1923 "Happenings":
- French troops marched into Ruhr, Germany, to protest against Germany's failure to pay reparations and in particular, to meet promised deliveries of coal. The German mark fell in value so dramatically after the occupation that shortly after, it was totally worthless. Squads of armed "Storm Troopers" burst into a political meeting on the outskirts of Munich. Their leader, Adolph Hitler, delared a takeover of the present governments. With the former war leader Erich von Ludendorff beside him, Hitler led his troops into the centre of Munich. They were fired on by police and 16 marchers were killed. Hermann Goering, one of Hitler's chief supporters, was badly wounded. This attempt to seize power by force petered out after the confrontation in Munich and Hitler was arrested and sent to prison for treason.
- On April 26, 1923, within the stately splendour of Westminster Abbey, the Duke of York (second son of George V) and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon became man and wife. The Duke of York would become King George VI when his older brother Edward abdicated in 1936.
 The Duke and Duchess of York on their honeymoon.
- Crossword puzzles first appeared in books in America in 1923. By the following year, newpapers started printing them as "crossword squares" amd they were the "all the rage". Other crazes of the era were pogo-sticks and the Chinese parlor game, Mah-Jong.
- Filmmaker Cecil B. De Mille directed the biblical epic, "The Ten Commandments". In cinema, an outstanding film was Erich von Stroheim's "Greed".
- Briton Hadden and Henry R. Luce founded the weekly newsmagazine, "Time".
- French actress Sarah Bernhardt died.
- Irish poet William Butler Yeats won the Nobel Peace Prize for literature. George Bernard Shaw wrote the play "Saint Joan". It was first produced in the following year with Sybil Thorndike in the title role.
- Big on the music scene were Kodaly and Honegger. "King" Oliver's Creole Jazz Band was the first black band to be recorded.
- Aircraft designer Willy Messerschmitt opened a factory in Germany.
- Physicist Hermann Oberth published "The Rocket into Planetary Space".
- Tokyo and Yokohama are destroyed by an earthquake. 100,000 are killed.
- Turkey became a republic. The modern boundaries of Turkey are established.
- Vladimir Zworykin patented the iconoscope, the first television tranmission tube.
- Diseases like smallpox and diphtheria were still a serious scourge in the 1920s. Although a smallpox vaccine had been discovered more than a century earlier, it was not widely used. Immunization against diphtheria was introduced in 1923 at the same time as injections against tetanus. Tuberculosis was still widespread, especially in the unhygienic conditions of overcrowded slums. Scarlet fever remained prevalent among children throughout the decade. As with diphtheria, there was usually a long stay in the hospital. To prevent the spread of germs, the patient's room was fumigated; clothes, books, and other personal possessions were burnt or taken away for decontamination.
- Thermostatic controls on gas cookers were introduced with the system of "regulo" numbers that we use today.
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