News
39 Years Ago – RN Establishes Lincoln Historic Site
Thirty-nine years ago, President Richard Nixon, in the very same hall Abraham Lincoln used to deliver his famous “House Divided” speech that would lead to his nomination and election as President, remarked on signing a bill establishing the Lincoln Home National...
“If you give me a week, I might think of one.”
At a press conference fifty years ago today, the topic of Vice President Nixon's role came up. President Eisenhower had this exchange with Time's Charles Mohr: Q. Mr. Mohr: We understand that the power of decision is entirely yours, Mr. President. I just wondered if...
72 Years Ago – RN Exposes Alger Hiss
As the summer of 1948 uneventfully passed through July and entered August, Congressmen and Senators eagerly awaited a much needed respite to escape the sweltering heat characteristic of a Washington summer. As they lightheartedly made calls to reserve flights and...
First Lady Pat Nixon Graces Nixon Library
[youtube https://youtu.be/oUX2_5dD_Ks] August 17, 2010: Four Presidents have participated in the Nixon Foundation's Meet the Presidents series, but never a First Lady -- until First Lady Pat Nixon graced the East Room at the Nixon Library today. She spoke to children...
James J. Kilpatrick, 1920-2010
Yesterday, James Jackson Kilpatrick, whose journalistic career spanned nearly seven decades from 1941 until his final columns last year, died at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, of congestive heart failure. He was ten weeks short of his ninetieth...
Video: First Lady Pat Nixon Graces the East Room
Four Presidents have participated in the Nixon Foundation’s Meet the Presidents series, but never a First Lady – until First Lady Pat Nixon graced the East Room at the Nixon Library today. She spoke to children and audience members about her rise from poverty to...
A Bruised Knee
Fifty years ago today, while campaigning in Greensboro, North Carolina, RN bruised his knee on a car door. Normally, such an event would go unnoticed in everyday life, much less the grand drama of a presidential race. In this case, though, the bruise led to a serious...
Organizing the President’s Travels
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA proclaims the blue and white livery of Air Force One, majestically swooping low over Peking’s airport and touching down on the runway. The President and First Lady appear at the doorway and wave, the presidential seal at their backs and an...
8.16.1972 – RN Provides Disaster Relief
As President Nixon and his campaign team prepared for his reelection bid in the spring of 1972, a small tropical storm was winding its way north from the Yucatan Peninsula. By June 17, the storm had increased dramatically in intensity and speed, tearing its way...
Historical Literacy and Futurama
In The Guardian (UK), Mark Lawson writes that he used to think that television was bad for historical literacy. Recently, though, while watching an episode of Glee, I wondered if this theory was entirely right and asked a passing 11-year-old to list all the US...