Warren G. Harding was
inaugurated as the 29th
president of the United States on March 4, 1921, and served as president until his death on August 2, 1923, 881 days later. During
his presidency, he organized international disarmament agreements, addressed major labor disputes, enacted legislation and regulations pertaining to veterans' rights, and traveled west to visit Alaska.
Harding inherited the
aftermath of World War I after taking office in 1921, requiring him to formally end American involvement and participate in the polarized discussion of veterans' affairs, including the debate surrounding the
Bonus Bill. The massive scale of World War I would prompt him to organize the
Washington Naval Conference to promote
disarmament. He also inherited labor disputes that would persist throughout his presidency, some of which escalated into riots and armed insurrections. Harding toured the
Southern United States in October 1921 to speak in favor of
civil rights.
In 1922, Harding worked to support and encourage ratification of the
Four-Power Treaty that came of the Washington Naval Conference. His administration was beset by scandal in March 1922 after the president dismissed officials at the
Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and the events of the larger
Teapot Dome scandal began the following month when the
Department of the Interior leased the Teapot Dome oil reserves to
Harry Ford Sinclair. Harding was forced to personally broker agreements amidst coal and rail strikes that escalated into violence in the summer of 1922. His activities as president were subdued in the final months of 1922 after his wife fell seriously ill.
The timeline below includes notable events that took place during Harding's presidency, including the president's travels, speaking engagements, and notable meetings, as well as major government actions and other historical events that directly affected the presidency.
May 23 – Harding speaks in honor of those killed during World War I.[26]
May 23 – Harding promises limited interference in business by his administration and asks agriculture, labor, and business to work together at the 125th anniversary dinner of the New York Commercial.[27]
May 25 – Harding meets prominent American bankers at the White House to discuss foreign economic policy.[28]
June 16 – Harding intervenes in a dispute between the railroad and fruit industries.[38]
June 18 – Harding hosts several officials on a weekend cruise on the USS Mayflower.[39]
June 23 – Harding meets with Representative
Joseph W. Fordney at the White House to expedite economic legislation.[40]
June 30 – Harding nominates former president William Howard Taft as
Chief Justice of the United States, who is confirmed by the Senate on the same day.[41]
July 1921
July 2 – Harding signs the
Knox–Porter Resolution, declaring an official end to the state of war during World War I.[42]
August 6 – Harding departs from New Hampshire to visit an Army hospital in
Oxford, Maine, and return to Washington D.C.[60]
August 9 – Harding arrives Washington D.C. following his vacation and signs a soldiers' relief bill.[61][62]
August 11 – Harding adjourns a meeting after being informed that his 76-year-old father
George Tryon Harding had suddenly married his own 52-year-old aide.[63]
August 15 – Harding signs a proclamation declaring that the United States has been at peace with Germany since July 2.[65] He also signs the
Packers and Stockyards Act into law.[66]
October 22 – Harding authorizes the Department of Justice to take action against a railroad walkout. He declines to use World War I era wartime powers that are still at his disposal.[93]
March 4 – Harding holds meetings with General
John J. Pershing and members of the House Army Appropriation Subcommittee to discus army downsizing.[159]
March 4 – Harding declares his
return to normalcy successful on the first anniversary of his inauguration.[160]
March 7 – Harding informs the Senate that the
Lansing–Ishii Agreement is superseded by the Nine-Power Treaty.[161]
March 8 – Harding pays his income tax and departs from Washington by train to visit
Florida.[162]
April 1 – Harding orders the Department of Justice to prevent violence during the nationwide strike.[174]
April 3 – A special House committee opens an investigation into Harding's dismissal of officials at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.[173]
April 4 – The
House Appropriation Committee informs Harding that they intend to reduce the Naval enlisted strength to 67,000 despite the president's instance of 80,000-85,000.[175]
April 8 – Harding is said to support a proposed
Constitutional amendment limiting the presidency to a single six-year term.[177]
April 11 – The
Senate Finance Committee presents a revised tariff bill incorporating Harding's recommendations.[178]
April 14 – The Wall Street Journal breaks the story that the Secretary of the Interior had leased oil reserves to a private company.[179]
April 15 – Senator
John B. Kendrick introduces a resolution to investigate the leasing of oil reserves by Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall.[179]
April 15 – Harding's demand of an enlisted Naval force of 86,000 is incorporated into a military appropriations bill.[180]
April 18 – Harding endorses the development of the Naval oil reserve at the Teapot Dome by the Sinclair Oil Company, so long as it "does business honestly".[182] This decision would later be the focus of the Teapot Dome scandal.
