August 2 - The Death of President Harding

This Day in History: 2 August 2020

 

2 August 1923

 

97 years ago, today, President Warren G. Harding died from a stroke in a hotel in San Francisco, at the age of 58. He was returning from a presidential tour of Alaska and the West Coast, which many believe he embarked on to escape the rumours in Washington of corruption in his administration, especially in the departments of the Interior and Justice and in the Veterans Bureau. The embolism he died of was perhaps brought upon by anxiety over these political scandals about to explode in front of the public. The next morning, Vice President Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as president.

 

Harding had won the Republican presidential nomination in 1920, when he was a relatively unremarkable senator of Ohio. The party had deadlocked over several more prominent candidates. While running, he pledged a 'return to normalcy' policy after World War One, leading to his landslide victory in the presidential election. He promised to appoint a cabinet representing the 'best minds' in the country, but instead chose many clever men who held little sense of public responsibility. After Harding's death, President Coolidge had to respond to the public outrage over the Teapot Dome oil-leasing scandals, the fraudulent transactions in the scandalous departments, and reports of Harding's extramarital affairs.

 

Want to find out more about the life and death of President Harding? Click here for more information, or here for more about Harding's scandals.