Albert Bacon Fall (November 26, 1861 – November 30, 1944)

On this day in 1929, during the Teapot Dome scandal, Albert B.
Fall, who served as secretary of the interior in President Warren
G. Harding’s cabinet, was found guilty of accepting a bribe while
in office. Fall, a U.S. senator from New Mexico, was the first
individual to be convicted of a crime committed while a
presidential cabinet member.

Warren Gamaliel Harding
(November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923)

ROSS SIMPSON

On March 19, 2003, the United States, along with coalition
forces primarily from the United Kingdom, initiated war on
Iraq. Just after explosions began to rock Baghdad, Iraq’s
capital, U.S. President George W. Bush announced in a 
TV address (below), “At this hour, American and coalition 
forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm
Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave 
danger.” President Bush and his  advisors built much of their 
case for war on the specious claim that Iraq, under dictator 
Saddam Hussein, possessed or was in the process of building 
weapons of mass destruction.

On December 2, 2001, the Enron Corporation filed for Chapter
11 bankruptcy protection in a New York court, sparking one of
the largest corporate scandals in U.S. history.

An energy-trading company based in Houston, Texas, Enron
was formed in 1985 as the merger of two gas companies,
Houston Natural Gas and Internorth. Under chairman and
CEO Kenneth Lay, Enron rose as high as number seven on
Fortune magazine’s list of the top 500 U.S. companies.

In 2000, the company employed 21,000 people and posted
revenue of $111 billion. Over the next year, however, Enron’s
stock price began a dramatic slide, dropping from $90.75 in
August 2000 to $0.26 by closing on November 30, 2001.

Enron’s collapse had cost investors billions of dollars, wiped
out some 5,600 jobs and liquidated almost $2.1 billion in
pension plans.

Kenneth Lee Lay (April 15, 1942 – July 5, 2006)

Albert Bacon Fall (November 26, 1861 – November 30, 1944)

During the Teapot Dome scandal of the 1920s, Albert B. Fall,
who served as secretary of the interior in President Warren G.
Harding’s cabinet, was found guilty of accepting a bribe while
in office.

Fall was the first individual to be convicted of a crime committed
while a presidential cabinet member.

Senate committee investigating the Teapot Dome oil leases, 1924.

Warren Gamaliel Harding
(November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923)

On February 12, 1999, the five-week impeachment trial of Bill
Clinton come to an end, with the Senate voting to acquit the
president on both articles of impeachment: perjury and
obstruction of justice.