1923 in the United States
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Events from the year 1923 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government
- Warren G. Harding (R-Ohio) (until August 2)
- Calvin Coolidge (R-Massachusetts) (starting August 2)
- Calvin Coolidge (R-Massachusetts) (until August 2)
- vacant (starting August 2)
- Chief Justice: William Howard Taft (Ohio)
- Speaker of the House of Representatives: Frederick H. Gillett (R-Massachusetts)
- Senate Majority Leader: Henry Cabot Lodge (R-Massachusetts)
- Congress: 67th (until March 4), 68th (starting March 4)
State governments
Events
JanuaryâMarch
- January 1â7 â The Rosewood massacre, a racially motivated massacre of black people and the destruction of a black town, takes place in Rosewood, Florida.
- January 15 â William W. Brandon is sworn in as the 37th governor of Alabama replacing Thomas Kilby.[1]
- January 13 â Passenger seaplane Columbus ditches in the Straits of Florida between Key West and Havana, resulting in four fatalities, becoming the first fatal passenger flight incident in U.S. history.
- January 18 â Elon College's campus in North Carolina is destroyed by a fire.
- February 5 â United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind: The Supreme Court decides that Bhagat Singh Thind cannot become a naturalized U.S. citizen because, as a Punjabi Sikh, he is not a "white person".
- February 23 â The American Law Institute is incorporated.
- March 1 â The USS Connecticut is decommissioned.
- March 2 â The first issue of Time magazine is published.
- March 23 â The governor of Oklahoma signs House Bill 197 with the Montgomery amendment outlawing the theory of evolution in public school textbooks purchased by the state, the first anti-Darwinian legislation passed in the U.S.[2]
AprilâJune
- April 1 â Safety Last!, a silent romantic comedy film starring Harold Lloyd, is released.
- April 4 â Warner Bros. Film Studio is formally incorporated in the United States, as Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc., by Jack L. Warner, Harry Warner, Sam Warner and Albert Warner.
- April 6 â Louis Armstrong makes his first recording, "Chimes Blues", with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band.
- April 15 â Nihon ShÅgakkÅ fire: 10 Japanese-American children are killed in a racially motivated arson attack on a Japanese Buddhist mission school in Sacramento, California, by an itinerant Mexican-American serial arsonist.[3]
- April 18 â The first Yankee Stadium opens its doors in the Bronx, New York City.
- May 9 â Southeastern Michigan receives a record 6 inches (15 cm) of snow after temperatures plummeted from 62 °F (17 °C) to 34 °F (1 °C) degrees between 13:00-18:00 on the previous day.[4]
- May 15 â Riegelmann Boardwalk at Coney Island officially opened.[5]
- May 27 â The Ku Klux Klan defies a law requiring publication of its members.
JulyâSeptember
- July 13 â The Hollywood Sign is inaugurated in California (originally reading Hollywoodland).
- August 2 â Vice President Calvin Coolidge becomes the 30th president of the United States, upon the death of President Warren G. Harding.
- September 3 â Illustrated Daily News first published in Los Angeles by Cornelius Vanderbilt IV.
- September 4 â The United States Navy's first home-built rigid airship USS Shenandoah makes her first flight at Naval Air Station Lakehurst (New Jersey); she contains most of the world's extracted reserves of helium at this time (named and commissioned October 10).[6]
- September 8 â Honda Point Disaster: Seven U.S. Navy destroyers run aground off the California coast.
- September 17 â 1923 Berkeley Fire: Berkeley, California erupts, consuming some 640 structures, including 584 homes in the densely built neighborhoods north of the campus of the University of California.
- September 18â26 â Newspaper printers strike in New York City.
- September 24 â Rowan University opens.
- September 29 â First American Track & Field championships for women, in New Jersey
OctoberâDecember
- October 1 â Mississippi something Road Signs Act came into effect.
- October 15 â The New York Yankees defeat the New York Giants (baseball), 4 games to 2, to win their first World Series Title.
- October 16 â Roy and Walt Disney found The Walt Disney Company.
- October 19 â War Resisters League organized by Jessie Wallace Hughan.[7]
- December 10 â Sigma Alpha Kappa is founded at Loyola University New Orleans, making it the first social fraternity at a Jesuit college in the U.S.
