Year 1923 Fun Facts, Trivia, and History Events

This quick read presents a collection of fun facts, trivia, and history events from the year 1923. Discover the year’s top news stories, most influential people, sports facts, historic firsts, entertainment news, and much more.

Take a journey through history in just minutes.

1. In 1923, Presidents Harding and Coolidge were both on center stage. Prosperity sandwiches and pound cake were crowd-pleasers, and Robert and Betty were two of the most popular baby names. Freshly baked Vienna bread was 11 cents a loaf, sugar-cured bacon cost 25 cents a pound, and eggs were 13 cents a dozen.
2. Warren G. Harding (R-Ohio) was the U.S. president until his sudden death on August 2, 1923. On that day, Calvin Coolidge (R-Massachusetts) was sworn in as the 30th president of the United States.
3. A dollar in 1923 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $17.00 today.
4. Average annual household income: About $2,160
5. Average cost of a new car: About $515
6. Average cost of a new home: About $6,296
7. Average monthly rent: About $15
8. Average retail price for a gallon of gas: 14 cents
9. Consumer Price Index: $17.1
10. Cost of a first-class stamp: Two cents
11. Federal spending: $3.14 billion
12. Inflation rate: 1.79 percent
13. Minimum wage: 33 cents/hour
14. Price of gold: $20.67 per troy ounce
15. Unemployment rate: 2.4 percent
16. American companies and brands established in 1923 included Barneys New York, Birds Eye, Hasbro, London Fog, Russell Stover Candies, W.W. Norton, the Walt Disney Company, and Warner Bros.
17. Consumer products launched during the year included Blue Nun wine, the Butterfinger candy bar, Cutty Sark whiskey, Drano chemical drain cleaner, the Grenfell cloth, Marvel Mystery Oil, the Milky Way candy bar, Pep breakfast cereal, and Vegemite food spread.
18. On March 2, the United States and Canada signed the Halibut Treaty to preserve the North Pacific fish stocks.
19. On March 3, Time magazine began publishing. Time.com reports that Time was the first weekly news magazine, “a digest of world events for busy people to read.” Today, Time includes a website, a magazine, a “social media footprint of over 51 million,” a film and television division, and much more.
20. On March 4, Albert Bacon Fall, who was Secretary of the Interior under President Harding, resigned from office due to public outcry over the Teapot Dome scandal. (Later, Fall became the first American to be convicted of a felony that was committed while serving a cabinet post.)
21. On March 6, the St. Louis Cardinals announced that all players would start wearing numbers on the sleeves of their uniforms, "with the digits corresponding to the player's place in the batting order."
22. On March 14, President Harding became the first U.S. president to file a full-year income tax return. He paid $17,000 on his annual salary of $75,000.
23. On April 18, the New York Yankees unveiled their new stadium in the Bronx. On that day, an estimated 74,000 baseball fans watched a game between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. “The new stadium was 'christened' when Yankees slugger Babe Ruth knocked a game-winning home run into right field."
24. On May 13, the Pulitzer Prize was awarded to author Willa Cather for her novel, One of Ours.
25. Between June 20 and August 2, President Harding became the first U.S. president to visit Canada and Alaska.
26. On July 7, the University of Delaware launched the first "junior year abroad." Eight students sailed to Nancy, France, where they experienced six weeks of intensive immersion in the French language.
27. On July 13, the "Hollywoodland" sign was dedicated in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles. In 1949, the last four letters of the sign were removed during a renovation.
28. On the evening of August 2, 1923, President Warren G. Harding died suddenly in the presidential suite of the Palace Hotel in downtown San Francisco. The National Constitution Center maintains that "the details of the president's death remained murky for decades amidst rumors of scandal or even worse." Today, however, most historians "accept" that President Harding died from a heart attack that was "brought on by ample evidence of cardiac problems."
