This Week In National Press Club History

Nov. 8, 1961: Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson performs at the President’s Ball.

Nov. 17, 1988: Tom Clancy, author of internationally popular thrillers, signs copies of his latest novel, "The Cardinal of the Kremlin," at the Club’s annual Book Fair.

Nov. 18, 1985: Zubin Mehta, music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic, at a luncheon urges support for the performing arts.

Nov. 21, 1995: Wynton Marsalis, acclaimed jazz musician, composer, music educator, and artistic director of “Jazz at Lincoln Center,” in one of several luncheon appearances at the National Press Club, talks about teaching master classes around the world. “It’s important,” he says, “to make the younger musicians understand that the choices you make on the bandstand are exactly like the choices you are going to make in the greater society. You can be the greatest soloist in the world, but if you don’t have anybody to play with, you’re just not going to sound good.”

Nov. 22, 1963: President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. The NPC’s memorial to the slain president remains in place for thirty days of official mourning. On the fiftieth anniversary of the tragic event, the History & Heritage Committee sponsors a panel of distinguished journalists who were in Dallas that day. Fourth Estate Award winners Jim Lehrer (2011) and Bob Schieffer (2010) join Sid Davis and Marianne Means to recount their eyewitness experiences.

This Week In National Press Club History is brought to you by the History & Heritage Committee, which preserves and revitalizes the Club’s history through lobby displays, events, panel discussions and an ongoing oral history project, which now contains more than 200 interviews with Club movers and shakers.

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