The following events occurred in March 1924:
March 1, 1924 (Saturday) The Nixon Nitration Works disaster, an explosion of ammonium nitrate, killed at least 18 people, destroyed several miles of New Jersey factories, and demolished the "tiny industrial town of Nixon, New Jersey." Public vehicles such as taxicabs were allowed into London's Hyde Park for the first time since 1636, after the House of Commons had repealed the ban on motion by M.P. Ben Smith. The 1636 law had made Hyde Park "reserved for people who kept their own carriages." Smith himself had been a taxicab driver prior to becoming an official in the Transport and General Workers' Union. The Communist Party of Germany was legally reinstated. It had been banned in November 1923 after it tried to launch a general strike. Alice's Day at Sea, the first of 57 films in Walt Disney's Alice Comedies series, was introduced to American cinemas as a short (11-minute) movie to be shown prior to a feature film. The silent film featured 5-year-old Virginia Davis in a combination of live action and animation. An earlier Alice comedy, Alice's Wonderland, had been shown to theater owners but never released to the public. Born: Deke Slayton, U.S. astronaut who was one of the original Mercury 7 and who later served on the Apollo–Soyuz mission in 1975; in Sparta, Wisconsin (d. 1993) Died: Billy Armstrong, 33, British-born American comedian and silent film actor, known for starring in 1919's Hop, the Bellhop with Oliver Hardy, died from tuberculosis. Gopinath Saha, 18, Bengali activist for independence in British India, was hanged at the Alipore Central Jail in Calcutta for the murder of a bystander during his attempt to assassinate Calcutta Police Commissioner Charles Tegart.
March 2, 1924 (Sunday) Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier of Belgium issued a pastoral letter calling on Belgians to help their government restore the country's finances. Born: Michael Sela, Israeli immunologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science, co-developer of the drug copaxone for the treatment of multiple sclerosis; as Mieczysław Salomonowicz in Tomaszów in Poland (d. 2022) June Norma Olley, English-born Australian microbiologist; in Croydon, London (d. 2019) Marty Baum, American talent agent for multiple film stars; in New York City (d. 2010)
March 3, 1924 (Monday) Shefqet Vërlaci became the new Prime Minister of Albania after Ahmet Zogu's serious injury in the assassination attempt of February 23. The Turkish National Assembly formally ended the Ottoman Caliphate that had operated for 407 years, voting "almost unanimously" to abolish the office, and ordered that Abdulmejid II and his harem were to be deported by March 15. Abdulmejid, first cousin of the last Ottoman Sultan Mehmed VI, who had become religious leader of Islam upon being elected Caliph on November 19, was formally deposed at 2:00 the next morning. Seán O'Casey's drama Juno and the Paycock opened at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. Born: Tomiichi Murayama, Prime Minister of Japan, 1994 to 1996; in Ōita (alive in 2023) General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, Nigerian Army general who ruled Nigeria for six months until his assassination in 1966; in Umuahia, British Nigeria (d. 1966) Lys Assia, Swiss singer and first winner of the Eurovision Song Contest; in Aargau (d. 2018) Lilian Velez, Philippine film actress; in Cebu City (murdered 1948) John Woodnutt, British TV actor; in London (d. 2006) Hadi Rohani, Iranian ayatollah of the Shi'ite Muslim faith; in Kalehbast (now Hadishahr)(d. 1999) Died: Pell Trenton (stage name for William T. Baker), 40, American film actor, star of The Blue Moon and other silent movies, died of pulmonary tuberculosis