The month of November has been home to many historical events over the years. Here’s a look at some that helped to shape the world in November 1924.
• The Meteorological Flight Service is introduced by the British Royal Air Force on November 1. The service is implemented to identify temperature, pressure, humidity, and general weather conditions.
• A freight train hits a street car after midnight in Chicago on November 2. Witnesses reported the freight train had no lights on as it reached the railroad crossing at the intersection of North Avenue and Kingsbury Street. Ten passengers on the street car are killed and 31 others are injured.
• On November 3, presidential hopefuls Calvin Coolidge, who is seeking to be elected after succeeding to the presidency upon the sudden death of President Warren G. Harding in 1923, and John W. Davis make their final appeals to voters via radio addresses. Coolidge is elected the following day.
• Despite having no experience in finance, Winston Churchill is appointed British Chancellor of the Exchequer on November 6.
• Korean nationalist Syngman Rhee announces plans to gain independence for Korea from the Japanese Empire on November 8. Rhee makes the announcement in Honolulu, Hawaii.
• In a political misstep, 185 opposition members fail to show up for a new session of the Italian Parliament on November 12. The move is a protest against the Fascist Party, which uses the members’ absence to enact Prime Minister Benito Mussolini’s restrictive program.
• On November 14, noted explorers Roald Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth announce plans for a joint polar flight expedition in 1925.
• Nine members of the infamous, St. Louis-based bank robbing gang Egan’s Rats are each sentenced to 25 years in federal prison on November 15. The conviction puts an end to the gang, which had employed hundreds of people over the course of more than three decades.
• Major-General Sir Lee Stack, British Governor-General of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, is shot in Cairo by Egyptian nationalist students on November 19. Stack dies the following day, and the British government later blames his death on its Egyptian counterpart for its failure to suppress anti-British agitation.
• Two days after attending a celebrity-filled gathering aboard William Randolph Hearst’s private yacht, Hollywood producer Thomas H. Ince dies at home on November 19. Rumors of a coverup regarding the cause of Ince’s death persisted into the twenty-first century.
• The Gandy Bridge across Tampa Bay opens to drivers on November 20. The 2.5-mile bridge was the longest bridge in the world at the time of its opening.
• United States Navy aviator Dixie Kiefer takes off from the deck of the U.S.S. California on November 21. Kiefer becomes the first pilot to take off from a warship at night.
• On November 23, Edwin Hubble announces that Andromeda, previously believed to be a nebula, is actually another galaxy.
• The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is held in New York City on November 27.
• The Montreal Forum opens in Canada on November 29 when the Montreal Canadiens defeat the Toronto St. Pats 7-1.
• Shirley Chisholm is born in Brooklyn on November 30. Chisholm would grow up to become, in 1968, the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress.