NAVY SECRETARY NARROWLY ESCAPES DEATH IN AIRPLANE CRASH
Peking (JFK+50) On the afternoon of July 19, 1922, Secretary of the Navy Edwin C. Denby* "narrowly escaped death...in an airplane accident."
The Secretary was flying at an altitude of 4000 feet over the Great Wall of China** when his airplane experienced engine failure. Although the aircraft was demolished on landing, Secretary Denby was uninjured.
In 1924, Mr. Denby was forced to resign as Navy Secretary in the infamous Teapot Dome scandal of the Harding administration.
*Edwin C. Denby (1870-1929) was born in Evansville, Indiana & graduated from University of Michigan Law School in 1896. ECD served in both the Spanish-American War (USN) and World War I (USMC). He was Secretary of the Navy under Harding & Coolidge (1921-1924).
**Great Wall of China, opening in 220 B.C., is a series of forts built across the Northern borders of China as protection against nomadic groups. It is 13,171 miles in length.
