1924 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

Monarch - George V

Prime Minister -

until 16 January: Stanley Baldwin (Conservative)

22 January-4 November: Ramsay MacDonald (Labour)

starting 4 November: Stanley Baldwin (Conservative)

Events

1 January - Meteorological Office issues its first broadcast Shipping Forecast, at this time called Weather Shipping.

10 January - British submarine L-34 sinks in the English Channel - 43 dead.

15 January - The world's first radio play, Danger by Richard Hughes, is broadcast by the British Broadcasting Company from its studios in London.

22 January - Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government. This follows Stanley Baldwin's resignation after his government lost a vote of no confidence.

23 January - Margaret Bondfield becomes the first woman to be appointed a government minister.

25 January–4 February - Great Britain and Ireland compete at the Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France and win 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals.

February

Baldwin establishes the Conservative Consultative Committee, the first organised Shadow Cabinet.

John Logie Baird sends rudimentary television pictures over a short distance.

1 February - The United Kingdom recognises the Soviet Union.

5 February - GMT: Hourly time signals from Royal Greenwich Observatory are broadcast for the first time.

18 February - Commissioning of HMS Hermes (95), the Royal Navy's first purpose-designed aircraft carrier.

28 March - First BBC broadcast from Plymouth (station 5PY).

23 April - First broadcast by King George V, opening the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Stadium.

26 April

Harry Grindell Matthews demonstrates his "death ray" in London but fails to convince the War Office.

Footwear retailer Charles Clinkard opens the doors to its first shop, in Middlesbrough.

4 May–27 July - Great Britain and Ireland compete at the Olympics in Paris and win 9 gold, 13 silver and 12 bronze medals.

30 May - Russell case decided on appeal to the House of Lords: Christabel Russell is cleared of adultery on the grounds of being a virgin thus legitimising her son as heir to her separated husband John Russell, 3rd Baron Ampthill.

3 June - Gleneagles Hotel opens in Scotland.

8 June - George Mallory and Andrew Irvine are last seen "going strong for the top" of Mount Everest by teammate Noel Odell at 12:50 PM. The two mountaineers are never seen alive again.

7 July - Harold Abrahams wins 100m gold at the Paris Olympics in a time of 10.6 seconds.

11 July - Eric Liddell wins 400m gold at the Paris Olympics in a new world record time of 47.6 seconds.

13 August - Campbell Case: The government forces the charges against John Ross Campbell to be dropped leading to a vote of no confidence in the House of Commons.

30 August - Britain accepts the Dawes Plan for receiving German war reparations.

14 September - First BBC broadcast from Belfast (station 2BE).

24 October - The Foreign Office publishes the Zinoviev Letter.

25 October - British authorities in India arrest Subhas Chandra Bose and jail him for the next two and half years.

29 October - The general election is won by the Conservative Party under Stanley Baldwin. Among the new members of parliament is 30-year-old Harold Macmillan, the new Conservative MP for Stockton-on-Tees (born in Chelsea to a British father and American mother).

2 November - The Sunday Express becomes the first newspaper to publish a crossword.

24 December - Air crash at Croydon air field - 8 dead.

Undated

Housing Act provides government subsidy for the building of houses to rent, principally by local authorities.

Air Raid Precautions committee set up.

The Scottish county of Linlithgowshire is officially renamed West Lothian.

The London and North Eastern Railway officially names its Flying Scotsman express train, although the service between London King's Cross and Edinburgh over the East Coast Main Line has previously been known by this title, and has operated since 1862.

Edward Victor Appleton investigates the Heaviside layer.

Frigidaire becomes the first make of refrigerator marketed in the U.K.

First nudist camp established, at Wickford, Essex.

Publications

Michael Arlen's novel The Green Hat.

Agatha Christie's novel The Man in the Brown Suit.

E. M. Forster's novel A Passage to India.

Margaret Kennedy's novel The Constant Nymph.

A. A. Milne's poem collection When We Were Very Young.

Mary Webb's novel Precious Bane.

P. C. Wren's novel Beau Geste.

Births

8 January - Ron Moody, actor (died 2015)

21 January - Benny Hill, comedian and actor (died 1992)

22 January - Betty Lockwood, Baroness Lockwood, English academic and politician

27 January - Brian Rix, farceur and mental disability campaigner (died 2016)

3 March - John Woodnutt, actor (died 2006)

8 March - Anthony Caro, sculptor (died 2013)

28 March - Freddie Bartholomew, actor (died 1992)

30 March - Alan Davidson, author (died 2003)

15 April

Rikki Fulton, actor and comedian (died 2004)

Neville Marriner, conductor and violinist (died 2016)

24 April - Clement Freud, writer, radio personality and politician (died 2009)

1 May - Dennis Main Wilson, broadcast producer (died 1997)

11 May

Antony Hewish, radio astronomer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics

Jackie Milburn, footballer (died 1988)

12 May - Tony Hancock, comedian (died 1968)

19 May - Sandy Wilson, composer (died 2014)

24 May - Vincent Cronin, historical writer and biographer (died 2011)

28 May - Edward du Cann politician

2 June - Peter Halliday, actor (died 2012)

6 June - John Ambler, businessman (died 2008)

27 June - Bob Appleyard, cricketer (died 2015)

11 July - Charlie Tully, footballer (died 1971)

14 July - James W. Black, Scottish-born pharmacologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 2010)

1 August - John Clive Ward, English-born physicist, "father of the British H-bomb" (died 2000)

7 August - Kenneth Kendall, newsreader and presenter (died 2012)

12 August - Derek Shackleton, cricketer (died 2007)

15 August - Robert Bolt, writer (died 1995)

4 September - Joan Aiken, writer (died 2004)

22 September - Charles Keeping, illustrator (died 1988)

22 September - Rosamunde Pilcher (née Scott), novelist

19 November - William Russell, actor

21 November - Christopher Tolkien, son and editor of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien

Deaths

2 January - Sabine Baring-Gould, composer and novelist (born 1834)

21 April - Marie Corelli, novelist (born 1855)

4 May - E. Nesbit, author (born 1858)

8/9 June - Andrew Irvine, mountaineer (lost on Everest) (born 1902)

10 June - George Mallory, mountaineer (lost on Everest) (born 1886)

3 August - Joseph Conrad, novelist (born 1857, Poland)

27 August - William Bayliss, physiologist (born 1860)

29 October - Frances Hodgson Burnett, author (born 1849)

31 December - Samuel Knaggs, colonial administrator (born 1856)