1920 Presidential Election Chronology

Available from Carroll & Graf, Fall 2006

1920 Presidential
Election Chronology

Jan. 1 — 18th Amendment goes into effect.
Jan. 2-6 — Palmer raids; over 6,000 radicals arrested.
Jan. 2 — Franklin D. Roosevelt privately writes than
there would be "none better" than Herbert Hoover for
president.
Jan. 3 — FDR writes in Army & Navy Journal re:
Navy prison policies
January — Trial of Rev. Samuel N. Kent on morals
charges; Kent acquitted.
Jan. 4 — James Reynolds assumes leadership of
Calvin Coolidge campaign.
Jan. 6 —- Rhode Island and Kentucky ratify the 19th
amendment.
Jan. 6 — William Gibbs McAdoo quits as United
Artists general counsel.
Jan. 7 — Calvin Coolidge says he will not actively seek
the presidency.
Jan. 7 — Governor Alfred E. Smith urges New York
State Legislature to rescind ratification of 18th
Amendment.
Jan. 8 — Democrats' Jackson Day Dinner. William
Jennings Bryan blasts Wilson. James Gerard praises
Herbert Hoover.
Jan. 8 — Democrats decide on San Francisco as
convention site.
Jan. 8 — Louis B. Wehle confers with Angus McLean
re: a Herbert Hoover-FDR ticket.
Jan. 9 — Louis Wehle confers with Attorney General
A. Mitchell Palmer and Vance McCormick re: a
Hoover-FDR ticket.
Jan. 10 — House of Representatives refuses to seat
Wisconsin Socialist Congressman Victor Berger.
Jan. 10 — Louis Wehle confers with FDR regarding a
Hoover-FDR ticket.
Jan. 10 — League of Nations convenes.
Jan. 12 — Oregon ratifies the 19th Amendment.
Jan. 15 — Wehle confers with House re: a Hoover-
FDR ticket.
Jan. 15 — Carter Glass leaves as Secretary of the
Treasury.
Jan. 16 — Indiana ratifies the 19th Amendment.
Jan. 16 — Wehle confers with Hoover.
Jan. 17 — Court of Naval Inquiry appointed to review
Newport scandal.
Jan. 18 — Providence Journal publisher John Rathom
telegraphs Senate Committee on Naval Affairs regarding
Newport scandal.
Jan. 19 — Special Senate Committee on Naval Affairs
Subcommittee appointed to investigate Newport scandal.
Jan. 20 — New Jersey Governor Edward Edwards
introduces bill legalizing 5% beer.
Jan. 22 — John Rathom telegraphs FDR re: Newport
navy scandal.
Jan 24 — FDR writes Captain Taussig re: homosexuals
being returned to the service.
Jan. 24 — Calvin Coolidge sworn in to second term as
Governor of Massachusetts.
Jan. 25 — Coolidge says he is not a candidate.
Jan. 26 — Wyoming ratifies the 19th Amendment.
Jan [date unknown] — Grayson advises Wilson to
resign.
Jan. 27 — Hitchcock reservation to Article 10 rejected
by Republicans.
Jan. 28 — South Carolina rejects the 19th Amendment.
Jan. 30 — Bureau of Internal Revenue issues
regulations for medicinal alcohol.
Feb. 1 — FDR speech at Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Feb. 1 — Ohio governor James M. Cox announces his
candidacy.
Feb. 1 — England and France declare they would
accept the Senate's reservations.
Feb. 7 — Wilson writes Secretary of State Robert
Lansing re: cabinet meetings.
Feb. 7 — Nevada ratifies the 19th Amendment.
Feb. 10 — Dr. Hugh Young of Johns Hopkins
announces Wilson was "organically sound, able-minded
and able-bodied"
Feb. 10 — Senate Foreign Relation Committee
approves of Treaty with Lodge reservations.
Feb. 10 — New Jersey ratifies the 19th Amendment.
