Coolidge Sworn In: Vice President Becomes 30th President
Warren Harding died in a San Francisco hotel room on August 2, 1923, probably from a heart attack or stroke, though his wife refused to allow an autopsy. His vice president, Calvin Coolidge, learned the news at his father's farmhouse in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, where there was no telephone or electricity. Coolidge's father, a notary public, administered the presidential oath by kerosene lamp at 2:47 a.m. Coolidge went back to bed. He inherited an administration unraveling from the Teapot Dome scandal, in which Harding's Interior Secretary Albert Fall had secretly leased government oil reserves to private companies in exchange for bribes. Coolidge's reputation for personal integrity allowed him to survive the scandal his predecessor created.
August 3, 1923
103 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on August 3
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