the Irish Free State. Bohemians finished with 16 wins, no draws and two losses for 32 points, ahead of runner up
Shelbourne F.C. (13-2-3), whom they had defeated 2—0 and 5—2 during the season.[54]
In
Springfield, Massachusetts, the
Methodist general conference committee voted 76 to 37 to recommend to the conference that the Methodist church never again as an organization participate in any kind of warfare under any circumstances, not even self-defense. An amendment to make an exception for wars to save the country and help humanity was tabled.[56]
The last college championship in the U.S. for
cricket was played before the Intercollegiate Cricket Association disbanded, as Haverford College defeated the University of Pennsylvania, 94 to 34.[57]
President
Coolidgevetoed the
World War Adjusted Compensation Act, more commonly called the "Bonus Bill", a grant of benefits for U.S. veterans of World War One. In his veto message, Coolidge wrote, "Patriotism, which is bought and paid for is not patriotism."[58] Congress would override the veto on May 19.
Eugene O'Neill's play All God's Chillun Got Wings, based on a Negro spiritual of the same name, premiered in New York with
Paul Robeson as the star. The controversial play, addressing the subject of interracial relations, caused an uproar in the United States because of its scene of Robeson, an African-American actor, having his hand kissed by white actress Mary Blair, who played the role of his character's wife. One critic would write "“The scene where Miss Blair is called upon to kiss and fondle a Negro’s hand is going too far, even for the stage."[59]
An assassination attempt against China's Foreign Minister
Wellington Koo failed after a bomb was delivered to his home in a gift package.[60] One of Dr. Koo's servants opened the package and was killed, while two others were seriously injured.[61]
A
Labour government bill to nationalize Britain's coal mining industry was defeated, 264 to 168, when the
Liberals refused to support it. The nationalization bill was the first attempt by the government of Prime Minister
Ramsay MacDonald to introduce truly socialist legislation.[69]
The Soviet Russian monthly children's magazine Murzilka published its first issue.[70][71] Aimed at primary school children aged 6 to 12, Murzika would continue to be published almost a century later, and has been recognized as the longest running children's magazine in the world.[72]
Tankerville Chamberlayne, 80, British politician kicked out of the House of Commons in 1895 for election irregularities[79]
May 18, 1924 (Sunday)
The
Kīlauea volcano
erupted in Hawaii with a violent explosion at the Halema‘uma‘u crater.[80]
In the last Olympic
rugby union game ever played, the United States defeated France, 17 to 3, before 30,000 fans at the
Stade Olympique in
Colombes, as part of the 1924 Summer Olympic Games.[81] A variant of the sport,
rugby sevens, would become an Olympic sport beginning in 2016.
The first use of telephone lines to transmit images was made in a demonstration by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company of "a new process of transmitting pictures by electricity". Over a period of two hours, the company transmitted 15 photographs from its office in
Cleveland, Ohio to the AT&T headquarters in
New York City.[83]
An attempt by Korean nationalists to assassinate
Makoto Saito, the Japanese
Governor-General of Korea, failed after one of the eight-member Yukgunjamuibu team fired at Saito's patrol boat from the Chinese side of the
Yalu River. The boat, which was conducting border patrol at Saito's request, was able to retreat before further shots could be fired.[84]
Dr. Roscoe R. Spencer of the
U.S. Public Health Service successfully tested his research team's vaccine against
Rocky Mountain spotted fever, injecting himself with "a large dose of mashed wood ticks, from lot 2351B, and some weak carbolic acid", after which he and other persons given the vaccine were able to achieve full or partial immunity to the fatal disease.[85][86]
A conference in
Istanbul to resolve the
Mosul question, a dispute between the United Kingdom and Turkey over possession of the former
Mosul Vilayet, an oil-abundant province of the Ottoman Empire, broke up with no agreement reached. The Republic of Turkey claimed Mosul, on its south border, while Britain asserted that the territory should be part of the British mandate, the Kingdom of Iraq. On August 6, the matter would be taken by the UK to the
League of Nations Council for resolution.