Feb. 11 — Idaho ratifies the 19th Amendment.
Feb. 12 — Arizona and New Mexico ratify the 19th
Amendment; Virginia rejects it.
Feb. 12 — FDR's former mistress Lucy Mercer marries
Winthrop Rutherford.
Feb. 13 — Secretary of State Robert Lansing resigns.
Feb. 14-16 — League of Women Voters founded,
Chicago
Feb. 19 — Frank Petroni found not guilty by
Hammond, Indiana jury, after shooting Frank Petrich for
yelling, "To hell with the United States."
Feb. 19 — Republican National Committee announces
it will accept to donations of over $1,000.
Feb. 23 — Hoover says he must no more about the
parties' platforms before choosing between them.
Feb. 24 — Herbert Hoover opts out of Georgia
Democratic primary.
Feb. 24 — Maryland rejects the 19th Amendment.
Feb. 25 — Woodrow Wilson names Bainbridge Colby
Secretary of State.
Feb. 26 — Herbert Hoover says he is not a candidate.
Feb. 28 — Oklahoma ratifies the 19th Amendment.
Feb. 29 — New York Times presents Daugherty's
prediction on the GOP convention.
Mar. 1 — A. Mitchell Palmer formally announces,
enters Georgia primary.
Mar. 6 — Hoover declines to compete in the California
Democrat primary.
Mar. 6 — The Philippine Assembly rejects woman
suffrage.
Mar. 9 — Gen. Leonard Wood and Herbert Hoover
win New Hampshire primaries.
Mar. 10 — West Virginia ratifies 19th amendment after
State Senator Jesse A. Bloch races back from California
to vote.
Mar. 12 — Seven IWW members found guilty in
Centralia Massacre.
Mar. 14 — Eugene V. Debs says he accept Socialist
Party presidential nomination.
Mar. 15 — Leonard Wood wins Minnesota primary,
beating Harding and Hoover.
Mar. 15 — Senate defeats treaty with 15 Lodge
reservations 49-35.
Mar. 16 — Senator Hiram Johnson runs unopposed in
North Dakota primary.
Mar. 17 — Illinois Gov. Frank O. Lowden captures
Virginia Republican convention.
Mar. 19 — U. S. Senate again rejects Treaty of
Versailles (with Lodge reservations), 49-35.
Mar. 22 -- Washington ratifies the 19th Amendment.
Mar. 22 -- Bainbridge Colby confirmed by the Senate.
Mar. 23 -- Leonard Wood wins South Dakota primary.
Mar. 24 -- Capt. J. F. Lucey announces a conference
of Hoover supporters will be held in Chicago.
Mar. 25 -- Delaware rejects the 19th Amendment.
Mar. 25 -- Woodrow Wilson confides to Grayson that
he will accept a draft.
Mar. 26 -- New York World charges excessive
spending in Wood race.
Mar. 29 -- Mississippi rejects the 19th Amendment.
Mar. 30 -- Herbert Hoover wires the California Hoover
Club that he will accept the GOP nomination under
certain conditions.
Mar. — Charles Scribner's & Sons publishes Lothrop
Stoddard's The Rising Tide of Color Against White
Supremacy.
April 1 -- New York State Assembly expels five
Socialist members.
Apr. 3 -- Leonard Wood endorses women's suffrage.
Apr. 6 -- Daughter born to Mr. & Mrs. William Gibbs
McAdoo.
Apr. 6 -- Senator Robert La Follette sweeps Wisconsin
primary.
Apr. 6 -- Uninstructed slate wins New York State GOP
Primary.
Apr. 6 -- Herbert Hoover fails in attempt to register in
California.
Apr. 7 -- Hoover wins Michigan Democratic primary;
Palmer finishes last. Johnson wins Michigan Republican
primary.
Apr. 14 -- Wilson presides over Cabinet for the first
time since September 2, 1919.
Apr. 15 -- South Braintree, Massachusetts payroll
robbery and murder.
