. Home page
 


The weekly radio address of the President of the United States

News from the White House



 
 

> Calendar
1/1
 1892 The Ellis Island Immigrant Station in New York opens
1/1
 1898 Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island are consolidated into New York City
1/3
 1959 President Eisenhower signs a proclamation admitting Alaska to the Union as the 49th state
1/4
 1896 Utah is admitted to the Union as the 45th state
1/5
 1933 Calvin Coolidge's death
1/6
 1919 Theodore Roosevelt's death
1/6
 1912 New Mexico becomes the 47th state
1/6
 1919 Theodore Roosevelt's death
1/7
 1789 The first U.S. presidential election is held. Americans vote for electors who, a month later, will choose George Washington to be the nation's first president
1/7
 1800 Millard Fillmore's birthday
1/8
 1918 President Woodrow Wilson outlines his 14 points for peace after World War I
1/9
 1913 Richard Milhous Nixon's birthday
1/11
 1805 The Michigan Territory is created
1/16
 1944 Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower takes command of the Allied invasion force in London
1/17
 Martin Luther King's birthday
1/18
 1862 John Tyler's death
1/20
 1981 Iran releases 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency has passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan
1/22
 1973 Lyndon Johnson's death
1/22
 1973 In its Roe vs. Wade decision, the Supreme Court legalizes abortions
1/22
 1973 Lyndon B. Johnson's death
1/23
 1973 President Richard Nixon announces an accord has been reached to end the Vietnam War
1/23
 1845 Congress decides all national elections would be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November
1/26
 1837 Michigan becomes the 26th state
1/29
 1843 William McKinley's birthday
1/29
 1861 Kansas becomes the 34th state of the Union
1/30
 1882 Franklin Delano Roosevelt's birthday
1/31
 1865 The House of Representatives passes a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery
2/2
 1653 New Amsterdam - now New York City - is incorporated
2/3
 1809 The territory of Illinois is created
2/3
 1924 Woodrow Wilson's death
2/3
 1924 Thomas Woodrow Wilson's death
2/4
 1789 Electors unanimously choose George Washington to be the first president of the United States
2/6
 1911 Ronald Wilson Reagan's birthday
2/9
 1773 William Henry Harrison's birthday
2/11
 1945 President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin sign the Yalta Agreement during World War II
2/12
 1809 Abraham Lincoln's birthday
2/14
 1859 Oregon is admitted to the Union as the 33rd state
2/14
 1912 Arizona becomes the 48th state of the Union
2/21
 George Washington's birthday
2/21
 1965 Former Black Muslim leader Malcolm X, 39, is shot to death in New York by assassins identified as Black Muslims
2/21
 1972 President Richard M. Nixon begins his historic visit to China
2/22
 1732 George Washington's birthday
2/22
 1889 President Grover Cleveland signs a bill to admit the Dakotas, Montana and Washington state to the Union
2/23
 1848 John Quincy Adams' death
2/24
 1868 The House of Representatives impeaches President Andrew Johnson following his attempt to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton; the Senate later will acquit Johnson
2/24
 1863 Arizona was organized as a territory
2/26
 1951 The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, limiting a president to two terms of office, is ratified
2/27
 1801 The District of Columbia is placed under the jurisdiction of Congress
2/28
 1861 The Territory of Colorado is organized
3/1
 1867 Nebraska becomes the 37th state
3/3
 1845 Florida becomes the 27th state
3/3
 1849 Congress creates the Minnesota Territory
3/3
 1931 ''The Star-Spangled Banner'' officially becomes the national anthem of the United States
3/4
 1789 The Constitution of the United States goes into effect as the first Congress meets in New York City
3/4
 1791Vermont becomes the 14th state
3/8
 1874 Millard Fillmore's death
3/8
 1930 William Howard Taft's death
3/13
 1901 Benjamin Harrison's death
3/15
 1767 Andrew Jackson's birthday
3/15
 1820 Maine becomes the 23rd state
3/16
 1751 James Madison's birthday
3/17
 St. Patrick's day
3/18
 1837 Grover Cleveland's birthday
3/26
 1979 the Camp David peace treaty is signed by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat at the White House
3/28
 1969 Dwight D. Eisenhower's death
3/29
 1973 The last United States troops leaves South Vietnam, ending America's direct military involvement in the Vietnam War
3/29
 1790 John Tyler's birthday
3/30
 1822 Florida becomes a U.S. territory
3/30
 1867 Secretary of State William H. Seward reaches agreement with Russia to purchase the territory of Alaska for $7.2 million
3/30
 1870 The 15th amendment to the Constitution, giving black men the right to vote, is declared in effect
4/1
 1789 The U.S. House of Representatives hold its first full meeting in New York City; Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania is elected the first speaker
4/3
 1948 President Truman signs the Marshall Plan, which allocates more than $5 billion in aid for 16 European countries
4/4
 1968 Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, is shot to death in Memphis, Tenn
4/4
 1818 Congress decides the U.S. flag would consist of 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, with a new star to be added for every new state
