1923 in the United States

← 1922 1921 1920 1923 in the United States → 1924 1925 1926
Decades:
See also:	History of the United States (1918–1945) Timeline of United States history (1900–1929) List of years in the United States

Events from the year 1923 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: Warren G. Harding (R-Ohio) (until August 2), Calvin Coolidge (R-Massachusetts) (starting August 2)
• Vice President: 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)

Events

August 2: Calvin Coolidge becomes the 30th President of the United States following the death of Warren G. Harding

January–March

• January 1-7 - The Rosewood Massacre Occurs in Rosewood, FL
• February 5 – 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 – The American Law Institute is incorporated.
• March 1 – The USS Connecticut is decommissioned.
• March 2 – The first issue of Time magazine is published.
• March 23 – 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.^[1]

April–June

• April 4 – Jack L. Warner, Harry Warner, Sam Warner and Albert Warner founds Warner Bros..
• April 18 – The first Yankee Stadium opens its doors in the Bronx, New York City.
• May 9 – 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.^[2]
• May 27 – The Ku Klux Klan defies a law requiring publication of its members.

July–September

• July 13 – The Hollywood Sign is inaugurated in California (originally reading Hollywoodland).
• August 2 – Vice President Calvin Coolidge becomes the 30th President of the United States, upon the death of President Warren G. Harding.
• September 3 – Illustrated Daily News first published in Los Angeles by Cornelius Vanderbilt IV.
• September 4 – 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).^[3]
• September 8 – Honda Point Disaster: Seven U.S. Navy destroyers run aground off the California coast.
• September 17 – 1923 Berkeley Fire: A major fire in 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 18–26 – Newspaper printers strike in New York City.
• September 29 – First American Track & Field championships for women, in New Jersey

October–December

- October 1, Mississippi Standard Road Signs Act came into effect.

• October 15 – The New York Yankees defeat the New York Giants (baseball), 4 games to 2, to win their first World Series Title.
• October 16 – Roy and Walt Disney found The Walt Disney Company.
• October 19 – War Resisters League organized by Jessie Wallace Hughan.^[4]
• December 10 – Sigma Alpha Kappa is founded at Loyola University New Orleans, making it the first social fraternity at a Jesuit college in the U.S.

Undated

• Soledad C. Chacón takes office as Secretary of State of New Mexico; all subsequent holders of this office through 2011 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. 1897–c. 1937)
• U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915–1934)
• Prohibition (1919–1933)
• Roaring Twenties (1920–1929)

Births

• January 1 – Daniel Gorenstein, mathematician (died 1992)
• January 16 – Anthony Hecht, poet (died 2004)
• January 29
  • Jack Burke, Jr., golfer and coach
  • Paddy Chayefsky, writer (died 1981)
• January 31 – Norman Mailer, writer (died 2007)
• February 2
  • James Dickey, poet and author (died 1997)
  • 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 28
  • Jean Carson, actress (died 2005)
  • Charles Durning, actor (died 2012)
• March 9 – James L. Buckley, judge and U.S. Senator from New York from 1971 to 1977
• March 10 – Val Logsdon Fitch, nuclear physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (died 2015)
• March 14 – Diane Arbus, photographer (died 1971)
• March 27 – Jack O'Neill, businessman (O'Neill surfwear & equipment) (died 2017)
• April 1
  • Leora Dana, actress (died 1983)
  • Bobby Jordan, actor (died 1965)
• April 3 – Daniel Hoffman, poet (died 2013)
• April 23 – 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 – Joseph Heller, novelist (died 1999)
• May 16 – Merton Miller, economist, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (died 2000)
• June 8 – Malcolm Boyd, priest and author (d. 2015)
• June 22 – John Oldham, basketball player (d. 2020)
• July 14 – Robert Zildjian, musical instrument manufacturer (Sabian) (died 2013)
• July 22
  • Bob Dole, U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1969 to 1996
  • The Fabulous Moolah, wrestler (died 2007)
• July 31 – Stephanie Kwolek, polymer chemist (died 2014)
• August 3 – Jean Hagen, actress (died 1977)^[5]
• August 10
  • Rhonda Fleming, screen actress (died 2020)
  • David H. Rodgers, politician (died 2017)
• August 20 – Jim Reeves, country singer (died 1969)
• September 1 – 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)
• September 17 – Hank Williams, country musician (died 1953)
• September 26 – John Ertle Oliver, geophysicist (died 2011)
• October 4 – Charlton Heston, film actor (died 2008)
• October 20 – Robert Craft, orchestral conductor (died 2015)
• October 27 – Roy Lichtenstein, pop artist (died 1997)
• November 6 – Robert P. Griffin, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1966 to 1979 (died 2015)
• November 8 – Jack Kilby, electrical engineer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (died 2005)
• November 9 – James Schuyler, poet (died 1991)
• November 18 – Ted Stevens, U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1968 to 2009 (died 2010)
• November 18 – 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 – Nat Allbright, sports commentator (died 2011)
• December 10 – 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 – Bob Barker, game show host (The Price Is Right)
• December 13
  • Philip Warren Anderson, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
  • Larry Doby, baseball player (died 2003)
• December 23 – James Stockdale, U.S. Navy admiral and vice presidential candidate (died 2005)
• December 24 – George Patton IV, U.S. Army general (died 2004)
• December 29 – Dina Merrill, actress, heiress, socialite, and philanthropist (died 2017)

Deaths

• January 1 – Willie Keeler, baseball player (born 1872)
• February 26 – George Clement Perkins, U.S. Senator from California from 1893 to 1915 (born 1839)
• April 28 – 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 – Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States from 1921 to 1923 (born 1865)
• August 10 – Laura Redden Searing, deaf poet and journalist (born 1839)
• October 19 – Eleanor Norcross, painter (born 1854)
• October 23 – Hannah Johnston Bailey, temperance advocate and suffragist (born 1839)
• December 28 – Frank Hayes, actor (born 1871)

See also

• List of American films of 1923
• Timeline of United States history (1900–1929)

References

External links

• Media related to 1923 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons