# 1923 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)
* Governors and lieutenant governors
* Governors
* Governor of Alabama: Thomas Kilby (Democratic) (until January 15), William W. Brandon (Democratic) (starting January 15)
* Governor of Arizona: Thomas Edward Campbell (Republican) (until January 1), George W. P. Hunt (Democratic) (starting January 1)
* Governor of Arkansas: Thomas Chipman McRae (Democratic)
* Governor of California: William Stephens (Republican) (until January 9), Friend Richardson (Republican) (starting January 9)
* Governor of Colorado: Oliver Henry Shoup (Republican) (until January 9), William Ellery Sweet (Democratic) (starting January 9)
* Governor of Connecticut: Everett J. Lake (Republican) (until January 3), Charles A. Templeton (Republican) (starting January 3)
* Governor of Delaware: William D. Denney (Republican)
* Governor of Florida: Cary A. Hardee (Democratic)
* Governor of Georgia: Thomas W. Hardwick (Democratic) (until June 30), Clifford Walker (Democratic) (starting June 30)
* Governor of Idaho: D. W. Davis (Republican) (until January 1), Charles C. Moore (Republican) (starting January 1)
* Governor of Illinois: Len Small (Republican)
* Governor of Indiana: Warren T. McCray (Republican)
* Governor of Iowa: Nathan E. Kendall (Republican)
* Governor of Kansas: Henry J. Allen (Republican) (until January 8), Jonathan M. Davis (Democratic) (starting January 8)
* Governor of Kentucky: Edwin P. Morrow (Republican) (until December 11), William J. Fields (Democratic) (starting December 11)
* Governor of Louisiana: John M. Parker (Democratic)
* Governor of Maine: Percival Proctor Baxter (Republican)
* Governor of Maryland: Albert C. Ritchie (Democratic)
* Governor of Massachusetts: Channing H. Cox (Republican)
* Governor of Michigan: Alex Groesbeck (Republican)
* Governor of Minnesota: J. A. O. Preus (Republican)
* Governor of Mississippi: Lee M. Russell (Democratic)
* Governor of Missouri: Arthur M. Hyde (Republican)
* Governor of Montana: Joseph M. Dixon (Republican)
* Governor of Nebraska: Samuel R. McKelvie (Republican) (until January 3), Charles W. Bryan (Democratic) (starting January 3)
* Governor of Nevada: Emmet D. Boyle (Democratic) (until January 1), James G. Scrugham (Democratic) (starting January 1)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Albert O. Brown (Republican) (until January 4), Fred H. Brown (Democratic) (starting January 4)
* Governor of New Jersey: Edward I. Edwards (Democratic) (until January 15), George Sebastian Silzer (Democratic) (starting January 15)
* Governor of New Mexico: Merritt C. Mechem (Republican) (until January 1), James F. Hinkle (Democratic) (starting January 1)
* Governor of New York: Al Smith (Democratic) (starting January 1)
* Governor of North Carolina: Cameron Morrison (Democratic)
* Governor of North Dakota: Ragnvald A. Nestos (Republican)
* Governor of Ohio: Harry L. Davis (Republican) (until January 8), A. Victor Donahey (Democratic) (starting January 8)
* Governor of Oklahoma:
* until January 8: James B. A. Robertson (Democratic)
* January 8-November 19: Jack C. Walton (Democratic)
* starting November 19: Martin E. Trapp (Democratic)
* Governor of Oregon: Ben W. Olcott (Republican) (until January 8), Walter M. Pierce (Democratic) (starting January 8)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: William Cameron Sproul (Republican) (until January 16), Gifford Pinchot (Republican) (starting January 16)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Emery J. San Souci (Republican) (until January 2), William S. Flynn (Democratic) (starting January 2)
* Governor of South Carolina: Wilson Godfrey Harvey (Democratic) (until January 16), Thomas Gordon McLeod (Democratic) (starting January 16)
* Governor of South Dakota: William H. McMaster (Republican)
* Governor of Tennessee: Alfred A. Taylor (Republican) (until January 16), Austin Peay (Democratic) (starting January 16)
* Governor of Texas: Pat Morris Neff (Democratic)
* Governor of Utah: Charles R. Mabey (Republican)
* Governor of Vermont: James Hartness (Republican) (until January 4), Redfield Proctor, Jr. (Republican) (starting January 4)
* Governor of Virginia: Elbert Lee Trinkle (Democratic)