4/4
 1841 William Henry Harrison's death
4/4
 1945 U.S. forces liberate the Nazi death camp Ohrdruf in Germany
4/4
 1949 Twelve nations, including the United States, signs the North Atlantic Treaty
4/4
 1841 William Henry Harrison's death
4/9
 1865 Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders his army to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia
4/11
 1945 American soldiers liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany
4/12
 1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt's death. Vice President Harry S Truman becomes president
4/12
 1861 The Civil War begins as Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolina
4/13
 1743 Thomas Jefferson's birthday
4/14
 1865 President Lincoln is shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth 
4/15
 1865 Andrew Johnson becomes the 17th president of the United States after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
4/20
 1836 The Territory of Wisconsin is established by Congress
4/22
 Earth day
4/22
 1994 Richard Milhous Nixon's death
4/23
 1789 President-elect George Washington and his wife move into the first executive mansion, the Franklin House in New York City
4/23
 1791 James Buchanan's birthday
4/26
 1607 An expedition of English colonists goes ashore at Cape Henry, Va., to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere
4/27
 1822 Ulysses S. Grant's birthday
4/28
 1758 James Monroe's birthday
4/29
 1945 American soldiers liberate the Dachau concentration camp in Germany
4/30
 1789 George Washington takes office in New York as the first president of the United States
4/30
 1803 The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France
4/30
 1812 Louisiana becomes the 18th state
4/30
 1900 Hawaii is organized as a U.S. territory
5/1
 Loyalty day
5/2
 1890 The Oklahoma Territory is organized
5/3
 1802 Washington, D.C., is incorporated as a city
5/5
 1961 astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. becomes America's first space traveler as he makes a 15-minute suborbital flight in a capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla
5/7
 1945 Germany signs an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France, to take effect the following day, ending the European conflict of World War II
5/8
 1884 Harry S. Truman's birthday
5/11
 1858 Minnesota becomes the 32nd state of the Union
5/17
 1792 The New York Stock Exchange is founded by brokers meeting under a tree on what is now Wall Street
5/21
 1832 The first Democratic National Convention gets under way, in Baltimore
5/22
 1947 the Truman Doctrine is enacted as Congress appropriated military and economic aid for Greece and Turkey
5/25
 1787 The Constitutional Convention is convened in Philadelphia
5/29
 1917 John Fitzgerald Kennedy's birthday
5/29
 1848 Wisconsin becomes the 30th state of the union
5/30
 Memorial day
5/30
 1854 The territories of Nebraska and Kansas are established
6/1
 1792 Kentucky becomes the 15th state of the union
6/1
 1796 Tennessee becomes the 16th state of the union
6/1
 1868 James Buchanan's death
6/4
 1944 The U.S. Fifth Army begins liberating Rome during World War II
6/5
 2004 Ronald Reagan's death
6/5
 1968 Sen. Robert F. Kennedy is shot and mortally wounded just after claiming victory in California's Democratic presidential primary
6/5
 1947 Secretary of State George C. Marshall, speaking at Harvard University, outlines an aid program for Europe that came to be known as the Marshall Plan
6/6
 1944 the D-Day invasion of Europe takes place during World War II as Allied forces storms the beaches of Normandy, France
6/8
 1845 Andrew Jackson's death
6/12
 1987 President Reagan, during a visit to the divided German city of Berlin, publicly challenges Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to "tear down this wall."
6/12
 1838 The Iowa Territory is organized
6/12
 1924 George H. Bush's birthday
6/14
 Flag day
6/14
 1775 The United States Army is founded
6/14
 1777 The Continental Congress in Philadelphia adopts the Stars and Stripes as the national flag
6/14
 1876 A group of U.S. settlers in Sonoma proclaims the Republic of California
6/15
 1836 Arkansas becomes the 25th state
6/15
 1849 James Polk's death
6/15
 1849 James K. Polk's death
6/16
 1933 President Roosevelt opens his New Deal recovery program, signing bank, rail, and industry bills and initiating farm aid
6/17
 1856 The Republican Party opens its first convention, in Philadelphia
6/17
 1885 The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York City aboard the French ship Isere
6/19
  1862 Slavery is outlawed in U.S. territories
6/21
 1788 The U.S. Constitution goes into effect as New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it
6/21
 1989 The Supreme Court rules that burning the American flag as a form of political protest is protected by the First Amendment
6/22
 1870 Congress creates the Department of Justice
6/24
 1908 Grover Cleveland's death
6/25
 1876 Lt. Col. George A. Custer and his 7th Cavalry are wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in the Battle of Little Big Horn in Montana
6/26
 1963 President Kennedy visits West Berlin, where he makes his famous declaration: "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a Berliner). 
