Day by Day 1924

A day by day listing of worldwide and local events in the year 1924. (This is identical to the Long Years Between - 1924 document.)

1924

January

1st - H. L. Mencken, famed satirist, critic, and newspaperman for the ''Baltimore Sun, publishes the first issue of his new magazine, The American Mercury''. Though conservatively packaged, the magazine is pure Mencken, full of elegantly irreverent observations of American life, satire, and provocation against most everything, especially everything conservative. It is made specifically for the “sophisticated” reader, with an inborn skepticism of populism, and is filled with his controversial views, going from atheism, an admiration of Nietzsche, to essays against democracy, patriotism, marriage, censorship, prohibition, religion, socialism, anarchism, even morality itself. The January issue sells over 15,000 copies and the magazine is wildly successful, adopted nearly wholesale by the “sophisticated” public, particularly collegiate youths.

16th - The Irish Free State reauthorizes the Public Safety Act, allowing for continued suspension of habeas corpus, until January 31st, 1925.

21st - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Premier of the Communist Soviet Union, dies at the age of 53. Over a million mourners view his body as it lies in state in Moscow. In all but name, Joseph Stalin succeeds him as the head of the Soviet Union.

24th - Edward L. Doheny, a very wealthy oil magnate and lessee of a former Naval Oil Reserve, is called to testify before the Committee on Public Lands and Surveys on the existence of $100,000 more than there should be in the bank account of Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall, under whose authority the naval reserve was leased to Doheny. Doheny claims to have loaned $100,000 to Fall, to accommodate an old friend, the amount being “just a bagatelle” to him. He is eventually able to produce a note concerning the transaction, which is missing his signature, reportedly because he tore it off for fear he might die, leaving Fall to be unduly pressed by executors, and then promptly lost said signature. The admission, along with the absurd testimony, is a breakthrough in the investigation, spurring newspaper attention and national controversy.

25th - The first Winter Olympic Games are held in Chamonix, France, with sixteen nations sending athletes to participate. The United States is one, and takes home four medals. Norway is by far the most successful nation in the games, leaving with eighteen medals total, four of which are gold.

27th - Following Doheny’s testimony before the Committee on Public Lands and Surveys, President Coolidge announces his appointment of two special prosecutors, Owen Roberts and Atlee Pomerene, to investigate the accusations against Fall, Sinclair and Doheny.

February

1st - The Irish Boundary Commission meets for the first time. Northern Ireland snubs the commission, insisting it is entitled to the six counties established under the Government of Ireland Act of 1920. The UK appoints a representative on their behalf, Joseph R. Fisher, a Unionist newspaper editor, author and barrister. Representing the UK itself is Justice Richard Feetham, who also serves as Chairman. Finally, Eoin MacNeill, the Minister for Education, represents the Irish Free State. MacNeill interprets the Treaty as reading that the commission should redraw the border according to Nationalist and Unionist majorities, each going their separate ways, and so believes County Tyrone, County Fermanagh, the city of Derry and several districts of County Armagh and County Londonderry should be made part of the Free State, which would make Northern Ireland completely unviable.

3rd - President Woodrow Wilson, long kept from the public eye by illness and reclusiveness, dies quietly at home.

12th - Paul Whiteman organizes a classical music/jazz concert called ''An Experiment in Modern Music'', performed by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, accompanied on the piano by George Gershwin. The concert marks the debut performance of Gershwin’s ''Rhapsody in Blue'', which is received brilliantly, and quickly becomes Gershwin’s and Whiteman’s most famous work.

16th - The Maine Ku Klux Klan dedicates its headquarters in Portland, Maine, at a ceremony attended by some 3,000 Klansmen from all over the state and several adjacent. 200 new members are initiated under a burning cross. The Klan is coming to be regarded as an unsavory but unavoidable fact of New England politics.

26th - Adolf Hitler’s trial for his actions in the Beer Hall Putsch begins. He is charged with high treason, and argues eloquently for the righteousness of his actions, as being motivated by concern for the good of the people and their welfare in a world increasingly dangerous for Germany and Germans.

