December 1924

• An attempt by Communists to overthrow the government of Estonia failed, leaving 125 of the 335 rebels dead, and 500 more arrested. The Estonian Army lost 26 soldiers and cadets. Communist International (Comintern), based in the Soviet Union, had ordered the Estonian Communist Party to stage the coup and provided weapons. The rebels attacked a dormitory for cadets of the Estonian Military Academy with grenades, but fled when the cadets fought back. The Toompea Castle in Tallinn and a military airfield at Lasnamäe were briefly under Communist control, but within five hours after the 5:00 a.m. start, government forces had defeated the rebels.{{cite book |first=Toivo |last=Miljan |title=Historical Dictionary of Estonia |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2004 |isbn=0-8108-4904-6}}
• Boston Arena hosted the first National Hockey League game ever played in the United States as the NHL's two newest franchises, with the Boston Bruins and the Montreal Maroons. Boston won, 2 to 1.{{cite web |url=https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-hockey-came-to-the-u-s-on-dec-1-1924/c-395417 |title=NHL hockey came to the U.S. on Dec. 1, 1924 |author= |date=December 1, 2008 |website=nhl.com |publisher=National Hockey League |access-date=December 4, 2016 |quote=The National Hockey League celebrates another historic anniversary...remembering the first NHL game played in the United States, as the Boston Bruins hosted the Montreal Maroons, both expansion teams, at the Boston Arena on Dec. 1, 1924.}}{{cite web |url=http://thehockeywriters.com/those-marauding-montreal-maroons/ |title=Those Marauding Montreal Maroons |last=Moore |first=Mike |date=December 19, 2010 |website=The Hockey Writers |access-date=January 16, 2015}} Smokey Harris scored the first-ever Bruins goal.{{cite web |url=http://bruinslegends.blogspot.com/2011/06/smokey-harris.html |title=Joe Pelletier's Greatest Hockey Legends.com - Smokey Harris |last=Pelletier |first=Joseph |date=June 2011 |website=bruinslegends.blogspot.com |access-date=November 24, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161125050601/http://bruinslegends.blogspot.com/2011/06/smokey-harris.html |archive-date=November 25, 2016 |url-status=dead}}
• Plutarco Elías Calles was inaugurated to a 4-year term as the 47th President of Mexico.{{cite book |last=Buchenau |first=Jürgen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ly_dEAAAQBAJ |title=The Sonoran Dynasty in Mexico: Revolution, Reform, and Repression |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-4962-3613-5 |pages=112–113 |language=en |via=Google Books}}
• From Latakia, leaders of the Alawite State within the semi-autonomous Syrian Federation announced that they would not join the states of Aleppo and Damascus in the creation of the State of Syria.{{cn|date=December 2024}}
• An agreement to start the first chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Canada was signed between C. Lewis Fowler of New York City and Richard L. Cowan of Toronto. Cowan named himself the Imperial Wizard of the white supremacist Knights of Ku Klux Klan of Canada on January 1.{{cite news |url=http://www.jta.org/1926/05/24/archive/documents-show-klan-in-canada-organized-by-american-leaders |title=Documents show Klan in Canada organized by American leaders |newspaper=Jewish Daily Bulletin |publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date=24 May 1926 |access-date=6 January 2015 |ref={{sfnref|Jewish Daily Bulletin|1926}}}}
• Fritz Angerstein, an official with a limestone mine in the German town of Haiger, murdered eight people in the villa where he lived, killing his wife, his mother-in-law and sister-in-law, his maid and two gardeners, and two of his fellow workers. He would be executed by beheading on November 17, 1925.{{cite book |first=Paul |last=Langensscheidt |language=de |via=Google Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CeTmAAAAMAAJ |title=Encyklopädie der modernen Kriminalistik |date=1926 |trans-title=Encyclopedia of modern criminology |pages=417–420}}
• The musical Lady, Be Good, with music by George and lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and starring Fred Astaire and sister Adele Astaire, opened at the Liberty Theatre on Broadway for the first of 330 performances.{{cite web |url=http://www.guidetomusicaltheatre.com/shows_l/ladybegood.htm |title=Lady Be Good |website=The Guide to Musical Theatre |access-date=May 10, 2010}} It closed on September 12, 1925.
• The drama film Romola, starring Lillian Gish, premiered at George M. Cohan's Theatre in New York City.{{cite book |last=Holston |first=Kim R. |date=2013 |title=Movie Roadshows: A History and Filmography of Reserved-Seat Limited Showings, 1911–1973 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc. |page=38 |isbn=978-0-7864-6062-5}}
• Born:
• Suraj N. Gupta, Indian-born U.S. theoretical physicist noted for his contributions to quantum field theory, including the Gupta–Bleuler quantization; in Punjab Province, British India (d. 2021){{cite book |last1=Marquis Who's Who, Marquis Who's Who Staff |title=Who's Who in the Midwest, 1996-1997 |edition=Classic |date=1 October 1996 |publisher=Marquis Who's Who |isbn=0837907268}}
• Fazle Kaderi Mohammad Abdul Munim, Chief Justice of Bangladesh from 1982 to 1989; in Dhaka, Bengal Province, British India (d. 2001){{cite encyclopedia |last=Islam |first=Sirajul |year=2012 |editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |encyclopedia=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=Second |publisher=Asiatic Society of Bangladesh |title=Munim, Justice Fazle Kaderi Muhammad Abdul |url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Munim,_Justice_Fazle_Kaderi_Muhammad_Abdul |editor2-last=Hoque |editor2-first=Kazi}}
• General Sawar Khan, Vice Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army 1980 to 1984, and Governor of Punjab province, 1978-1980;{{cite news |title=General Sawar Khan dies at 99 |url=https://www.24newshd.tv/8-Nov-2023/general-sawar-khan-dies-at-99 |access-date=8 November 2023 |publisher=24 Digital |date=8 November 2023}} in Rawalpindi District, Punjab Province, British India (d. 2023)
• Died: Reuben "Dummy" Stephenson, 55, the first deaf Major League Baseball player.{{cite news |url=https://archive.org/details/silentwokrerv37n4/page/n51/mode/2up |title=Reuben C. Stephenson Dead |newspaper=The Silent Worker |page=195 |location=Trenton, New Jersey |date=January 1925 |volume=37 |number=4 |access-date=May 23, 2021 |via=Wayback Machine}} Stephenson played as a center fielder for eight games for the Philadelphia Phillies in September 1892.{{cite web |last=McKenna |first=Brian |url=http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/a036ff64 |title=Dummy Stephenson |publisher=Society for American Baseball Research |access-date=August 12, 2016 |website=SABR.org}}

• A devastating earthquake struck Java in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), killing 727 people.{{cite web |url=http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_0=3256&t=101650&s=13&d=22,26,13,12&nd=display |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140609071542/http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_0=3256&t=101650&s=13&d=22,26,13,12&nd=display |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 9, 2014 |title=19241202 Indonesia:Java:Wonosobo |website=National Geophysical Data Center |access-date=January 16, 2015}}
• Voldemārs Zāmuēls announced his resignation as Prime Minister of Latvia, along with his cabinet of ministers.
• The operetta The Student Prince, by Sigmund Romberg, premiered at Jolson's 59th Street Theatre on Broadway for the first of 608 performances.{{IBDB title|id=9253|title=The Student Prince|description=(2 December 1924 – 22 May 1926)}}
• Born:
• Alexander Haig, United States Secretary of State from 1981 to 1982, former Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) from 1974 to 1979, and White House Chief of Staff from 1972 to 1974; in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania (d. 2010){{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/20/AR2010022001270.html |title=Alexander Haig, 85; soldier-statesman managed Nixon resignation |last=Hohmann |first=James |date=February 21, 2010 |access-date=February 21, 2010 |newspaper=The Washington Post |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604174902/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/20/AR2010022001270.html |archive-date=June 4, 2011 |url-status=live |df=mdy}}
• Jack Davis; American cartoonist and illustrator; in Atlanta{{cite web |last=Richmond |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Richmond (illustrator) |date=December 2, 2014 |url=http://www.tomrichmond.com/2014/12/02/happy-birthday-jack-davis/ |title=Happy Birthday Jack Davis! |website=Richmond Illustration Inc!}} (d. 2016)
• Died:
• Hugo von Seeliger, 75, German astronomer known for his discovery of the Seeliger Effect
• Emmy Achté, 74, Finnish opera mezzo-soprano{{cite book |last1=Hillila |first1=Ruth-Esther |last2=Hong |first2=Barbara Blanchard |title=Historical Dictionary of the Music and Musicians of Finland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iUQDFlj1ykkC&pg=PA379 |year=1997 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-27728-3 |pages=3–}}
• Kazimieras Būga, 45, Lithuanian linguist

