NAME: William Howard Taft

BORN: September 15, 1857

PARENTS:
Alphonso Taft (lawyer, U.S. Secretary of War, U.S. Attorney General)
and Louise Maria Torrey Taft

COMMUNITY AFFILIATIONS:
born...Cincinnati, Ohio

EDUCATION:
graduated, Yale College
graduated, Cincinnati Law School

OCCUPATION:
--- Lawyer
--- Superior Court judge, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1887 - 1890
--- United States Solicitor General, 1890 - 1892
--- United States federal Circuit Court, 1892 - 1900
--- University of Cincinnati Law School dean, 1896 - 1900
--- Philippines Commission president, 1900 - 1901
--- Philippines Governor-General, appointed 1901
--- Secretary of War, 1904 - 1908
--- Provisional Governor of Cuba, 1907
--- Professor of Law, Yale, 1913 - 1930
--- United States Supreme Court, chief justice, 1921 - 1930

President of the United States
March 4, 1909 to March 3, 1913
(one term, Republican)
27th President

DIED: March 8, 1930

BURIED: Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia


National Historic Site
White House Entry
Internet Public Library


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FAST FACTS:

Taft was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1880. In 1921, he was appointed Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by President Warren G. Harding.

He is the great-grandfather of Bob Taft, the 67th governor of Ohio.

WHILE HE WAS PRESIDENT:
Vice President: James Schoolcraft Sherman
Some Key Events:
Admiral Peary reached the North Pole, April 6, 1909.
The Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was enacted on July 12, 1909.
Taft was the first President to throw out the opening pitch for a professional baseball season (April 14, 1910; Washington Senators vs. Philadelphia Athletics).


image source: Library of Congress
Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-13027 DLC]