Marilyn Monroe sings several songs for an estimated 13,000 men of the First Marine Division. Miss Monroe stopped at the First Marine Regiment on her tour of the military units in Korea., 02/16/1954
Rosa Parks, the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement,” would have turned 100 today (February 4, 1913 - October 24, 2005):
Fingerprint Card of Rosa Parks
Aurelia S. Browder et al. v. W. A. Gayle et al., No. 1147, from the Civil Cases series of the Records of District Courts of the United States
On December 1, 1955, during a typical evening rush hour in Montgomery, Alabama, a 42 year-old woman took a seat near the front of the bus on her way home from the Montgomery Fair department store where she worked as a seamstress. Before she reached her destination, she quietly set off a social revolution when the bus driver instructed her to move, and she refused. The bus driver called the police and they arrested Rosa Parks, an African American woman of unchallenged character.
The African-American community of Montgomery organized a boycott of the buses in protest of the discriminating treatment they had endured for years. The boycott, under the leadership of 26-year-old minister Martin Luther King, Jr., was a peaceful, coordinated protest that lasted 381 days and captured world attention.
Rosa Parks’ legacy is being honored with a special document display and programs at the National Archives during the month of February.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower is lassoed by cowboy star Montie Montana (with permission from the Secret Service) while reviewing the inaugural parade as Vice President Richard M. Nixon and other dignitaries look on on January 20, 1953.
Originally, the parade was meant to escort the President to the White House from the Capitol, but it soon developed into something more. Jefferson began the tradition of the open house. Americans could come directly into the White House and congratulate the President. Over time, the crowds became so enormous that President Jackson fled the crush through an open window.
By the time Grover Cleveland took office, the number of inaugural visitors was too large to manage, and so Cleveland had parade stands set up outside, where he could review the troops. Over time, this the review came to include floats and other civilian contributions. For Clinton’s second inauguration, the parade featured floats, choirs, and marching bands from all 50 states.
The National Christmas Tree with the White House in the background.
Below, a composite photo of President Dwight D. Eisenhower pushing the button to light the National Christmas Tree, and the tree after lighting. 12/22/59.
-from the Eisenhower Library
On December 19, the sound of the a human voice was transmitted through space. It was the voice of President Eisenhower, broadcasting a message of peace to the world below.
This is the President of the United States speaking. Through the marvels of scientific advance, my voice is coming to you from a satellite circling in outer space. My message is a simple one. Through this unique means, I convey to you and all mankind America’s wish for peace on earth and good will to men everywhere.
-Satellite SCORE Goodwill message, President Eisenhower, December 19, 1958
Recorded on December 17th, it was transmitted to the satellite following a last-minute plan to change the existing recordings with Eisenhower’s goodwill message and broadcast on December 19th.
Merry Christmas — from Outer Space!
Once upon a time, space was quiet. This was before satellites had cluttered the orbit of the earth, beaming TV shows and text messages and GPS coordinates.
Before 1958, space was very quiet.
On December 18, 1958, the Air Force placed the first communications satellite, a Project SCORE relay vehicle, into orbit.
And then, on December 19, the sound of the a human voice was transmitted through space. It was the voice of President Eisenhower, broadcasting a message of peace to the world below.
This is the President of the United States speaking. Through the marvels of scientific advance, my voice is coming to you from a satellite circling in outer space. My message is a simple one. Through this unique means, I convey to you and all mankind America’s wish for peace on earth and good will to men everywhere.
Fewer than 100 people knew about the project, called SCORE (Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay Equipment). The goal was to put an Atlas missile into orbit and to show that communications satellites could transmit messages to Earth. It was a huge technological breakthrough and a milestone in the space race.
Sputnik 1 had been successfully launched in 1957 and had an onboard radio-transmitter. The satellite in the SCORE project used a tape recorder to store and forward voice messages—it was the first satellite to relay messages, making Eisenhower’s the first human voice to be heard in space.
The Christmas message was a last-minute change of plans. The Atlas launcher had already been sealed with prerecorded messages when the director of the project persuaded President Eisenhower to include a message of peace. The new message had to be changed through radio transmission, which meant that there was a chance the message might be overheard, and the President did not want to be “scooped” by the media. But the change was successful, and the message remained secret until the official broadcast.
