On this day in 1947, President Harry S. Truman delivered the first televised presidential address from the White House, asking Americans to cut back on their use of grain in
order to help starving Europeans. The audience was limited due to television still being
in its infancy with only about 44,000 TV sets in American homes, compared with some
40 million radios. As a result of his food-conservation speech, Truman pioneered the
now-familiar ritual of a White House telecast to the nation.