April 27 – Harding attends a ceremony in
Point Pleasant, Ohio, for the centennial of former President
Ulysses S. Grant's birth. Harding orders government offices to be closed in Grant's honor.[184]
May 2 – The White House states that Harding would not be influenced by the picketing of the
Children's Crusade.[187]
May 4 – Harding is awakened early in the morning due to a fire in the nearby
Treasury Building.[188]
May 5 – Harding requests $500,000 from Congress to investigate fraud cases pertaining to World War I.[189]
May 6 – Senate Republican leadership presents the most recent version of the Soldiers' Bonus Bill to Harding.[190]
May 12 – Harding travels to New Jersey where he will be the guest of Senator
Walter Evans Edge.[191] He speaks to the New Jersey
Women's Club in Atlantic City.[192]
May 14 – Harding returns to Washington D.C. from New Jersey.[193]
May 15 – Harding meets with Senator
Reed Smoot to discuss an alternate draft of the soldiers' bonus bill.[194]
June 17 – Harding meets Representative
Philip P. Campbell at the White House to negotiate the ship subsidy bill.[217]
June 17 – Republican Congressional leadership indicate they may request the resignation of Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall due to his encroachment on the Department of Agriculture.[218]
June 19 – Harding agrees to postpone Congressional action on the ship subsidy bill.[219]
June 19 – Harding reviews Marine marches at the White House.[220]
June 21 – Senate allies of Harding block the advancement of the soldiers' bonus bill.[221]
June 22 – Harding denies Filipino requests of independence and defers further action to Congress.[223]
June 23 – Harding announces that the federal government will intervene in coal strikes to prevent further acts of violence.[224]
June 24 – Harding expresses his support for cabinet secretaries to give their own opinions independently of the administration, responding to criticisms of Secretary of War John W. Weeks.[225]
June 24 – Harding travels to the home of Edward Beale McLean in Virginia.[226]
July 1 – Harding begins holding negotiations to facilitate and end of the coal strike.[231]
July 3 – The
Railroad Labor Board determines that the Great Railroad Strike had been conducted improperly and revokes rights of the offending unions.[232]
July 15 – The United Mine Workers reject Harding's attempt to negotiate an end to the coal strike.[239]
July 17 – The United States and Japan reach an agreement over the island of
Yap.[240]
July 18 – Harding orders that the coal strike is to end immediately, enforced by state and federal troops.[241]
July 22 – Harding meets with the Chairman of the Railroad Labor Board and senators of the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee.[242]
July 22 –
Chile and
Peru sign an agreement in Washington D.C. to settle the Tacna-Arica dispute following 10 weeks of negotiations facilitated by the United States.[243]
August 18 – Harding addresses Congress regarding ongoing railroad and coal strikes.[252]
August 21 – Harding speaks in favor of military strength and readiness while reviewing student soldiers at
Fort Meade.[253]
August 23 – The Harding administration begins drafting legislation to regulate coal prices.[254]
August 27 – Harding meets with Chairman of the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee, Senator
Albert B. Cummins, to discuss legislation that would give Harding authority over mines.[255]
August 28 – Members of Congress object to Harding's intention of seizing coal mines.[256]
August 29 – Harding authorizes $600,000 in funds to build the
Wilson Dam.[257]
November 24 – The Harding administration names the enforcement of prohibition as its next priority.[293]
November 25 – Florence Harding is gifted a
canary to be kept in the White House as she recovers from her illness.[294]
November 29 – Harding recommends that the states address the Ku Klux Klan, threatening federal intervention if federal interests are made at stake.[295]
December 1922
December 1 – Harding makes a statement in favor of ending the 12-hour work day.[296]
December 4 – Harding delivers a preliminary 1923 budget to Congress, declaring that the need for a wartime budget has ended.[297]
December 4 – The United States hosts a peace conference between Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.[298]
December 4 – The nomination of Pierce Butler to the Supreme Court is blocked by the Senate.[299]
December 5 – Harding renominates Pierce Butler to the Supreme Court.[300]
December 5 – Harding meets with former Prime Minister of France
Georges Clemenceau in the White House to hear a case for increased American involvement in Europe.[301]
December 5 – Harding opposes a proposed constitutional amendment to abolish the
Electoral College.[302]
December 12 – Hearings begin for the impeachment of Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty.[304]
