1978: NOAA announces gender-neutral hurricane naming system
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Photo: (Former Secretary of Labor Albert Fall (left), and Henry Sinclair (Mammoth Oil) at their trial.
On Oct. 25, 1929: Albert B. Fall, became the presidential cabinet member to be convicted of a crime while in office. As a hedge in the event of another war, the Navy held valuable oil reserves in Elk Hills in California, and at a remote site in Wyoming called Teapot Dome. Using his position as Secretary of the Interior, Fall was able to transfer control of the oil fields from the Navy to Interior, where he provided sweetheart leases to two friends Edward Doheny (Pan-American Petroleum) and Harry Sinclair) Mammoth Oil Company). In exchange, the oilmen provided Fall with kickbacks in the form of securities, cash and “loans” totaling a half-million dollars. In 1927, the oil fields were restored to the U.S. government by a Supreme Courto decision. Two years later, Fall was convicted of bribery and sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of $100,000. Doheny escaped conviction, but Sinclair was imprisoned for contempt of Congress and jury tampering.
(History.com)
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