Coming up next - the audio recording of Eisenhower’s historic greeting from outer space.
60 years ago today:
On December 13, 1952, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were transferred to the National Archives. Joining the Bill of Rights, which had been in the Archives’ care since 1938, they became collectively known as the Charters of Freedom, the most precious documents in our heritage.
more via Prologue: A Homecoming for Six Pages of Parchment
(via todaysdocument)
On November 24, 1953, this letter was sent to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Special Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency by Eugenia Genovar. Genovar wrote to express her support for banning comic books (like the one shown above), which were then being investigated by the subcommittee to determine if a relationship existed between juvenile violence, crime, and media such as television and comic books.
Letter from Eugenia Y. Genovar Regarding Comic Book Censorship, 11/24/1953, Records of the U.S. Senate (ARC 6120051)
Fight Against Crime No. 19, 5/1954, Records of the U.S. Senate
First Lady Pink
Did your grandmother’s house have a pink bathroom? You might be able to blame Mamie Eisenhower, who made the color extremely popular when she became First Lady in 1953.
During the next 8 years, Mamie would be listed among the “10 best-dressed women.” Her favorite color was pink and she wore it often. She also decorated her home in pink. The color of this gown, which she wore to President Eisenhower’s Inaugural Ball, was officially called “First Lady Pink.”
Mamie’s many years as an Army wife affected her feelings toward fashion. Although she always looked put together in her dresses, hats, and gloves, she was very mindful of her budget and did not worry about looking trendy. “Knowing what to look for and how to tell a lasting fashion from a temporary fad has always helped me to shop intelligently,” she wrote to editors at the 1954 Fashion Press Week.
Mamie Geneva Doud was born on this day, November 14, 1896.
60 Years Ago Today:
“Operation Ivy, Mike cloud, aerial view”
On November 1, 1952, the first successful test of a thermonuclear device, or hydrogen bomb, was conducted as part of “Operation Ivy.”
(via todaysdocument)
Not the first UFO sighting in our holdings, but this one includes some great DIY possibilities, just in time for Halloween too:
There are schematics for flying saucers in the National Archives. Seriously!
At the same time that the Air Force was denying the existence of UFOs back in the 1950s, it was also secretly trying to build its own supersonic flying saucer.
A recently declassified document reveals that the Air Force, in 1956, contracted a Canadian company, Avro Aircraft Limited in Ontario to construct a circular craft that could take off and land vertically, as well as potentially reach a top speed of Mach 4 and fly as high as 100,000 feet over a range of 1,000 nautical miles.
You can also read the original post on the NDC Blog.
Happy National Comic Book Day!
The National Archives has a copy of issue #1 of MAD magazine. This copy of the famous comic book is a permanent federal record, and was submitted to a Senate subcommittee on juvenile delinquency as evidence of comics’ corrupting influence on young people.
For three days, experts testified on whether or not comic books were “printed poison” for young people. The hearings created so much bad press for the comics industry that it created the Comics Code Authority to self-regulate the content of the magazines.
Examples of the 1954 Code criteria include “Inclusion of stories dealing with evil shall be used or shall be published only where the intent is to illustrate a moral issue and in no case shall evil be presented alluringly, nor so as to injure the sensibilities of the reader” and “Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal, to promote distrust of the forces of law and justice, or to inspire others with a desire to imitate criminals.”
Mad? Lovers’ Lane? The Fighting American? What was (or is) your favorite comic book?
“Guard Your Freedom” 07/29/1952
From the series Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia, ca. 1950 - 1955
“It is the intent of the Congress that the Interstate System be completed as nearly as practicable over a thirteen-year period and that the entire System in all the States be brought to simultaneous completion. Because of it’s primary importance to the national defense, the name of such system is hereby changed to the “National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.”
National Interstate and Defense Highways Act
An ardent supporter of a “modern, interstate highway system,” ever since his experience in the arduous 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy, President Eisenhower signed this bill into law on the 29th of June, 1956. The act authorized the building of highways throughout the nation, which would be the biggest public works project in the nation’s history.
