First Inauguration of Calvin Coolidge

The first inauguration of Calvin Coolidge as the 30th President of the United States occurred following the death of his predecessor, Warren G. Harding. On August 2, 1923, President Warren G. Harding died while on a speaking tour in California. Vice President Calvin Coolidge was visiting his family home, which did not have electricity or a telephone, in Vermont when he received word by messenger of Harding's death. The Vice President dressed, said a prayer, and came downstairs to greet the reporters who had assembled. His father, John Calvin Coolidge, Sr., a notary public, administered the oath of office in the family's parlor by the light of a kerosene lamp at 2:47 a.m. on August 3, 1923; the new President Coolidge then went back to bed. Coolidge returned to Washington the next day, and was re-sworn by Justice Adolph A. Hoehling, Jr. of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, as there was some confusion over whether a state notary public had the authority to administer the presidential oath.