• The third, and longest, expedition by the Compagnie générale transsaharienne (CGT) to find an effective automobile route across the Sahara Desert completed an 18-day, {{convert|2200|mi|adj=on}} journey, reaching Savè (now in Benin) after having departed from Colomb-Béchar in Algeria on November 15. Led by CGT founder Gaston Gradis, with eleven other persons, the expedition featured three six-wheel, double-tired Renault automobiles.{{cite book |last=Mondet |first=Arlette Estienne |title=Le général J.B.E Estienne – père des chars: Des chenilles et des ailes |trans-title=General J.B.E Estienne – father of tanks: Tracks and wings |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1eHV9Kw9phEC&pg=PA270 |access-date=28 June 2013 |date=1 January 2011 |publisher=Editions L'Harmattan |pages=287–288 |isbn=978-2-296-44757-8 |language=fr |via=Google Books}}
• U.S. president Calvin Coolidge delivered his 2nd State of the Union message to the United States Congress. Unlike in 1923, Coolidge delivered a written address instead of giving a speech.{{cite web |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/sou.php |title=State of the Union Addresses and Messages |last1=Peters |first1=Gerbhard |last2=Woolley |first2=John T. |website=The American Presidency Project |access-date=January 16, 2015}} The message stated that the present state of the Union "may be regarded with encouragement and satisfaction by every American."{{cite web |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29565 |title=Second Annual Message – December 3, 1924 |last1=Peters |first1=Gerbhard |last2=Woolley |first2=John T. |website=The American Presidency Project |access-date=January 16, 2015}}
• Born:
• U.S. Army Major General Mary E. Clarke, the first woman to attain the rank of major general in the United States Army, known also for the longest U.S. Army career (36 years) served by a woman; in Rochester, New York (d. 2011){{cite news |first=Alan |last=Morrell |title=Reformers |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73191512/ |newspaper=Democrat and Chronicle |location=Rochester, New York |date=December 18, 1993 |via=Newspapers.com {{open access}} }}
• F. Sionil José, Philippine novelist; in Rosales, Pangasinan (d. 2022)

File:Greed, 1924, 12 scale.jpg

• The silent film Greed, written and directed by Erich von Stroheim, premiered at the Cosmopolitan Theatre in New York.{{cite book |last=Weinberg |first=Herman G. |title=The Complete Greed of Erich Von Stroheim: a reconstruction of the film in 348 still photos following the original screenplay plus 52 production stills |publisher=ARNO Press |location=New York |year=1972 |pages=13–17 |isbn=978-0-405-03925-6 |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive |url=https://archive.org/details/completegreedofe0000unse}} The psychological thriller, starring Gibson Gowland and ZaSu Pitts, with Jean Hersholt, was edited to 22 reels{{cite book |last=Rosenbaum |first=Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan Rosenbaum |title=Greed |publisher=BFI Publishing |location=London |year=1993 |page=25 |isbn=978-0-85170-358-9}} and eventually to 10 reels (2 hours and 10 minutes) for general audiences.{{cite book |last=Finler |first=Joel W. |title=Greed: A Film |publisher=Lorrimer Publishing Ltd. |location=New York |year=1972 |isbn=978-0-900855-45-0|url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive |url=https://archive.org/details/greedfilm0000vons}}{{cite book |last=Koszarski |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Koszarski |title=The Man You Loved to Hate: Erich von Stroheim and Hollywood |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, England |year=1983 |pages=144–145 |isbn=978-0-19-503239-0}} It would be described by later filmmakers as a major influence on their technique, and by many critics as one of the greatest films ever made.
• Portuguese swindler Alves dos Reis carried out one of the largest frauds in history against the Bank of Portugal, approaching the currency printer Waterlow and Sons of London with a letter of introduction from the Joh. Enschedé currency printing company of the Netherlands and arranging for the printing of 200,000 bank notes, each with a face value of 500 Portuguese escudos, with the same serial numbers as a previous Waterlow printing. The first notes were delivered in February by accomplices of Reis.{{cite journal |last=Bull |first=Andrew |title=Alves Reis and the Portuguese Bank Note Scandal of 1925 |journal=British Historical Society of Portugal Annual Report |date=1997 |volume=24 |pages=21–41 |url=https://www.bhsportugal.org/library/articles/alves-reis-and-the-portuguese-bank-note-scandal-of-1925 |access-date=24 March 2020}}
• The {{convert|85|ft|adj=on}} high Gateway of India monument, designed by architect George Wittet, was inaugurated in Bombay (now Mumbai) in British India in a ceremony by the Governor-General, the Earl of Reading.{{cite book |first1=Sharada |last1=Dwivedi |first2=Rahul |last2=Mehrotra |title=Bombay: The Cities Within |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RuhOAAAAMAAJ |year=1995 |publisher=India Book House |isbn=978-81-85028-80-4 |author1-link=Sharada Dwivedi |via=Google Books}}
• The ocean liner SS Belgenland departed from New York City with at least 350 passengers to begin a cruise around the world that would last for more than four months.{{cite book |last=Finch |first=Vernon EW |year=1988 |title=The Red Star Line |location=Antwerp |publisher=Uitgeverij de Branding NV |page=104 |isbn=90-72543-01-7}} Only 235 of the passengers remained aboard on the Belgenland for the entire cruise.{{cite news |title=Returned tourists got a taste of war |newspaper=The New York Times |page=5 |url-access=subscription |via=Times Machine |date=16 April 1925 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/04/16/104171463.html?pageNumber=5 |access-date=9 July 2022}}
• The trial of confessed serial killer Fritz Haarmann began in Germany.{{cite book |last=Parker |first=R.J. |date= 29 September 2017 |title=Serial Killers Abridged: 100 Serial Killers |publisher=Createspace |page=100 |isbn=978-1-4947-7216-1}}
• Died: Cipriano Castro, 66, president of Venezuela from 1899 to 1908

• The Battle of Mecca took place as Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, ruler of the Sultanate of Nejd, overwhelmed the outnumbered defenders of the Kingdom of Hejaz and forced Ali bin Hussein, King of Hejaz, to flee the city. The final rout completed the Saudi conquest of Hejaz and the union of Nejd and Hejaz as Saudi Arabia. After the battle, Ibn Saud entered Mecca in ihram clothing, making the umrah, one of the two forms of the Muslim pilgrimage to the Great Mosque of Mecca. The umrah differs from the hajj in that the umrah pilgrimage takes place outside of the month of Dhu al-Hijjah, and Saud made the trip on the 8th day of Jumada I.{{cite book |last=Vassiliev |first=Alexei |author-link=Alexei Vasiliev (historian) |year=2012 |title=King Faisal: Personality, Faith and Times |location=London |publisher=Saqu Books |isbn=978-0-86356-761-2}}
• The State of Syria (Dawlat Sūriyā) was created within the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon by Decree No. 2980, uniting the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus under one common native assembly and administration.{{cite web |archive-date=28 February 2012 |url=http://www.syrianhistory.com/timeline |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120228065151/http://www.syrianhistory.com/timeline |title=Timeline of the French Mandate period |website=SyrianHistory.com}}
• Fayzulla Xoʻjayev became the Chairman of the Revolutionary Committee of the Uzbek SSR, which had become a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. On February 17, he would become Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars.{{cite book |last=Conquest |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Conquest |title=The Great Terror |title-link=The Great Terror (book) |year=1971 |publisher=Penguin |location=Harmondsworth, Middlesex |page=517}}
• Benito Mussolini introduced a bill enforcing widespread press censorship.{{cite book |last=Mercer |first=Derrik |year=1989 |title=Chronicle of the 20th Century |location=London |publisher=Chronicle Communications Ltd. |page=325 |isbn=978-0-582-03919-3}}
• A first Woolworths Australia department store opened in downtown Sydney, as predecessor name was Woolworths Stupendous Bargain Basement.{{cite web |title=Our Story: 1924 September |url=http://www.woolworths.com.au/wps/wcm/connect/website/woolworths/about+us/our-story/september+1924 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905211646/http://www.woolworths.com.au/wps/wcm/connect/website/woolworths/about+us/our-story/september+1924 |archive-date=5 September 2015 |url-status=dead |website=Woolworths Supermarkets |access-date=10 December 2019}}
• Born:
• Robert Sobukwe, South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and the founder and first president of the Pan Africanist Congress, from 1959 to 1963; in Graaff-Reinet, Eastern Cape (d. 1978 from cancer)
• David Schwendeman, American taxidermist for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City from 1959 to 1988;{{cite news |first=Dennis |last=Hevesi |title=David Schwendeman, Museum's Chief Taxidermist, Dies at 87 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/nyregion/david-schwendeman-museum-taxidermist-dies-at-87.html?_r=0 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=December 2, 2012 |access-date=December 22, 2012}} in Milltown, New Jersey (d. 2012)
• John Keston, British-born American stage actor known for breaking long distance world records for his age group; in London (d. 2022)
• Abram Ilyich Fet, Soviet Russian mathematician; in Odessa, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (d. 2009)
• Died:
• S. Subramania Iyer, 82, founder of the Indian Home Rule movement and co-founder of the Indian National Congress
• Arnold Sommerling, 26, a leader of the Communist attempt to overthrow the Estonian government, was shot by police after resisting arrest.
• Nelson Mandela, African National Congress dies