March

1st - In response to numerous substantiated allegations that Daugherty had been using the BI as a weapon against Senators and Congressmen he considered his enemies, the Senate resolves to investigate the Department of Justice. John H. W. Crim, chief of the Criminal Division, is willing to talk, considering his impending retirement. His advice is simple - “Get rid of this Bureau of Investigation as organized.”  Attorney General Daugherty is subpoenaed, the Senate demanding the Bureau’s internal records. Daugherty defies the order.

- The Irish Boundary Commission adjourns after a month of fruitless negotiations.

5th - The American Eastern Seaboard is treated to a beautiful solar eclipse.

13th - Coolidge’s special prosecutors file a lawsuit against Sinclair’s Mammoth Oil Company.

16th - With the criminal trials of Joseph Pelletier, Daniel Coakley and William Corcoran, all charged with blackmail, close to beginning, Joseph Pelletier suddenly dies. Family members claim pneumonia, while Coakley announces he died of a “broken heart.”  Rumors fly that Joseph C. Pelletier, disgraced politician and resigned luminary of the Knights of Columbus, committed suicide.

28th - Responding to pressure from other cabinet members, President Coolidge finally demands Daugherty’s resignation from the post of Attorney General of the United States. Daugherty steps down.

31st - Harry F. Sinclair of Mammoth Oil Company refuses to testify before the Senate Committee on Public Lands and Surveys, and is subsequently charged with contempt of Congress.

April

1st - Adolf Hitler is convicted of high treason, though it is generally accepted that he had honourable but misguided motives in his attempt to seize control of the government. He is sentenced to five years to be served at Landsberg am Lech.

6th - General elections for Parliament are held in Italy. Under the Acerbo Law passed the year previous, any political party that garners the largest share of the votes cast will automatically gain two-thirds of the seats of Parliament, with the last third divided among the other parties proportionally. The law itself is an obvious ploy by Mussolini to consolidate power under the National Fascist Party. Largely through voter intimidation, rigged elections, and political violence, the National Fascist Party receives 64% of the popular vote. Mussolini continues to establish his growing dictatorship.

8th - Harlan Fiske Stone is sworn in as Attorney General of the United States. He spends the next month patiently interviewing Justice Department employees and taking the pulse of the Department in general, focusing particularly on the scandal-ridden Bureau of Investigation.

16th - Publishing house Simon and Schuster, completely unknown and barely established a couple months previous, publish as one of their initial offerings a “Cross-Word-Puzzle Book,” complete with pencil attached. They offer for their promotion campaign the following parallel:

1921 - Coue

1922 - Mah Jong

1923 - Bananas

1924 - THE CROSS-WORD-PUZZLE BOOK

It becomes a bestseller within a month and quickly takes its place among America’s current obsessions, selling thousands of copies by the end of the year. So popular is this new puzzle book that there are reports of a man being arrested in New York for refusing to leave a restaurant after sitting there for four hours trying to solve a puzzle, of a Chicago woman who is said to be a “cross-word widow,” as her husband is too busy with puzzles to support her, and railways placing dictionaries in all the trains on their main lines. Simon and Schuster are suddenly a household name and a modern American success.

21st - In Georgetown, Massachusetts, as James Curley speaks in Town Hall for his governor run, someone erects a large cross on a nearby hill and sets it on fire. Emerging from town hall with his wife, Curley spies it across town. After he finishes shaking hands, he walks to the cross and unceremoniously kicks it over.

25th - Charles Francis Murphy, since 1902 the leader of New York City’s famed Democratic powerhouse, Tammany Hall, dies suddenly in his home of acute indigestion which affected his heart. The man largely seen responsible for rescuing Tammany from a reputation of criminality under its previous bosses, Murphy’s death is especially unlucky for one of his proteges and shining stars - current New York state Governor Al Smith, considered the frontrunner for the Democratic Presidential nomination, to be decided in only two months. Smith, a prominent wet and Catholic, already controversial aspects in an America infested with the Ku Klux Klan and the Anti-Saloon League, looks dubious as a serious contender, despite an impressive record as Governor, prodigious political skill, and his popularity among nearly every demographic of his home state. Without Murphy’s acumen and support, Smith’s prospects look severely diminished.

