Fri, 04/09/2021
LAWRENCE The 1922 dedication of the Lincoln Memorial gathered a historic collection of luminaries, including President Warren G. Harding, Vice President Calvin Coolidge, Chief Justice William Howard Taft and even Abraham Lincoln’s surviving son Robert Todd Lincoln.
But as Harding was delivering his remarks, an intruder approached. Local pilot Herbert Fahy ignored official requests to keep airspace above the event clear, instead circling over the crowd in his Curtiss JN-4 biplane, drowning out the commander in chief and causing a nervous panic in the spectators below.
“What I love about that scene is how powerless the president and federal government were to do anything,” said Sean Seyer, assistant professor of humanities at the University of Kansas.