This week in National Press Club history

Nov. 22, 1932: President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt is the first VIP invited to speak at the Club at a dinner less than three weeks after winning the first of his four elections. The Speakers Committee is created soon after. The format changes in 1934 to a luncheon format better suited to the afternoon news cycle and attracts prominent national figures in government (Secretary of State Cordell Hull) and the arts (filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille (“The Ten Commandments”) and Upton Sinclair, author of The Jungle, a grim expose of conditions in meat packing plants.)

Nov, 22, 1963: President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, and the Club’s memorial to the slain president remains in place for 30 days of official mourning. Kennedy had spoken at the Club in 1960, 12 days after announcing his candidacy. He reveals that he finds his presidential ideals in Lincoln, Truman, Jackson and Teddy Roosevelt, saying that the times “demand a vigorous proponent of the national interest.”

Nov. 25, 2012: The Club’s International Correspondents Committee honors Nelson Mandela in a program on the “Life, Legacy and Values of Nelson Mandela” in a special celebration with the South African Embassy in the Club ballroom. The program features excerpts from his 1994 speech to the Club during his first visit to the United States as president of South Africa.

Nov. 28, 1995: Microsoft chairman and CEO Bill Gates discusses the impact of personal computers, the internet and digital media on America’s future at a packed Club luncheon. He is on a promotional tour for his new book The Road Ahead.

This Week In National Press Club History is presented by the History & Heritage Committee, which is actively dedicated to preserving and revitalizing the Club’s history with lobby displays, special events, panel discussions and oral history. For more information on the committee’s activities or to join it, contact Chair Gil Klein at [email protected]