Apr. 18 -- Helen Hughes, daughter of Charles Evans
Hughes, dies of tuberculosis.
Apr. 20 -- Senators Hiram Johnson and Gilbert
Hitchcock win Nebraska primaries.
Apr. 22 -- Illinois, Wisconsin primaries. Frank O.
Lowden wins Illinois primary.
Apr. 23 -- Hoover and Harding fare badly as Johnson
wins Montana primary.
Apr. 27 -- Unpledged delegates win Massachusetts
GOP primary.
Apr. 27 -- Wood narrowly defeats Johnson in New
Jersey primary. Governor Edward Edwards unopposed
in Democratic primary.
Apr. 27 -- Senator Warren G. Harding narrowly defeats
Leonard Wood in Ohio primary. Harry M. Daugherty
loses as delegate. James M. Cox unopposed in
Democratic primary.
Apr. 27 -- Oscar W. Underwood of Alabama becomes
new Senate Minority Leader.
May 1 -- Radical unrest predicted by A. Mitchell
Palmer fails to materialize.
May 2 -- Brooklyn anarchist Andrea Salcedo leaps to
his death, while in federal custody.
May 3 -- Leonard Wood defeats Hiram Johnson in
Maryland primary.
May 4 -- Hiram Johnson defeats Herbert Hoover in
California primary.
May 5 -- Wood wins Indiana primary. Harding finishes
a poor fourth.
May 5 — Nicola Sacco and BartolomeoVanzetti
arrested in Bridgewater, Massachusetts for South
Braintree robbery.
May 6 -- Calvin Coolidge vetoes 2.75% beer bill.
May 8 -- Dunn Court of Inquiry resumes hearings.
May 13 -- Socialist Party nominates Eugene V. Debs
for president.
May 14 -- The Socialist Party votes to align itself with
Lenin's Third International.
May 14 -- Harding delivers "normalcy" speech in
Boston.
May 18 -- Governor Sproul delegates win GOP
Pennsylvania primary.
May 18 -- Calvin Coolidge's stepmother, Carrie Brown
Coolidge, dies.
May 19 -- Leonard Wood wins non-binding Vermont
primary.
May 20 -- Senate authorizes investigate on campaign
finances.
May 20 — Congress ends state of war by joint
resolution (vetoed by Woodrow Wilson).
May 21 -- Hiram Johnson defeats wood in Oregon
primary.
May 22 -- First installment ("The Jew in Character and
Business") of ninety-one part series, "The International
Jew: The World's Problem" begins in Henry Ford's
Dearborn Independent.
May 24 -- Sen. Howard Sutherland defeats Gen.
Leonard Wood in West Virginia primary.
May 29 -- Woodrow Wilson pardons Kate Richards
O'Hare.
May 29 -- Socialist Party presidential notification of
Eugene Debs.
May 30 -- New York Labor Party (Farmer-Labor
Party) nominates Rose Schneiderman for United States
Senate and Mrs. William J. Fink for Comptroller.
June 1 -- United States Supreme Court rules state
referenda not part of the federal constitutional
amendment process.
June 3 -- American Jewish Committee telegraphs Ford
protesting "The International Jew."
June 5 -- Literary Digest poll puts Warren G. Harding
eighth among Republican presidential candidates, below
even Calvin Coolidge and William Howard Taft.
June 7 -- Harding visits mistress Nan Britton in Chicago.
June 8 -- Republican National Convention opens;
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge delivers keynote address.
June 8 -- Louisiana Senate rejects the 19th Amendment.
June 12 -- Republican Party nominates Warren G.
Harding for president.
June 13 -- Socialist Vice Presidential candidate
Seymour Stedman opens his campaign in Chicago.
June 17 -- New York World publishes interview with
Wilson.
June 18 -- McAdoo announces "irrevocable" decision
not to seek presidency.
June 20 -- Grover Cleveland Redding of the Star Order
of Ethiopia shoots police officer and ignites a Chicago
race riot.
