---
title: "Teapot Dome Scandal Emerges"
year: 1921
country: "United States"
canonical: "https://recap.at/1921/teapot-dome-scandal"
slug: "teapot-dome-scandal"
recapType: "global_event"
startDate: "1921-01-01"
---

# Teapot Dome Scandal Emerges

> Interior Secretary Albert Fall's secret oil lease agreements sparked the worst executive corruption scandal until Watergate, defining an era of Progressive Era accountability.

## Summary

The Teapot Dome scandal was a political corruption scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Warren G. Harding. It centered on Albert B. Fall, the interior secretary, who accepted bribes from private oil companies to lease government-owned petroleum reserves that had been set aside by President William Howard Taft to create the Naval Petroleum Reserves. This was a critical new initiative of the Federal government to ensure that a navy transitioning from coal to oil propulsion would have sufficient stocks of fuel in times of war.

## Sources

- [Teapot Dome scandal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teapot_Dome_scandal) - Wikipedia

---
Canonical: https://recap.at/1921/teapot-dome-scandal