1924

• January 21 - Vladimir Lenin dies and Joseph Stalin begins to purge his rivals to clear way for his leadership.
• January 22 - Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister.
• January 24 - St. Petersburg, Russia is renamed Leningrad
• January 25 - The 1924 Winter Olympics open in Chamonix, France (in the French Alps), inaugurating the Winter Olympic Games.
• February 5 - GMT: Hourly time signals from Royal Greenwich Observatory are broadcasted for the first time.
• February 8 - Death penalty: The first state execution using gas in the United States takes place in Nevada.
• February 14 - IBM corporation founded.
• February 22 - Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House.
• March 3 - 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 9 - Italy annexes Fiume
• March 25 - Greece proclaims it is a republic.
• April 1 - Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years in jail for his participation in the "Beer Hall Putsch." However he was only in jail for nine months.
• May 4 - The 1924 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies held in Paris, France.
• May 10 - J. Edgar Hoover is appointed head the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
• May 21 - University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing."
• June 16 - Whampoa Military Academy is founded
• October 2 - The Geneva Protocol is adopted as a means to strengthen the League of Nations.
• November 4 - Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming elected as the first woman governor in the United States.
• November - Calvin Coolidge defeats John W. Davis in the U.S. presidential election
• 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 27 - In the New York City the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held.
• December 24 - Albania becomes a republic
• December 30 - Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies.

• Andre Breton founds surrealism, defining it as "pure psychic automatism"

• 1924 in aviation
• 1924 in film
  • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) considers making a silent film of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. MGM and Frank J. Baum failed to come to an agreement so the rights were sold to Chadwick Pictures.
• 1924 in literature
• 1924 in music
  • "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin
• 1924 in sports
  • February 17 - In Miami, Florida, Johnny Weissmuller sets a new world record in the 100-yard freestyle swimming competition with a time of 52-2/5 seconds.
  • February 24 - Johnny Weissmuller finishes the 100-meter swimming event in 57 2/5 seconds breaking the world record.

• January 3 - Hank Stram, American football coach, broadcaster
• January 6 - Earl Scruggs, bluegrass performer
• January 11 - Slim Harpo, musician
• January 12 - Olivier Gendebien, race car driver (d. 1998)
• January 16 - Katy Jurado, actress (d. 2002)
• January 21 - Telly Savalas, actor (d. 1994)
• January 26 - Annette Strauss, philanthropist, former mayor of Dallas, Texas (d. 1998)
• January 27 - Sabu, actor (d. 1963)
• January 29 - Luigi Nono, composer (d. 1990)
• January 30 - Lloyd Alexander, writer
• February 3 - Andrzej Szczypiorski, writer (d. 2000)
• February 11 - Mary Tregear, Oriental art historian
• February 17 - Margaret Truman, novelist, daughter of President Harry S. Truman
• February 19 - Lee Marvin, actor (d. 1987)
• February 20 - Gloria Vanderbilt, cosmetics entrepreneur
• February 21 - Robert Mugabe First Prime Minister of Zimbabwe
• February 29 - Al Rosen, baseball player
• March 27 - Sarah Vaughan, singer (d. 1990)
• March 28 - Freddie Bartholomew, actor (d. 1992)
• March 30 - Alan Davidson, author (d. 2003)
• April 3 - Doris Day, actress
• April 3 - Marlon Brando, actor
• April 7 - Johannes Mario Simmel, Austrian writer
• April 24 - Clement Freud, British writer, radio personality and politician
• May 12 - Tony Hancock, comedian (d. 1968)
• May 17 - Hannes Messemer, actor (d. 1991)
• May 19 - Sandy Wilson, British composer
• May 22 - Charles Aznavour, singer, actor, composer
• June 1 - Dr. William Sloane Coffin, radical clergyman
• June 20 - Audie Murphy, WW II hero, actor, (d. 1971
• July 4 - Eva Marie Saint, actress: North by Northwest, On the Waterfront
• August 12 - Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, Leader of Pakistan, (d. 1988)
• September 22 - Rosamunde Pilcher, Novelist
• November 20 - Benoit Mandelbrot, mathematician
• December 2 - Alexander M. Haig, Jr., US politician
• Tuanku Al-Mutassimu Billahi Muhibbudin Sultan Abdul Halim Al-Muadzam Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Badlishah, later Sultan of Kedah and 5th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.

• January 21 - Vladimir Lenin, first leader of the USSR
• February 3 - Woodrow Wilson, US President
• May 15 - Paul d'Estournelles de Constant, French diplomat
• June 11 - Théodore Dubois, composer and teacher
• July 27 - Ferruccio Busoni, pianist and composer
• August 17 - Paul Urysohn, Russian mathematician
• November 29 - Giacomo Puccini - Italian grand opera composer

• Physics - Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn
• Chemistry - not awarded
• Medicine - Willem Einthoven
• Literature - Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont
• Peace - Not awarded.