Sunday, July 22, 1923. Harding leaves Alaska, Big Train strikes out 3,000.

 President Harding departed Sitka, Alaska, bound to a Canadian port on his Voyage of Understanding.

President and Mrs. Harding with small group of men and women, Sitka, Alaska, July 22, 1923

Herbert Hoover was part of the Harding party.  In Sitka, he stated: 

We came to Alaska in the hope that by a better understanding of the problems of Alaska we might give better service from the Government to the people of Alaska; that by personal contact we would come to know you and we would come to know your vision of Alaska, your future and your ideals,” Herbert Hoover, Sitka Alaska, July 22, 1923. 

The tanker SS Swiftstar exploded and sank after being hit by lightening.  Only one of its 32 man crew survived.

Walter "Big Train" Johnson of the Washington Senators became the first Major League pitcher to record 3,000 career strikeouts.  He'd ultimately record 3,508, a record that held until 1978.

Johnson was a great picture, and he may have had the fastest fast ball in baseball history.  He died of a brain tumor in 1946 at age 59.

Bob Dole, long time Kansas Senator, war hero, and Presidential contender, was born in Russell, Kansas.

Future senator Daniel Inouye (left) with Dole, next to Inouye, playing cards at the Percy Jones Army Hospital in the mid-1940s.

Dole was badly wounded while serving in the 10th Mountain Division during World War Two.