Polk, Harding & November 2 Elections

November 2 is the birthday of James Knox Polk, 11th President of the United States, who was the first of ten children born Samuel and Jane Knox Polk. The future president was born in 1795 on his family farm in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, though he came to manhood in Tennessee and entered politics in that state as a protégé of Andrew Jackson. Among other distinctions, he was the first president born in North Carolina and the first president whose mother survived him.

November 2 is also the birthday of Warren Gamaliel Harding, 29th President of the United States, who was the first of eight children of George Tyron and Elizabeth Dickerson Harding and named for great-uncle the Rev. Warren Gamaliel Bancroft. The future president was born in 1865 in Corisa, Ohio (now Blooming Grove), and came of age in Ohio and became the most recent president from that state -- the seventh born there and the sixth elected to presidency while a resident of Ohio. He was the first and only newspaper publisher elected president and the first president whose father survived him.

On November 2, 1852, Franklin Pierce and William R. King, Democrats, prevailed in the 17th presidential election over Winfield Scott and William Alexander Graham, Whigs. The Democrats won 254 electoral votes, while the Whigs got 42. Their shares of the popular vote were 50.8 percent and 43.9 percent, respectively. It was the death knell for the Whig Party. Minor parties in the race included the Free Soil Party, the Liberty Party, the Union Party and the Southern Rights Party.

On November 2, 1880, James A. Garfield and Chester Alan Arthur, Republicans, bested Winfield Scott Hancock and William Hayden English, Democrats, in the 24th presidential election. The Republicans polled 48.3 percent of the popular vote, compared with 48.2 percent for the Democrats -- a difference of only about 2,000 out of nearly 9 million cast -- and took the electoral college 214 to 155. The Greenback Party, Prohibition Party and the American Party also fielded candidates for president that year.

On November 2, 1920, Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, Republicans, won the 34th presidential election over James M. Cox and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Democrats. Harding-Coolidge took 60.3 percent of the popular vote and 404 electoral votes, while Cox-Roosevelt took 34.1 percent of the popular vote and 127 electoral votes. The Socialist Party nominated Eugene V. Debs, who was in prison at the time, and he received 3.4 percent of the popular vote -- the highest ever for a Socialist. The Farmer-Labor, Prohibition, Socialist Labor, Single-Tax and American parties also fielded candidates.

On November 2, 1948, Harry S. Truman and Alben W. Barkley, Democrats, upset Thomas E. Dewey and Earl Warren, Republicans, in the 41st presidential election, capturing 49.6 percent of the popular vote and 303 electoral votes, compared with 45.1 percent of the popular vote and 189 electoral votes. The States' Rights Democratic Party, which nominated Strom Thurmond for president, took 2.4 percent of the popular vote and 39 electoral votes; the Progressive/American Labor Parties, whose nominee was former Vice President Henry Wallace, also took 2.4 percent of the popular vote, but no electoral votes. The Socialist Party and the Prohibition Party also fielded candidates.

On November 2, 1976, Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale, Democrats, won the 48th presidential election, beating Gerald Ford and Bob Dole, Republicans. Carter-Mondale took 50.1 percent of the popular vote and 297 electoral votes, while Ford-Dole captured 48 percent of the popular vote and 240 electoral votes. A number of other parties fielded candidates, such as the Libertarians, Socialists, Communists, People's and U.S. Labor.

February 8, 1922:President Harding and His Radio

According to various sources, today is the day in 1922 when President Warren G. Harding had a radio installed in the White House. Harding, the favorite punching-bag of presidential historians, the candidate who was picked because he looked the part, the president who had skeletons in his closet like other men have suits -- including an illegitimate daughter -- was at least technologically up to date.

Radio was the thing. In the previous decade or so, it had been the province of maritime telegraphers and land-based enthusiasts willing to build their own sets. In the early 1920s, it was poised to boom as a business. In 1921 and 1922, virtually every state saw the opening of its first licensed radio stations, and newer technologies were making radio easier for non-specialists and non-hobbyists to use.

President Harding had some assistance from the Navy in setting up his set. According to a short article published in the April 8, 1922 issue of the trade magazine Telephony, "President Harding has become one of the most enthusiastic radio telephone fans in Washington. Scarcely a day goes by that he does not 'listen-in' on the receiving set specially installed for him a short time ago by the wireless experts of the Navy Department.

"The President is singularly fortunate, for his set can take a wave length of 25,000 meters, while the average amateur cannot receive on a wave much longer than 375 meters. Under ordinary conditions, the President can hear not only all the stations in the continental United States, but also those in Hawaii and Panama, although those overseas do not send in voice, but in the Morse code, which the President is yet unable to read.

"The receiving set is placed in a bookcase near the President's desk in the White House. The aerial goes out from the roof to one of the tall trees on the south side of the mansion, but the engineering bureau of the Navy Department contemplates supplanting this with an indoor 'cobweb' antenna.

"A vacuum tube detector and a two-stage amplifier make up the Presidential set. The President has become something of an expert now in tuning his set, whirling the knobs of the 'tickler' and the 'vernier adjustment' with assurance that he is going to receive the particular message he wants to hear."