May

3rd - F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald leave America for France, settling in Paris.

6th - Rose Kennedy, daughter of former Boston mayor John Fitzgerald, gives birth to her and banker Joseph P. Kennedy’s sixth child, which birth the newspapers dutifully report. All goes well and they name their fourth daughter Patricia.

9th - Attorney General Stone fires William J. Burns from his post as Director of the Bureau of Investigation.

10th - Stone assumes command of the BI and places J. Edgar Hoover in the position of acting Director of the Bureau, effectively putting him on trial for the time being until the Bureau is cleaned up.

15th - President Coolidge vetoes another version of the Adjusted Compensation Act, saying, “Patriotism...bought and sold is not patriotism.”

18th - Congress overrides President Coolidge’s veto and the Adjusted Compensation Act becomes law. Certificates representing the bonus are to be awarded on the veteran’s birthday after January 1, 1925, and can be redeemed in full on his birthday in 1945.

21st - The body of 14-year-old Bobby Franks is found near Chicago, his skull having been bashed in by a long, pointed weapon, probably a chisel, and hydrochloric acid dumped over him to make identification more difficult. The boy’s mother had also received a call saying her son had been kidnapped and received a ransom note in the mail. Police find a pair of distinctive eyeglasses near the body.

26th - President Coolidge signs into law the Immigration Act of 1924, a revision of the Emergency Quota Act. It tightens the restrictions of the latter, making the number of immigrants allowed into the country just 2% of their number in the country by census and expanding the prohibition to all countries, not just European ones. The ratio is still established by the 1890 census, taken before the influx of “undesirable” aliens, such as Jews, Arabs, Greeks and others..

-Ohio Republican Congressman Israel Moore Foster offers a proposed constitutional amendment giving the United States Congress the ability to limit, regulate, or ban employment for persons under 18. Child labor is an increasingly controversial fact of industrial life, and the resolution is adopted in vote with 297 yeas, 69 nays, 2 absent, and 64 not voting.

31st - Nathan Freudenthal Leopold, Jr., and Richard Albert Loeb, both wealthy, extremely gifted University of Chicago law students, are arrested for the murder of Bobby Franks. The detectives state that they identified them through the lost eyeglasses, which had been purchased by only four people in the entire city. Both live in the same neighborhood as the Franks family.

June

2nd - The Child Labor Amendment, first introduced in Congress approximately a week ago, is now introduced in the United States Senate by Thomas J. Walsh, a Catholic Montana Democrat. The amendment is widely understood to ban child labor. Social opinion on the matter is relatively divided, particularly among Catholics, but tends to lean towards at least tighter child labor laws to control the many, oft-reported abuses. It is adopted by the Senate with 61 yeas, 23 nays, and 12 not voting. The amendment is now open to vote by each individual state, with 36 ratifications needed to become a Constitutional Amendment.

4th - In light of the upcoming National Conventions and the following Presidential election, the Ku Klux Klan steps up recruitment efforts to make their approved candidates the nominees throughout the country, especially in New England, under the auspices of King Kleagle Farnsworth. In Foxboro, the small town just a few miles south of Boston where the first burning cross in the region was seen the year previous, local police are kept busy removing KKK posters in the center of town.

10th-12th - The Republican National Convention is held in Cleveland, Ohio. Incumbent President Calvin Coolidge is nominated for the Presidency, with former Brigadier General and Director of the Budget Bureau Charles G. Dawes as his running mate.

17th - As Irish Catholic New York Governor Al Smith gathers steam as a potential Presidential candidate to be nominated in the upcoming Democratic National Convention, the KKK continue to step up Anti-Catholic activity, especially closer to Boston, an Irish Catholic stronghold. In Foxboro, a nexus of Klan activity of late, an angry crowd of fully dressed Klansmen congregates on the lawn of St. Mary’s Church, the local Catholic church. Fr. Michael A. Butler rushes from the rectory and confronts the crowd with a gathering group of parishioners, daring them to action and provoking a tense stand-off. Finally, the Klan back off and disperse.

