1924

This article is about the year 1924. For the rap album, see 1924 (album).

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1890s  1900s  1910s  – 1920s –  1930s  1940s  1950s
Years:	1921 1922 1923 – 1924 – 1925 1926 1927

1924 by topic:

Subject

Archaeology Architecture Art Aviation Awards Comics Film Literature (Poetry) Meteorology Music (Country) Rail transport Radio Science Sports Television

By country

Australia Canada China Ecuador France Germany Greece India Ireland Italy Japan Malaya Mexico New Zealand Norway Palestine Mandate Philippines Singapore South Africa Soviet Union United Kingdom United States

Leaders

Sovereign states State leaders Religious leaders Law

Birth and death categories

Births Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments Disestablishments

Works and introductions categories

Works Introductions

1924 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1924 MCMXXIV
Ab urbe condita	2677
Armenian calendar	1373 ԹՎ ՌՅՀԳ
Assyrian calendar	6674
Bahá'í calendar	80–81
Bengali calendar	1331
Berber calendar	2874
British Regnal year	13 Geo. 5 – 14 Geo. 5
Buddhist calendar	2468
Burmese calendar	1286
Byzantine calendar	7432–7433
Chinese calendar	癸亥年十一月廿五日 (4560/4620-11-25) — to — 甲子年十二月初六日 (4561/4621-12-6)
Coptic calendar	1640–1641
Ethiopian calendar	1916–1917
Hebrew calendar	5684–5685
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1980–1981
- Shaka Samvat	1846–1847
- Kali Yuga	5025–5026
Holocene calendar	11924
Iranian calendar	1302–1303
Islamic calendar	1342–1343
Japanese calendar	Taishō 13 (大正13年)
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4257
Minguo calendar	ROC 13 民國13年
Thai solar calendar	2467

Year 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar.

Events

January

• January 10 – The British submarine L-24 sinks in the English Channel; 43 are killed.
• January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots a man he erroneously thinks is the police commissioner of Calcutta (Charles Augustus Tegart); he is arrested soon after.
• January 21 – Following the death of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin immediately begins to purge his rivals to clear the way for his leadership.
• January 22 – Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister.
• January 23 – The Soviet Union officially declares that Lenin died January 21.
• January 25 – The 1924 Winter Olympics open in Chamonix, France (in the French Alps).
• January 26 – Petrograd (Saint Petersburg) is renamed Leningrad.
• January 27 – Lenin is buried in Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square.

February

• February 1 - The United Kingdom recognizes the Soviet Union.
• February 3 - Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States, dies in Washington D.C.
• February 5 - GMT: A radio time signal is broadcast for the first time from the Royal Greenwich Observatory.
• February 7 - Death penalty: The first state execution using gas in the United States takes place in Nevada.
• February 12 - Rhapsody in Blue, by George Gershwin, is first performed in New York City at Aeolian Hall.
• February 14 - IBM is founded in New York State.
• February 16-February 26 – Dock strikes break out in various U.S. harbors.
• February 22 - Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House.

March

• March 3 – The 1,400-year-old Islamic caliphate is abolished when Caliph Abdul Mejid II of the Ottoman Empire is deposed. The last remnant of the old regime gives way to the reformed Turkey of President Kemal Atatürk.
• March 6 – İsmet İnönü forms a new government in Turkey. (2nd government)
• March 8 – The Castle Gate mine disaster kills 172 coal miners in Utah, United States.
• March 9 – Italy annexes Fiume.
• March 25 – Greece proclaims itself a republic.
• March 29 – The Third Ministry of Raymond Poincaré starts in France.

April

• April 1
  • Adolf Hitler is sentenced to 5 years in jail for his participation in the Beer Hall Putsch (he serves only 8 months).
  • The first revenue flight for Belgium's SABENA Airlines takes place.
• April 6 – Fascists win the elections in Italy with a ⅔ majority.
• April 13
  • A referendum in Greece favors the formation of the Second Hellenic Republic.
  • The A.E.K. is founded in Greece.
• April 16 – American media company Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) is founded in Los Angeles, California.
• April 23 – British Empire Exhibition opens. It was the largest colonial exhibition with 58 countries of the empire dramatically represented.
• April 26 – Harry Grindell Matthews demonstrates his "death ray" in London but fails to convince the British War Office.
• April 27 – A group of Alawites kill some Christian nuns in Syria; French troops march against them.
• April 28 – An explosion in the mine of the Wheeling Steel Corporation in Benwood, West Virginia kills 119 men.