- December 20 â BEGGARS Fraternity (the second social fraternity at a Jesuit college in the United States) is founded by nine men, who have secured permission to do so from the Pope.
Undated
- Soledad C. Chacón takes office as Secretary of State of New Mexico; all subsequent holders of this office until December 2015 will also be women.
- The Moderation League of New York becomes part of the movement for the repeal of Prohibition in the U.S.
- Rainbow trout introduced into the upper Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park.
Ongoing
- Lochner era (c. 1897âc. 1937)
- U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915â1934)[8]
- Prohibition (1920â1933)[9]
- Roaring Twenties (1920â1929)
Births
- January 1 â Daniel Gorenstein, mathematician (died 1992)
- January 3 â Hank Stram, American football coach and broadcaster (died 2005)
- January 5
- Virginia Halas McCaskey, American football executive (died 2025)
- Sam Phillips, record producer (died 2003)
- January 16 â Anthony Hecht, poet (died 2004)
- January 29
- Jack Burke Jr., golfer and coach (died 2024)
- Paddy Chayefsky, writer (died 1981)
- January 31 â Norman Mailer, writer (died 2007)
- February 2
- James Dickey, poet and author (died 1997)
- Red Schoendienst, baseball player (died 2018)
- Liz Smith, gossip columnist (died 2017)
- February 13
- James Abdnor, U.S. Senator from South Dakota from 1981 to 1987 (died 2012)
- Chuck Yeager, pilot (died 2020)
- February 18 â Perry J. Dahl, World War II flying ace (died 2024)
- February 20 â Helen Murray Free, chemist and educator (died 2021)
- February 28
- Jean Carson, actress (died 2005)
- Charles Durning, actor (died 2012)
- March 2 â Bob Chinn, restaurateur (d. 2022)
- March 9
- James L. Buckley, judge and U.S. Senator from New York from 1971 to 1977 (died 2023)
- Wayne B. Warrington Sr., Arizona civil servant (died 1989)[10]
- March 10 â Val Logsdon Fitch, nuclear physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (died 2015)
- March 12
- Helen Parrish, actress (died 1959)
- Mae Young, wrestler (died 2014)
- March 14 â Diane Arbus, photographer (died 1971)
- March 27 â Jack O'Neill, businessman (O'Neill surfwear & equipment) (died 2017)
- April 1
- Leora Dana, actress (died 1983)
- Bobby Jordan, actor (died 1965)
- April 3 â Daniel Hoffman, poet (died 2013)
- April 13
- Don Adams, actor and director (died 2005)[11]
- Stanley Tanger, businessman and philanthropist, founder of the Tanger Factory Outlet Centers (died 2010)
- April 23 â Walter Pitts, logician and cognitive psychologist (died 1969)
- April 25
- Timothy S. Healy, Jesuit priest and academic administrator (died 1992)
- Albert King, blues guitarist and singer (died 1992)
- May 1 â Joseph Heller, novelist (died 1999)
- May 16 â Merton Miller, economist, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (died 2000)
- May 27 â Henry Kissinger, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize (died 2023)
- June 2 â Lloyd Shapley, mathematician, economist and Nobel Prize laureate (died 2016)
- June 8 â Malcolm Boyd, priest and author (died 2015)
- June 19 â Geri M. Joseph, diplomat and political figure (died 2023)
- June 22 â John Oldham, basketball player (died 2020)
- July 13 â Ashley Bryan, children's book writer and illustrator (died 2022)
- July 14 â Robert Zildjian, musical instrument manufacturer (Sabian) (died 2013)
- July 22
- Bob Dole, U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1969 to 1996, presidential candidate (died 2021)
- The Fabulous Moolah, wrestler (died 2007)
- July 31 â Stephanie Kwolek, polymer chemist (died 2014)
- August 3 â Jean Hagen, actress (died 1977)[12]
- August 10
- Rhonda Fleming, screen actress (died 2020)
- David H. Rodgers, politician (died 2017)
- August 20 â Jim Reeves, country singer (died 1964)
- September 1 â Rocky Marciano, boxer (died 1969)