29. On August 2, upon Warren G. Harding's death, Calvin Coolidge became the 30th president of the United States. Coolidge, who served as president until 1929, "demonstrated his determination to preserve the old moral and economic precepts of frugality amid the material prosperity that many Americans were enjoying during the 1920s era."
30. On August 3, all MLB games were cancelled due to President Harding's death.
31. September 1: In Berkeley, California, a fire destroyed 640 structures, including 584 houses, in the “densely populated neighborhoods” north of the UC Berkeley campus. There were no deaths, and the cause of the fire was undetermined.
32. On September 1, the Great Kanto earthquake in Japan devastated the cities of Tokyo and Yokohama. Nearly 600,000 homes were destroyed, leaving an estimated 1.9 million people homeless.
33. On September 3, the first daylight Ku Klux Klan parade in New England took place in Milo, Maine.
34. On September 7, the third Miss America pageant was held in Atlantic City at the Million Dollar Pier. Seventeen-year-old Mary Catherine Campbell of Columbus, Ohio, retained her title of Miss America.
35. Between September 18 and 26, newspaper printers in New York City went out on strike. Five NYC newspapers were affected by the walkout, including the New York Times, New York Daily News, New York Herald, New York Tribune, and The Sun.
36. On October 15, the New York Yankees defeated the New York Giants, 4 games to 2, to win their first World Series. (In 1921 and 1922, the Giants won the first two World Series championships. In 1923, the New York Yankees and the New York Giants became the first MLB teams to play against each other for three consecutive World Series championships.)
37. On October 16, John Harwood, a British watchmaker, applied for a Swiss patent for the self-winding wristwatch he invented.
38. In 1923, despite the radio broadcasting boom, only one percent of American households owned at least one radio receiver.
39. About two-thirds of American homes had electricity.
40. Electric refrigerators were becoming more common in American homes, and Kelvinator was the most popular brand.
41. Clarence Birdseye invented frozen food.
42. Jacob Schick created the electric shaver.
43. Coca-Cola launched the six-bottle carton.
44. Cutty Sark blended Scotch whiskey was created in the Speyside region of Scotland.
45. The iconic "icebox" made way for the Frigidaire.
46. Eli Lilly became the first pharmaceutical company to mass-produce insulin.
47. Phillip Roemer created green goddess salad dressing while working as a chef at the legendary Palace Hotel in San Francisco. (Just so you know, green goddess dressing is made from anchovies, fresh herbs, garlic, lemon juice, mayonnaise, and sour cream.)
48. Holiday gifts for the year included Lionel trains, pedal cars, handkerchiefs, pencils, dance frocks, banjos, and ukuleles.
49. Famous people born in 1923 included Aaron Spelling, Alan Shepard, Anne Baxter, Bob Barker, Bob Dole, Chuck Yeager, Ed McMahon, Estelle Getty, Harry Reasoner, Henry Kissinger, and Maria Callas.
50. In 1923 as well, the words "bathtub gin," "Bible thumper," "bingo card," "blind date," "comfort zone," "dial tone," "drama queen," "gross ton," "Sunday driver," "unemployment insurance," and "white chocolate" all appeared in print for the first time.

References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_companies_established_in_1923
2. https://www.musicvf.com/songs.php?page=year&year=1923#gsc.tab=0
3. https://www.merriam-webster.com/
4. https://www.musicvf.com/songs.php?page=year&year=1923&tab=artistchartstab&sort=pointsup&filter=all#gsc.tab=0
5. https://www.movienightsathome.com/1920s-party-foods/
6. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/died-1923.php
7. https://earlyradiohistory.us/sec018.htm
8. https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/vintage-recipes-from-the-1920s/
9. https://www.scarymommy.com/lifestyle/1920s-slang
10. https://onetuberadio.com/2022/08/14/1923-grocery-prices/
11. https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/1923
12. https://www.foodreference.com/html/html/food-timeline-1921.html
13. https://www.infoplease.com/year/1923
14. https://popculturemadness.com/1923-fun-facts-trivia-and-history/
15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1923_in_the_United_States

© 2026 Gregory DeVictor