* Governor of Washington: Louis Folwell Hart (Republican)
* Governor of West Virginia: Ephraim F. Morgan (Republican)
* Governor of Wisconsin: John J. Blaine (Republican)
* Governor of Wyoming: Robert D. Carey (Republican) (until January 1), William B. Ross (Democratic) (starting January 1)
* Lieutenant governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: Nathan Lee Miller (Democratic) (until January 15), Charles S. McDowell (Democratic) (starting January 15)
* Lieutenant Governor of California: Clement Calhoun Young (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Earl Cooley (Republican) (until January 9), Robert F. Rockwell (Republican) (starting January 9)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Charles A. Templeton (Republican) (until January 3), Hiram Bingham (Republican) (starting January 3)
* Lieutenant Governor of Delaware: J. Danforth Bush (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: Charles C. Moore (Republican) (until January 1), H. C. Baldridge (Republican) (starting January 1)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Fred E. Sterling (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Emmett Forrest Branch (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: John Hammill (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Charles S. Huffman (Republican) (until January 9), Ben Sanford Paulen (Republican) (starting January 9)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: S. Thruston Ballard (Republican) (until December 11), Henry Denhardt (Democratic) (starting December 11)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Hewitt Bouanchaud (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Alvan T. Fuller (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Thomas Read (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Louis L. Collins (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Homer H. Casteel (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Hiram Lloyd (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Montana: Nelson Story Jr. (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Pelham A. Barrows (Republican) (until January 3), Fred G. Johnson (Republican) (starting January 3)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Maurice J. Sullivan (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico: William H. Duckworth (Republican) (until January 1), Jose A. Baca (Democratic) (starting January 1)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: George R. Lunn (Democratic) (starting January 1)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: William B. Cooper (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: Howard R. Wood (Republican) (until month and day unknown), Frank H. Hyland (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Clarence J. Brown Sr. (Republican) (until January 8), Earl D. Bloom (Democratic) (starting January 8)
* Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: Martin E. Trapp (Democratic) (until November 19), vacant (starting November 19)
* Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Edward E. Beidleman (Republican) (until January 20), David J. Davis (Republican) (starting January 20)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Harold Gross (Republican) (until month and day unknown), Felix A. Toupin (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: vacant (until January 16), E. B. Jackson (Democratic) (starting January 16)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: Carl Gunderson (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: William West Bond (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Eugene J. Bryan (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Lynch Davidson (Democratic) (until January 16), Thomas Whitfield Davidson (Democratic) (starting January 16)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Abram W. Foote (Republican) (until January 4), Franklin S. Billings (Republican) (starting January 4)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Junius Edgar West (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Washington: William J. Coyle (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: George F. Comings (Republican)