May

• May 3 – The Aleph Zadik Aleph, the oldest Jewish youth fraternity, is founded in Omaha, Nebraska.
• May 4 – The 1924 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies are held in Paris, France.
• May 10 – J. Edgar Hoover is appointed head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
• May 11 – Mercedes-Benz is formed by the merging companies owned by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz.
• May 21 – University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a thrill killing.
• May 24 – The Immigration Act of 1924 was signed into law in the United States, including the Asian Exclusion Act.

June

• June 1 – Harry Grindell Matthews returns from Paris to London; he tries to use a Pathé film to demonstrate that his death ray works.
• June 2 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.
• June 5 – Ernst Alexanderson sends the first facsimile across the Atlantic Ocean (to his father in Sweden).
• June 8 – George Mallory and Andrew Irvine are last seen "going strong for the top" of Mount Everest by teammate Noel Odell at 12:50 P.M. The two mountaineers are never seen alive again.
• June 10 – Fascists kidnap and kill Italian socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti in Rome.
• June 12 – Rondout Heist: Six men of the Egan's Rats gang rob a mail train in Rondout, Illinois; the robbery is later found to have been an inside job.
• June 16 – Whampoa Military Academy is founded in China.
• June 23 – American airman Russell Maughan flies from New York to San Francisco in 21 hours and 48 minutes on a dawn-to-dusk flight in a Curtiss pursuit.
• June 28 – A tornado touches down in Lorain, Ohio and kills 78 people.

July

• July 17 – Voting in federal elections becomes compulsory in Australia, after a private member's bill proposed by Tasmanian Nationalist senator Herbert Payne results in the passing of the Commonwealth Electoral (Compulsory Voting) Act 1924.
• July 20 – The Soviet sports newspaper Sovetskiy Sport is founded.

August

• August 16 – The Dawes Plan is accepted.
• August 18 – France begins to withdraw its troops from Germany.
• August 28 – Georgia rises against the Soviet Union in an abortive rebellion, in which several thousands die.

September

• September 9
  • The Hanapepe Massacre occurs on Kauai, Hawaii.
  • The 8-hour work day is introduced in Belgium.
• September 9–September 11 – The Kohat riots break out in India.
• September 28 – U.S. Army pilots John Harding and Erik Nelson complete the first round-the-world flight. It takes them 175 days and 74 stops before they finally returned to Seattle.

October

• October 2 – The Geneva Protocol is adopted by the League of Nations Assembly as a means to strengthen the League, but later fails to be ratified.
• October 10 – The Alpha Delta Gamma Fraternity is founded at the Lake Shore Campus of Loyola University, Chicago.
• October 12–October 15 – Zeppelin LZ-126 makes a transatlantic delivery flight from Friedrichshafen, Germany, to Lakehurst, New Jersey.
• October 19 – Abdul Aziz declares himself protector of holy places in Mecca.
• October 22 – The Toastmasters Club is founded.
• October 24 – Dixie Dean scores a hat-trick for Tranmere Rovers to become the youngest ever player to score three goals for The Superwhites.
• October 25
  • The British Foreign Office publishes the Zinoviev Letter.
  • British authorities in India arrest Subhas Chandra Bose and jail him for the next 2½ years.
• October 27 – The Uzbek SSR joins the Soviet Union.

November

• November 4
  • Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is elected as the first woman governor in the United States.
  • U.S. presidential election, 1924: Republican Calvin Coolidge defeats Democrat John W. Davis and Progressive Robert M. LaFollette, Sr.
• November 19 – In Los Angeles, California, famous silent film director Thomas Ince ("The Father of the Western") dies, reportedly of a heart attack, in his bed (rumors soon surface that he was shot dead by publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst).
• November 21 – Ali Fethi Okyar forms new government in Turkey. (3rd government)
• November 27 – In New York City the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held.

