This Week in National Press Club History: Truman celebrates 80th birthday; Lusitania event, 6:30 pm May 7

This Week In National Press Club History

May 3, 2011: The National Press Club hosts the awards ceremony for the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in observance of UNESCO’s annual World Press Freedom Day. Fifteen courageous journalists from 13 countries receive the award in recognition of their unflinching dedication to press freedom. The Club continues its active efforts on behalf of press freedom, hosting a news conference in March 2015 on the case of Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post correspondent who has been imprisoned by the Iranian government since July 2014.

May 4, 2014: Basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the leading scorer in league history, and now a best-selling author, reads from his latest book, Brothers in Arms; The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, the only all-black armored unit to fight in World War ll, at a Club event.

May 8, 1964: Former President Harry S. Truman appears at the Club to celebrate his 80th birthday, one of his many appearances that began in 1934 with his election to the Senate.

This Week In National Press Club History is sponsored by the History & Heritage Committee, which preserves and revitalizes the Club’s history. It will host a special event at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 7, featuring a distinguished panel on the impact of the sinking of the passenger liner Lusitania by one German torpedo 100 years ago this week. The panel will discuss the incident's impact on the American press and the country’s future role in World War l.

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