This Week in Club History: Vice President Nixon attends 'father-daughter' event alone

This Week in National Press Club History

November 4, 1955: Vice President Richard M. Nixon comes by himself to the National Press Club’s annual “Father-Daughter Night” (for girls 11 years or younger), as Tricia and Julie are sick. Press Club Secretary Donald Larrabee’s daughter sits on the Vice President’s lap.

November 4, 2013: To mark the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, three journalists reminisce in the Club Ballroom about covering that shattering event: CBS senior Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer, then a young reporter with the Fort Worth Star Telegram; Marianne Means, then White House correspondent for the Hearst News Service and the only female reporter in the president’s motorcade when the shots were fired; and long-time anchor of the PBS “NewsHour” Jim Lehrer, then a reporter for the Dallas Times Herald. Perhaps the most stunning revelation was Schieffer’s telling how he came to give Lee Harvey Oswald’s mother a ride to police headquarters.

November 5, 2013: Oscar-winning actress and children’s advocate Goldie Hawn talks about her Hawn Foundation, which supports efforts to create science-based programs that teach children emotional learning skills and how to cope with stress.

November 6, 2013: Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan tells a NPC Book Rap that he was wrong to think that rationality prevails in the economy. He confesses that “it is an interesting experience to look yourself in the mirror and say you are wrong.” He’s a pessimist about the future, he says, because economic uncertainty is exacerbated by the dysfunctional political system, but he compliments the press for doing a very good job covering the financial crisis of the past five years.

November 8, 1979: Folk singer and activist Joan Baez speaks at an NPC Luncheon about Cambodian genocide and the desperate conditions in the refugee camps across the Thai Border.

November 8, 2000: Romance and thriller novelist Sandra Brown greets fans at the NPC Book Fair, joining David Baldacci, Stephen King, and John Grisham on the list of popular thriller authors who have appeared at the Fair since its founding in 1975.

This Week In National Press Club History is brought to you by the History & Heritage Committee, which preserves and revitalizes the Club’s century-plus history with lobby displays, events, panel discussions, and an on-going oral history project.

To learn more about the Committee’s activities, or to join it, contact Chair Gilbert Klein at [email protected].