December

• December 1
  • A Soviet-backed communist coup attempt fails in Estonia.
  • George Gershwin's Lady Be Good and Fascinating Rhythm (book by Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson, lyrics by Ira Gershwin) premiere in New York, NY.
• December 19 – German serial killer Fritz Haarmann is sentenced to death for a series of murders.
• December 24
  • An air crash at Croydon Air Field in London kills 8.
  • Albania becomes a republic.
  • A flash fire at a Christmas celebration in a one-room schoolhouse in Babbs, Oklahoma kills 36 people, mostly small children.
• December 30 – Astronomer Edwin Hubble announces that Andromeda, previously believed to be a nebula, is actually another galaxy, and that the Milky Way is only one of many such galaxies in the universe.

Date unknown

• International Union of Official Organizations for Tourist Propaganda.
• The powerful opiate hydromorphone is developed in Germany.
• Earl W. Bascom, rodeo cowboy and artist, designs and makes rodeo's first one-hand bareback rigging at Stirling, Alberta Canada.
• Alice Vanderbilt Morris, a wealthy heiress, founds the International Auxiliary Language Association in New York
• André Breton defines surrealism as "pure psychic automatism" in the first Surrealist Manifesto.
• U.S. bootleggers begin to use Thompson submachine guns.
• The Earth Inductor Compass is invented in New York City.
• In the United States both the Renegade Period and the Apache Wars end which brings the American Indian Wars to a close after 302 years.

Births

January

• January 1 – Roberts Blossom, American actor and poet (d. 2011)
• January 3 – Hank Stram, American football coach and broadcaster (d. 2005)
• January 4 – Walter Ris, American freestyle swimmer (d. 1989)
• January 6 – Earl Scruggs, American musician (d. 2012)
• January 7 – Geoffrey Bayldon, British actor
• January 8 – Ron Moody, British actor
• January 10 – Max Roach, American percussionist, drummer, and composer (d. 2007)
• January 11
  • Roger Guillemin, French neuroendocrinologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
  • Sam B. Hall, American politician (d. 1994)
  • Slim Harpo, American musician (d. 1970)
• January 12 – Olivier Gendebien, Belgian race car driver (d. 1998)
• January 13 – Roland Petit, French choreographer/dancer (d. 2011)
• January 16 – Katy Jurado, Mexican actress (d. 2002)
• January 19 – Jean-Francois Revel, French author (d. 2006)
• January 21 – Benny Hill, English comedian and singer (d. 1992)
• January 23 – Frank Lautenberg, the senior United States Senator from New Jersey
• January 25 – Speedy West, American Musician (d. 2003)
• January 26 – Annette Strauss, American philanthropist and mayor of Dallas, Texas (d. 1998)
• January 27 – Sabu, Indian actor (d. 1963)
• January 28 – Betty Tucker, American female baseball player
• January 29 – Luigi Nono, Italian composer (d. 1990)
• January 30 – Lloyd Alexander, American writer (d. 2007)

February

• February 2 – Elfi von Dassanowsky, Austrian-born producer and musician (d. 2007)
• February 4
  • Dorothy Harrell, American female professional baseball player
  • Janet Waldo, American actress
• February 7 – Hattie Jacques, English actress (d. 1980)
• February 9 – George Guest, Welsh choral conductor (d. 2002)
• February 14 – Juan Ponce Enrile, Filipino politician, President of the Senate of the Philippines since 2008.
• February 17 – Margaret Truman, American novelist and only child of U.S. President Harry S. Truman and Bess Truman (d. 2008)
• February 19 – Lee Marvin, American actor (d. 1987)
• February 20
  • Gerson Goldhaber, American particle physicist and astrophysicist
  • Gloria Vanderbilt, American cosmetics entrepreneur
• February 21 – Robert Mugabe, first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe
• February 23 – Allan McLeod Cormack, South African physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1998)
• February 26 – Noboru Takeshita, Japanese politician (d. 2000)
• February 29 – Al Rosen, American baseball player

