Warren G Harding

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American politician, a U.S. Senator from 1915-1921 and U.S. President from 1921-1923, establishing the Naval Academy and Smithsonian Institute during his term of office. Rising from a typesetter, he became editor and owner of the Marion Star newspaper in 1884. From 1900-04 he was a member of the Ohio Senate and from 1904-06, Lt. Governor. Handsome and easy-going, he was noted for a corrupt administration and scandals in his private life. Married to Mrs. Florence Kling DeLong, a divorcee on 7/03/1891, he nonetheless fathered an illegitimate daughter in 1919. It was a year before he was elected president and he lived in fear of that secret being made public. He continued his relationship with his mistress, Nan Britton, even with meetings in the White House. Eventually, she wrote a kiss-and-tell book about their affair. The Senate began to investigate his activities as early as February 1923, and the shadow of impeachment and disgrace loomed by the time he escaped Washington's heat on June 30 for a trip to Alaska. On his return to Seattle he suffered chest and abdominal pains early on July 28. The illness was diagnosed as a gastric disturbance, possibly from food poisoning two weeks prior. He developed pneumonia and died suddenly of cardiac arrest on 08/02/1923, San Francisco. Rumors persisted that his death had been variously a suicide or a murder. Link to Wikipedia biography