This week In National Press Club history

August 15, 1935: National Press Club member and beloved American humorist Will Rogers dies in a plane crash after taking off from Barrow, Alaska with internationally famous test pilot Wiley Post. He had just sent his daily telegram to newspapers, skewering the government’s effort to grow vegetables near the Arctic Circle, noting “there is a lot of difference between pioneering for gold and pioneering for spinach.” For the dedication of the Will Rogers Memorial several year later in Claremore, Oklahoma, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “He helped the nation smile…in a time grown too solemn and somber.” Rogers had performed at the National Press Club in the mid-1920s, and decided he like the place so much he joined.

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 displays, events, panel discussions and its oral history project.

For more information on the Committee’s activities or to join the Committee, contact Gilbert Klein at [email protected].