The Miracle of Dunkirk
On June 4, 1940, over 338,000 Allied troops were evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk after being cut off and surrounded there for weeks.
Government
Happy Birthday John F. Kennedy
The youngest man ever elected President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917.
The Homestead Act
On May 20, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act into law.
First Female Cabinet Member
On February 28, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Frances Perkins as head of the Department of Labor, making her the first woman to serve on a presidential cabinet.
Birth of Albert Gallatin
Politician and diplomat Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin was born on January 29, 1761, in Geneva, Switzerland. Gallatin’s aristocratic family included physicians, statesmen, and soldiers – one of his relatives commanded a battalion at the Battle of Yorktown.
Washington & Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Celebrations
On November 26, 1789, the nation celebrated Thanksgiving for the first time under a presidential proclamation. Decades later, President Lincoln issued a similar proclamation that made the holiday permanent.
Happy Birthday, President Garfield
The last of the “log cabin presidents,” James A. Garfield was born November 19, 1831, near Cleveland, Ohio, to impoverished farmers.
The Moscow-Washington Hotline
On August 30, 1963, the first message was sent on the Moscow-Washington hotline.
Passage of the Presidential Libraries Act
On August 12, 1955, the Presidential Libraries Act was passed, providing for the organized transfer of presidential papers and other items to the federal government.