June 21 — Suffragette Alice Paul visits Harding.
June 22 -- Ed Scobey announces Harding slogan will
be "Back to Normal."
June 22 -- New York World publishes a photo of
Wilson at work.
June 23 -- Tammany boss Charles F. Murphy indicted.
June 25 -- Calvin Coolidge says he won't pressure
Vermont and Connecticut to ratify the 19th Amendment.
June 26 -- Dearborn Independent begins serializing
"The Protocols of The Learned Elders of Zion. "
June 27 -- Republican National Committee Chairman
Will Hays meets with Carrie Phillips.
June 27 -- William Gibbs McAdoo says he will accept
a nomination.
June 28 -- Democratic National Convention opens;
FDR grabs New York delegation standard.
July 29 -- Dudley Field Malone nominated by New
York State Farmer-Labor Party for Governor.
June 30 -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt places Al Smith
in nomination.
June [date unknown] -- KKK engaged two
professional fundraisers: Edward Young Clarke and
Mrs. Elizabeth Tyler.
July 1 -- BartolomeoVanzetti convicted of Bridgewater
robbery.
July 1 -- Louisiana rejects the 19th Amendment.
July 1 -- Jim Philips and Harding confer in Washington.
July 1 -- Judson Welliver writes to Senator Borah,
complaining of Harding.
July 4 -- Harding and Coolidge campaign phonograph
records released.
July 5 -- Democratic Party nominates James M. Cox
for president.
July 6 -- Democratic Party nominates Franklin D.
Roosevelt for vice-president.
July 14 -- Farmer-Labor Party nominates Parley
Christensen for president and Max Hayes for vice
president.
July 14 -- Single Tax Party nominates Robert C.
MacAuley for president.
July 10 -- Warren G. Harding announces Calvin
Coolidge will sit in cabinet.
July 12 -- Vermont Governor Percival Clements
declines to call a special legislative session to ratify the
19th Amendment.
July 16 -- Vice President Thomas Marshall telegraphs
congratulations to Coolidge.
July 18 -- James M. Cox and FDR confer with Wilson
at the White House.
July 20 -- George White of Ohio replaces Homer
Cummings as Democratic National Chairman.
July 22 -- Prohibition Party, meeting at Omaha,
nominates Aaron S. Watkins for president and D. Leigh
Colvin for vice-president.
July 22 -- Warren G. Harding notified of nomination at
Marion, Ohio.
July 27 -- Calvin Coolidge notified of nomination at
Northampton, Massachusetts.
Aug. 6 -- Franklin D. Roosevelt retires from the Navy
Department.
Aug. 6 -- Former Massachusetts Senator Murray Crane
falls into a coma.
Aug. 8 -- Cox official notified of nomination; Cox
refuses FDR's request to sit in on cabinet.
Aug. 9 -- Franklin D. Roosevelt officially notified of
nomination at Hyde Park
Aug. 10 -- Marcus Garvey apologizes to New York
District Attorney Swann to avoid a libel suit.
Aug. 11 -- J. E. Ferguson and W. J. Hough nominated
by American Party at Fort Worth.
Aug. 11 -- Aaron S. Watkins receives notification of
Prohibition Party nomination.
Aug. 17 -- Marcus Garvey elected provisional president
of Africa.
Aug. 17 -- The North Carolina Senate votes to delay
action on suffrage until 1921.
Aug. 18 -- FDR boasts of writing Haiti's constitution.
Aug. 18 -- Delegation from the Society of American
Indians meets separately with Harding and Cox.
Aug. 20 -- Harding campaign announces Lillian Russell
will campaign for the ticket.
Aug. 21 -- FDR praises Centralia incident.
Aug. 24 -- Al Jolson and "Harding and Coolidge
Theatrical League of America" visit Marion, Ohio.
Aug. 28 -- Tennessee ratifies the 19th Amendment.