March

• March 1 – Deke Slayton, American astronaut (d. 1993)
• March 3
  • John Woodnutt, British actor (d. 2006)
  • Tomiichi Murayama, former Prime Minister of Japan
• March 3 – Lilian Velez, Filipino actress (d. 1948)
• March 4 – Kenneth O'Donnell, aide to U.S. President John F. Kennedy (d. 1977)
• March 7 – Kōbō Abe, Japanese novelist (d. 1993)
• March 15 – Walter Gotell, German actor (d. 1997)
• March 24 – Norman Fell, American actor (d. 1998)
• March 27
  • Sarah Vaughan, American jazz singer (d. 1990)
  • Herbert Zangs, German artist
• March 28 – Freddie Bartholomew, British actor (d. 1992)
• March 30 – Alan Davidson, British author (d. 2003)

April

• April 1 – Brendan Byrne, Governor of New Jersey
• April 3
  • Doris Day, American singer and actress
  • Marlon Brando, American actor (d. 2004)
  • Errol Brathwaite, New Zealand author (d. 2005)
  • Josephine Pullein-Thompson, British author
• April 4 – Gil Hodges, American baseball player (d. 1972)
• April 6 – Jimmy Roberts, American singer (d. 1999)
• April 7 – Johannes Mario Simmel, Austrian writer (d. 2009)
• April 9 – Milburn G. Apt, American test pilot (d. 1956)
• April 12 – Raymond Barre, French politician and Prime Minister (d. 2007)
• April 14 – Philip Stone, English actor (d. 2003)
• April 15 – Sir Neville Marriner, English conductor and violinist
• April 16 – Henry Mancini, American composer and arranger (d. 1994)
• April 18
  • Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, American blues musician (d. 2005)
  • Henry Hyde, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois (d. 2007)
• April 19 – Al Balding, Canadian golfer (d. 2006)
• April 20
  • Leslie Phillips, English actor
  • Nina Foch, Dutch-American actress (d. 2008)
• April 23 – Bobby Rosengarden, American jazz drummer (d. 2007)
• April 24
  • Clement Freud, British writer, radio personality, and politician (d. 2009)
  • Nahuel Moreno, Argentine Trotskyist leader (d. 1987)
• April 28 – Kenneth Kaunda, former President of Zambia

May

• May 1
  • Art Fleming, American television host and presenter (d. 1995)
  • Gregoire Kayibanda, former President of Rwanda (d. 1976)
• May 2 – Jamal Abro, Sindhi writer (d. 2004)
• May 10 – Zahrad, Western Armenian poet (d. 2007)
• May 11 – Antony Hewish, English radio astronomer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
• May 12 – Tony Hancock, English comedian (d. 1968)
• May 16 – Dawda Jawara, former President of the Gambia
• May 18 – Priscilla Pointer, American actress
• May 19 – Sandy Wilson, British composer
• May 22 – Charles Aznavour, French singer, actor, and songwriter
• May 24
  • Vincent Cronin, British historical writer and biographer
  • Maria Koepcke, German ornithologist (d. 1971)
• May 29
  • Lars Bo, Danish artist and writer (d. 1999)
  • Lavonne [Pepper] Paire Davis, American female baseball player

June

• June 1 – Dr. William Sloane Coffin, American clergyman (d. 2006)
• June 2 – June Callwood, Canadian journalist, author & social activist (d. 2007)
• June 3
  • Ted Mallie, American radio and television announcer (d. 1999)
  • Torsten Wiesel, Swedish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
  • Herk Harvey, American film director (d. 1996)
• June 4 – Dennis Weaver, American actor (d. 2006)
• June 12 – George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st President of the United States
• June 14 – James W. Black, British doctor (d. 2010)
• June 15 – Ezer Weizman, 7th President of Israel (d. 2005)
• June 17 – Charlotte Armstrong, American female baseball player (d. 2008)
• June 18 – George Mikan, American basketball player (d. 2005)
• June 20
  • Chet Atkins, American country guitar player and producer (d. 2001)
  • Audie Murphy, American World War II hero and actor (d. 1971)
• June 24 – Brian Bevan, Australian rugby league footballer (d. 1991)
• June 25 – Sidney Lumet, American film director (d. 2011)
• June 27 – Bob Appleyard, English cricketer
• June 29
  • Flo Sandon's, Italian singer (d. 2006)
  • Ezra Laderman, American composer

