The month of December has been home to many historical events over the years. Here’s a look at some that helped to shape the world in December 1924.
• Boston Arena hosts the first National Hockey League game ever played in the United States on Dec. 1. The league’s two newest franchises, the Boston Bruins and the Montreal Maroons, lock horns in a 2-1 game eventually won by the home team.
• On Dec. 1, Richard L. Cowan of Toronto and C. Lewis Fowler of New York sign an agreement to start the first chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Canada.
• More than 700 people perish when a devastating earthquake strikes present- day Indonesia on Dec. 2.
• The SS Belgenland departs New York City on Dec. 4. The ocean liner begins a cruise around the world that would last for more than months. Though at least 350 passengers are on board when the ship departs the Big Apple, just 235 remain for the duration of the trip.
• Decree No. 2980 creates the State of Syria on December 5, uniting the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus under a common native assembly and administration.
• The Chicago Bears defeat the Cleveland Bulldogs 22-0 on December 7. National Football League rules at the time made no provision for a postseason championship, so the Bulldogs, in spite of the loss, are deemed the league champion because their winning percentage (.875) was better than the Bears’ (.857).
• The Book-Cadillac Hotel, at the time the tallest hotel in the world, opens in Detroit on Dec. 9. The luxury hotel includes 1,136 rooms and 31 stories.
• Gold is discovered near the Swedish village of Boliden on Dec. 10, revealing what would become the largest and richest gold mine in Europe. The mine would not be exhausted of its gold supply until 1967.
• American Tobacco Company founder James B. Duke gives $40 million to The Duke Endowment on Dec. 11. The trust fund, directed to support four colleges, awards the larg-est share of the gift to Trinity College in Durham, North Carolina, provided the school change its name to honor James Duke’s father, Washington Duke.
• Exiled former Albanian Prime Minister Ahmet Zogu leads an invasion of the country with guerillas backed by Yugoslavia on Dec. 13. Zogu enters the capital city of Tirana on December 24 and declares the country a republic.
• On Dec. 14, the temperature in Fairfield, Montana, drops from 63 F at noon to -21 F at midnight. The 84-degree change sets a record for the greatest drop in temperature in a 12-hour period.
• Masked and armed vigilantes seize 15-yearold African American Samuel Smith from his hospital room in Nashville, Tennessee, on Dec. 15. Smith, who had been arrested for shooting and wounding a white grocer, is hanged from a tree near the grocer’s home. No one is ever charged with the crime.
• Fritz Haarmann is sentenced to death in Germany on Dec. 19. Known as the “Butcher of Hanover,” the “Vampire of Hanover” and the “Wolf Man,” Haarmann had been found guilty of murdering 24 men, and is ultimately executed by guillotine in April 1925.
• After serving just 13 months of a five-year prison sentence, Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison on Dec. 20. Hitler’s release is part of a wider policy of general amnesty for political prisoners.
• A Christmas Eve party in a one-room schoolhouse in Babbs Switch, Oklahoma ends in tragedy on Dec. 24. A student handing out presents accidentally brushes a wrapped gift against a candle flame near a dry Christmas tree, igniting a fire that ultimately kills 36 people.
• The Broadway Theatre in Manhattan opens on Christmas Day. The theatre remains open today, and is one of just a handful of theaters that is physically located on Broadway.
• Singing “Jingle Bells” at her parents’ theater in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, two-year-old Judy Garland makes her show business debut on Dec. 26.
