This Week in National Press Club history

Nov. 18, 2013: Gloria Steinem, the first woman to speak at a Club luncheon after women are admitted in 1971, says that women’s issues are moving backward, not in public opinion but in laws passed by state legislatures that make is impossible for clinics providing reproductive services to function. Co-founder of New York and Ms. magazines, she is in town to receive the President’s Medal of Honor, and tells the audience to “get mad” about continuing social inequalities.

Nov. 19, 1919: Members returning from World War l service found American Legion Post 20 at the Club. It is still going strong 95 years later.

Nov. 19, 2012: Ted Koppel, ABC News anchor, tells Marvin Kalb that technological changes, viewer tastes and demands for profit have undercut the quality of television news. ‘When Americans realize how bad things are and what political straits our system is in, they will turn back to good journalism,” he says.

Nov. 20, 1975: The Club holds its first Book Fair.

Nov. 20, 1997: Placido Domingo, one of opera’s all-time favorite tenors and general director of the Washington National Opera, makes his first appearance at a Club luncheon. He gives an encore performance on Oct. 10, 2004.

Nov. 21, 1935: Political pollster George Gallup revolutionizes polling by correctly predicting the winners of the 1936 election by polling only 5,000 people, while the Literary Digest was incorrect after polling 2 million.

Nov. 22, 1963: The Club mourns the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and its memorial to the slain president remains in place for all 30 days of official mourning.

This Week In National Press Club History is brought to you by the History and Heritage Committee, which preserves and revitalizes the Club’s distinguished century-plus history with panel discussions, events, an oral history project, and lobby displays featuring the many leaders in politics, the arts, foreign affairs, business, and medicine who have appeared at the Club over the years.

For more information on the Committee, or to join it, contact Chair Gilbert Klein at [email protected].