24th - The Democratic National Convention opens in New York City. It is predicted to be a fierce contest, between William Gibbs McAdoo, a Tennessee politician, former Wilson appointee, son-in-law of the now deceased Wilson, and the erstwhile frontrunner, and Governor Al Smith of New York, a charismatic Irish Catholic known for his wet stance and effective progressive record. McAdoo is hurt by connections to oilman Edward Doheny, the nexus of the developing Teapot Dome Scandal, and by his endorsement from the Ku Klux Klan, currently marching down the streets of Washington D.C. to demonstrate their power and influence in both parties, which endorsement he has not rejected. Al Smith is attacked, especially by the KKK, as an immoral Catholic hailing from “Jew York.” The Democratic party is placed in an impossible bind - to nominate McAdoo would antagonize American Catholics and immigrants, who constitute a usually reliable significant portion of the party’s membership, but to nominate Smith would solidify anti-Catholic forces against the party and lose it millions of certain votes throughout the American South and elsewhere.

26th - The Democratic Convention heats up considerably when the issue of the Klan is debated amongst the delegates and the Platform Committee, who decide not to condemn the Klan by name but simply to issue a general condemnation of bigotry and intolerance. George Brennan of Illinois, the leader of Smith’s faction, demands that the Klan be denounced by name, possibly out of a desire to make of it a contest of political strength between the two potential candidates. William Jennings Bryan, long time Democrat stalwart and powerhouse, argues that to name them would only divide the party needlessly, not to mention give the Klan more publicity. In the ensuing vote, the Klan barely escapes censure. In response, thousands of Klansmen rally in a field opposite the Convention Hall, calling the gathering a “Klanbake” and attracting many Klan-allied and supported delegates, accompanied by burning crosses and speeches advocating intimidation of and violence towards African-Americans, immigrants, and Catholics. Effigies of Smith are attacked and burnt throughout the gathering and the convention.

-Brokerage house, and Wall Street powerhouse, E.M. Fuller and Co. suddenly collapses, declaring bankruptcy and losing investors a total northwards of $5 million. The abrupt and unforeseen collapse fuels suspicions of shady or even outright illegal activity, especially following reports detailing connections of firm owners Edward Fuller and W. Frank McGee with notorious gambler Arnold Rothstein, supposed fixer of the 1919 World Series. One of a fleet of brokerage houses known as “bucket shops”, their collapse sends shockwaves throughout the business, heralding a major change and other imminent bankruptcies.

30th - The first day of balloting in the Convention sees 15 ballots, all with McAdoo leading, followed closely by Smith, both making gains throughout the day, but neither coming close to the two-thirds majority needed to be nominated. Balloting continues.

- The special prosecutors assigned by President Coolidge to investigate the bribery accusations against former Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall gain indictments against Fall, as well as oilmen Harry Sinclair and Edward Doheny.

July

3rd - Following the 61st inconclusive round of balloting, the Democratic National Convention has set a new record for the most ballots cast in one convention. Ballots continue as leading candidates McAdoo and Smith continue to vie for their candidacies, attempting many political schemes to edge the other out and finally claim victory virtually by default. In particular, Smith’s Tammany supporters work to lengthen the convention to dry up the out of state delegate’s hotel allowance, and also try to stampede the delegates by packing the galleries with noisy rooters. McAdoo’s supporters attempt to move the convention to another location, which attempt is stymied by Smith’s faction.

4th - William H. Anderson, the controversial “Dry Crusader,” is convicted of forgery, doctoring the New York branch of the Anti-Saloon League’s finances and siphoning funds from them for his personal use, and sentenced to two years in prison. He is shipped to Sing Sing, dropped from membership in the Anti-Saloon League and disowned by all but a few close allies. Following these revelations, donations to the New York Anti-Saloon League drop precipitously and the organization begins to fall deep into debt.

6th - With the number of ballots cast edging closer to 100, the received wisdom is that neither McAdoo or Smith, each having just enough of a base of support to veto the actions of the other, will become the Democratic nominee. Instead, John W. Davis, a rather dry Wall Street lawyer who has consistently held third throughout the scores of ballots despite having no real desire for the Presidency, and Samuel Ralston, an Indiana ex-Senator and Governor with a record for conservative policies, the backing of the KKK, and a favorite compromise of the conservative wing of the party who has recently become something of a dark horse candidate despite his bad health, are considered distinct possibilities for the Democratic nomination.