Harry Wald, German-born American casino executive and Holocaust survivor who served as president of the
Caesars Palace casino in
Las Vegas; as Hans Eichenwald in
Rheine (d. 1996)
May 20, 1924 (Tuesday)
Over one million radio listeners in the United Kingdom listened in on an experimental broadcast from a garden in
Surrey in which a
nightingale's song was picked up by a microphone concealed in a bush. Cellist
Beatrice Harrison played a few soft notes in the garden until the nightingale joined in.[88] It has since been suggested, however, that the "nightingale" was actually the work of a bird impressionist.[89]
Eight sailors were killed and five wounded in the explosion of an artillery shell during gunnery drills on the French battleship Patrie.[90][91]
Many people were injured in
Gelsenkirchen during rioting over the Ruhr miners' strike. Belgian troops and German police fought a mob trying to prevent emergency employees from working in the mines.[96]
The
Bulgaria national football team, which would compete in seven FIFA World Cups and reach the quarterfinals in
1994 and finish fourth, played its first international game, a 6 to 0 loss to
Austria in
Vienna.[97]
Born:Tjokropranolo, Indonesian politician and Governor of Jakarta, 1977 to 1982 (d.1998)
Bobby Franks' wealthy parents received a ransom note demanding $10,000, but the boy's body was found near
Wolf Lake before any money was paid.[95][99]
The airmen trying to
fly around the world landed at
Kasumigaura, Japan where they were welcomed by Japanese military commanders and schoolchildren waving American flags.[100]
Cuddly Dudley (stage name for Dudley Heslop), Jamaican born British rock and roll singer, known as ""Britain's first black rock & roller";[101] in
Kingston
Arnaud Fraiteur, Belgian resistance fighter hanged for assassinating Belgian newspaper editor and collaborator with the Nazis, Paul Colin; in
Ixelles (d. 1943)
U.S. President Coolidge signed into law the
Rogers Act, officially the Foreign Service Act of 1924, creating the
United States Foreign Service to make diplomatic service a career track by rotating employees to posts around the world.[104]
Beulah Annan, who had shot and killed her lover Harry Kalstedt on April 3, was acquitted of murder in her sensationalized trial in Chicago, based on a finding that she had shot Kalstedt in
self-defense.[107]
Theodore F. Morse, 51, American composer of the melodies of numerous popular songs, died of pneumonia.[109]
Federico Boyd, 72, co-founder in 1903 of the
Republic of Panama and the Central American nation's foreign minister and ambassador to Germany.
William Cozens-Hardy, 55, British politician, member of the House of Commons and later of the House of Lords, was killed in an automobile accident in Germany near
Starnberg, when his car overturned and he was pinned underneath.[110]
May 26, 1924 (Monday)
The
Johnson–Reed Act, officially the U.S. Immigration Act of 1924, was signed into law by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge to restrict the entry of non-white foreigners into the United States. The Act included the
Asian Exclusion Act and National Origins Act (Pub.L. 68–139, 43 Stat. 153), which prevented immigration from Asia and set quotas on the number of immigrants from the Eastern Hemisphere. The broad discrimination against Asians would become one of the factors in spurring Japan against its former allies and eventually into
World War II.
German President
Friedrich Ebert offered the Chancellorship to
Oskar Hergt, but Hergt voiced too many reservations about the
Dawes Plan and so Ebert asked
Wilhelm Marx to make another attempt to form a government.[115]
A lively new session of the
Reichstag opened. When
Erich Ludendorff was announced, communists heckled him with cries such as "mass murderer". The session was adjourned after communists stood and sang "
The Internationale" and nationalists countered with "
Deutschland über alles".[115]
U.S. track athlete
Harold Osborn broke the world record for the
high jump, clearing the bar at 6 feet, 8¼ (=2m 03.83500000000000285 cm) inches at an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) meet at the University of Illinois in Champaign.
Died:Frank Farrington, 50, British-born U.S. silent film actor, died of choking following a throat infection.[116]
May 28, 1924 (Wednesday)
The
United States Border Patrol was created, as a part of the Labor Appropriation Act of 1924, as a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Labor to enforce the Immigration Act and to prevent illegal entry into the U.S. from Mexico and from Canada.[117]
The government of Japan filed a formal protest to the United States against the
Immigration Act of 1924, which had been directed at minimizing immigration to the U.S. from Japan and China.[118]
Italian politician
Giacomo Matteotti, leader of the
Partito Socialista Unitario (PSI) and a member of parliament, made an impassioned speech at the Chamber of Deputies, criticizing the way the election of the previous month had been conducted and saying it had no validity due to the Fascist tactics of intimidating voters and candidates.[126] His speech was shouted down by Fascists with cries such as "villain" and "traitor". Eleven days after his speech, Matteotti would be kidnapped and murdered by the Fascist Party's secret police, La Ceka.[127]
Born:Turk Lown, American baseball relief pitcher, known for pitching in 67 of the 154 games of the Chicago Cubs in 1957 to lead the National League in games finished; in
Brooklyn,
New York (d. 2016)[128]
Born:Patricia Roberts Harris, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, 1977 to 1979, and Health and Human Services, 1979 to 1981; in
Mattoon, Illinois (d. of breast cancer, 1985)
^"When in Rains it Pours: Endemic Goiter, Iodized Salt, and David Murray Cowie M.D.", by Howard Markel, in American Journal of Public Health (1987) pp.219-224
^White, John (May 4, 1924). "Strike Against Pension Law is On in Argentina". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 4.