December 13 – Harding opens the annual American Red Cross board meeting.[305]
December 18 – Harding hosts a meeting of 14 state governors to discuss the enforcement of prohibition.[306]
December 21 – Assistant Secretary of the Navy
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. reports to Harding that the US Navy is unfit to use in war.[307]
December 21 – Pierce Butler is confirmed by the Senate as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.[308]
December 24 – Harding objects to a provision in the Naval appropriations bill that would require him to convene a world conference on the economy.[309]
December 25 – President Harding and the First Lady tend to Christmas gifts received by the White House, but no festivities are held due to Florence Harding's illness.[310]
December 30 – Harding commutes the sentences of eight members of the
Industrial Workers of the World that had been convicted of espionage charges.[311]
1923
January 1923
January 3 – Harding vetoes the Bursum Bill that would provide pensions to military widows.[312]
January 3–8 – Harding holds extended discussions at the White House with Ambassador to the United Kingdom
George Harvey to discuss the issue of World War I debts.[313][314]
January 10 – Harding orders the end of American occupation in Germany.[315]
January 29 – Edward Terry Sanford is confirmed as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.[320]
January 31 – The United Kingdom agrees to the American plan for repayment of World War I debts.[321]
February 1923
February 7 – Harding delivers to Congress the World War I debt plan negotiated with the United Kingdom.[322]
February 13 – Harding expresses approval of a plan to consolidate the Department of War and the Department of the Navy under a
Department of Defense.[323]
February 22 – Harding meets with Brigadier General
Frank T. Hines at the White House.[326]
February 24 – Harding requests that the Senate authorize American membership of the
World Court.[327]
February 27 – Harding nominates Frank T Hines as Director of the Veterans Bureau, Hubert Work as Secretary of the Interior, and Senator
Harry Stewart New as the Secretary of the Post.[328]
February 28 – Harding signs the British debt agreement into law.[329]
March 1923
March 2 – Brigadier General Frank T. Hines takes office as Director of the Veterans Bureau.[330]
March 5 – Harding departs on a train to Florida.[331]
^"Harding Threatens Troops for Mingo Unless Miners Disperse by Tomorrow; Clash on Boone-Logan Line Imminent", The New York Times, August 31, 1921, p. 1
^"Washington Delays Martial Law Order— Administration Hopes to Avert Extreme Step, Believing the Troops Are Sufficient", The New York Times, September 3, 1921, p. 1
^"Harding Dedicates Lincoln Memorial; Blue and Gray Join— President Moved by Presence of Veterans of Both Armies to Emphasize Unity", The New York Times, May 31, 1922, p. 1
Warren G. Harding was
inaugurated as the 29th
president of the United States on March 4, 1921, and served as president until his death on August 2, 1923, 881 days later. During
his presidency, he organized international disarmament agreements, addressed major labor disputes, enacted legislation and regulations pertaining to veterans' rights, and traveled west to visit Alaska.
Harding inherited the
aftermath of World War I after taking office in 1921, requiring him to formally end American involvement and participate in the polarized discussion of veterans' affairs, including the debate surrounding the
Bonus Bill. The massive scale of World War I would prompt him to organize the
Washington Naval Conference to promote
disarmament. He also inherited labor disputes that would persist throughout his presidency, some of which escalated into riots and armed insurrections. Harding toured the
Southern United States in October 1921 to speak in favor of
civil rights.
In 1922, Harding worked to support and encourage ratification of the
Four-Power Treaty that came of the Washington Naval Conference. His administration was beset by scandal in March 1922 after the president dismissed officials at the
Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and the events of the larger
Teapot Dome scandal began the following month when the
Department of the Interior leased the Teapot Dome oil reserves to
Harry Ford Sinclair. Harding was forced to personally broker agreements amidst coal and rail strikes that escalated into violence in the summer of 1922. His activities as president were subdued in the final months of 1922 after his wife fell seriously ill.
The timeline below includes notable events that took place during Harding's presidency, including the president's travels, speaking engagements, and notable meetings, as well as major government actions and other historical events that directly affected the presidency.
May 23 – Harding speaks in honor of those killed during World War I.[26]
May 23 – Harding promises limited interference in business by his administration and asks agriculture, labor, and business to work together at the 125th anniversary dinner of the New York Commercial.[27]
May 25 – Harding meets prominent American bankers at the White House to discuss foreign economic policy.[28]
June 16 – Harding intervenes in a dispute between the railroad and fruit industries.[38]
June 18 – Harding hosts several officials on a weekend cruise on the USS Mayflower.[39]
June 23 – Harding meets with Representative
Joseph W. Fordney at the White House to expedite economic legislation.[40]
June 30 – Harding nominates former president William Howard Taft as
Chief Justice of the United States, who is confirmed by the Senate on the same day.[41]
July 1921
July 2 – Harding signs the
Knox–Porter Resolution, declaring an official end to the state of war during World War I.[42]
August 6 – Harding departs from New Hampshire to visit an Army hospital in
Oxford, Maine, and return to Washington D.C.[60]
August 9 – Harding arrives Washington D.C. following his vacation and signs a soldiers' relief bill.[61][62]
August 11 – Harding adjourns a meeting after being informed that his 76-year-old father
George Tryon Harding had suddenly married his own 52-year-old aide.[63]
August 15 – Harding signs a proclamation declaring that the United States has been at peace with Germany since July 2.[65] He also signs the
Packers and Stockyards Act into law.[66]
October 22 – Harding authorizes the Department of Justice to take action against a railroad walkout. He declines to use World War I era wartime powers that are still at his disposal.[93]
March 4 – Harding holds meetings with General
John J. Pershing and members of the House Army Appropriation Subcommittee to discus army downsizing.[159]
March 4 – Harding declares his
return to normalcy successful on the first anniversary of his inauguration.[160]
March 7 – Harding informs the Senate that the
Lansing–Ishii Agreement is superseded by the Nine-Power Treaty.[161]
March 8 – Harding pays his income tax and departs from Washington by train to visit
Florida.[162]
April 1 – Harding orders the Department of Justice to prevent violence during the nationwide strike.[174]
April 3 – A special House committee opens an investigation into Harding's dismissal of officials at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.[173]
April 4 – The
House Appropriation Committee informs Harding that they intend to reduce the Naval enlisted strength to 67,000 despite the president's instance of 80,000-85,000.[175]
April 8 – Harding is said to support a proposed
Constitutional amendment limiting the presidency to a single six-year term.[177]
April 11 – The
Senate Finance Committee presents a revised tariff bill incorporating Harding's recommendations.[178]
April 14 – The Wall Street Journal breaks the story that the Secretary of the Interior had leased oil reserves to a private company.[179]
April 15 – Senator
John B. Kendrick introduces a resolution to investigate the leasing of oil reserves by Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall.[179]
April 15 – Harding's demand of an enlisted Naval force of 86,000 is incorporated into a military appropriations bill.[180]
April 18 – Harding endorses the development of the Naval oil reserve at the Teapot Dome by the Sinclair Oil Company, so long as it "does business honestly".[182] This decision would later be the focus of the Teapot Dome scandal.
April 27 – Harding attends a ceremony in
Point Pleasant, Ohio, for the centennial of former President
Ulysses S. Grant's birth. Harding orders government offices to be closed in Grant's honor.[184]
May 2 – The White House states that Harding would not be influenced by the picketing of the
Children's Crusade.[187]
May 4 – Harding is awakened early in the morning due to a fire in the nearby
Treasury Building.[188]
May 5 – Harding requests $500,000 from Congress to investigate fraud cases pertaining to World War I.[189]
May 6 – Senate Republican leadership presents the most recent version of the Soldiers' Bonus Bill to Harding.[190]
May 12 – Harding travels to New Jersey where he will be the guest of Senator
Walter Evans Edge.[191] He speaks to the New Jersey
Women's Club in Atlantic City.[192]
May 14 – Harding returns to Washington D.C. from New Jersey.[193]
May 15 – Harding meets with Senator
Reed Smoot to discuss an alternate draft of the soldiers' bonus bill.[194]
June 17 – Harding meets Representative
Philip P. Campbell at the White House to negotiate the ship subsidy bill.[217]
June 17 – Republican Congressional leadership indicate they may request the resignation of Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall due to his encroachment on the Department of Agriculture.[218]
June 19 – Harding agrees to postpone Congressional action on the ship subsidy bill.[219]
June 19 – Harding reviews Marine marches at the White House.[220]
June 21 – Senate allies of Harding block the advancement of the soldiers' bonus bill.[221]
June 22 – Harding denies Filipino requests of independence and defers further action to Congress.[223]
June 23 – Harding announces that the federal government will intervene in coal strikes to prevent further acts of violence.[224]
June 24 – Harding expresses his support for cabinet secretaries to give their own opinions independently of the administration, responding to criticisms of Secretary of War John W. Weeks.[225]
June 24 – Harding travels to the home of Edward Beale McLean in Virginia.[226]
July 1 – Harding begins holding negotiations to facilitate and end of the coal strike.[231]
