April 21, 1967, 12:30 am. The Situation Room informs the President about the early morning military coup in Greece. Details emerge throughout the day about the overthrow of the Greek Government. While the Prime Minister as well as other political leaders are arrested, King Constantine seems to remain in power. This leads some to question whether the King was involved in the coup.
Memo, Situation Room to the President, 4/21/67, #122, “Greece, Volume 2,” Country File, NSF, Box 126, LBJ Library.
The S.S. Mayaguez Crisis — This Week in 1975
President Ford briefs the Bipartisan Congressional Leadership on the seizure of the American merchant ship S.S. Mayaguez on May 14, 1975.
The Mayaguez had been seized in international waters off the coast of Cambodia on May 12. Over the next two days President Ford and the National Security Council closely monitored the situation, ultimately deciding to use air strikes and send in Marines to rescue the boat’s crew.
President Ford received word that the Mayaguez and its entire crew had been safely recovered shortly after 11:00 p.m. on the 14th, and at 12:30 a.m. he made the official announcement to the press.
In accordance with the War Powers Act, on May 15 President Ford sent a letter to the Speaker of the House and president pro tem of the Senate regarding the Mayaguez incident. Read the President’s account of his actions here.
-from the Ford Library
Baseball great, Jackie Robinson with President Eisenhower and comedian Joe E. Brown at the White House on May 14, 1957.
-from the Eisenhower Library
Source: facebook.com
President Obama just took off from the South Lawn of the White House.
He’s headed to Mexico and Costa Rica to reinforce the deep cultural, familial, and economic ties that so many Americans share with Mexico and Central America.
Moon Tongs
This Saturday, The National Archives and its Presidential Libraries will be at the National Air and Space Museum’s annual Space Day.
We’ll be hosting activities including:
- A Mission Checklist hunt for Apollo-related items at the National Archives and the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
- A Presidential Pop Quiz on U.S. Presidents and the Space Program.
Want a head start on your Mission Checklist? These Moon Tongs were used by Apollo mission astronauts to collect lunar samples.
The tongs are from the holdings of the Nixon Presidential Library and can be seen for a limited time in the “Nixon and the U.S. Space Program” display at the National Archives in D.C.
President George W. Bush at work clearing brush at Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas. 8/28/02*.
The George W. Bush Presidential Library opens to the public today! If you aren’t in Dallas, there’s lots to do online, including:
- Discover the archives and museum objects from the Library’s digital holdings.
- Plan a research visit
- Explore the archived White House Website
Perhaps our favorite feature of the GWB Library website? The “Barney Cam” videos of the Bush family’s Scottish Terrier exploring the White House. Enjoy!
-from the George W. Bush Presidential Library
*Please note that we mistakenly published the year of the photo as 2005. The correct year of the photo was 2002.
Happy May!
May Day in 1929 was Child Health Day. Here’s First Lady Lou Hoover receiving a basket of flowers at the annual May Day festivities held at the White House.
-from the Hoover Library
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Lady Bird’s Beautification of Washington D.C.
Beautification Luncheon in the State Dining Room of the White House. Secretary Stewart Udall, Lady Bird Johnson, and Laurance Rockefeller looking at an architectural model of the Washington DC Mall area. 4/27/67.
Source: lbjlibrary.net
Each change of Presidential administration requires a massive move of records and materials.
The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum holds more than 70 million pages of textual records, 43,000 artifacts, 200 million emails (totaling roughly 1 billion pages), and 4 million digital photographs (the largest holding of electronic records of any of our libraries).
Collecting this material, cataloging and processing it, and making it available to the public was a task that began on January 20, 2009.
Read more about how National Archives staff got it all done on the Prologue blog.
Image: This moving van was outside the White House on January 20, 1993. From the Clinton Presidential Library.
The Death of FDR
On April 12, 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt, 63, President of the United States serving his fourth term, died of a cerebral hemorrhage in his cottage at the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation.
Vice President Harry S. Truman took the oath of office as President at 7:09 P.M., in the Cabinet Room in the White House. Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone of the Supreme Court administered the oath.
Shown here is the White House Stenographer’s Diary on the day of FDR’s death.
-from the FDR Library