• France rounded up over 300 communists in raids on their headquarters, including some 70 of foreign nationality that were to be deported. "There are too many foreign communists in France who forget their duty to the country that has given them asylum", Prime Minister Édouard Herriot told the Chamber of Deputies. "They are indulging in political demonstrations, and we will not tolerate it, we will not let them meddle in our political life. If we meet with resistance we will break it, and we will deport as many as necessary."{{cite news |date=December 7, 1924 |title=France Breaks Revolt Plot of Communists |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-france-breaks-revolt-plo/160450758/ |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |pages=1–2}}
• Born:
• Wally Cox, American comedian and actor; in Detroit (d. 1973)
• George Pinker, British obstetrician and gynecologist for the British royal family; in Calcutta, British India (d. 2007){{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1550160/Sir-George-Pinker.html |title=Obituary: Sir George Pinker |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |date=1 May 2007 |access-date=22 December 2012 |location=London}}
• Died:
• Geneva "Gene" Stratton-Porter, 61, American author, screenwriter and naturalist{{cite journal |editor-first=Pamela J. |editor-last=Bennett |title=Gene Stratton-Porter |journal=The Indiana Historian |publisher=Indiana Historical Bureau |location=Indianapolis |date=September 1996 |pages=3–4, 10–11 |url=http://www.in.gov/history/files/genestrattonporter.pdf |access-date=July 21, 2017 |archive-date=March 1, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301085302/https://www.in.gov/history/files/genestrattonporter.pdf |url-status=live}}
• Annie Moore, 60, Irish-born American known for becoming, on January 1, 1892, the first immigrant to pass inspection at the newly-opened Ellis Island customs facility.{{cite news |last=Roberts |first=Sam |author-link=Sam Roberts (journalist) |title=Story of the First Through Ellis Island Is Rewritten |newspaper=The New York Times |date=September 14, 2006 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/nyregion/14annie.html?ref=nyregion}}

• Voting was held in Germany for all 493 seats of the Reichstag, which had increased in size from 472 seats since the election held in May. The coalition government of Chancellor Wilhelm Marx, composed of ministers from his own Zentrum Party, the Deusche Volkspartei (DVP) and the Deutsche Demokratische Partei (DDP) as the opposition Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) increased its plurality by 31 seats.{{cite book |first1=Dieter |last1=Nohlen |author1-link=Dieter Nohlen |first2=Philip |last2=Stöver |title=Elections in Europe: A data handbook |publisher=Nomos |year=2010 |page=762 |isbn=978-3-8329-5609-7}}
• A post-season game was played between the two teams with the best records in the NFL, as the first-place Cleveland Bulldogs (7–1–1) lost to the Chicago Bears (6–1–4) in Chicago, 22 to 0, before a crowd of 18,000 people. The game was described the next day in newspapers as the NFL championship.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-bears-cleveland-bulldogs/34605166/ |title=18,000 See Bears Beat Cleveland for Pro Title |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |date=December 8, 1924 |page=29 |via=Newspapers.com}} However, the NFL rules at the time provided that the season ended on November 30 and made no provision for a post-season championship, so Cleveland was deemed the title winner with the best season record (.875 to Chicago's .857) and the contest was considered to be only an exhibition game.{{cite news |url=https://www.news-herald.com/2020/05/17/1924-bulldogs-became-clevelands-team-nfl-champions-in-matter-of-months |title=1924 Bulldogs became Cleveland's team, NFL champions in matter of months |first=Chris |last=Lillstrung |newspaper=The News-Herald |location=Willoughby, Ohio/Cleveland |date=May 17, 2020}}
• Born:
• Mário Soares, president of Portugal from 1986 to 1996, and prime minister 1976 to 1978 and 1983 to 1985; in Lisbon (d. 2017){{cite book |editor-last=Wilsford |editor-first=David |title=Political Leaders of Contemporary Western Europe: A Biographical Dictionary |publisher=Greenwood |year=1995 |pages=413–21}}
• Ernest Fleischmann, German-born American musician who served as executive director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra from 1969 to 1999; in Frankfurt am Main (d. 2010){{cite news |last=Weber |first=Bruce |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/arts/music/16fleischmann.html |title=E. Fleischmann, Impresario of Los Angeles, Dies at 85 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 15, 2010 |access-date=June 20, 2010}}
• Bent Fabric (stage name for Bent Fabricus-Bjerre), pianist and composer, in Frederiksberg, Denmark (d. 2020)
• Jovanka Broz (née Jovanka Budisavljević), wife of Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito throughout his entire presidency from 1952 to 1980; in Belgrade, SR Serbia, Yugoslavia (d. 2013){{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24602696 |title=Tito's widow, Jovanka Broz, dies in Belgrade, aged 88 |website=BBC |date=20 October 2013 |access-date=16 December 2013}}

File:Book-Cadillac Hotel, Detroit, Mich (65804).jpg

• The 31-story Book-Cadillac Hotel, at the time the tallest hotel in the world, opened in Detroit.{{cite web |url=http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=118531 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040618043010/http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=118531 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=June 18, 2004 |title=Book-Cadillac Hotel |website=Emporis |access-date=January 26, 2011}} J. Burgess Book, Frank Book and Herbert Book purchased the old Cadillac Hotel and closed it on June 26, 1923, then demolished it and had the new, 1,136-room luxury hotel built within less than a year and a half.
• The longest continuous rivalry in the National Hockey League, between the Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens, began at Boston Arena, with a come-from-behind 4-3 win by Montreal over the Bruins.{{cite news |author= |title=Canadiens Downed Boston, Rallying in Final Period |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Fr8DH2VBP9sC&dat=19241209&printsec=frontpage&hl=en |work=The Montreal Gazette |agency=Canadian Press |location=Boston, MA USA |date=December 9, 1924 |access-date=June 12, 2017 |via=Google News |page=16 |quote=The world champion Canadiens defeated Boston in a fast game here tonight, 4-3, incidentally giving 5,000 Boston hockey fans the best exhibition of the Canadian game on record here.}} In their first 100 seasons, the teams met in the Stanley Cup finals seven times (1930, 1946, 1953, 1957, 1958, 1977 and 1978), with Montreal winning all seven finals.
• Born: María Esther Zuno, Mexican women's rights activist and the wife of President Luis Echeverría during his term of office from 1970 to 1976; in Guadalajara, Jalisco state. During her husband's presidency, she declined to call herself primera dama ("First Lady"), choosing the title compañera ("comrade") (d. 1999){{cite news |date=December 8, 1999 |title=Maria Zuno; Former Mexican First Lady |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-dec-08-mn-41652-story.html |access-date=2022-07-12 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}
• Died: Xaver Scharwenka, 74, German-Polish pianist, composer and teacher

• A new session of British parliament was opened by George V and Queen Mary.{{cite news |last=Steele |first=John |date=December 10, 1924 |title=Britain to Build Singapore Base, King Announces |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-britain-to-build-singapo/160617005/ |work=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=14 |via=Newspapers.com}} The King's speech included a plan to enlarge the naval base at Singapore.{{cite web |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1924/dec/09/the-kings-speech |title=The King's Speech |date=December 9, 1924 |website=Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) |access-date=January 16, 2015 }}
• Born: Manlio Sgalambro, philosopher and writer, in Lentini, Italy (d. 2014)

• The 1924 Nobel Prizes were awarded. The honorees were Manne Siegbahn of Sweden for Physics, Willem Einthoven of the Netherlands (Medicine), and Władysław Reymont of Poland (Literature). No Prize was awarded for Chemistry or Peace this year.{{cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/year/index.html?year=1924&images=yes |title=Nobel Prizes 1924 |website=Nobelprize.org |publisher=Nobel Media |access-date=January 16, 2015 }}
• The Society for Human Rights (SHR), the first gay rights organization in the United States, was founded in Chicago by Henry Gerber. On December 24, 1924, the U.S. state of Illinois granted the SHR a charter to operate as a non-profit corporation, which listed its mission as one "to promote and protect the interests of people who by reasons of mental and physical abnormalities are abused and hindered in the legal pursuit of happiness which is guaranteed them by the Declaration of Independence and to combat the public prejudices against them by dissemination of factors according to modern science among intellectuals of mature age."{{cite book |first=Jonathan Ned |last=Katz |author-link=Jonathan Ned Katz |title=Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A.: A Documentary |publisher=Crowell Publishing |year=1976 |pages=386–387}} The SHR lasted only a few months before the arrest of Gerber and the Society's other members in 1925.{{cite book |first=Vern L. |last=Bullough |author-link=Vern Bullough |title=Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context |publisher=Harrington Park Press |year=2002 |page=27}}
• Near the village of Boliden in Sweden, the first gold from what would become the largest and richest gold mine in Europe, was discovered by prospectors led by Oscar Falkman, founder of Boliden AB. Mining would continue for more than 50 years before the exhaustion of the gold by 1967.
• Died: August Belmont, Jr., 71, American financier who financed the Interborough Rapid Transit Company that constructed and operated the original New York City Subway, as well as creating the Belmont Park thoroughbred horse racing venue in the New York suburb of Elmont, New York.{{cite news |title=August Belmont, Stricken In Office, Dies In 36 Hours— Financier and Sportsman Undergoes Operation, Rallies, Then Sinks Into Coma |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1924/12/11/archives/august-belmont-stricken-in-office-dies-in-36-hours-financier-and.html |quote=August Belmont, financier and sportsman, died at 6:30 o'clock last evening in his apartment at 550 Park Avenue, less than thirty-six hours after he had been taken ill in his office. ...|newspaper=The New York Times |date=December 11, 1924 |access-date=May 3, 2011 }}