Aug. 28 -- Harding declares himself in favor of "an
association of nations."
Aug. 28 -- Secretary of State Colby ratifies the 19th
Amendment.
Aug. 30 -- Socialist-Labor Party nominates William W.
Cox and August Gillhaus.
Sept. 2 -- Chicago Cubs visit Marion.
Sept. 7 -- Warren Harding begins first campaign swing.
Sept. 8 -- Harding addresses crowd of 40,000 at
Minnesota State Fair.
Sept. 11 -- Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti
indicted for South Braintree robbery.
Sept. 14 -- Connecticut ratifies the 19th Amendment.
Sept. 14 -- James Wadsworth Jr. defeats Ella A. Boole
for the Republican nomination for United State Senate in
New York; Lt. Gov. Harry C. Walker defeats
Schenectady Mayor George Lunn in the Democratic
primary.
Sept. 16 -- Wall Street bombed by Sacco and Vanzetti
associate Michael Buda.
Sept. 18 -- "Foreign Voters Day" in Marion.
Sept. 21 -- Three Socialist members again expelled
from New York State Assembly.
Sept. 23 -- Two seated Socialists resign from New
York State Assembly.
Sept. 28 -- Seven White Sox players indicted for
throwing the 1919 World Series.
Oct. -- William Estabrook Chancellor's handbills begin
circulating re: Harding ancestry.
Oct. 2 -- Senator Murray Crane dies.
Oct. 4 -- Funeral of Murray Crane; Coolidge refuses to
be photographed with Lodge.
Oct. 7 -- Harding in Des Moines calls not for
"interpretation but rejection" of the league.
Oct. 7 -- Journalist John Reed dies at Moscow.
Oct. 9 -- Prof. Irving Fisher organizes pro-League
League Independents.
Oct. 14 -- Statement of the 31 (pro-League
Republicans) endorses Harding.
Oct. 24 -- Republican National Committee reveals
Rathom letter to FDR re: Newport navy scandals.
Oct. 25 - FDR sues John Rathom for $500,000 for
criminal libel.
Oct. 26 — Archibald MacLeish and Hoover League of
Harvard question Hoover: Harding and League.
Oct. 28 -- Woodrow Wilson makes first statement of
campaign, doesn't mention Cox.
Oct. 28 — Calvin Coolidge campaigns in Manhattan;
Grace Coolidge leads a torchlight parade in Boston.
Oct. 29 — Wooster College fires William E. Chancellor.
Oct.— Widespread nightrider raids on black-owned
cotton gins reported in Georgia and Alabama.
Oct.— G. H. Putnam & Son announced plans to issue a
volume called The Cause of World Unrest, treating
The Protocols of Zion as genuine.
Oct. — Henry Ford issues a 25-cent, 250-page
paperback version of The International Jew.
Nov. 1— Dayton Journal sues Chancellor for libel.
Nov. 2 — Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge elected
in landslide.
Nov. 2 — Pittsburgh's KDKA broadcasts election
returns.
Nov. 2 — New York Governor Alfred E. Smith and
Tennessee Governor Albert H. Roberts defeated for re-
election.
Nov. 2 — Second woman elected to Congress,
Oklahoma's Alice Robertson.
Nov. 2 — Texas elects its first Republican
congressman, Harry McLeary Wurzbach.
Nov. 2 — Champ Clark, Victor Berger, and Cordell
Hull defeated for Congress.
Nov. 2 — California referendum approves alien land bill.
Nov. 2— Ocoee, Florida burned to ground after two
black men attempt to vote.
Nov. 3 — Nan Britton meets with Harding in Marion.
Nov. 20 — Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Woodrow
Wilson.
Nov. 26 —- Oklahoma Republican leader Jake Hamon
dies of gunshot wound.
Dec. 16 — Calvin Coolidge agrees to attend Cabinet
meetings.
Dec. 19 — Anti-Cigarette League asks President-Elect
Harding not to use cigarettes.