On October 5, 1947, President Harry Truman (1884-1972)  made
the first-ever televised presidential address from the White House,
asking Americans to cut back on their use of grain in order to help starving Europeans.

At the time of Truman’s food-conservation speech, Europe was
still recovering from World War II and suffering from famine. He
worried that if the U.S. didn’t provide food aid, his administration’s Marshall Plan for European economic recovery would fall apart. 

Truman asked farmers and distillers to reduce grain use and
requested that the public voluntarily forgo meat on Tuesdays,
eggs and poultry on Thursdays and save a slice of bread each
day. The food program was short-lived, as ultimately the Marshall
Plan succeeded in helping to spur economic revitalization and
growth in Europe.

The Soviet Union inaugurated the “Space Age” with its launch
of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite. The spacecraft,
named Sputnik after the Russian word for “satellite,” was
launched at 10:29 p.m. Moscow time from the Tyuratam launch
base in the Kazakh Republic.

Sputnik had a diameter of 22 inches and weighed 184 pounds
and circled Earth once every hour and 36 minutes. Traveling 
its elliptical orbit had an  at 18,000 miles an hour. It transmitted
radio signals back to Earth strong enough to be picked up by
amateur radio operators. Those in the United States with access
to such equipment tuned in and listened in awe as the beeping
Soviet spacecraft passed over America several times a day.

In January 1958, Sputnik’s orbit deteriorated, as expected, and
the spacecraft burned up in the atmosphere.

MIKE GRACIA

Howard Hughes in the Spruce Goose pilots seat.