• James B. Duke, founder of the American Tobacco Company and Duke Power Company, a philanthropist who was one of the wealthiest men in the U.S., gave $40,000,000 to The Duke Endowment, a trust fund he had created. The Duke Fund was directed to support four colleges, as well as multiple non-profit hospitals, children's homes and rural United Methodist churches in North Carolina and South Carolina. The largest share of the gift (40% or $12,800,000) went to Trinity College in Durham, North Carolina, on the condition that the institution rename itself in honor of James Duke's father, the late Washington Duke, and Trinity College changed its name to Duke University upon accepting the endowment. Shares of 5% of the endowment were given to Davidson College and Furman University, while 4% was given to the historically black Johnson C. Smith University. Another $67,000,000 was provided to the endowment under Duke's will upon his death on October 10, 1925.{{cite web |url=https://www.dukeendowment.org/about/history-legacy |title=Celebrating 100 Years |website=DukeEndowment.org}}
• The absolute world record for speed, {{convert|278.48|mph}}, was set by the Bernard SIMB V.2 airplane, designed by French aviator Jean Hubert and piloted by Florentin Bonnet.{{Cite news |date=December 22, 1924 |title=278 Miles An Hour |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-windsor-star-278-miles-an-hour/160787218/ |work=Windsor Star |pages=19 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• Captain Joaquín Loriga of the Spanish Army demonstrated the flight capabilities of the autogyro invented by fellow Spaniard Juan de la Cierva, piloting the aircraft a distance of {{convert|7.4|mi}} from Cuatro Vientos airfield (in Madrid) to the Army's Getafe Air Base, in a flight that lasted 8 minutes and 12 seconds."El Primer Viaje del Autogiro"], "Madrid Cientifico", 1924. Nº 1128, p.9 Two days earlier, Loriga had set the record of {{convert|200|yd}} in his first practice run.
• Born:
• Felix "Doc" Blanchard, American college football player who won the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award and the James E. Sullivan Award in 1945, and later passed up a professional football career in order to serve a military career in the United States Air Force; in McColl, South Carolina (d. 2009){{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/sports/ncaafootball/21blanchard.html |url-access=limited |title=Doc Blanchard, Army's Mr. Inside, Is Dead at 84 |last=Goldstein |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Goldstein (writer, born 1942) |date=April 21, 2009 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2009-06-05}}
• Hal Brown, American baseball player; in Greensboro, North Carolina (d. 2015)

• The Central Executive Committee of the USSR issued a decree prohibiting the possession of almost all firearms, with the exception of hunting rifles. The decree, titled "On the procedure of production, trade, storage, use, keeping and carrying firearms, firearm ammunition, explosive projectiles and explosives", outlawed personal possession of handguns and rifles other than smoothbore shotguns, and illegal gun possession was severely punished.{{cite web |language=ru |url=http://www.online812.ru/2012/06/15/008/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20160313165146/http://www.online812.ru/2012/06/15/008/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 13, 2016 |title=Как Россия от свободного оборота оружия пришла к несвободному |trans-title=How Russia went from free circulation of weapons to unfree circulation |access-date=17 February 2018}}
• The first issue of the weekly Saudi Arabian newspaper Umm Al-Qura was published. Based in Mecca, Umm Al-Qura is the official newspaper of the Saudi government.{{cite news |url=https://www.wdl.org/en/item/16334/ |title=Umm al-Qurá, Number 1131 |date=1 November 1946 |access-date=4 February 2019 |website=www.wdl.org}}
• Addressing American correspondents at the League of Nations, French politician Aristide Briand said that American entry into the League was essential to ensure world peace.{{cite news |last=Storer |first=John |date=December 13, 1924 |title=Peace Sure if U.S. Joins World League – Briand |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-peace-sure-if-us-joins/160787356/ |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=5 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• Born:
• Ed Koch, mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989; in the Bronx, New York (d. 2013){{cite web |url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=K000302 |title=Koch, Edward Irving – Biographical Information |access-date=November 11, 2009}}
• Reinaldo "Ray" Cordeiro, Hong Kong radio disk jockey known as "Uncle Ray" and host for 51 years of the English-language show All the Way with Ray from 1970 to 2021; in Wan Chai, Hong Kong (d. 2023){{cite news |title=Uncle Ray Cordeiro, 1924–2023 |work=RTHK News |url=https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1683870-20230114.htm}}
• Kantilal Rathod, Indian filmmaker in Gujarat and Hindi cinema, known for Kanku; in Raipur, Central Provinces and Berar (now Chhattisgarh state), British India (d. 1988)
• Jorge Gallardo, Costa Rican painter; in San Jose (d. 2002)

File:King Zog.jpg

• Former Albanian Prime Minister Ahmet Zogu, who had been driven into exile in June, led an invasion of Albania with guerrillas backed by Yugoslavia, and marched toward the capital, Tirana, in order to remove Prime Minister Fan Noli from office.{{cite web |url=http://worldatwar.net/article/autocracy/ |title=A chronology of Dictatorial Regimes between the World Wars |last=Doody |first=Richard |website=The World at War |access-date=January 16, 2015}}
• Born:
• Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, Prime Minister of Nepal 1990-1991 and 1999-2000; in Kathmandu (d. 2011)
• Rabbi Michael A. Robinson, American civil rights activist and rabbi within the Reform Jewish denomination; in Asheville, North Carolina (d. 2006){{cite news |url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/pressdemocrat/obituary.aspx?n=michael-a-robinson&pid=18540052 |title=Rabbi Michael A. Robinson |work=The Press Democrat |date=22 July 2006 |access-date=22 November 2018 |via=Legacy.com}}
• Nora Houfová, Austrian stage and film actress; in Vienna (d. 2024)
• Robert Coogan, American child actor and younger brother of Jackie Coogan; in Glendale, California (d. 1978)

File:TIMEMagazine1Oct1923.jpg

• Died: Samuel Gompers, 74, President of the American Federation of Labor (AFL, now part of the AFL-CIO) since 1895, and the founder of the organization in 1886, died in The St. Anthony Hotel in San Antonio, Texas, seven days after becoming ill in Mexico City.{{cite news |date=December 13, 1924 |title=Gompers Expires, Ending 43 Years as A.F. of L. Head— Passes Peacefully Today After Brave Fight Against Heart Attack |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-star/160844108/ |newspaper=The Evening Star |location=Washington, D.C. |page=1}}

• The Henry Kimball Hadley dramatic opera A Night in Old Paris premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.
• The town of Fairfield, Montana set a weather record for greatest drop of temperature in a 12-hour period, from {{convert|63|F|C|1}} at noon to {{convert|-21|F|C|1}} at midnight.{{Cite web|title=Weather Whys: Sudden temperature drops|url=https://www.theeagle.com/townnews/meteorology/weather-whys-sudden-temperature-drops/article_e53bc3d2-6819-11e3-9011-001a4bcf887a.html|access-date=2020-06-03|website=The Eagle|language=en}}
• Born: Raj Kapoor, Indian film actor and filmmaker, Bollywood star, known for the successful 1949 films Ardaz and Barsaat; in Kapoor Haveli, Peshawar (d. 1988){{cite web |url=http://www.newindianexpress.com/entertainment/hindi/article299657.ece |title=Remembering an icon: Prithviraj Kapoor |work=The New Indian Express |date=9 September 2010 |access-date=3 July 2017 |archive-date=17 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817021537/http://www.newindianexpress.com/entertainment/hindi/article299657.ece |url-status=dead }}

File:WilhelmMarxEn1932.jpeg

• German Chancellor Wilhelm Marx announced that he and his cabinet of ministers were resigning after the coalition's recent loss in the December 7 elections. The cabinet remained in office in a caretaker government until Finance Minister Hans Luther was able to form a new government on January 15.{{cite web |title=Die Verhandlungen über eine Umbildung des zweiten Kabinetts Marx |trans-title=Negotiations on a Reshuffle of the Second Marx Cabinet |url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/aktenreichskanzlei/1919-1933/0000/ma1/ma11p/kap1_1/para2_5.html |access-date=24 July 2015 |website=Das Bundesarchiv |language=de}}
• The first launch, docking and recovery of an aircraft in mid-air was performed when a U.S. Army pilot flew a Sperry Messenger biplane over a TC-3 Army dirigible and used a "skyhook" to link to the airship and bring it under control.{{cite web |url=http://www.unrealaircraft.com/forever/skyhook.php |title=Flying Forever – Skyhook |website=UnrealAircraft.com}}{{cite web |first=Greg |last=Goebel |url=http://www.vectorsite.net/avparsit.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20091103094741/http://www.vectorsite.net/avparsit.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=November 3, 2009 |title=The Parasite Fighters |website=Vectorsite.net |date=December 1, 2009}}
• Samuel Smith, a 15-year-old African-American arrested for shooting and wounding a white grocer, was seized from his hospital room in Nashville, Tennessee, by a group of masked and armed vigilantes shortly after midnight, driven to Nolensville and hanged from a tree near the grocer's home. Onlookers then shot the hanging body multiple times.{{cite news |title=Mob Lynches Negro Boy Who Shot Grocer— Body of Masked Men Take Him From Hospital; Samuel Smith, 15, Left Hanging Near Home of Ike Eastwood, Whom He Wounded Friday Night |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/178417744 |access-date=May 2, 2018 |work=Nashville Tennessean |date=December 16, 1924 |pages=1, 5 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=registration}} Nashville's Mayor Hilary Howse denounced the lynching and the Nashville Chamber of Commerce offered a $5,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the lynchers, but nobody was ever charged with the crime.{{cite web |last=Deane |first=Natasha |title=Memorial Marker for Lynching Victims |url=http://stanselmsnashville.org/memorial-lynching-victims/ |website=St Anselm Episcopal Church |access-date=April 27, 2018 |date=June 5, 2017}}
• In a letter to British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, Winston Churchill opined that Singapore's defences did not need to be completed for another fifteen to twenty years, writing, "I do not believe there is the slightest chance of war with Japan in our lifetime. Japan is at the other end of the world. She cannot menace our vital security in any way."{{cite web |url=http://www.rhayden.us/defence-expenditure/introduction-lak.html |title=Introduction Lak |date=August 4, 2012 |website=Raymond Hayden Economics |access-date=January 16, 2015}}{{cite book |last=Green |first=Joey |year=2012 |title=Dumb History: The Stupidest Mistakes Ever Made |location=New York |publisher=Plume |isbn=978-1-101-58543-6}}
• Born:
• Nek Chand Saini, Indian artist known for the design and construction of the Rock Garden of Chandigarh, opened in 1988; in Barian Kalan, Shakargarh, Punjab Province, British India (now Punjab province in Pakistan (d. 2015)
• Noel Hush, Australian chemist known for his discovery of the role of adiabatic electron transfer between molecules in the process of oxidation; in Sydney (d. 2019)
• Viter Juste, Haitian-born American community leader who organized the residents of the "Little Haiti" community (now numbering 30,000) in Miami; on Gonâve Island (d. 2012){{cite news |title=Activist Who Gave Name "Little Haiti" Its Name [sic] Passes Away |department=Local News |url=http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/11/20/activist-who-gave-name-little-haiti-its-name/ |publisher=WFOR-TV |date=November 20, 2012 |access-date=30 March 2024 |location=Little Haiti}}
• Died: Friedrich Trendelenburg, 80, German surgeon and innovator known for the Trendelenburg operation for the treatment of varicose veins, as well as various diagnostic procedures, including the Brodie–Trendelenburg percussion test for finding nonfunctioning valves in veins, Trendelenburg's test for hip mobility, and Trendelenburg's sign identifying a congenital dislocation of the hip.{{NDB|26|397||Trendelenburg, Friedrich|Eberhard Rabe|119215373}}