7th - Calvin Coolidge, Jr., the second of President Coolidge’s two sons, just barely 16, dies suddenly of blood poisoning. His death is a savage blow to “Silent Cal” and brings him a great deal of public sympathy.

8th - Ralston receives a significant push in the 87th ballot, the first of the day, which push continues throughout the day, particularly once McAdoo supporters turn to Ralston as their best compromise option, swelling him to 200 votes, more than Davis had ever received in any ballot and coming close to Smith and McAdoo totals. His nomination seems certain until he suddenly withdraws, heeding his doctor’s advice not to run while significantly weakened by age and his 300 pound weight, also considering the sickness of his family. With only Davis left as a significant contender for the compromise, it only takes a few more ballots for the nomination to finally go to him with the 103rd ballot. His running mate, Governor Charles W. Bryan of Nebraska, brother of William Jennings Bryan, and considered something of a conservative radical, is approved in one ballot, despite boos emanating from the audience upon his nomination. With Davis, a distinguished Wall Street lawyer, and Bryan, a radical from a prairie state, running together, the ticket has a rather schizoid quality, lengthening its already distant prospects for victory.

13th - A French noble by the name of Edouard Jozan, who had been living next to the Fitzgerald’s, temporarily skips town. It’s rumored he and Zelda Fitzgerald had been carrying on an affair.

16th - Just shy of a year since his initial arrest, Eamon de Valera is released from prison by the Irish Free State. He immediately resumes political work.

21st - The trial of Leopold and Loeb, as the killers of Bobby Franks have begun to be known, begins. It receives incredible press coverage, another in a series of sensational murder trials covered in exacting detail by a hungry press. Loeb’s family has hired famed defense attorney Clarence Darrow, an opponent of capital punishment, to represent both men. Following Darrow’s advice, both men plead guilty to murder and kidnapping. As the trial proceeds, the motives and grisly details of the murder are revealed to the public. Both men admit that, despite the ransom note, money was not the motive for the killing of Bobby Franks - they already had all the money they could want. They had thought of themselves as Nietzschean supermen, superior in every way to ordinary people, and that they could get away with the perfect crime - Leopold and Loeb killed Bobby Franks to prove their superior status and for the thrill of the kill. It is dubbed the “Trial of the Century” by the press.

August

13th - Following the announcement that the Child Labor Amendment would be voted for ratification in Massachusetts as part of the upcoming election, Mayor Curley comes out strongly for it, having advocated such laws for years and declaring, “I emphatically favor the ratification of the child labor amendment to the United States Constitution by the Legislature of Massachusetts. I consider the employment of children in industry a crime against Christianity, civilization, and humanity.” He delivers a speech in favor of the amendment over the radio, an increasingly utilized new tool in politics, used especially well by Curley, whose voice seems tailor made for the instrument.

September

1st - Louis Armstrong, a jazz trumpeter of incredible skill, first arrives in New York, joining the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. He begins to be more and more well known, recording with great musicians, slowly moving from obscurity to notoriety.

2nd - Speaking at Westfield, James Curley is handed a Klan pamphlet and informed that the Klankread, the Klan newspaper, is being distributed amongst the crowd. He pledges that, as governor, he will “secure a number of cattle cars, fill them with that collection of skunks, coyotes, and muskrats and send them to the land of the hookworm.”

8th - Ralph Owen Brewster, Republican candidate supported by the Ku Klux Klan, wins the governorship of Maine against William R. Pattangall, the Democratic candidate. The Klan was the most important issue of the campaign, which ended up becoming something of a referendum on the organization, with Brewster claiming no membership in the organization but agreeing with many of their platforms and accepting warmly their support. Clearly, the vote turns out in favor of the Klan and fulfills King Kleage Farnsworth’s declaration the year previous that they would elect the next governor of Maine. Former Maine Governor and Republican stalwart Percival Baxter denounces Brewster and the Klan, referring to the latter as “an insult and an affront to Americans.” The power of the KKK begins to split the Republican party in Maine.

