Leonard Wood

Leonard Wood was an American general and politician who served as the 29th President of the United States from 1921 to his death in 1927. Prior to that, he served as the Secretary of War, Military Governor of Cuba, and Governor General of the Philippines. He began his career as a military surgeon on the frontier, where he received the Medal of Honor. He served in the Spanish-American War under the command of Theodore Roosevelt. He gained prominence in the Republican Party during the Biennio Rosso, where he became a lead Progressive figure urging immediate reforms to stop the unrest, before being nominated ahead of the presidential election in 1920.

On 4 July, 1927, during the celebration of the Independence Day, President Wood was shot in Arlington, Virginia, by white supremacist William Burke. He finally died from his injuries a week later on July 11. Following his assassination, before a motive was even established, national police authorities immediately assumed his killing was part of a socialist plot, and attempted a massive series of extra-constitutional arrests of members of the Workers' Party, before Vice-President Hoover could assume power and order them to stop and release those incarcerated, ending a short-lived but massive crisis with the potential to lead to a rebellion. Lasting from 4-6 July, this incident is known as the July Crisis.