• The Spanish confiscation (Desamortización española) law, authorizing the government of Spain to expropriate land and personal property received by the Roman Catholic Church and various religious orders from wills and grants, was repealed after being promulgated in 1766.{{cite book |first=Francisco |last=Tomás y Valiente |author-link=Francisco Tomás y Valiente |title=El Marco Politico de la Desamortizacion en España |trans-title=The Political Framework of Confiscation in Spain |publisher=Ariel |year=1972 |page=44 |language=es}}
• The Supreme Court of Hungary confiscated the property of former president Mihály Károlyi for high treason. Károlyi was convicted of negotiating with Italy in 1915 to keep the Italians out of the war in exchange for Austrian territory, and for allowing a communist revolution to happen in 1919 by deserting his position.{{cite news |last=Clayton |first=John |date=December 17, 1924 |title=Hungary Seizes Big Estates of Count Karolyi |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=3}}
• Born:
• Nissim Ezekiel, Indian poet and playwright; in Bombay (now Mumbai) (d. 2004)
• Loudon Wainwright Jr., American writer and editor for Life magazine; in New York City (d. 1988)

File:Konstantinos VI.jpg

• Constantine VI, the Metropolitan of Derkoi, was elected by his fellow clergy as the new Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and enthroned the same day. The title had been vacant since the November 17 death of Patriarch Gregory VII.{{cite web |last=Ναυπάκτου |first=Ιερόθεος |title=Το Οικουμενικό Πατριαρχείο μετά την συνθήκη της Λωζάννης |trans-title=The Ecumenical Patriarchate after the Treaty of Lausanne |url=https://www.romfea.gr/katigories/10-apopseis/44448-nafpaktou-ierotheos-to-oikoumeniko-patriarxeio-meta-tin-synthiki-tis-lozannis |publisher=romfea.gr |access-date=26 July 2021}} (Nafpaktos, Ierotheos.)
• Prempeh I, the exiled ceremonial king of the Ashanti Empire, was allowed to return to Ghana (at the time, the British Gold Coast colony in West Africa) after being relocated to the Seychelles in 1896. The decision was approved by the British cabinet at the recommendation of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Leo Amery, three years after the death of the leader of the War of the Golden Stool, Queen Mother Yaa Asantewaa.{{cite book |last=Boahen |first=A. Adu |author-link=Albert Adu Boahen |title=The History of Ashanti Kings and the Whole Country Itself and Other Writings |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NA5a78btyKMC&pg=PA25 |year=2003 |publisher=British Academy |isbn=978-0-19-726261-0 |pages=25– |via=Google Books}}
• The owners of seven of the eight teams in baseball's American League presented a resolution to Major League Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis saying that the "misconduct" of League president Ban Johnson would cease, "or his immediate removal from office will follow." The resolution also declared "that legislation will be adopted that will limit his activities to the internal affairs of the American league." Phil Ball of the St. Louis Browns was the only team owner who did not sign the resolution.{{cite news |last=Crusinberry |first=James |date=December 18, 1924 |title=Landis Wins; Remains Czar of Baseball |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-landis-wins-remains-cza/161088964/ |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |pages=1, 19 |via=Newspapers.com}} The move came after Johnson's continued criticism of Landis, but Johnson promised to remain on his best behavior.
• Born:
• Robin Lovejoy, Fijian-born Australian stage and television director; in Labasa (d. 1985){{cite web |archive-date=12 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412041302/https://www.nla.gov.au/pict/explore/lovejoy.html |url=https://www.nla.gov.au/pict/explore/lovejoy.html |last=Groom |first=Linda |title=What We Collect - A new home for Robin Lovejoy's papers |publisher=National Library of Australia |access-date=1 April 2024 |url-status=dead}}{{better source needed|date=April 2024|reason=Source does not give date or place of birth.}}
• Admiral Yohai Ben-Nun, commander of the Israeli Navy from 1960 to 1966, later the Director General of Oceanographic and Limnological Research Ltd.; in Haifa, Mandatory Palestine (d. 1994)
• Selene Mahri (stage name for Solveig Eklund), Finnish-born fashion model and spokesperson for the WAVES branch of the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II (d. 2020)

• Pope Pius XI made his first statement against communism after an abandoned pontifical relief mission returned from Russia. He said the Vatican would continue to make efforts to help needy Russians, but "nobody certainly can have thought by our efforts on behalf of the Russian people we intended in any way to lend our support to a system of government which we are so far from approving."{{cite news |date=December 19, 1924 |title=Pope in Bitter Denouncement of Communism |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-pope-in-bitter-denouncem/161155762/ |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=5 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• Born: Ilya Darevsky, Soviet Russian zoologist and herpetologist known for describing 34 species of amphibians and reptiles, for whom the genus Darevskia, comprising 35 species of Caucasian rock lizards, is named; in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR (d. 2009){{cite journal |last=Darevsky |first=IS |author-link=Ilya Darevsky |year=2014 |url=http://www.zin.ru/journals/trudyzin/doc/vol_318_4/TZ_318_4_Darevsky.pdf |title=My Biography |journal=Trudy Zoologicheskogo Instituta RAN |volume=318 |issue=4 |pages=292–325 |language=ru}} (with an abstract in English)
• Died: Julius Kahn, 63, German-born U.S. Representative for California since 1905, and the longest serving Jewish member of Congress up to that time, died of a cerebral hemorrhage and complications of diabetes.{{cite news |date=December 19, 1924 |title=Julius Kahn Succumbs to Long Illness |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner-julius-kahn-s/161155870/ |newspaper=San Francisco Examiner |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite web |url=https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/K000003 |title=KAHN, Julius (1861 – 1924) |work=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress |access-date=1 April 2024}}

• Hugo Celmiņš formed a government as the new Prime Minister of Latvia following the resignation of Voldemārs Zāmuēls.{{cite web |url=http://www.estars.lv/print/?mode=news&objID=6086 |title=Ministru prezidenta meklējumos |trans-title=In search of the Prime Minister |last=Ivanova |first=Laimdota |website=www.estars.lv |language=lv |access-date=14 May 2019}}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}
• German serial killer Fritz Haarmann was sentenced to death for murdering twenty-four young men.{{cite book |last1=Bischoff |first1=Eva |last2=Siemens |first2=Daniel |chapter=Class, Youth and Sexuality in the Construction of the Lustmörder: The 1928 Murder Trial of Karl Hussmann |title=Crime and Criminal Justice in Modern Germany |editor-first=Richard |editor-last=Wetzell |editor-link=Richard Wetzell |publisher=Berghahn Books |year=2014 |page=222 |isbn=978-1-78238-246-1}}
• Born:
• Doug Harvey, Canadian ice hockey player who won the Norris Memorial Trophy seven times as the NHL's best defenceman, and was later inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame; in Montreal (d. 1989){{Citation |last=Brown |first=William |year=2002 |title=Doug: The Doug Harvey Story |publisher=Véhicule Press |location=Montreal |page=66 |isbn=1-550-65166-8}}
• Cicely Tyson, African-American stage, film and television actress, winner of three Emmy Awards (including for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman), a Tony Award (for The Trip to Bountiful) and a Screen Actors Guild Award; in the Bronx, New York City (d. 2021){{cite news |first=Anika Myers |last=Palm |title=Cicely Tyson, iconic and influential actress, dies at 96 |url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/28/entertainment/cicely-tyson-obit/index.html |date=January 28, 2021 |access-date=April 1, 2024 |website=CNN}}

