This Week In National Press Club History: Khmer Rouge foe, Chris Evert, Buzz Aldrin

May 5, 2010: Theary Seng, a Cambodia-born lawyer trained in the United States, tells a Club Newsmaker that the ongoing trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders may be limited as a court of law for legal accountability, but has great potential as a “court of public opinion” because Killing Fields survivors are now participating as civil parties in that criminal proceeding. She testified against a top Khmer Rouge leader in 2008, having lost both parents during the 1975-79 repression.

May 7, 2013: Chris Evert, winner of 18 Grand Slam championships and No. I ranked women’s player for seven years, tells a Club luncheon that tennis is “the greatest sport out there.” It’s “a passport to a better, happier and healthier life” for people of every age and ability, and most of all, she says, it can positively redirect the lives of young people. It can take “kids who have been on a fast track to nowhere and [put] them on a fast track to success.”

May 8, 2010: The National Press Club’s Strategic Planning Committee completes its two-year effort to develop a blueprint for the Club for the next five years. Its aims: to ensure improved journalism training, continue excellent restaurant and bar service, better governance and financial stability at the Club through the middle of 2014.

May 10, 2013: Buzz Aldrin, aerospace engineer and pioneering astronaut, who walked on the moon during the landing of Apollo 11, discusses his new book, “Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration” at a Club Book Event. At 82, Aldrin continues to advocate forcefully for space science and planetary exploration, including taking man to Mars by 2035.

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 through lobby displays, events, panel discussions and an extensive on-going oral history project.

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