June 10, 1916: The Republican National Convention meets at the Chicago Coliseum. For President, it nominates Charles Evans Hughes, a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and a former Governor of New York. For Vice President, it nominates Charles W. Fairbanks, who had already held the office under Theodore Roosevelt.
Hughes resigned from the Court the same day, and remains the last person to resign from the Supreme Court to seek elective office, the last sitting Justice nominated for President, and the last major party Presidential nominee with a beard. Only Thomas E. Dewey, the mustachioed Republican nominee of 1944 and 1948, has since been nominated with any facial hair. And William Howard Taft remains the last President with a mustache, and Benjamin Harrison the last one with a beard.
Roosevelt had been a supporter of Hughes as Governor, but had become disillusioned with him, and with the conservative wing of the Republican Party, with whom he had famously split at the 1912 Convention.
This time, despite calling him "The Bearded Lady," TR brought his progressive wing of the party in to support Hughes. because, both politically and personally, he despised the Democratic incumbent, President Woodrow Wilson -- perhaps more than any President has ever hated any other President. (Wilson wasn't exactly fond of TR, either.)
Born in 1862 in Glens Falls, New York, closer to Montreal than to Midtown Manhattan, he graduated from Brown University, and Columbia University School of Law. After a private law practice in New York City, in 1905 he led successful New York State investigations into public utilities and the life insurance industry.
He was elected Governor of New York in 1906, as a TR-style progressive Republican, and implemented several reforms. In 1910, President William Howard Taft appointed Hughes as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Hughes often joined Associate Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in voting to uphold state and federal regulations.
The 1916 Presidential election was terribly close, and came down to 1 State, California. On Election Night, November 7, both Hughes and Wilson went to bed thinking that Hughes had won. But Hughes did not publicly claim victory, and Wilson did not offer his concession, either in a message to Hughes or in a statement to the press.
The story, perhaps apocryphal, tells of a reporter learning early the next morning that Wilson had taken the lead in California, and thus won the election, and calling Hughes' home. Hughes' son, or his butler, or someone else (depending on who's telling the story), tells the reporter, "The President-elect is asleep." The reporter says, "When he wakes up, tell him he's not the President-elect anymore."
Hughes went back to private practice, becoming one of the most respected lawyers in America, as befitting a former Supreme Court Justice. (He was only 54 when he left the Court, and Justices tend to be older than that when first appointed.) He did not run again in 1920, and when Warren Harding won, he appointed Hughes to be Secretary of State.
In that office, he negotiated the Washington Naval Treaty, in which the governments of the U.S., the British Empire, France, Italy and Japan agreed to cut back on naval construction, to avoid an arms race that could lead to a second World War. Of course, it didn't work out that way, but that was hardly the fault of any American, including Harding or Hughes.
Hughes returned to private practice in 1925, having served the term of Harding, with Calvin Coolidge having served that last year and a half of it after Harding's death. In 1930, a dying Taft retired as Chief Justice, and President Herbert Hoover appointed Hughes to be the Chief Justice.
He held the office until retiring in 1941, and, while he didn't get to be President himself, he did get to swear one in, Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- 3 times. FDR, like TR and Hughes, had been a Governor of New York. Hughes and Associate Justice Owen Roberts each turned out to be a "swing vote" on the Court, between the liberal "Three Musketeers" (Louis Brandeis, Benjamin Cardozo and Harlan Stone) and the conservative "Four Horsemen" (James McReynolds, George Sutherland, Willis Van Devanter and Pierce Butler).
He died in 1948, at the age of 86. He is widely considered by historians to be one of the best Secretaries of State, and one of the best Chief Justices. Some historians have called him one of the best losing Presidential candidates, or one of the losing candidates who would have been a better President than the winning candidate.
Federal Judge Learned Hand, sometimes called the best judge who didn't get to serve on the Supreme Court, said, "Hughes was the greatest lawyer he had ever known, except that his son was even greater." Charles Evans Hughes Jr. was briefly the Solicitor General of the United States, but had to resign the office when his father was appointed Chief Justice, to avoid a conflict of interest. One of his sons, Charles Evans Hughes III, became a prominent architect; and another, Henry Stuart Hughes, taught history and psychology at several universities, including Harvard.
