Calvin Coolidge

Born July 4, 1872, John Calvin Coolidge Jr. climbed through Massachusetts politics as a fiscal conservative with a dry wit that earned him the nickname "Silent Cal." His decisive handling of the 1919 Boston police strike launched him onto the national stage, and the following year he rode with Warren G. Harding to a landslide presidential victory as vice president. When Harding died in 1923, Coolidge took the presidency and set about cleaning house after a raft of scandals. He signed the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, restricted immigration outside the Western Hemisphere, and kept a hands-off governing style as the economy roared. He declined to run again in 1928, and died January 5, 1933 - months before the Depression he may or may not have set in motion reached bottom.