- Florida real estate developer Carl Fisher has made $6 million in the last year alone selling real estate. Reports of the doubling and tripling of real estate prices increase the number of people going to Florida, in an attempt to run away with millions, from a river to a deluge.

19th - Following impassioned arguments from both sides, and a speech widely considered to be one of the best, so far, of Darrow’s long career, Judge John R. Caverly sentences both Leopold and Loeb to life imprisonment for the murder of Bobby Franks and a further 99 years each for the kidnapping. Caverly mainly gives this ruling, as opposed to the death penalty, because the defendants, each being under 21 years old, are legal minors..

October

1st - Having spent the last year presiding over hearings concerning numerous motions for a retrial of the Sacco and Vanzetti case, Judge Thayer denies all such motions. The defense appeals his denial to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

- James Curley’s main opponent in the race for Governor, current Lieutenant Governor Alvan T. Fuller waves the Klan issue out of the campaign, flatly declaring his opposition to them. However, Curley continues to work off the issue, charging that the secret organization has 130,000 members throughout Massachusetts, operating in “secret alliance with the Republican party.” At a rally in Athol, Curley challenges, “I understand there are Klansmen hereabouts. I would like to announce that after this meeting my secretary and I are traveling alone to Gardner. If any Klansmen wish to meet us on the dark and lonely road and try something, they are welcome to make the attempt.”

3rd - As Curley and Fuller continue campaigning throughout the state, the KKK in the towns surrounding Boston and elsewhere in rural Massachusetts continue to step up their recruitment efforts, holding an open air meeting in Norton, again near St. Mary’s Church. They are understood to be gathering from the surrounding towns, and 20 new initiates sign up. Caravans drive through town streets, the front car fitted with a large cross illuminated by red, white, and blue electric lights, their passengers in full regalia.

5th - At the order of Cardinal O’Connell, every priest in the New England archdiocese speaks out against the Child Labor Amendment, to be voted upon in a month, at mass. The reasoning seems generally to rest upon the familiar, oft-supported, suspicion of reform and the feeling that a law that substituted the authority of the state for that of the parent is Bolshevism.

8th - Having just the day before reiterated his support of the Child Labor Amendment, Mayor Curley now reverses himself in a radio address, denouncing the amendment as “a Bolshevistic scheme” drafted by “the former Miss Wichnewetski, a professional Socialist, translator for the Archive fur Sozialegestzebung.” Support for the amendment begins to wane across the state, especially amongst the Catholic population.

12th - After months of quiet, Gerald “the Gentleman Bandit” Chapman and “Dutch” Anderson pull another robbery, this time a department store in New Britain, Connecticut, working in conjunction with Walter Shean, a career criminal from Springfield, Massachusetts. Acting on a tip from a neighbor, five policemen arrive on scene to investigate. Chapman is forced to shoot his way out, and does so, hitting an Officer Skelly in the stomach before fleeing out the front door. Walter Shean, however, is captured, and soon names Chapman and Anderson as being involved in the robbery, with Chapman doing the shooting. Officer Skelly dies later that night.

18th - New York socialite Leonard “Kip” Rhinelander, heir to the Rhinelander fortune, elopes with a domestic servant. His family is furious and newspapers get busy looking into the girl’s past.

- In a college football game against the University of Michigan, undefeated for 20 games, Red Grange of the University of Illinois returns the opening kickoff for a 95 yard touchdown. He goes on to score 3 more touchdowns against Michigan within the first twelve minutes, equalling the number of touchdowns scored against Michigan for the entirety of the last two seasons. Grange takes two more touchdowns before the game is finished, with Illinois defeating Michigan 39-14. Americans in general take a greater interest in the sport of football as a result of Grange’s stunning performance.

21st - Edward L. Doheny’s trial for his actions in the Teapot Dome scandal begins. So far, the public takes only a mild interest in the news of the scandal.