From 1916 to 2022, the resignation of a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, for reasons other than retirement due to advancing age and/or ill health, has been limited to 3 examples. James F. Byrnes resigned in 1942, because FDR appointed him to the wartime office of Director of the Office of Economic Stabilization. Arthur J. Goldberg resigned in 1965, because President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. And Abe Fortas resigned in 1969, over an insider-trading scandal, one whose scope and amount now seems tame in comparison to later political scandals.
Rarer still has been consideration of a Supreme Court Justice for a national ticket. In 1944, FDR considered William O. Douglas for Vice President, but he declined, and FDR chose Senator Harry Truman of Missouri instead. In 1945, FDR died, and Truman became President.
In 1948, Truman considered Douglas, and even tried to talk him into accepting the Presidential nomination. Douglas declined both, and Truman ran with Senator Alben Barkley of Kentucky. In 1952, Truman was definitely not running again, and again tried to talk Douglas into running for President. Once again, he refused.
In 1948, Governor Earl Warren of California ran for President, and was nominated for Vice President by the Republicans. But it was only in 1953 that he was later appointed Chief Justice. No Justice since has been seriously considered for President or Vice President.
UPDATE: In 2024, the Republicans nominated Senator JD Vance (no periods on his initials) for Vice President, on Donald Trump's ticket. He then had a beard. The ticket emerged victorious. As of June 10, 2026, Vance still had the beard. But, still, no President has had a mustache since Taft, no major-party nominee for President has had a mustache since Dewey; and none of either has had a beard since Benjamin Harrison.
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June 10, 1916 was a Saturday. These baseball games were played:
* The New York Giants beat the Chicago Cubs, 1-0 at the Polo Grounds. Larry Doyle, who once announced, "It's great to be young and a Giant, was about to turn 30, and he went 2-for-4, and drove in the game's only run with a single in the bottom of the 7th inning.
* The Brooklyn Robins, as the Dodgers were known during the managing of Wilbert Robinson from 1914 to 1931, lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 at Ebbets Field. Owen Wilson doubled 2 runs home in the top of the 14th inning, and while George Cutshaw doubled in the bottom of the 14th, the Robins only got 1 run out of it, and ran out of outs. Zack Wheat went 3-for-5 with a walk for Brooklyn. Rogers Hornsby, in his 1st full season, and playing 3rd base instead of his usual 2nd, went 1-for-5 with a walk for St. Louis.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 10-1 at League Park in Cleveland. Stan Coveleski went the distance for the win. Tris Speaker went 5-for-5 with 2 RBIs. Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, running out the string, went 1-for-4 with the only A's RBI.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators, 2-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Shoeless Joe Jackson went 2-for-4, and Eddie Collins went 1-for-4.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Browns, 4-2 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Hal Janvrin tied it with an RBI single in the top of the 9th inning, and Everett Scott singled home 2 runs in the top of the 10th. Babe Ruth, still mainly a pitcher at this point, was sent up as a pinch-hitter, but when the Browns made a pitching change, Ruth was withdrawn for another pinch-hitter.
* The New York Yankees and the Detroit Tigers were rained out at Navin Field (later Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. The game was made up on June 14. The Tigers won, 6-2. Ty Cobb went 1-for-2 with 2 walks and a stolen base. Bobby Veach went 4-for-4 with 3 RBIs.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates and the Philadelphia Phillies were rained out at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on July 26. The Phils won the opener, 7-1. Grover Cleveland Alexander outpitched Babe Adams. The Bucs won the nightcap, 5-2. Max Carey, better known as one of the best baserunners of the era, hit a home run. Over the 2 games, Honus Wagner went 1-for-7 with a walk.
* And the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Braves were rained out at Redland Field (later Crosley Field) in Cincinnati. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on August 3. The Reds won the 1st game, 3-1. The Braves won the 2nd game, 5-3.
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