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

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.