100 Years Ago Today

[Jimbuna]

5th March 1924

U.S. Marines building a pontoon bridge to the U.S. Navy cargo ship USS Sirius (AK-15)


Ship Losses:

Fennia (Finland) The cargo ship ran aground on Kalkgrundet, Baltic Sea. She slipped off the rocks and sank on 14 March.

[Jimbuna]

6th March 1924

Olympic Cavalry Team

[Jimbuna]

7th March 1924

Ship Losses:

Buzen Maru (Japan) The cargo ship ran aground on Ganyūjima, in the Shimonoseki Strait. She was refloated on 12 March.

[Jimbuna]

8th March 1924

"Franklin D. Roosevelt, prominent Democrat of New York state and former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, is caught unawares while painting chairs on his yacht in Biscayne Bay, where he is enjoying the winter, far from the whirl of Washington politics."


President Coolidge decorating Henry Breault of the submarine 0-5 with Congressional Medal of Honor.


Ship Losses:

Obernai (United Kingdom) The cargo ship sprang a leak and foundered in the Atlantic Ocean (46°49′N 58°10′W). Her crew were rescued by Kungsholm ( Sweden).

[Jimbuna]

9th March 1924

Paris: The French franc is falling; £1 is worth 117 francs. The French Cabinet held an emergency meeting to consider extraordinary measures to stabilize the collapsing franc, which dropped to 117.60 francs against the British pound sterling.


Ship Losses:

Eupatoria (Germany) The cargo ship ran aground on the Salmedina Bank, off the coast of Colombia. She was refloated on 17 March.
Sori (Italy) The cargo ship ran aground at Port Eads, Louisiana, United States. She was refloated on 12 March.

[Jimbuna]

10th March 1924

Ship Losses:

Izgled (Yugoslavia) The cargo ship struck the bank of the Panama Canal and sprang a leak. She was consequently beached. She was refloated on 11 March.

[Jimbuna]

11th March 1924

Belva Gaertner, a cabaret singer, was arrested for the murder of her abusive lover, Walter Law, who was found dead from a bullet wound in her car in Chicago. The story would be the inspiration for the musical "Chicago".


Ship Losses:

Santiago (United States) The cargo ship sank in a storm 60 miles south east of Cape Hatteras. Twenty Five crew killed.
Wyoming (United States) Carrying a cargo of coal, the 329-foot (100 m), 3,730-gross register ton six-masted schooner foundered in a storm while at anchor off the coast of Massachusetts in Pollock Rip Channel off the Pollock Rip Lightship in Nantucket Sound. Her entire crew — reported as both 13 and 14 by different sources — was lost. After finding the wreck with some of its masts still above water, the cutter USCGC Acushnet ( United States Coast Guard) leveled the wreck because it was a danger to navigation.

[Jimbuna]

12th March 1924

Ship Losses:

Glenmay (Isle of Man) The coaster ran aground at Ballyquinton Point, County Down, United Kingdom. She was refloated on 15 March.
Tennia (Finland) The cargo ship was damaged by ice at Malmö, Sweden and was abandoned.

[Jimbuna]

13th March 1924

Germany: Reich Chancellor Wilhelm Marx (Zentrum), Reich President Friedrich Ebert (SPD) dissolves the Reichstag early. The background is the opposition of the Reichstag majority to the emergency regulations (including emergency tax regulations) issued by the minority government.


Ship Losses:

Hannevig Brothers (United Kingdom) The cargo ship ran aground at Cardiff, Glamorgan. She was refloated on 17 March.
Niki (Greece) The cargo ship ran aground in the River Neath, Glamorgan. She was refloated on 17 March.
Sygna (Norway) The cargo ship ran aground at Tjøtta, Norway. She was refloated on 17 March.

[Jimbuna]

14th March 1924

Ship Losses:

Deva (United Kingdom) The sand grab caught fire off Liverpool, Lancashire. The barge Ellesburn ( United Kingdom) took off her crew before she capsized and sank.

[Jimbuna]

15th March 1924

Egypt's King Fuad I opened the initial session of the first-ever Egyptian constitutional parliament.


"General Robert Lee Bullard, commander, is created a blood brother of the Arapahoe tribe of Indians. The ceremony was held on Governors Island."

[Jimbuna]

16th March 1924

Italy formally annexed Fiume in a colourful ceremony. Crowds cheered as King Victor Emmanuel III read the annexation decree.


Ship Losses:

Hypolite Worms (France) The cargo ship was in collision with Sarthe ( United Kingdom) off Le Havre, Seine-Inférieure and sank. Her crew were rescued by Sarthe.

[Jimbuna]

17th March 1924

Preparations for the start of the around the world flight.


The first attempt to fly around the world began as four Douglas World Cruiser airplanes, piloted by members of the United States Army Air Service, departed from Santa Monica, California, for Seattle, the starting point of the global circumnavigation.


Ship Losses:

Bilbeis (United Kingdom) The passenger ship ran aground at Nyriros, Turkey and was abandoned.

[Jimbuna]

18th March 1924

Ship Losses:

43 (Imperial Japanese Navy) The Ro-16-class submarine was rammed and sunk by the light cruiser Tatsuta ( Imperial Japanese Navy) at Sasebo, Japan, and sank with the loss of all 44 crew.

[Jimbuna]

19th March 1924

Winston Churchill of the Constitutionalists lost the Westminster Abbey by-election by 43 votes to Unionist candidate Otho Nicholson, who had 8,187 votes to Churchill's 8,144. Churchill had originally lost by 33 votes and requested a recount, which showed a larger winning majority.


Ship Losses:

Chi Ping (United Kingdom) The cargo ship struck rocks in the Yangtze at Chunglingtan and was beached. She was refloated on 29 March.