History by Month

January | Feburary | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

January

President Franklin D. Roosevelt with Dwight D. Eisenhower aboard an Airplane Enroute from North Africa to Sicily, 1943. (Photo: The National Archives)

January 7, 1789

The first U.S. presidential election is held. George Washington won the election and became the first U.S. president on April 30, 1789. The election system used in 1789 is still in use today.

January 14, 1943

President Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. President to travel by airplane on official business. President FDR flew on a Boeing 314 Flying Boat to a meeting with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Casablanca, North Africa. 

January 23, 1997

Madeline Albright is sworn in as America’s first female Secretary of State by Vice President Al Gore. Albright became the highest ranking female official in U.S. history to represent the U.S. in foreign affairs.  

Feburary

Governor Edwin P. Morrow signing the Anthony Amendment (the 19th amendment), 1920. (Photo: Library of Congress)

Feburary 9, 1825

No presidential candidate received a substantial number of votes to win the election so the U.S. House of Representatives had to make the decision and voted to elect John Quincy Adams as the 6th President of the United States.

Feburary 15, 1903

The first teddy bear ever (named after President Theodore Roosevelt) goes on sale. A toy maker Morris Michtom had asked President Theodore Roosevelt for permission to use his name for a stuffed bear toy and the President agreed.  

Feburary 27, 1922

The 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which provides women voting rights, is unanimously declared constitutional by the eight members of the U.S. Supreme Court.

March

Inauguration of President Franklin Roosevelt, March 4, 1933. (Photo: Library of Congress)

March 4, 1933

Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated today as the 32nd President of the United States. It was during his address that he gave one of his famous quotes, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

March 15, 1767

Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States, is born today in a region between North and South Carolina. His image was first put on the United States' $20 bill in 1928.

March 20, 1854

The Republican Party is founded on this day in Wisconsin. Former members of disbanded anti-slavery Whig Party got together on this day to discuss the formation of the new party.

April

The President Harry S Truman Signs the Foreign Assistance Act, 1948. (Photo: Library of Congress)

April 3, 1948

President Harry S Truman signs the Marshall Plan. Also knowns as the Foreign Assistance Act of 1948, the plan was established to provide $12 billion worth of economic recovery aid for Western Europe after World War II.

April 8, 1935

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Emergency Relief Appropriation Act to help struggling Americans during the Great Depression. Through the Act, Congress allowed the President to use $5 billion for public assistance, the largest ever relief programs in the country's history.

April 14, 1865

President Abraham Lincoln in shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. He died the following morning.

May

Woodrow Wilson, seated posed on swing on porch, with his wife and three daughters. 1912. (Photo: Library of Congress)

May 1, 1931

President Herbert Hoover officially opens the Empire State Building in New York City. At the time of its dedication, the Empire State Building was the world’s tallest building at 102 stories.

President Woodrow Wilson issues a presidential proclamation marking second Sunday of every May Mother’s Day in the United States. President Wilson said the day would allow Americans to “publicly express our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.”

May 15, 1800

President John Adams announces that the federal government will moved to Washington, DC, the United State’s new capital. Philadelphia was previously the country’s capital.

June

Portrait group of Mrs. Frances (Folsom) Cleveland and the ladies of the Cabinet: Olive Harmon, Jane P. Francis, M.J. Carlisle, Agnes P. Olney, Nannie H. Wilson, Juliet K. Lamont, and Leila Herbert. (Photo: Library of Congress)

June 1, 1886

Grover Cleveland became the first U.S. president to get married in the White House. Cleveland married Frances Folsom in the Blue Room at the White House. At 21 years, Frances Folsom Cleveland was the youngest First Lady in history.

Civil War hero Gen. William T. Sherman refused the Republican nomination for president with the words, “I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.”

June 5, 2002

President Bush proposed a new Cabinet department: The Department of Homeland Security.

June 13, 1777

The Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the official flag of the U.S.

July

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Sandra Day O'Connor poses for a photo with President Ronald Reagan and Chief Justice Warren Burger shortly after she was sworn into the court in Washington, September 25, 1981. (Photo: AP Images)

July 2, 1964

President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act into law. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

President Ronald Reagan – who had pledged to appoint the first woman to the Court – announced he would nominate Sandra Day O'Connor as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. O’Connor becomes the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

July 12, 1954

President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposes a highway modernization program.

July 24, 1974

The Supreme Court rules that President Richard Nixon must surrender the Watergate tapes.

August

On August 9, 1941, Churchill met Roosevelt on board the U.S.S. Augusta, beginning the pattern of high-level personal collaboration that would prevail until the end of the war. (Photo: Library of Congress)

August 6, 1965

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act, outlawing the literacy test for voting eligibility in the South.

August 9, 1941

President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. The meeting produces the Atlantic Charter, an agreement between the two countries on war aims, even though the United States is still a neutral country.

August 16, 1858

U.S. President James Buchanan and Britain’s Queen Victoria exchange messages inaugurating the first transatlantic telegraph line.

August 27, 2008

Democrats nominate Barack Obama for president, the first African American nominated by a major political party for the office of President of the United States.

September

Kennedy - Nixon: The First Televised Presidential Debate. (Photo: AP Images)

September 6, 1901

President William McKinley is shot while attending a reception at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, by 28-year-old anarchist Leon Czolgosz. McKinley dies eight days later, the third American president assassinated.

September 8, 1960

President Eisenhower dedicates NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

September 26, 1960

The first general election presidential debate was held between John F. Kennedy, candidate for the Democratic Party, and Richard Nixon, nominee for the Republicans. Prior to this election, presidential candidates occasionally debated, but not in an official manner—and not on T.V.

October

This aerial view shows the Statue of Liberty as French-American organizations gather to celebrate the 147th anniversary of Bastille Day on July 14, 1936. (Photo: AP Images)

October 2, 1967

Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court justice, is sworn in. President Johnson nominated Marshall to the Supreme Court following the retirement of Justice Tom C. Clark, saying that this was "the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place."

October 5, 1947

U.S. President Harry S. Truman delivers the first televised White House address.

October 25, 1954

President Eisenhower conducts the first televised Cabinet meeting.

October 28, 1886

The Statue of Liberty, originally named Liberty Enlightening the World, is dedicated at Liberty Island, N. Y., formerly Bedloe’s Island, by President Grover Cleveland. It was designated as a National Monument in 1924.

November

This is a drawing of the first White House designed by architect James Hoban, who won the competition to design the presiden't new house in 1792. (Photo: AP Images)

November 1, 1800

President John Adams, in the last year of his only term as president, moved into the newly constructed President’s House, the original name for what is known today as the White House. 

November 4, 2008

Barack Obama is elected as America's first African-American president.

November 15, 1939

The construction of the Jefferson Memorial began on this day. The cornerstone was laid on November 15, 1939, by Franklin Roosevelt.

November 22, 1963

President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, becomes President upon Kennedy's death.

December

Print shows the incomplete Monument, with sailing boats in foreground. 1874. (Photo: Library of Congress)

December 6, 1884

The Washington Monument is completed on this day in 1884. The monument was considered the tallest structure in the world at the time of its completion, standing at 555 feet in the air.

December 8, 1987

President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Russia’s General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev signed the INF Treaty eliminating all intermediate-range and shorter-range nuclear missiles. This marks the first steps the US and USSR took to end the Cold War.

December 15, 1791

The Bill of Rights becomes law. The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution give these fundamental rights to all United States citizens.