Jubilee celebrated by Pius XI

Sun Yat-sen’s death sparks unrest in China

Future British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is born

The Schutz Staffeln (SS), a special corps of the SA, were formed to defend Hitler.

Adolf Hitler, after his release, refounded the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP).

The first disposable paper handkerchiefs were marketed under the name Kleenex. They were invented by Bert Fourtness of the American company Kimberly Clark, based on the patented Cellucotton material, already used by Kimberly Clark for feminine hygiene products.

The young (12-year-old!) Wernher von Braun performs his first experiment with rockets: 6 large rockets push the wheeled cart on which Wernher sits; his older brother Sigismund helps him with the “project”.

The leading opposition figure in Italy, the socialist Matteotti, is assassinated; one of those responsible is identified as a close collaborator of Mussolini, who has him expelled from the party; due to the murder, the fascist government goes through a serious crisis for the next six months.

Mormon founder assassinated. American Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon faith, was killed by a hostile mob while in prison in Illinois. In his ‘Book of Mormon,’ Smith had claimed to be the prophet of the last true church, that American Indians were descendants of the tribes of Israel, and that Jesus had come to preach in America after his resurrection. Disliked for unorthodox practices such as polygamy, Smith and his followers were persecuted throughout the eastern United States. To protect them from persecution, Brigham Young, Smith’s successor, led the Mormon exodus in 1846, following in the footsteps of pioneer wagon trains. In July 1847, the Mormons settled near the Great Salt Lake in Utah, where they founded Salt Lake City.

Lenin dies; his will is kept secret

United States, wave of violence unleashed in the South by the Ku Klux Klan

Warner Bros. is born

Washington, D.C., United States. President Harding dies of a sudden heart attack. His friend Thomas Alva Edison attends the funeral in Marion, Ohio, and later visits Milan, Ohio, his birthplace.

Guglielmo Marconi joined the National Fascist Party (PNF), the Fascist Party of Milan. Marconi wrote, “out of conviction, not convenience.” His membership was dictated by the search for order and discipline, by faith in the future and progress, by strong nationalism, and by his personal friendship with D’Annunzio. Marconi died a fascist in 1937 (unlike other Italian scientists, such as Fermi, who had the opportunity to switch sides).

In Los Angeles, California, the letters HOLLYWOODLAND were erected to advertise a development; in 1945, the last four letters were dismantled.

Weimar Republic in Germany: temporary political and economic stability

Germany pays its war debts by printing money: inflation is enormous and the mark has practically no value.

Washington DC, United States. Firestone launches a call for American rubber independence. The House allocates $500,000, and in early March, President Harding signs the McCormick Bill.

Arthur Compton demonstrates that photons, when encountering charged particles, behave like massless particles.

Vladimir Kosma Zworykin, who grew up in Russia, France and the USA, patented the iconoscope, the first electronic camera, at Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

Russians Ostro Nisleskij and Makimov invent synthetic rubber

Greek-American physician George Papanicolau invents the Pap smear for detecting uterine cancer.

Hermann Oberth, later a member of the American space program, publishes “The Rocket into Planetary Space” in Germany.

In the Soviet Union, the U1, TB1 and other rockets were developed, which would become famous during the Second World War for being launched by the famous Katyushas.

Pius XI (Achille Ratti) is Pope

The Soviet Union (USSR, acronym for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) was born, consisting of 14 republics

The Russian physicist Aleksandr Fridman (or Friedmann) demonstrates that with the hypothesis of a universe identical in every direction and that it would be so even if observed from another observation point, on the basis of general relativity the universe cannot be static and must therefore have been born from an explosion of some kind.

Robert Oppenheimer studied chemistry at Harvard. His mentor was Percy Bridgman.

Nobel Prize in Physics to Niels Bohr

The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is established through the merger of six British companies, including the London-based company WTSC (Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company), founded by Guglielmo Marconi.

Türkiye. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk abolishes the sultanate. He will do the same with the caliphate on March 3, 1924.

Benito Mussolini organizes the March on Rome and Vittorio Emanuele charges him with forming the new government

Soviet Central Asia. Enver Pasha, leader of the Muslim revolutionaries known as Basmacci, is captured and killed by the Red Army on the border with Afghanistan.

Alexander Graham Bell dies. Teaching the deaf to speak was his primary goal in life and career. Incidentally, he was also the inventor of the telephone (until the U.S. Congress awarded the invention to Meucci). He also worked for the journal Science, establishing it on solid financial footing, and also directed the Smithsonian Institution for several years. He also won the prestigious Volta Prize, established by Napoleon Bonaparte, for the invention of the telephone. Public schools and associations for the deaf still bear his name.

Soviet Union. Lenin wrote again to the People’s Commissar of Justice: “Comrade Kursky! I hope the fundamental concept is clear […]: openly state the principle that motivates the essence and justification of terror, its necessity, its limits. Justice must not eliminate terror […] only a revolutionary sense of right and revolutionary consciousness can suggest its practical application, more or less extensive. Communist greetings. Lenin.”

Soviet Union. Lenin writes to the People’s Commissar of Justice: “Comrade Kursky! In my opinion, the shooting must be extended to all forms of activity of Mensheviks, etc.; a formulation must be found thatconnect these actions with the international bourgeoisie” (italics and spacing are Lenin’s). He makes an addition in a second letter five days later, clarifying the purpose of the terror and its practical application.

Soviet Central Asia. Enver Pasha, a sort of Pan-Turkish Garibaldi, conquers Dushanbe at the head of only 200 men. He is captured and killed by the Red Army a few weeks later on the Afghan border.