September was a busy Month in National Press Club history

Dip down anywhere in the National Press Club’s 117-year history and we find remarkable stories about events at our Club that contributed to American, world and social history. The Club’s History and Heritage team is highlighting just a few each month so our members can appreciate the role the Club has played for well over a century as the place where news happens. Here are September’s contributions. 

Sept 28, 1938: Eleanor Roosevelt first woman to speak to Club

 In the five years that the Club had been holding its regular luncheon speeches, it had never offered the podium to a woman. But Club President Harold Brayman of the Philadelphia Ledger decided to break that trend by inviting the most newsworthy woman in America: First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Mrs. Roosevelt spoke about her pet project: resettlement villages -- creating small communities of about 150 homes on acre lots with a chicken coop, a garden, and something new to many residents -- indoor plumbing. After the packed luncheon, she wrote in her regular newspaper column, My Day, “I have just attended a luncheon at the men’s National Press Club where I was the only woman present, and I found it a most interesting and delightful occasion.”

Sept. 25, 1941: Edward Returns

Edward, the Duke of Windsor, who as the young Prince of Wales visited the club in 1919, returned in 1941as the abdicated king. Joining him was his wife, Wallis Simpson, for whom he had given up the throne to marry in 1937.

September 16, 1959: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Khrushchev, the first Soviet premier to visit the United States, began his tour at a Club luncheon, drawing the biggest crowd of the year. Khrushchev had refused to speak unless women journalists were allowed to attend. Women’s National Press Club President Helen Thomas became the first woman journalist to sit at the head table. Khrushchev spoke about ending the Cold War, nuclear disarmament and a divided Germany. Asked about his famous remark, “We will bury you,” Khrushchev responded, “My life would be too short to bury every one of you if this should occur to me.” He returned to the Club on September 27 after the completion of his coast-to-coast tour for a press conference arranged by the Soviet Embassy.

Sept 14, 1993: Yasser Arafat speaks after Oslo accords signed

 Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had never been able to accept a Club invitation because the U.S. government would not issue him a visa. But that changed with the historic signing of the Oslo peace accords with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin at the White House. The next day Arafat appeared at the Club to give what proved to be an overly optimistic speech. “We had the right to dream, and from the beginning we were dreaming to achieve peace in the land of peace,” he said. “Yesterday was a historic moment, not for myself but for my people and for the Israeli people. At last, we had done it.”

Sept. 29, 1994: First Kalb Report

 The Club launched the first of what became 103 presentations over 23 years of The Kalb Report moderated by veteran newsman Marvin Kalb. Started as a joint project of the Club, George Washington University, Harvard’s Shorenstein Center for Press Politics and Public Policy, the first presentation featured nine panelists to talk about “Cynicism in America and the Role of the Media in Promoting it.” 

Sept 11, 2001: What happened at the Club

 The 9-11 terrorist attacks were presaged at a Club lunch the day before. Sen. Joe Biden, who had just taken over as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said during his speech that the United States was wasting its money to prepare for an unlikely nuclear attack.

 “The real threat to the country comes in the hold of a ship, the belly of a plane, or smuggled into a city in the middle of the night in a vial and a backpack,” he said. “And what defense do we have to those things?”

Club President Dick Ryan gaveled the end of the luncheon exactly 20 hours and 46 minutes before the first hijacked plane commandeered by Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network crashed into the World Trade Center, changing the world in an instant.

 The morning of 9-11 began as another great day at the Club with a good roster of events. Ryan was finishing a press breakfast at the St. Regis Hotel when one of the guests answered a cell phone and exclaimed that a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center. Ryan and former President Gil Klein walked through Lafayette Square little knowing that if they had been just minutes later, they would have been met with an onrush of staffers fleeing the White House. By the time they got to the Press Building, the day’s tragic events were unfolding rapidly. Club General Manager John Bloom described the day this way:

 “We were hearing all kinds of rumors about a bomb at the State Department and attacks on the Metro. I looked out the window, and it looked like one of those old monster movies with a crowd of frantic people running down the street. I got the staff together and said the best thing we could do is stay cool and keep the business going. During the day we began closing down events and then the dining rooms. At 5 p.m., we closed the bar. I was the last person out.”

Business plummeted as people feared to go downtown. But the Club opened the next morning as usual.

Sep 24, 2007: Iran president speaks to Club virtually

 Iran President Mahmoud Amadinejad was not permitted to come to Washington, so the Club arranged for him to speak to the Club virtually from the United Nations in New York. Appearing on a screen behind the head table, he launched into a rambling speech with long quotations from the Koran. He dodged questions from Club President Jerry Zremski about flogging and imprisonment of students, journalists and women.

 Sept. 29, 2011: Elon Musk

Long before he became the scourge of federal employees, Elon Musk spoke at the Club on what he knew best – space travel – as the CEO and CTO of SpaceX. About to launch the first privately funded mission to the International Space Station, SpaceX had won a NASA contract to transport cargo to the Space Station.

 Sept 14, 2015: Luncheon from the space station

 And, speaking of the International Space Station, the Club held its first live luncheon from space with astronaut Scott Kelly aboard ISS appearing on the screen while his twin brother astronaut Mark Kelly and NASA compatriot Terry Virts sat below the screen with Club President John Hughes. Scott was halfway through a nearly year-long mission that would determine the affects of space travel by comparing his body changes with his twin brother.