50 Fun Facts About Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding was which number president of the United States?

He served from March 1921 until his death in August 1923 and was succeeded by Calvin Coolidge.

In which Ohio village was Harding born in 1865?

He was the eldest of eight children; his mother Phoebe was a licensed midwife and his father became a doctor.

Harding raised how much with partners to buy a failing local daily, the future Star?

It was the weakest of the city's three papers but its only daily; he eventually left an $850,000 estate.

Harding is the only president to have had full-time experience in which profession?

He briefly tried teaching, insurance and law before buying the Star.

What nickname did Harding give his wife Florence?

It came from a character in a New York Sun serial who kept an eye on 'the Duke' and their money.

Florence Harding's father, Amos Kling, was what by profession?

He opposed the match, spread rumours about Harding's ancestry and urged a boycott of his businesses.

Where did Harding go five times for 'fatigue, overstrain, and nervous illnesses'?

Five stays between 1889 and 1901 are seen as early signs of the heart disease that killed him.

In which year was Harding first elected to the Ohio State Senate?

He served four years and ended as one of the most popular figures in the state party.

Which political fixer said of Harding, 'Gee, what a great-looking President he'd make'?

Daugherty later managed his campaigns and became his attorney general.

Which amendment made Harding's 1914 Senate race Ohio's first direct election for the seat?

He beat Foraker in the primary by 12,000 votes and Catholic Democrat Timothy Hogan by over 100,000.

How did Daugherty describe persuading Harding to run for the Senate in 1914?

'I found him like a turtle sunning himself on a log, and I pushed him into the water.'

Harding was temporary chairman and keynote speaker at which Republican National Convention?

It nominated Justice Charles Evans Hughes, who narrowly lost to Wilson.

Harding was one of how many senators who signed a round-robin letter opposing the League of Nations?

He grilled Wilson on Article X at the White House and made a major speech against the treaty.

In which city did Harding give the 1920 speech calling for 'not nostrums, but normalcy'?

It came right after his poor showing in the Indiana primary, where he finished fourth.

On which ballot was Harding nominated at the 1920 Republican convention?

He had been sixth in the final poll; Lowden released his delegates and the vote became a formality.

The 1920 'smoke-filled room' was in which Chicago hotel?

RNC chairman Will Hays hosted the suite where senators came and went; historians doubt any real pact was made.

Whom did Harding want as his 1920 running mate before the convention stampeded to Coolidge?

Oregon delegate Wallace McCamant proposed Coolidge and the hall roared approval.

Harding's 1920 Democratic opponent, James M. Cox, shared which profession with him?

Cox's running mate was Assistant Navy Secretary Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Harding's front porch had been remodelled to resemble whose?

Neighbours took it as a sign of presidential ambition.

Which Chicago advertising man ran Harding's pioneering 1920 media campaign?

He used newsreels, sound recordings, billboards and scripted telemarketing calls; Harding later made him Shipping Board chairman.

H. L. Mencken compared Harding's prose to what?

McAdoo called it 'an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea'.

What percentage of the popular vote did Harding win in 1920?

It was the highest share since the two-party system evolved; he took 404 electoral votes.

Socialist Eugene Debs won 3% of the 1920 vote while campaigning from where?

Harding commuted his sentence on 23 December 1921 and invited him to the White House.

Harding was the first person elected president directly from which office?

He skipped the inaugural parade and kept the ceremony subdued.

Which Pittsburgh banker became Harding's Treasury Secretary?

Mellon's study argued lower rates would raise revenue; the top rate fell from 73% to 25% by 1925.

Harding's Secretary of State, a former Supreme Court justice, was whom?

Harding let Hughes run foreign policy and ignored Lodge's objections to the pro-League choice.

Will Hays left Harding's cabinet after a year to become what?

He had been Postmaster General, then a cabinet post.

Which Idaho senator proposed the conference that became the Washington Naval Conference?

Hughes opened it on 12 November 1921 by proposing to scrap 30 US warships if Britain cut 19 and Japan 17.

Whom did Harding appoint as the first director of the new Bureau of the Budget in 1921?

His mandate was to cut expenditures; federal spending fell from 6.5% to 3.5% of GDP.

The 1921 Per Centum Act limited immigration to 3% of each nationality counted in which census?

It barely touched Irish and German arrivals but barred many Italians and eastern European Jews.

In which Alabama city did Harding urge equal political rights before a segregated crowd in 1921?

The Black section cheered and the White section listened in silence.

Whom did Harding appoint Chief Justice in 1921?

He had promised seats to both Taft and Sutherland; Sutherland joined the court in 1922.

Harding named his fatal 1923 western trip what?

He became the first president to visit Alaska and the first sitting president to visit Canada.

Which city did Harding visit in July 1923 as the first sitting US president in Canada?

He spoke to over 50,000 people; a memorial in Stanley Park followed two years later.

Where in San Francisco did Harding die on 2 August 1923?

His last words were 'That's good. Go on, read some more' as Florence read him a flattering article.

Harding's death was initially attributed to what?

Doctors then did not understand cardiac arrest; Florence refused an autopsy.

Which president finally dedicated the Harding Tomb in 1931?

Coolidge had refused, wanting distance from his predecessor, but attended the ceremony.

The Teapot Dome oil reserve at the centre of the scandal was in which state?

It was one of three reserves set aside for the Navy; Harding had moved them to Interior in 1921.

Harry Sinclair's company that got the Teapot Dome lease was called what?

There was no competitive bidding; Mammoth was to build oil tanks for the Navy.

Albert Fall became, in 1931, the first US cabinet member to do what?

He and a relative had taken about $400,000 from Doheny and Sinclair.

Which Montana senator led the Senate's Teapot Dome investigation?

He read a truckload of Interior Department documents through 1922 and 1923.

Who directed the Veterans' Bureau and fled to Europe after Harding demanded his resignation?

He inflated hospital costs and sold supplies cheap from the Perryville depot; he was jailed in 1926.

The residence where Justice Department cronies took bootleggers' payoffs was nicknamed what?

Jess Smith, Howard Mannington and Fred Caskey ran the racket.

Harding's corrupt friends and appointees were collectively dubbed what?

Not all were corrupt; Dr. Sawyer competently exposed the Veterans' Bureau fraud.

What did 2015 DNA testing prove about Elizabeth Ann Blaesing?

Harding had denied paternity; family lore held he was infertile after childhood mumps.

Harding's letters to Carrie Phillips stayed sealed at the Library of Congress until when?

Biographer Francis Russell found them in 1963; heirs sued over copyright.

In Arthur Schlesinger Sr.'s 1948 Harvard poll of 29 presidents, where did Harding rank?

He has been last in many polls since; recent authors have begun to reassess him.

Which Watergate figure wrote the Harding volume in 'The American Presidents' series in 2004?

Critics called it the most revisionist Harding biography yet.

Which 1939 book called Harding 'an amiable, well-meaning third-rate Mr. Babbitt'?

Samuel Hopkins Adams also wrote Revelry, a fictionalised account of the administration.

In which Ohio city was Harding's home and newspaper, and where is he buried?

He told Marionites the janitor who stayed home was 'the happiest one of the lot'.