July

• July 3
  • S. R. Nathan, 6th president of Singapore
  • Michael Barrington, British actor (d. 1988)
• July 4 – Eva Marie Saint, American actress
• July 5
  • Niels Jannasch, Canadian historian and museum curator (d. 2001)
  • Osman Lins, Brazilian novelist (d. 1978)
  • János Starker, Hungarian cellist
• July 11
  • Brett Somers, (d. 2007)
  • Charlie Tully, Northern Irish footballer (d. 1971)
• July 13
  • Carlo Bergonzi, Italian tenor
  • Johnny Gilbert, American game show announcer
• July 15 – Makhmud Esambayev,(d. 2000)
• July 19
  • Stanley K. Hathaway, American politician (d. 2005)
  • Pat Hingle, American actor (d. 2009)
• July 20
  • Lola Albright, American actress
  • Tatyana Lioznova, Soviet film director (d. 2011)
• July 21 – Don Knotts, American actor (d. 2006)
• July 28 – Anne Braden, American civil rights activist (d. 2006)
• July 29
  • Robert Horton, American actor
  • Lillian Faralla, American female professional baseball player
  • Elizabeth Short (The Black Dahlia), American actress and murder victim (d. 1947)

August

• August 1
  • Georges Charpak, Ukrainian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2010)
  • King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
• August 2
  • Carroll O'Connor, American actor (d. 2001)
  • James Baldwin, American author (d. 1987)
• August 3 – Leon Uris, American writer (d. 2003)
• August 7 – Kenneth Kendall, British newsreader and presenter
• August 10 – Nancy Buckingham Sawyer (Christina Abbey, Erica Quest, Nancy John, Hilary London), British romance novelist.
• August 12
  • Derek Shackleton, English cricketer (d. 2007)
  • Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, leader of Pakistan (d. 1988)
• August 14 – Holger Juul Hansen, Danish actor
• August 15
  • Werner Abrolat, German actor (d. 1997)
  • Robert Bolt, English writer (d. 1995)
• August 16 – Inez Voyce, American female baseball player
• August 17 – Evan S. Connell, Jr., American novelist, poet, and short story-writer
• August 19 – Willard Boyle, Canadian physicist (d. 2011)
• August 23 – Robert Solow, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• August 24
  • Ahmadou Ahidjo, former President of Cameroon (d. 1989)
• August 28 – Peggy Ryan, American actress (d. 2004)
• August 29 – Consuelo Velázquez, Mexican songwriter (d. 2005)
• August 30 – Geoffrey Beene, American fashion designer (d. 2004)
• August 31 – Buddy Hackett, American comedian and actor (d. 2003)

September

• September 2
  • Daniel arap Moi, President of Kenya
  • Sidney Phillips, Physician and WW2 marine
• September 3 – Mary Grace Canfield, American actress
• September 4
  • Joan Aiken, English writer (d. 2004)
  • Anita Snellman, Finnish painter (d. 2006)
• September 5 – Paul Dietzel, College football coach
• September 7 – Daniel Inouye, American politician who is the senior United States Senator from Hawaii and the President pro tempore of the United States Senate
• September 8 – Mimi Parent, Canadian painter (d. 2005)
• September 9
  • Jane Greer, American actress (d. 2001)
  • Rik Van Steenbergen, Belgian cyclist (d. 2003)
• September 11
  • Tom Landry, American football player and coach (d. 2000)
  • Rudolf Vrba, escapee from Auschwitz (d. 2006)
• September 13 – Maurice Jarre, French composer (d. 2009)
• September 14 – Abioseh Nicol, Sierra Leonean diplomat and author (d. 1994)
• September 15 – Bobby Short, American entertainer (d. 2005)
• September 16 – Lauren Bacall, American actress
• September 19 – Don Harron, Canadian entertainer
• September 20 – Hermann Buhl, Austrian mountaineer (d. 1957)
• September 22
  • Charles Keeping, English illustrator (d. 1988)
  • Rosamunde Pilcher, English novelist
• September 23 – Heinrich Schultz, Estonian cultural functionary
• September 26 – Nina Bocharova, Soviet gymnast
• September 27 – Bernard Waber, American children's author
• September 30 – Truman Capote, American author (d. 1984)