6/28
 1836 James Madison's death
7/1
 1863 The Civil War Battle of Gettysburg begins
7/2
 1776 The Continental Congress passes a resolution that ''these United Colonies are, and of right, ought to be, Free and Independent States.''
7/2
 1926 The U.S. Army Air Corps is created
7/2
 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law a sweeping civil rights bill
7/3
 1863 The Civil War's Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania ends after three days in a major victory for the North as Confederate troops retreated
7/3
 1775 Gen. George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Mass
7/3
 1890 Idaho becomes the 43rd state
7/4
 Independence day
7/4
 1872 Calvin Coolidge's birthday
7/4
 1802 The U.S. Military Academy opens at West Point, N.Y
7/4
 1826 John Adams' death
7/4
 1826 Thomas Jefferson's death
7/4
 1831 James Monroes's death
7/4
 1960 The number of stars on the American flag is increased to 50 to honor the new state of Hawaii
7/4
 1959 A 49th star is added to the American flag to represent the new state of Alaska
7/6
 1946 George W. Bush's birthday
7/7
 1898 The United States annexes Hawaii
7/8
 1776 Col. John Nixon gives the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence to a crowd gathered at Independence Square in Philadelphia
7/9
 1850 Zachary Taylor's death
7/10
 1890 Wyoming becomes the 44th state
7/10
 1943 U.S. and British forces invade Sicily during World War II
7/10
 1776 The Declaration of Independence is read aloud to Gen. George Washington's troops in New York
7/11
 1767 John Quincy Adams' birthday
7/11
 1798 The U.S. Marine Corps is created by an act of Congress
7/11
 1977 The Medal of Freedom is awarded posthumously to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in a White House ceremony
7/16
 1790 The District of Columbia is established as the seat of the U.S. government
7/17
 1821 Spain sells Florida to the United States
7/20
 1969 Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to walk on the moon
7/20
 1861 The Congress of the Confederate States begins holding sessions in Richmond, Va
7/21
 1949 The U.S. Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty
7/22
 1943 American forces led by Gen. George S. Patton captures Palermo, Sicily
7/23
 1885 Ulysses S. Grant's death
7/24
 1862 Martin Van Buren's death
7/24
 1866 Tennessee becomes the first state to be readmitted to the Union after the Civil War
7/24
 1929 President Herbert Hoover proclaims the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which renounced war as an instrument of foreign policy
7/24
 1862 Martin Van Buren's death
7/25
 1866 Ulysses S. Grant is named general of the Army, the first officer to hold the rank
7/25
 1952 Puerto Rico became a self-governing commonwealth of the United States
7/25
 1868 Congress passes an act creating the Wyoming Territory
7/26
 1947 President Truman signs the National Security Act, creating the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Chiefs of Staff
7/26
 1788 New York becomes the 11th state to ratify the Constitution
7/27
 1789 Congress establishes the Department of Foreign Affairs, the forerunner of the State Department
7/28
 1868 The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing due process and the equal protection of the laws to former slaves, is declared in effect
7/29
 1958 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which created NASA
7/29
 1805 Alexis De Tocqueville's birthday
7/30
 1619 The first representative assembly in America convenes in Jamestown, Va
7/30
 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Medicare bill into law
7/31
 1875 Andrew Johnson's death
7/31
 1875 Andrew Johnson's death
8/1
 1876 Colorado is admitted as the 38th state
8/2
 1923 Warren Harding's death
8/2
 1923 Warren G. Harding's death
8/3
 1492 Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos, Spain, on a voyage that will take him to the present-day Americas
8/6
 1945 The United States drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II
8/8
 1974 President Nixon announcea he would resign following damaging revelations in the Watergate scandal
8/9
 1945 Three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, the United States explode a nuclear device over Nagasaki
8/10
 1821 Missouri becomes the 24th state
8/14
 1945 President Truman announces that Japan has surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II
8/17
 1943 The Allied conquest of Sicily is completed as U.S. and British forces enter Messina
8/19
 1946 William J. Clinton's birthday
8/21
 1959 President Eisenhower signs an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union
8/22
 1846 The United States annex New Mexico
8/25
 1944 Paris is liberated by Allied forces after four years of Nazi occupation
8/26
 1920 The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing American women the right to vote, is declared in effect
8/27
 1908 Lyndon B. Johnson's birthday
8/28
 1963 200,000 people participate in a peaceful civil rights rally in Washington, D.C., where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream"speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial
9/3
 1783 The Treaty of Paris between the United States and Great Britain officially ends the Revolutionary War
9/5
 Labor day
9/9
 1776 The second Continental Congress makes the term ''United States'' official, replacing ''United Colonies.''
9/9
 1850 California becomes the 31st state of the union
9/11
 Patriot day
9/11
 Suicide hijackers crash two airliners into the World Trade Center in New York, causing the twin towers to collapse. Another hijacked airliner hits the Pentagon and a fourth crashes in a field in Pennsylvania
9/13
 1993 At the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat shake hands after signing an accord granting limited Palestinian autonomy
9/14
 1901 William B. McKinley's death
9/15
 1857 William Howard Taft's birthday
9/17
 Constitution Day (Citizenship day)
9/19
 1881 James A. Garfield's death
9/22
 1862 Lyncoln's emancipation from slavery act
9/26
 1789 Thomas Jefferson is appointed America's first secretary of state and John Jay the first chief justice of the United States
9/27
 1964 The Warren Commission issues a report concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald has acted alone in assassinating President Kennedy
9/29
 1943 General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio sign an armistice aboard the British ship Nelson off Malta
10/5
 1830 Chester A. Arthur's birthday
10/8
 1869 Franklin Pierce's death
10/10
 Columbus day
10/14
 1890 Dwight David Eisenhower's birthday
10/20
 1864 Herbert Hoover's death
10/27
 Navy Day
10/27
 1858 Theodore Roosevelt's birthday
10/28
 1886 The Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, ias dedicated in New York Harbor by President Cleveland
10/30
 1735 John Adams' birthday
10/31
 Halloween
10/31
 1864 Nevada becomes the 36th state
11/2
 1865 Warren G. Harding's birthday
11/2
 1795 James K. Polk's birthday
11/2
 1889 North Dakota and South Dakota become the 39th and 40th states
11/8
 1889 Montana becomes the 41st state
11/11
 Veterans day
11/11
 1889 Washington becomes the 42nd state
11/16
 1907 Oklahoma becomes the 46th state
11/18
 1886 Chester A. Arthur's death
11/19
 1863 Lincoln's Gettysburg address 
11/19
 1863 President Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address as he dedicates a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania
11/19
 1831 James A. Garfield's birthday
11/22
 1963 President John F.Kennedy is assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas
11/24
 Thanksgiving day
11/24
 1784 Zachary Taylor's birthday
11/26
 1789 A day of thanksgiving is set aside by President George Washington to observe the adoption of the U.S. Constitution
12/1
 1955 Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, defies the law by refusing to give up her seat to a white man aboard a Montgomery, Ala., city bus. Parks is arrested, sparking a year-long boycott of the buses by blacks
12/2
 1823 Monroe doctrine speech
12/2
 1823 President James Monroe outlines his doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere
12/3
 1818 Illinois is admitted to the union as the 21st state
12/5
 1782 Martin Van Buren's birthday
12/7
 National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
12/7
 1941 Japanese warplanes attack the home base of the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, an act that leads to America's entry into World War II
12/7
 1787 Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution
12/8
 1941 The United States enter World War II as Congress declares war against Japan, a day after the attack on Pearl Harbor
12/10
 1948 The U.N. General Assembly adopts its Universal Declaration on Human Rights
12/10
 1817 Mississippi is admitted to the union as the 20th state
12/11
 1816 Indiana becomes the 19th state
12/14
 1799 George Washington's death
12/14
 1819 Alabama joins the Union as the 22nd state
12/15
 1791 The Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, takes effect following ratification by Virginia
12/18
 1865 Slavery ends in the United States as the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is declared in effect
12/21
 1620 Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower go ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Mass
12/26
 1972 Harry S. Truman's death
12/28
 1846 Iowa becomes the 29th state to be admitted to the Union
12/28
 1856 Thomas Woodrow Wilson's birthday
12/29
 1808 Andrew Johnson's birthday
12/29
 1845 Texas is admitted to the union as the 28th state
12/31
 1862 President Abraham Lincoln signs an act admitting West Virginia to the Union