The front page of the Deseret News on Aug. 2, 1923, announcing the death of President Warren G. Harding. On Aug. 2, 1923, the 29th president of the United States, Warren G. Harding, died in San Francisco. Just a few weeks earlier, Harding had visited Utah as part of his Voyage of Understanding train tour through the West. Vice President Calvin Coolidge became president early on Aug. 3, while at his family farm in Vermont. Harding’s trip to Utah and his death were top stories in newspapers across the nation for weeks.