• Adolf Hitler was released from Landsberg Prison as part of a general amnesty for political prisoners, after having served 13 months of a five-year prison sentence.{{cite book |last=Donnelley |first=Paul |year=2012 |title=Assassination! |publisher=Dataday Publishing |page=55 |isbn=978-1-908963-02-4}} He returned to his small Munich apartment where his friends threw him a party.{{cite book |last=Zalampas |first=Sherree Owens |date=1990 |title=Adolf Hitler: A Psychological Interpretation of His Views on Architecture, Art and Music |publisher=Bowling Green State University Popular Press |page=51 |isbn=978-0-87972-488-7}}
• By royal decree of King Alfonso XIII and legislation passed by the government of Prime Minister Miguel Primo de Rivera, Spanish law was amended to allow descendants of the Sephardi Jews, expelled from Spain in 1492, to attain Spanish nationality after two years of residence.{{cite book |chapter=La expulsión de los judíos y el retorno de los sefardíes como nacionales españoles: Un análisis histórico-jurídico (The expulsion of the Jews and the return of Sephardísm as Spanish nationals: A Historical-Legal Analysis) |first=Celia |last=Prados García |title=Actas del I Congreso Internacional sobre Migraciones en Andalucía |trans-title=Minutes of the First International Congress on Migration in Andalusia |year=2011 |isbn=978-84-921390-3-3 |pages=2119–2126 |language=es |chapter-url=https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/4049868.pdf}}{{cite web |year=2012 |title=Spain to ease naturalization of Sephardic Jews |publisher=Haaretz.com |url=http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/spain-to-ease-naturalization-of-sephardic-jews-1.480175#! |access-date=31 March 2014 |archive-date=31 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140331055351/http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/spain-to-ease-naturalization-of-sephardic-jews-1.480175#! |url-status=live}}
• The longest running children's broadcast program, Lørdagsbarnetimen, made its debut, playing on Norway's Kringkastningsselskapet A/S radio network. It would continue every Saturday afternoon for more than 85 years, with a final show on September 11, 2010.{{cite web |access-date=2019-01-11 |date=2004-12-07 |language=nb-NO |surname=NRK |title=Tre timer med Lørdagsbarnetimen |trans-title=Three hours of Saturday children's class |url=https://www.nrk.no/arkiv/artikkel/tre-timer-med-lordagsbarnetimen-1.1626668 |work=NRK}}
• Benito Mussolini presented legislation repealing the much-criticized Acerbo Law, which had cemented control by the Fascist Party of parliament by providing that the party which got the largest share of votes (25% or more) would be guaranteed two-thirds of the seats in parliament, with the other one-third to be apportioned to the other parties.{{cite news |date=December 21, 1924 |title=Mussolini Pulls Surprise; Wants Early Election |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-mussolini-pulls-surprise/161272549/ |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=14 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• With Austria's currency, the krone (crown), having declined in value because of inflation, Austria's parliament enacted the Schillingrechnungsgesetz, creating the Austrian schilling, worth 10,000 kronen, with exchange to take place up until March 1.{{cn|date=December 2024}}
• Born:
• Errol John, Trinidanian-born actor and playwright; in Port of Spain (d. 1988){{cite encyclopedia |last=Taylor |first=John Russell |author-link=John Russell Taylor |title=John, Errol (1924–1988) |dictionary=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |date=23 September 2004}}
• Swaran Lata, Pakistani film actress in Indian and Pakistani cinema; in Rawalpindi, Punjab Province, British India (d. 2008){{cite web |url=http://cineplot.com/swaranlata-1924-2008/ |date=18 September 2010 |archive-date=11 October 2011 |url-status=dead |title=Profile of Swaran Lata |access-date=25 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111011042144/http://cineplot.com/swaranlata-1924-2008/ |website=Cineplot.com}}
• Charlie Callas, American comedian, TV and film actor; in Brooklyn as Charles Callias (d. 2011){{cite book |last=Lentz |first=Harris M. |title=Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2011 |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |date=April 30, 2012 |page=51 |isbn=978-0-7864-6994-9}}

• The string of murders by German serial killer and cannibal Karl Denke came to an end when a homeless drifter, Vincenz Olivier, narrowly escaped being killed after being lured into Denke's home and alerted police in Münsterberg (now Ziębice in Poland).{{cite book |last=Constantine |first=Nathan |title=A History of Cannibalism: From ancient cultures to survival stories and modern psychopaths |publisher=Arcturus Publishing |date=26 June 2006 |isbn=9781848586130 |chapter=Part 5: Infamous Cannibals Throughout the Ages: The German Quartet}} Denke hanged himself in his jail cell the next day, and police searched his house, finding a ledger with the names of 30 victims (and a 31st entry for Olivier) and a large number of body parts deemed to have come from 42 or more people.{{cite magazine |last=Lutteroth |first=Johanna |date=8 April 2014 |title=Der Menschenfresser von Münsterberg |trans-title=The Maneater of Munsterberg |language=de |url=https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/kannibale-von-muensterberg-karl-denke-a-959424.html |access-date=20 November 2022 |magazine=Der Spiegel}}
• In the Republic of China, the "New National Pronunciation", a standardized pronunciation for the character sounds of the Chinese language, was set by delegates of a Commission established for the purpose of reforming the "Guóyīn Zìdiǎn". The delegates recommended the usage of Beijing, and later incorporated the new standard in 1932 in the "Guóyīn Chángyòng Zìhuì" (國音常用字匯, "Vocabulary of National Pronunciation for Everyday Use").{{cite book |last=Su |first=Peicheng (苏培成) |title=现代汉字学纲要 |trans-title=Essentials of Modern Chinese Characters |publisher=商务印书馆 (Commercial Press) |year=2014 |isbn=978-7-100-10440-1 |edition=3rd |location=Beijing |language=zh |pages=158–159}}{{cite book |last=Chen |first=Ping |title=Modern Chinese: History and Sociolinguistics |year=1999 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, U.K. |isbn=9780521645720 |via=Internet Archive |pages=https://archive.org/details/modernchinesehis00chen/page/16 16]–19 |edition=1st |url=https://archive.org/details/modernchinesehis00chen |url-access=registration}}
• Roughly 100 people were injured in rioting between communists and police in Berlin as a group of 50,000 German communists turned into a crushing mob when they gathered to greet Erich Mühsam upon his release from prison in the same general amnesty that freed Hitler.{{cite news |last=Schultz |first=Sigrid |author-link=Sigrid Schultz |date=December 22, 1924 |title=Reds in Berlin Greet 'Martyr'; 100 Wounded |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-reds-in-berlin-greet-ma/161350506/ |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=5 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• Born: Dankwart Rustow, German-born professor of political science and sociology, known for his research on democratization; in Berlin (d. 1996)
• Died: Francesco Negri, 83, Italian photographer known for his development of the telephoto lens and improvements in photomicroscopy{{cite book |first1=Barbara |last1=Bergaglio |first2=Pierangelo |last2=Cavanna |year=2006 |title=Francesco Negri fotografo, 1841-1924 |location=Milan |publisher=Silvana |isbn=9788836607464}}

• An interallied military committee, headed by Ferdinand Foch, announced that French and Belgian troops would not withdraw from the Cologne area of Germany on January 10, 1925, as specified in the Treaty of Versailles, because Germany had not fulfilled its disarmament provisions. Angry articles in the German press accused the Allies of breaking the Dawes Pact.{{cite news |last=Wales |first=Henry |date=December 23, 1924 |title='Stay on Rhine,' Foch Order |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-stay-on-rhine-foch-ord/161395549/ |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• The comet 43P/Wolf–Harrington was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf from the Heidelberg observatory.{{cite web |date=30 May 2009 |title=43P/Wolf-Harrington |publisher=Seiichi Yoshida's Comet Catalog |first=Seiichi |last=Yoshida |url=http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/0043P/index.html |access-date=2010-03-02}}
• The first college of agriculture in Burma (now Myanmar), the Agricultural College and Research Institute of Mandalay, was established. After being renamed the Institute of Agriculture in 1964, it would be moved {{convert|180|mi}} southward to Yezin in 1973 and renamed Yezin Agricultural University.{{cite web |url=http://myanmargeneva.org/e-com/Agri/expind/agri-index/myanmar.com/Ministry/agriculture/Organi/yua.htm |title=Yezin Agricultural University |publisher=Ministry of Agriculture |access-date=13 December 2008}}
• Born:
• Jack Greenberg, American civil rights attorney; in Brooklyn, New York City (d. 2016){{cite web |url=http://www.naacpldf.org/jack-greenberg-biography |title=Jack Greenberg |website=NAACP LDF}}
• Kanaklata Barua, Indian independence activist and martyr, known for her leadership of the All India Students' Federation; in Borangabari village, Eastern Bengal and Assam province, British India (killed, 1942)

