Farewell Address to the Nation | Ronald Reagan (reaganlibrary.gov)

On this day in 1989, after eight years as president of the United
States, Ronald Reagan gave his farewell address to the American
people. In his speech, President Reagan spoke with particular enthusiasm about the foreign policy achievements of his
administration.

In his speech, Reagan declared that America “rediscovered” its commitment to world freedom in the 1980s. The United States
was “respected again in the world and looked to for leadership.”

On January 8, 1790, President George Washington delivered
the first State of the Union address to the assembled Congress
in the Senate Chamber of Federal Hall in New York City. New
York City.

Washington began by congratulating North Carolina’s recent
decision to join the federal republic.

On November 19, 1863, at the dedication of a military cemetery
at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War,
President Abraham Lincoln delivered one of the most memorable speeches in American history. In fewer than 275 words, Lincoln
brilliantly and movingly reminded a war-weary public why the
Union had to fight, and win, the Civil War.

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought some four months earlier, was
one of the single bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Over the course
of three days, more than 45,000 men were killed, injured, captured
or went missing. The battle also proved to be the turning point of
the war: General Robert E. Lee’s defeat and retreat from Gettysburg marked the last Confederate invasion of Northern territory and the beginning of the Southern army’s ultimate decline.

The original uncropped photo of the speakers stand at Gettysburg.

Abraham Lincoln’s original Gettysburg Address in an Illinois museum.

On October 5, 1947, President Harry S 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.

America’s first president George Washington addressed the
assembled Congress with the first State of the Union on this
day in history, Jan. 8, 1780.

Washington’s address took place at Federal Hall in New York
City — and addressed a variety of topics including national
defense, foreign policy, economics and education.

Federal Hall in New York City.