This Week In National Press Club History

Elizabeth Smith Brownstein

March 18, 2015

March 18, 1908: The National Press Club constitution is adopted at a meeting in the F Street Parlor of the New Willard Hotel. A heated debate follows about the advisability of granting credit to members. Some argue that it is beneath the dignity of a gentleman to be asked for cash by a waiter, for example. Over the years, adjustments to that policy have been made.

March 18, 1992: H. Ross Perot’s speech at the National Press Club brings on an avalanche of ten thousand requests for the audiotape. Soon after, he becomes an independent candidate for the Presidency.

March 20, 1914. President Woodrow Wilson attends the Club’s housewarming at its new quarters at 15th and G Streets N.W. Wilson speaks at the Club many times, and in one of his major addresses, in 1916, as war rages in Europe and he prepares to run for a second term, he envisions a press “who will divest themselves of party passion and of personal preference and will try to think in terms of America.”

March 20, 2008: New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning speaks at a Club breakfast on behalf of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness. He had just won the NFL’s Most Valuable Player Award for his team’s victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.

March 20, 2013: Kathy Calvin, President and CEO of the United Nations Foundation, speaks at a Club luncheon as part of the Club’s recognition of Women’s History Month.

March 21, 1962: Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson attends the National Press Club’s annual Congressional night as guest of honor. His visits to the Club began in the late 1930s when he was a Congressman, and continued through his presidency.

This Week In National Press Club History is presented by the History & Heritage Committee, which works to preserve and revitalize the Club’s history through lobby displays of prominent speakers over the years, panel discussions, events and an active oral history project.

For more information on the Committee’s activities, or to join it, contact Chair Gilbert.Klein @yahoo.com.