• German president Friedrich Ebert lost a libel trial in Magdeburg. Newspaper editor Erwin Rothart was sentenced to three months in prison for insulting the president, but his accusation that Ebert had betrayed the country for leading a strike in 1918 was ruled as proven.{{cite web |url=http://www.todayinhistory.de/index.php?what=thmanu&lang=en&manu_id=1683&tag=23&monat=12&weekd=&year=2014&weekdnum=&dayisset=1&lang=en |title=23.12.1924: Ebert Loses Libel Trial |website=Deutsche Welle |access-date=January 16, 2015}}
• Albanian Prime Minister Fan Noli and his ministers fled Tirana as rebel forces led by the deposed leader Ahmet Zogu approached the city.{{cite news |last=Clayton |first=John |date=December 24, 1924 |title=Albanian Hangs for U.S. Deaths; Caused Revolts (Bulletin) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-albanian-hangs-for-us/161449916/ |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=3 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• The F. W. Murnau-directed film The Last Laugh premiered at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin.{{cite book |last=Hake |first=Sabine |chapter=Who Gets the Last Laugh? Old Age and Generational Change in F.W. Murnau's The Last Laugh (1924) |title=Weimar Cinema: An Essential Guide to Classic Films of the Era |editor-first=Noah William |editor-last=Isenberg |editor-link=Noah Isenberg |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2009 |page=123}}
• The Nicolae Bretan opera Golem was first performed at the Hungarian Theater in Cluj, Romania.{{cite book |last=Gagelmann |first=Hartmut |date=2000 |title=Nicolae Bretan, His Life, His Music |volume=1 |publisher=Pendragon Press |page=48 |isbn=1-57647-021-0}}
• Born:
• Bob Kurland, American college and AAU basketball player, inductee to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, credited as the first person to dunk in a college basketball game;{{cite news |last=Kerkhoff |first=Blair |title=Bob Kurland, credited as first player to dunk in a basketball game, dies at 88 |url=http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/campus-corner/article328546/Bob-Kurland-credited-as-first-player-to-dunk-in-a-basketball-game-dies-at-88.html |access-date=February 19, 2015 |newspaper=The Kansas City Star |date=September 30, 2013}} in St. Louis, Missouri (d. 2013)
• Matthäus Hetzenauer, Austrian sniper for Nazi Germany during World War II, with 345 confirmed kills against Soviet troops; in Brixen im Thale (d. 2004){{cite book |first=Roland |last=Kaltenegger |title=Eastern Front Sniper: The Life of Matthäus Hetzenauer |publisher=Greenhill Books |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-78438-216-2}}
• Richard E. Bush, U.S. Marine and Medal of Honor recipient who survived throwing himself on an enemy grenade during the Battle of Okinawa during World War II; in Glasgow, Kentucky{{cite web |access-date=October 21, 2007 |url=http://www.tecom.usmc.mil/HD/Whos_Who/Bush_RE.htm |title=Master Gunnery Sergeant Richard E. Bush, USMC |work=Who's Who in Marine Corps History |publisher=History Division, United States Marine Corps |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110516215214/http://www.tecom.usmc.mil/HD/Whos_Who/Bush_RE.htm |archive-date=May 16, 2011}} (d. 2004)
• E. O. Kane, American physicist known for developing the Kane model of the structure of energy bands of semiconductors; in Kane, Pennsylvania (d. 2006){{cite journal |title=Obituary of Evan O'Neill Kane |doi=10.1063/pt.4.2301 |year=2013 |journal=Physics Today|volume=2006 |issue=3 }}
• Died: Christopher Whall, 75, British stained-glass artist

• A fire killed 36 people in a one-room school house at Babbs Switch, Oklahoma, where over 200 people were attending a party on Christmas Eve. Candles near a dry Christmas tree spread the blaze after a student handing out presents accidentally brushed a wrapped gift against a candle flame.{{cite news |date=December 25, 1924 |title=32 DEAD IN CHRISTMAS FIRE— Candle Sets Tree Ablaze in Oklahoma |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-32-dead-in-christmas-fir/161450052/ |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• All eight people aboard an Imperial Airways de Havilland DH.34 airliner— seven of them passengers— were killed while traveling between London and Paris. In Britain's deadliest air disaster up to that time, Imperial airplane G-EBBX plummeted seconds after taking off from Croydon Airport toward Le Bourget Airport.{{Cite news |date=December 30, 1924 |title=Vivid Stories of Air Liner Smash |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-birmingham-post-vivid-stories-of-air/161450199/ |work=Birmingham Post |pages=7 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• Pope Pius XI opened the holy door at St. Peter's Basilica to begin the Jubilee Year of 1925.{{cite news |date=December 25, 1924 |title=Pope Pius Opens Holy Door at Celebration of 23d Jubilee Year |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-pope-pius-opens-holy-doo/161450347/ |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=25 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• Albania, nominally a principality since becoming independent in 1912, but never able to find a monarch, was declared a republic as Ahmet Zogu entered Tirana without resistance. Zogu, a former Prime Minister, reclaimed leadership of the country and completed the overthrow of Fan Noli's government.{{cite news |last=Clayton |first=John |date=December 25, 1924 |title=Albanian Rebel Army in Tirana; Civil War Ends |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-albanian-rebel-army-in-t/161450715/ |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• Egypt's 215-member House of Representatives, the Maglis El Nowwab, was dissolved by King Fuad I at the request of Prime Minister Ahmed Zeiwar Pasha, and new elections were set for March 23.
• Born:
• Nour Al Hoda, Turkish-born Lebanese actress and singer; in Istanbul (d. 1998)
• Mohammed Rafi, Indian playback singer; in Kotla Sultan Singh, Punjab Province, British India (d. 1980)
• Aura Ambache Herzog, Egyptian-born wife of Israel's President Chaim Herzog and mother of Israeli President Isaac Herzog; First Lady of Israel from 1983 to 1993; in Ismailia (d. 2022)
• Died: David Stewart, 34, British flying ace and the pilot in the fatal Imperial Airways airplane crash

• Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church within the Soviet Union, designated three different persons as potential successors, identifying Metropolitan Kirill Smirnov of Kazan, Metropolitan Agathangel Preobrazhensky of Yaroslavl and Metropolitan Peter Polyansky of Krutitsy.{{cn|date=December 2024}} With Smirnov and Preobrazhensky imprisoned at the time of Tikhon's death on April 7, Polyansky would be selected by the clerics of the church as Peter of Krutitsy, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
• A post-season college football bowl game known as the Los Angeles Christmas Festival was played in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The USC Trojans defeated the Missouri Tigers, 20–7.
• The Broadway Theatre opened in midtown-Manhattan, New York City.{{Cite news |date=December 21, 1924 |title=With the Producers and Players |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1924/12/21/archives/with-the-producers-and-players.html |access-date=June 17, 2022 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=June 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220617152604/https://www.nytimes.com/1924/12/21/archives/with-the-producers-and-players.html |url-status=live }}
• Born:
• Moktar Ould Daddah, the first president of Mauritania (from 1960 to 1978); in Boutilimit, French West Africa (d. 2003)
• Atal Bihari Vajpayee, 10th Prime Minister of India from 1998 to 2004; in Gwalior, Gwalior State (now in Madhya Pradesh state), British India (d. 2018)
• Rod Serling, screenwriter, playwright, television producer and narrator known for The Twilight Zone; in Syracuse, New York (d. 1975)

• Soviet ambassador Leonid Krassin said that Russia would not pay any outstanding debts accrued in the days of the Tsar.{{cite news |date=December 27, 1924 |title=Russia Will Not Pay Czar Debts, Krassin States |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-russia-will-not-pay-czar/161631181/ |work=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• Judy Garland made her show business debut at the age of {{frac|2|1|2}}, singing "Jingle Bells" at her parents' theater in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.{{cite web |url=http://www.jgdb.com/bio.htm |title=Judy Garland Nutshell Biography |website=Judy Garland Database |access-date=January 16, 2015 }}
• Died: William Emerson, 81, British architect

• An explosion killed 94 people in Japan, and injured more than 300, as 600 cases of dynamite were being transferred from the cargo ship Shoho Maru to a freight car, at the Temiya railway station at Otaru on the island of Hokkaido.{{cite news |date=December 28, 1924 |title=SCORES KILLED IN POWDER BLAST— Hundreds of Homes Razed by Explosion |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-lincoln-star-scores-killed-in-powder/161701535/ |newspaper=Lincoln Sunday Star |location=Lincoln, Nebraska |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com |agency=United Press}} The official figures came from a Japanese government report.{{cite news |date=December 27, 1924 |title=Powder Cargo Explodes and Fire Follows— Several Hundred Casualties Are Reported In Disaster To Japanese Ship |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ottawa-journal-powder-cargo-explodes/161701702/ |newspaper=Ottawa Journal |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}:ja:手宮駅#歴史 (Japanese language edition) Retrieved on June 28, 2020.
• Three months after the last U.S. troops left the Dominican Republic and allowed the nation to govern itself independently, Dominican representatives signed an agreement allowing the U.S. to control the Republic's customs revenues, which would continue until 1941.{{cite journal |jstor=2213777 |issue=4 |year=1942 |journal=The American Journal of International Law |title=Dominican Republic-United States |volume=36 |pages=209–213 |doi=10.2307/2213777 |s2cid=246011614}}
• An editorial written by the estranged Fascist politician Cesare Rossi ran in Giovanni Amendola's newspaper Il Mondo, simultaneously published in other opposition papers. In it, Rossi claimed that Benito Mussolini had directly ordered the Fascists to carry out several crimes.{{cite news |last=Storer |first=John |date=December 28, 1924 |title=Italian Premier is Accused of Fascist Crimes |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-italian-premier-is-accus/161703232/ |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=12 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite book |last=Sarfatti |first=Margherita |author-link=Margherita Sarfatti |year=2014 |editor1-last=Sullivan |editor1-first=Brian R. |title=My Fault: Mussolini As I Knew Him |location=New York |publisher=Enigma Books |pages=112–113 |isbn=978-1-936274-40-6}}