October

• October 1
  • Jimmy Carter, President of the United States, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
  • William Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States (d. 2005)
• October 2 – Ruby Stephens, American female baseball player (d. 1996)
• October 8 – Alphons Egli, member of the Swiss Federal Council
  • John Nelder, British statistician
• October 10
  • Margaret Fulton, Australian food writer
  • Ed Wood, American filmmaker (d. 1978)
• October 11 – Mal Whitfield, American athlete
• October 13 – Moturu Udayam, Indian women's activist (d. 2002)
• October 14
  • José Arraño Acevedo, Chilean historian (d. 2009)
  • Robert Webber, American actor (d. 1989)
• October 15
  • Mark Lenard, American actor (d. 1996)
  • Lee Iacocca, American industrialist
• October 21
  • Celia Cruz, Cuban singer (d. 2003)
  • Joyce Randolph, American actress
• October 24 – Christine Glanville, English puppeteer (d. 1999)
• October 25 – Billy Barty, American actor (d. 2000)
• October 27 – Ruby Dee, American actress, poet, activist, journalist and second wife of Ossie Davis

November

• November 1 – Suleyman Demirel, former President of Turkey
• November 6
  • Jeanette Schmid, famous German whistler (d. 2005)
  • Harlon Block, U.S. Marine flag raiser on Iwo Jima (d. 1945)
• November 9 – Robert Frank, Swiss Photographer
• November 10 – Russell Johnson, American actor
• November 11 – Evelyn Wawryshyn, Canadian professional baseball player
• November 13
  • Motoo Kimura, Japanese population geneticist (d. 1994)
  • Edward F. Welch, Jr., American admiral (d. 2008)
• November 19 – William Russell, British actor
• November 20 – Benoît Mandelbrot, Polish-born mathematician (d. 2010)
• November 23 – Anita Linda, Filipino actress
• November 24
  • Mel Patton, American athlete
  • Joanne Winter, American female professional baseball pitcher and LPGA player (d. 1996)
• November 25 – Takaaki Yoshimoto, Japanese poet, critic, and philosopher.
• November 28 – Dennis Brutus, South African poet and anti-Apartheid activist (d. 2009)

December

• December 2 – Alexander M. Haig, Jr., American politician and former U.S. Secretary of State (d. 2010)
• December 3 – Francisco Sionil José, Filipino novelist, Philippine National Artist for Literature
• December 6 – Wally Cox, television and motion picture actor (d. 1973)
• December 7
  • Bent Fabric, Danish pianist and composer.
  • Mario Soares, former President of Portugal
• December 12
  • Ed Koch, Mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989
  • Robert Coogan, American actor (d. 1978)
• December 13 – Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, 30th Prime Minister of Nepal (d. 2011)
• December 17 – Margaret Wigiser, American female professional baseball player
• December 23 – Bob Kurland, American basketball player
• December 24 – Mohammed Rafi, Indian playback singer (d. 1980)
• December 25
  • Rod Serling, American television screenwriter (d. 1975)
  • Atal Behari Vajpayee, tenth Prime Minister of India
  • Moktar Ould Daddah, first President of Mauritania (d. 2003)
• December 28 – Milton Obote, President of Uganda (d. 2005)
• December 31
  • Taylor Mead, American actor
  • Frank J. Kelley, the 50th Michigan Attorney General