^Jacobson, Jon (1994). When the Soviet Union Entered World Politics. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. p. 311.
ISBN0-520-08332-6.
^Jablonsky, David (1989). The Nazi Party in Dissolution: Hitler and the Verbotzeit 1923-25. Frank Cass and Company Limited. pp. 85–86.
ISBN0-7146-3322-4.
^"Russian Envoy Delays Plan to Leave Germany". Chicago Daily Tribune. May 5, 1924. p. 16.
^"Cuban Revolution Spreads to Eastern Provinces". Chicago Daily Tribune. May 6, 1924. p. 3.
^"Claxton, Kate", in Notable American Women, ed. by Pat M. Ryan (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1975)
^Rue, Larry (May 9, 1924). "Lack of Leader Dooms Revolt of Cuban Army". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 4.
^Michael Steinberg, The Concerto: A Listener's Guide, (Oxford University Press, 1998) pp. 344–347
^"Mystery Seen in Passing of Sophie Lyons— Collapse Due to Fight With Thugs, Neighbor Believes; Tells of 'Realty Deal'— Doctor Lays Death to Natural Causes", Detroit Free Press, May 8, 1924 p.1
^Henning, Arthur Sears (May 10, 1924). "Override Coolidge Jap Plea". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
^"Schlagobers", in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. by Bryan Gilliam and Stanley Sadie, Vol. 24 (Oxford University Press) p.517
^Sheean, Vincent (May 10, 1924). "Parliament in Uproar as Scots Ask Home Rule". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 14.
^Charles Stephenson, The Eastern Fleet and the Indian Ocean, 1942–1944: The Fleet that Had to Hide (Pen & Sword Books, 2022) p.19
^Thomas T. Mackie and Richard Rose, The International Almanac of Electoral History (Macmillan, 1991) p.281
^Matheson, Roderick (May 11, 1924). "Riots Rage as Japs Vote; U S Act Stirs Ire". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
^"No One Yet Named to Succeed Burns— Hoover, Acting Director, Possible Successor". Boston Globe. May 11, 1924. p. 19.
^"Five Men, Buried 80 Hours, Rescued from Iron Mine Tomb". Chicago Daily Tribune. May 14, 1924. p. 1.
^Kyer, C Ian (2023). The Ontario Bond Scandal of 1924 Re-Examined. Irwin Law. p. 293.
^"PETER SMITH AND AEMILIUS JARVIS SR. CONVICTED: ERSTWHILE MINISTER OF THE CROWN AND HEAD OF BIG FINANCIAL HOUSE ARE SENTENCED AND FINED $600,000". The Globe (Toronto). October 25, 1924. p. 1.
^Niall McSweeney, A Record of League of Ireland Football 1921/2 to 1984/5 (Association of Football Statisticians, 1985)
^Kenya National Assembly Official Record (Hansard, 1924), Session I
^Norton, W.B. (May 15, 1924). "No More War! Is Methodist Committee Cry". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
^"Dr. Wellington Is Unhurt by Bomb". Ottawa Citizen. May 16, 1924. p. 1.
^Jonathan Clements, Makers of the Modern World: Wellington Koo (Haus Publishing, 2008) p.116
^Juliane Koepcke, Als ich vom Himmel fiel: Wie mir der Dschungel mein Leben zurückgab (When I fell from the sky: How the jungle gave me my life back) (Piper, 2011) p.177
^"
대한민국임시정부 직할 항일무장투쟁단체" 참의부]" ("Anti-Japanese armed struggle group under the direct control of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea") (in Korean), National Institute of Korean History
^Paul de Kruif, Men Against Death (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1932), Chapter 4, "Spencer: In the Happy Valley"
^Lawrence K. Altman, Who Goes First?: The Story of Self-Experimentation in Medicine (University of California Press, 1987) p.307
^
abProper, Diana. "The Incomprehensible Crime of Leopold and Loeb: "Just an Experiment."" Crimes and Trials of the Century Ed. Steven Chermark and Frankie Y. Bailey. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007. 80.
ISBN978-0-313-34109-0.
^"Girl He Beat to Jail Tinney to "Save" Others". Chicago Daily Tribune. May 29, 1924. p. 1.
^Townley, Edward (2002). Mussolini and Italy. Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers. p. 53.
ISBN0-435327-25-9.
^Neville, Peter (15 September 2014). Mussolini. Routledge.
ISBN9781317613039.