## Events
### January–March

* January 1–7 – The Rosewood massacre, a racially motivated massacre of black people and the destruction of a black town, takes place in Rosewood, Florida.
* January 15 – William W. Brandon is sworn in as the 37th governor of Alabama replacing Thomas Kilby.
* January 18 – Elon College's campus in North Carolina is destroyed by a fire.
* 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.

### April–June

* April 1 – Safety Last!, a silent romantic comedy film starring Harold Lloyd, is released.
* April 4 – 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 – Louis Armstrong makes his first recording, "Chimes Blues", with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band.
* April 15 – Nihon Shōgakkō 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.
* 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.
* May 15 – Riegelmann Boardwalk at Coney Island officially opened.
* 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).
* September 8 – Honda Point Disaster: Seven U.S. Navy destroyers run aground off the California coast.
* September 17 – 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 18–26 – Newspaper printers strike in New York City.
* September 24 – Rowan University opens.
* September 29 – First American Track & Field championships for women, in New Jersey

### October–December

* October 1 – Mississippi something 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.
* 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.
* December 20 – 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. 1897–c. 1937)
* U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915–1934)
* Prohibition (1920–1933)
* Roaring Twenties (1920–1929)

## Births

* January 1 – Daniel Gorenstein, mathematician (died 1992)
* January 3 – 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 – Anthony Hecht, poet (died 2004)
* January 29
** Jack Burke Jr., golfer and coach (died 2024)
** Paddy Chayefsky, writer (died 1981)
* January 31 – 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 – Perry J. Dahl, World War II flying ace (died 2024)
* February 20 – Helen Murray Free, chemist and educator (died 2021)
* February 28
** Jean Carson, actress (died 2005)
** Charles Durning, actor (died 2012)
* March 2 – 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)
* March 10 – Val Logsdon Fitch, nuclear physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (died 2015)
* March 12 – Mae Young, wrestler (died 2014)
* 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 13
** Don Adams, actor and director (died 2005)
** Stanley Tanger, businessman and philanthropist, founder of the Tanger Factory Outlet Centers (died 2010)
* 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)
* May 27 – Henry Kissinger, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize (died 2023)
* June 2 – Lloyd Shapley, mathematician, economist and Nobel Prize laureate (died 2016)
* June 8 – Malcolm Boyd, priest and author (died 2015)
* June 19 – Geri M. Joseph, diplomat and political figure (died 2023)
* June 22 – John Oldham, basketball player (died 2020)
* July 13 – Ashley Bryan, children's book writer and illustrator (died 2022)
* July 14 – 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 – Stephanie Kwolek, polymer chemist (died 2014)
* August 3 – Jean Hagen, actress (died 1977)
* August 10
** Rhonda Fleming, screen actress (died 2020)
** David H. Rodgers, politician (died 2017)
* August 20 – Jim Reeves, country singer (died 1964)
* 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)
** Charles Grier Sellers, historian (died 2021)
* September 17 – Hank Williams, country musician (died 1953)
* September 18 – Al Quie, politician (died 2023)
* September 26 – Jack Oliver, geophysicist (died 2011)
* October 1 – Babe McCarthy, basketball coach (died 1975)
* October 2 – Hershel W. Williams, Medal of Honour recipient (died 2022)
* October 4 – Charlton Heston, film actor (died 2008)
* October 20 – Robert Craft, orchestral conductor (died 2015)
* October 23
** Ned Rorem, composer (died 2022)
** Frank Sutton, actor (died 2022)
* 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)
** 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 2 – Maria Callas, singer (died 1977)
* 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 (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 – 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)
** Mike Nussbaum, actor and director (died 2023)

## Deaths

* January 1 – Willie Keeler, baseball player (born 1872)
* January 18 – Wallace Reid, actor (born 1891)
* February 6 – Edward Emerson Barnard, astronomer (born 1857)
* February 14 – Charles Henry Turner, African American entomologist (born 1867)
* February 15 – Minnie Willis Baines, author (born 1845)
* February 24 – 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 – Melancthon J. Briggs, lawyer and politician (born 1846)
* March 6 – Joseph McDermott, actor (born 1878)
* March 15 – Goat Anderson, baseball player (born 1880)
* April 6 – Alice Cunningham Fletcher, ethnologist and anthropologist (born 1838)
* April 11 – Mary Treat, naturalist (born 1830)
* 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)
* November 11 – Elizabeth Eggleston Seelye, biographer (born 1858)
* November 17 – Mary Bigelow Ingham, author, educator, and religious worker (born 1832)
* December 28 – Frank Hayes, actor (born 1871)