THE CALVIN COOLIDGE CENTURY

[Draggingtree]

8/2/2023

The Calvin Coolidge Century

Filed under: General — JVW @ 7:07 am

guest post by JVW]

One hundred years ago today, August 2, 1923, President Warren G. Harding died at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco from a heart attack exacerbated by a bout with pneumonia. Three thousand miles away, at his family home in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, John Calvin Coolidge Jr. suddenly became the Thirtieth President of the United States. A call with the news was placed to Bridgewater, a town roughly eight miles away (the Coolidge residence not being equipped with electricity or phone service in 1923), and a messenger was dispatched to deliver the sad tidings. Vice-President Coolidge and his wife Grace had already retired for the evening, so the message was given to his father who relayed it to the new President. As I related in my Independence Day salute to the man, Calvin Coolidge’s inauguration as President was befitting of the humble, private, small-“r” republican Chief Executive he would be: his notary public father administering the Oath of Office while the new President solemnly laid his left hand on the family Bible https://patterico.com/2023/08/02/the-calvin-coolidge-century/