Dashed left edge = started before October 1924 ·
Dashed right edge = ongoing beyond October 1924
Events in October 1924 7
1844 – 1924Anatole France (1844-1924)Died 12 October 1924, aged 80Anatole France was a French novelist and Nobel laureate in Literature (1921), known for works such as Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard and Penguin Island. He was one of the most celebrated French writers of his era.
1924The Bayway refinery deathsThe looney gas buildingAt the Standard Oil works in Bayway, New Jersey, workers producing tetraethyl lead begin hallucinating and convulsing. Five die and dozens are hospitalised. Similar deaths follow at DuPont and at Dayton. The press names the plant after what it does to the men inside it. Several states and cities ban leaded petrol outright.
1924 – 2024Jimmy Carter39th President — longest-lived US presidentJimmy Carter (Oct 1, 1924 – Dec 29, 2024) was the 39th President 1977-1981. He brokered the Camp David Accords, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, and became the longest-lived US president at age 100.
1924 – 2005William Rehnquist (1924-2005)Died 3 September 2005, aged 80William Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, died on 3 September 2005 while still serving on the bench, having led the court since 1986. He presided over the 2000 Bush v. Gore case and the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. Rehnquist had served on the Supreme Court since being appointed an associate justice in 1972.
1924Zeppelin LZ 126 crosses the AtlanticGerman-built airship delivered to the US NavyThe airship LZ 126, built by the Zeppelin company as war-reparations payment, flew from Friedrichshafen to Lakehurst, New Jersey between 12 and 15 October 1924. Renamed USS Los Angeles, it served the US Navy for years as a demonstration of long-range airship travel.
1924 – 2019Lee Iacocca (1924-2019)Died 2 July 2019, aged 94Lee Iacocca was an American automobile executive who led the development of the Ford Mustang before becoming CEO of Chrysler, where he engineered a landmark government-backed turnaround in the early 1980s. He became one of the most recognizable corporate leaders in American business history. He died at his home in Bel Air, California.
1924The press demonstrationWashing his hands in itTo answer the Bayway coverage, Midgley calls a press conference, pours tetraethyl lead over his hands, holds a beaker of it under his nose and breathes deeply for a full minute, and tells reporters he could do this every day without harm. He had already been treated for lead poisoning the previous year, and he requires further treatment shortly afterwards. It is one of the most effective pieces of industrial public relations of the century.