The 30th U.S. President

 

Calvin Coolidge

Born: July 4, 1872

Died: January 5, 1933

Term in Office: 1923-1929

This guy is the only U.S.President to have been born on the Fourth of July, though, as previously noted, three of the first five died on that anniversary. Coolidge also has the distinction of being the only person in that office to be sworn in by his father. When news of Warren Harding's death* reached him, Coolidge was visiting his father's home in Vermont. The elder Coolidge, being a notary public, performed the swearing in duties.

He was elected to the presidency in his own right in 1924 but chose not to run again in 1928. He was somewhat proud of his reputation as a "do nothing" President, believing in the conservative laissez-faire approach to the government's involvement in business.

Did this hands-off approach contribute to the decade's "roaring 20s" moniker; a time that enjoyed just 3.3% average unemployment and annual increases of 7% in the Gross National Product? Likely. But economists also argue that the unbridled stock market probably let to the infamous crash of 1929.

One item of note for Coolidge's term in office is that in 1924 he signed legislation making Native Americans U.S. citizens, almost 150 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a document declaring "all men" were created equal.**

A tragedy that occurred during his tenure as President was the death of his son Calvin Jr, who was lost to blood poisoning from a blister that developed during a family tennis match.

Bonus feature: In searching for a photo reference for this President, I found a photo of him as a young boy, hauntingly resembling Bill Watterson's comic character of the same name.

 Two young Calvins

 

* Was Warren Harding, as the fifth person elected to the presidency in a year ending in a '0' to die in office, another victim of "Tecumseh's Curse?" See the notes on William Henry "Tippencanoe" Harrison, the man to blame for the curse.

** Of course, the "all men" being equal line in the Declaration did not apply to women or slaves either. Although Natives gained citizenship in 1924, it wasn't until 1957 that the right to vote was granted to them federally, though some states had allowed it previously; a precedent that shows the feds can supercede states in their laws pertaining to access to voting, contrary to the position taken by the Supreme Court just this past week.

Thanks to www.coolidgefoundation.org and www.mentalfloss.com for assistance in my research of this fellow.