24th - Receiving criticism from the ACLU for his decision to ban the Klan from holding meetings in Boston, Mayor Curley replies, “This is a law-abiding community, and it will not be transformed into a Klan-infested province of Texas or Oklahoma or...the backlots of Maine without opposition.” He further takes the opportunity to denounce “Silent Cal”, referring to the President now running for reelection, for winking at the Klan and saying nothing concerning them, declaring “there will never be happiness in this state until the Ku Klux Klan has been wiped out. Once I am situated on Beacon Hill, the Ku Klux Klan will cease to exist in Massachusetts.” His critics note a marked change from the man who overrode objections and allowed Birth of a Nation, widely reputed as the singular event responsible for the resurgence of the Klan, to be shown in 1916 in movie theaters throughout Boston despite opposition throughout the city and particularly from the negro community.

25th - The largest Ku Klux Klan meeting ever held in New England to date occurs at Worcester, Massachusetts, in the Agricultural Fairgrounds. Klansmen, supporters, and new recruits awaiting a mass induction ceremony swell the crowd to over 15,000, presided over by F. Eugene Farnsworth, King Kleagle of the New England area. Hundreds of guards are hired by the Klan, but despite such efforts a riot breaks out following the close of the meeting, with Klansmen cars stoned and burned, their windows smashed, and Klansmen themselves pulled from cars and beaten in the street. The situation rages out of control for most the night and Massachusetts Governor Channing Cox decides to send state police to prevent violence at future Klan rallies.

- Digging into the past of Alice Jones, the new wife of Kip Rhinelander, the ''New Rochelle Standard Star'' uncovers sensational news and immediately prints it, headlined, “Rhinelander’s Son Marries Daughter of Colored Man.”  Thousands of local and national newspapers pick up the scandal.

26th - As more and more flaming crosses appear in towns across Massachusetts, always accompanying Curley, providing him the opportunity to denounce the Klan and castigate the Republicans on their silence, some politicians question the consistent timeliness of the crosses. Representative Elijah Adlow, a Roxbury Republican, charges, “There are four million people in Massachusetts and the only one who has ever found a burning cross is James M. Curley. The only one who wants Ku Kluxers burning crosses in this state is James M. Curley, because he must have an issue to run on and he hasn’t any other issue.” Elihu Stone, an assistant district attorney, adds to the critique, branding Curley an “inverted Klansman,” playing up the organization for political gain.

29th - Mayor Curley responds to Adlow and Stone’s comments, dismissing both as Fuller’s “janizzaries,” and taking a swipe at their religion, saying the only Jews who entered politics were those who lacked the capacity to succeed in business.

November

2nd - Kip Rhinelander leaves Alice and signs an annulment complaint prepared by his father’s lawyers, charging Alice with hiding her race from her husband. Alice challenges the complaint, taking the case to court.

4th - Calvin Coolidge easily defeats John W. Davis for the Presidency.

- The British general election is held. In Northern Ireland, Unionists sweep the Parliamentary elections.

6th - A hotly debated referendum is narrowly passed by approximately 53,000 to 51,000 votes, reversing the reform legislation of 1909 concerning the Boston City Council. As before 1909, a system of City Council by wards is reinstated, though now only 22 seats are available, as opposed to scores in previous years. The elections remain nominally nonpartisan.

- Alvan T. Fuller carries 350 of Massachusetts’ 351 cities and towns, all except Boston, and sweeps James M. Curley 641,000 to 482,000 in the race for Governor.

8th - The Irish Free State declares a general amnesty for acts committed during the Irish Civil War. Numerous Republicans are still held in prison.

10th - Notorious Northside Chicago gangster Dean O’Banion is assassinated in his flower shop by rival bootleggers, reportedly the men of Al Capone, a mobster of violent reputation, and his boss, John Torrio. O’Banion’s lavish funeral is attended by thousands, and gang warfare between O’Banion’s Northside mob and Torrio’s Southside mob begins to blossom across the city.

December

8th - Prime Minister of Northern Ireland James Craig rejects the Free State contention that the Anglo-Irish Treaty authorizes the Boundary Commission to make major changes to the boundary, and negotiations continue to stall.

20th - Adolf Hitler is released from prison, having received a pardon from the Bavarian Supreme Court. He had served just over one year.