July 3 – The
Railroad Labor Board determines that the Great Railroad Strike had been conducted improperly and revokes rights of the offending unions.[232]
July 15 – The United Mine Workers reject Harding's attempt to negotiate an end to the coal strike.[239]
July 17 – The United States and Japan reach an agreement over the island of
Yap.[240]
July 18 – Harding orders that the coal strike is to end immediately, enforced by state and federal troops.[241]
July 22 – Harding meets with the Chairman of the Railroad Labor Board and senators of the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee.[242]
July 22 –
Chile and
Peru sign an agreement in Washington D.C. to settle the Tacna-Arica dispute following 10 weeks of negotiations facilitated by the United States.[243]
August 18 – Harding addresses Congress regarding ongoing railroad and coal strikes.[252]
August 21 – Harding speaks in favor of military strength and readiness while reviewing student soldiers at
Fort Meade.[253]
August 23 – The Harding administration begins drafting legislation to regulate coal prices.[254]
August 27 – Harding meets with Chairman of the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee, Senator
Albert B. Cummins, to discuss legislation that would give Harding authority over mines.[255]
August 28 – Members of Congress object to Harding's intention of seizing coal mines.[256]
August 29 – Harding authorizes $600,000 in funds to build the
Wilson Dam.[257]
November 24 – The Harding administration names the enforcement of prohibition as its next priority.[293]
November 25 – Florence Harding is gifted a
canary to be kept in the White House as she recovers from her illness.[294]
November 29 – Harding recommends that the states address the Ku Klux Klan, threatening federal intervention if federal interests are made at stake.[295]
December 1922
December 1 – Harding makes a statement in favor of ending the 12-hour work day.[296]
December 4 – Harding delivers a preliminary 1923 budget to Congress, declaring that the need for a wartime budget has ended.[297]
December 4 – The United States hosts a peace conference between Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.[298]
December 4 – The nomination of Pierce Butler to the Supreme Court is blocked by the Senate.[299]
December 5 – Harding renominates Pierce Butler to the Supreme Court.[300]
December 5 – Harding meets with former Prime Minister of France
Georges Clemenceau in the White House to hear a case for increased American involvement in Europe.[301]
December 5 – Harding opposes a proposed constitutional amendment to abolish the
Electoral College.[302]
December 12 – Hearings begin for the impeachment of Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty.[304]
December 13 – Harding opens the annual American Red Cross board meeting.[305]
December 18 – Harding hosts a meeting of 14 state governors to discuss the enforcement of prohibition.[306]
December 21 – Assistant Secretary of the Navy
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. reports to Harding that the US Navy is unfit to use in war.[307]
December 21 – Pierce Butler is confirmed by the Senate as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.[308]
December 24 – Harding objects to a provision in the Naval appropriations bill that would require him to convene a world conference on the economy.[309]
December 25 – President Harding and the First Lady tend to Christmas gifts received by the White House, but no festivities are held due to Florence Harding's illness.[310]
December 30 – Harding commutes the sentences of eight members of the
Industrial Workers of the World that had been convicted of espionage charges.[311]
1923
January 1923
January 3 – Harding vetoes the Bursum Bill that would provide pensions to military widows.[312]
January 3–8 – Harding holds extended discussions at the White House with Ambassador to the United Kingdom
George Harvey to discuss the issue of World War I debts.[313][314]
January 10 – Harding orders the end of American occupation in Germany.[315]
January 29 – Edward Terry Sanford is confirmed as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.[320]
January 31 – The United Kingdom agrees to the American plan for repayment of World War I debts.[321]
February 1923
February 7 – Harding delivers to Congress the World War I debt plan negotiated with the United Kingdom.[322]
February 13 – Harding expresses approval of a plan to consolidate the Department of War and the Department of the Navy under a
Department of Defense.[323]
February 22 – Harding meets with Brigadier General
Frank T. Hines at the White House.[326]
February 24 – Harding requests that the Senate authorize American membership of the
World Court.[327]
February 27 – Harding nominates Frank T Hines as Director of the Veterans Bureau, Hubert Work as Secretary of the Interior, and Senator
Harry Stewart New as the Secretary of the Post.[328]
February 28 – Harding signs the British debt agreement into law.[329]
March 1923
March 2 – Brigadier General Frank T. Hines takes office as Director of the Veterans Bureau.[330]
March 5 – Harding departs on a train to Florida.[331]
^"Harding Threatens Troops for Mingo Unless Miners Disperse by Tomorrow; Clash on Boone-Logan Line Imminent", The New York Times, August 31, 1921, p. 1
^"Washington Delays Martial Law Order— Administration Hopes to Avert Extreme Step, Believing the Troops Are Sufficient", The New York Times, September 3, 1921, p. 1
^"Harding Dedicates Lincoln Memorial; Blue and Gray Join— President Moved by Presence of Veterans of Both Armies to Emphasize Unity", The New York Times, May 31, 1922, p. 1