Deaths

January–June

• January 2 – Sabine Baring-Gould, English composer and novelist (b. 1834)
• January 4 – John Peters, American 19th century baseball player (b. 1850)
• January 13 – Georg Hermann Quincke, German physicist (b. 1834)
• January 14 – Luther Emmett Holt, American pediatrician (b. 1855)
• January 16 – Licerio Gerónimo, Filipino military leader (b. 1855)
• January 21 – Vladimir Lenin, Russian revolutionary and first Premier of the Soviet Union (b. 1870)
• January 24 – Marie-Adélaïde, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (b. 1894)
• February 3 – Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1856)
• February 17 – Henry Bacon, American architect (b. 1866)
• March 9
  • Panagiotis Danglis, Greek military leader and politician (b. 1853)
  • Daniel Ridgway Knight, American artist (b. 1839)
• March 22 – Louis Delluc, French film director (b. 1890)
• March 24 – Prince Kwacho Hirotada of Japan (b. 1902)
• March 29 – Charles Villiers Stanford, Irish composer, resident in England (b. 1852)
• April 14 – Louis Sullivan, American architect (b. 1856)
• April 21 – Eleonora Duse, Italian actress (b. 1858)
• May 4 – E. Nesbit, English author (b. 1858)
• May 15 – Paul-Henri-Benjamin d'Estournelles de Constant, French diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1852)
• May 26 – Victor Herbert, Irish dramatist (b. 1859)
• May 31 – Charles Stockton, American admiral (b. 1845)
• June 3 – Franz Kafka, Austrian author (The Trial) (b. 1883)
• June 9
  • George Mallory, English mountain climber (lost on Mount Everest) (b. 1886)
  • Andrew Irvine, English mountain climber (lost on Mount Everest) (b. 1902)
• June 11 – Théodore Dubois, French composer and teacher (b. 1837)

July–December

• July 7 – Calvin Coolidge, Jr., son of U.S. President Calvin Coolidge (b. 1908)
• July 14
  • Isabella Ford, English socialist, feminist, trade unionist and writer (b. 1855)
  • Isabella Stewart Gardner, American art collector and philanthropist (b. 1840)
• July 23 – Frank Frost Abbott, American classical scholar (b. 1860)
• July 27 – Ferruccio Busoni, Italian pianist and composer (b. 1866)
• August 3 – Joseph Conrad, Polish-born author (b. 1857)
• August 7 – Bruce Grit, ex-slave and African-American historian
• August 15 – Francis Knollys, 1st Viscount Knollys, British Private Secretary to King Edward VII. (b. 1837)
• August 17 – Pavel Urysohn, Russian mathematician (b. 1898)
• August 23 – Heinrich Berté, Austrian operetta composer (. 1858)
• August 25 – Mariano Álvarez, Filipino general (b. 1818)
• August 31 – Todor Aleksandrov, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1881)
• September 6 – Archduchess Marie Valerie of Austria (b. 1868)
• September 15 – Frank Chance, baseball player and manager (b. 1877)
• October 12 – Anatole France, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1844)
• October 29
  • Frances Hodgson Burnett, Anglo-American writer (b. 1849)
  • John Marden, Australian headmaster and pioneer of women's education (b. 1855)
• November 4 – Gabriel Fauré, French composer (b. 1845)
• November 9 – Henry Cabot Lodge, American politician (b. 1850)
• November 10 – Sir Archibald Geikie, Scottish geologist (b. 1835)
• November 19 – Thomas Ince, American film producer (b. 1882)
• November 21 – Florence Kling Harding, First Lady of the U.S. (b. 1860)
• November 29 – Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer (b. 1858)
• December 2 – Kazimieras Būga, Lithuanian linguist (b. 1879)
• December 6 – Gene Stratton-Porter, American author, screenwriter and naturalist (b. 1863)
• December 13 – Samuel Gompers, American labor leader (b. 1850)
• December 29 – Carl Spitteler, Swiss writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1845)
• December 31 – Sir Samuel William Knaggs, British civil servant (b. 1856)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Manne Siegbahn
• Chemistry – Not awarded
• Physiology or Medicine – Willem Einthoven
• Literature – Władysław Stanisław Reymont
• Peace – Not awarded