• Three days of voting began in Honduras for President and for the 47 seats of the Congreso Nacional. The Liberal Party boycotted the election, and Miguel Paz Barahona of the conservative National Party was elected president virtually unopposed, and the National Party won all but one of the seats in Congress.{{cite book |last=Leonard |first=Thomas M. |year=2011 |title=The History of Honduras |location=Santa Barbara, California |publisher=Greenwood |page=100 |isbn=978-0-313-36304-7}}
• Near the village of Valchitran in Bulgaria, two brothers discovered gold and silver artifacts that had been buried by a group of the ancient Thracians around 1300 BC, including a bowl made of {{convert|10|lb}} of gold.{{cite book |last=Ovcharov |first=Dimiter |chapter=The Vulchitrun Treasure |title=Fifteen Treasures from Bulgarian Lands |translator-last=Pencheva |translator-first=Maya |publisher=Bulgarian Bestseller, National Museum of Books and Polygraphy |location=Sofia |pages=20–21 |year=2005}}
• The Linguistic Society of America was founded.{{cite journal |jstor=4388662 |title=The Organization of the Linguistic Society of America |journal=Classical Weekly |first=E. H. |last=Sturtevant |date=2 March 1925 |volume=18 |number=12 |pages=127–128 |doi=10.2307/4388662}}
• With Franco-German tensions high over the issue of the occupation of Cologne, a sensational report was published in Paris claiming that German scientists had secretly developed a new and devastating poison gas that could annihilate a whole city in a matter of hours.{{cite news |date=December 29, 1924 |title=French Claim Germans Make New Deadly Gas |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-french-claim-germans-mak/161705258/ |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=4 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• Born:
• Girma Wolde-Giorgis, President of Ethiopia from 2001 to 2013; in Addis Ababa (d. 2018){{cite book |title=Encyclopaedia Britannica Almanac |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kd2bAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA75 |year=2010 |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. |isbn=978-1-61535-329-3 |page=75 |via=Google Books}}{{cite news |url=https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/africa/Former-Ethiopian-president-Girma-Woldegiorgis-dies/4552902-4896506-ex7adxz/index.html |title=Former Ethiopian president Girma Woldegiorgis dies |website=The East African |access-date=15 December 2018}}
• Sidney Topol, American entrepreneur, chairman of Scientific Atlanta and developer of the satellite signal receiver dish; in Boston (d. 2022){{cite book |via=Google Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NiEcAQAAMAAJ&q=Sidney+Topol+1924 |title=Who's who in Finance and Industry |year=1987}}[https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/sidney-topol-obituary?id=33978714 Sidney "Sid" Topol obituary]
• Willy Albimoor, Belgian composer; in Wevelgem, West Flanders (d. 2004){{cite web |title=Bill Ador |url=https://www.discogs.com/artist/747655-Bill-Ador |access-date=2023-09-08 |website=Discogs |language=ru}}
• Died: Albert Koebele, 71, German entomologist who developed methods of biological control of insect pests and invasive plant species{{cite book |last=Mallis |first=Arnold |author-link=Arnold Mallis |title=American Entomologists |publisher=Rutgers University |year=1971 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanentomolo0000mall/page/351 351–55] |isbn=0-8135-0686-7 |via=Internet Archive |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/americanentomolo0000mall/page/351}}

File:Peter Pan (1924) - 10.jpg) and Peter Pan (Betty Bronson)]]

• The adventure film Peter Pan, directed by Herbert Brenon and starring Betty Bronson in the title role, was released by Paramount Pictures (at the time, Famous Players–Lasky).{{cite web |url=http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/P/PeterPan1924.html |department=Progressive Silent Film List |title=Peter Pan |website=silentera.com}} The film was an adaptation of the J. M. Barrie play Peter Pan, or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, which had premiered almost exactly 20 years earlier (on December 27, 1904) and which Barrie novelized in 1911 in the book Peter and Wendy. After originally being considered lost, the film footage would be rediscovered at the Eastman School of Music in the 1950s and restored. In 2000, the Library of Congress would select the film for preservation in the National Film Registry.
• Kid McCoy was found guilty of manslaughter in the August 12 death of his live-in mistress.{{cite news |date=December 30, 1924 |title=Kid McCoy Found Guilty: Manslaughter |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-kid-mccoy-found-guilty/161858514/ |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• Born: Kim Song-ae, wife of North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Il Sung from their marriage in 1952 to 1994, Chair of the Korean Democratic Women's League and a representative in the Supreme People's Assembly (d. 2014)
• Died:
• Carl Spitteler, 79, Swiss writer and Nobel Prize laureate{{cite web |title=Carl Spitteler – Facts |website=NobelPrize.org |publisher=Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024 |access-date=30 March 2024 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1919/spitteler/facts/}}
• Luigi Bottazzo, 79, blind Italian organist and composer'[https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/luigi-bottazzo_(Dizionario-Biografico) 'Bottazzo, Luigi"]' in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. Volume 13 (Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 1971). Online resource, accessed 7 March 2022

• Benito Mussolini called an unexpected cabinet meeting and requested a show of support from all present, which he received from a majority. The two Liberal ministers in Mussolini's cabinet were convinced to withdraw their resignations.{{cite news |date=December 31, 1924 |title=Mussolini Leaps Fresh Obstacle; Saves Cabinet |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-mussolini-leaps-fresh-ob/161936956/ |work=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=7 |via=Newspapers.com}} The meeting prompted other members of the Fascist party to confront Mussolini the next day in his office.
• German Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann told international media that peace in Europe and fulfillment of the Dawes Plan were in danger unless a compromise was reached on the Cologne evacuation issue.{{cite news |last=Seldes |first=George |author-link=George Seldes |date=December 31, 1924 |title=Order of Allies Brews New Hate Crop in Europe |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-order-of-allies-brews-ne/161937020/ |work=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=7 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• Died: Kate Elinore, 47, American vaudeville entertainer{{cite book |last= Slide|first= Anthony|date= March 12, 2012|title= The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Hu3nNSmRjZ0C|access-date= April 20, 2022|location= Jackson, Mississippi| publisher= University Press of Mississippi| page=158| isbn= 978-1-617-03250-9}}

• Thirty-three Blackshirt consuls, headed by Enzo Galbiati, arrived unannounced in Benito Mussolini's office, demanding that he crush the opposition or they would do so without him.
• Italian police were ordered to search the houses of prominent opposition leaders over allegations that enemies of the government had stockpiled vast stores of arms. Issues of opposition newspapers in several Italian cities were seized, with Florence becoming especially violent as thousands of Blackshirts converged on the city and ransacked several buildings, including the printing plant of an opposition newspaper which was set on fire.{{cite news |date=January 1, 1925 |title=Thumbscrews Turned on Foes by Mussolini |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-thumbscrews-turned-on-fo/162150373/ |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• Julius Schaub, the chief adviser to Adolf Hitler, was released from Landsberg Prison, where he had been incarcerated with Hitler for participating in the 1923 attempt to overthrow the government of Munich.{{cite book |last=Joachimsthaler |first=Anton |author-link=Anton Joachimsthaler |title=The Last Days of Hitler: The Legends, Evidence, and Truth |year=1999 |publisher=Brockhampton Press |page=287 |isbn=978-1-86019-902-8}}
• Three of four brothers in the Barmat family of merchants were arrested as the industrial corruption scandal known as the Barmat scandal broke in Germany. One report claimed that President Friedrich Ebert's son "Fritz" was connected to the scandal.{{cite news |last=Seldes |first=George |author-link=George Seldes |date=January 1, 1925 |title=Berlin Bankers Held in Swindle of $10,000 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-berlin-bankers-held-in-s/162150439/ |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=19 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite book |last=Fulda |first=Bernhard |title=Press and Politics in the Weimar Republic |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |pages=94–96 |isbn=978-0-19-954778-4}}
• Born:
• Frank J. Kelley, U.S. politician, Attorney General of Michigan from 1961 to 1999, nicknamed "The Eternal General"; in Detroit (d. 2021){{cite news |first=Tim |last=Collins |date=March 7, 2021 |title=Flags at Half-Mast for Michigan Attorney General Frank Kelley |url=https://wbckfm.com/flags-lowered-for-former-michigan-attorney-general-frank-kelley/ |access-date=March 12, 2021 |website=95.3 |publisher=WBCK FM |language=en}}
• Taylor Mead, writer, actor and performer, in Grosse Pointe, Michigan (d. 2013)
• Died:
• George Winthrop Fairchild, 70, Chairman of the Board since 1915 of IBM, formerly the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, and U.S. Representative for New York, 1907 to 1919{{cite web |title=FAIRCHILD, George Winthrop 1854 – 1924 |work=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress |url=https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/F000005 |access-date=March 30, 2024}}
• Sir Samuel William Knaggs, 68, British civil servant

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Events by month links}}

1924

*1924-12