This Week in National Press Club History: Obama and Clooney discuss Darfur

April 27, 2006: Barack Obama, U.S. Senator from Illinois (2005-2008) and future President of the United States, participates in a panel discussion on human rights abuses in Darfur, Sudan, with actor/activist George Clooney and Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), attracting the largest attendance ever of journalists at a National Press Club event.

April 27, 2012: Smithsonian Folkways releases Satchmo at the National Press Club-Red Beans and Rice-ly Yours, a Club-produced recording of Louis Armstrong’s concert at the inauguration of 1971 Club President Vernon Louviere. This was Satchmo’s last recorded trumpet performance. The legendary jazz master died five months later.

This Week In National Press Club History is brought to you by the History & Heritage Committee, which preserves and revitalizes the Club’s 105-year history through lobby displays, panel discussions, events, and a long-standing oral history project.

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

And for more on the Club’s exciting history, visit the Club’s website at www.press.org/about/history.