- September 3
- Glen Bell, entrepreneur, founder of Taco Bell (died 2010)
- Mort Walker, cartoonist, creator of Beetle Bailey (died 2018)
- September 9
- Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, virologist (died 2008)
- Charles Grier Sellers, historian (died 2021)[13]
- September 17 â Hank Williams, country musician (died 1953)
- September 18 â Al Quie, politician (died 2023)
- September 26 â Jack Oliver, geophysicist (died 2011)
- October 1 â Babe McCarthy, basketball coach (died 1975)
- October 2 â Hershel W. Williams, Medal of Honour recipient (died 2022)
- October 4 â Charlton Heston, film actor (died 2008)
- October 20 â Robert Craft, orchestral conductor (died 2015)
- October 23
- Ned Rorem, composer (died 2022)
- Frank Sutton, actor (died 2022)
- October 27 â Roy Lichtenstein, pop artist (died 1997)
- November 1 â Ann B. Walker, journalist and radio broadcaster (died 2025)
- November 3 â Charles Nolte, actor (died 2010)
- November 6 â Robert P. Griffin, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1966 to 1979 (died 2015)
- November 8 â Jack Kilby, electrical engineer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (died 2005)
- November 9 â James Schuyler, poet (died 1991)
- November 10 â Robert Carrier, chef (died 2006 in France)
- November 18
- Ted Stevens, U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1968 to 2009 (died 2010)
- Alan Shepard, astronaut (died 1998)
- November 23
- Daniel Brewster, U.S. Senator from Maryland from 1963 to 1969 (died 2007)
- Billy Haughton, harness racer and trainer (died 1986)
- November 26 â Nat Allbright, sports commentator (died 2011)
- December 2 â Maria Callas, singer (died 1977)
- December 10 â Harold Gould, actor (died 2010)
- December 11
- Betsy Blair, film actress (died 2009)
- Lillian Cahn, Hungarian-American businesswoman, co-founder of Coach, Inc. (died 2013)
- December 12 â Bob Barker, game show host (died 2023)
- December 13
- Philip W. Anderson, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (died 2020)
- Larry Doby, baseball player (died 2003)
- December 23 â James Stockdale, U.S. Navy admiral and vice presidential candidate (died 2005)
- December 24 â George Patton IV, U.S. Army general (died 2004)
- December 29
- Dina Merrill, actress, heiress, socialite and philanthropist (died 2017)
- Mike Nussbaum, actor and director (died 2023)
Deaths
- January 1 â Willie Keeler, baseball player (born 1872)
- January 18 â Wallace Reid, actor (born 1891)
- February 6 â Edward Emerson Barnard, astronomer (born 1857)
- February 14 â Charles Henry Turner, African American entomologist (born 1867)
- February 15 â Minnie Willis Baines, author (born 1845)[14]
- February 24 â Edward W. Morley, scientist (born 1838)
- February 26
- Walter B. Barrows, naturalist (born 1855)
- George Clement Perkins, U.S. Senator from California from 1893 to 1915 (born 1839)
- March 3 â Melancthon J. Briggs, lawyer and politician (born 1846)
- March 6 â Joseph McDermott, actor (born 1878)
- March 15 â Goat Anderson, baseball player (born 1880)
- April 6 â Alice Cunningham Fletcher, ethnologist and anthropologist (born 1838)
- April 11 â Mary Treat, naturalist (born 1830)
- April 28 â Knute Nelson, Governor of Minnesota from 1893 to 1895 and U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1895 to 1923 (born 1843 in Norway)
- August 2 â Warren G. Harding, 29th president of the United States from 1921 to 1923 (born 1865)
- August 10 â Laura Redden Searing, deaf poet and journalist (born 1839)
- October 19 â Eleanor Norcross, painter (born 1854)
- October 23 â Hannah Johnston Bailey, temperance advocate and suffragist (born 1839)
- November 11 â Elizabeth Eggleston Seelye, biographer (born 1858)
- November 17 â Mary Bigelow Ingham, author, educator, and religious worker (born 1832)
- December 28 â Frank Hayes, actor (born 1871)
