In a ceremony held at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, General
Dwight D. Eisenhower (above) appointed Florence Blanchfield to
be a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, making her the first
woman in U.S. history to hold permanent military rank.

A member of the Army Nurse Corps since 1917, Blanchfield secured
her commission following the passage of the Army-Navy Nurse Act
of 1947 by Congress.

Blanchfield had served as superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps during World War II and was instrumental in securing passage of
the Army-Navy Nurse Act.

In 1951, Blanchfield received the Florence Nightingale Award from
the International Red Cross. In 1978, a U.S. Army hospital in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was named in her honor.

Florence Aby Blanchfield (April 1, 1884 in Shepherdstown,
West Virginia – May 12, 1971)

ED DANAHUE

Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen
(December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000)

TIM MAGUIRE

ED DONAHUE

The Tonight Show (TV Series 1953–1957)

Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen
(December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000)

On November 29, 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed
a special commission to investigate the assassination of
President John F. Kennedy, which had occurred a week earlier,
on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.

Johnson issued an Executive Order appointing the President’s
Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy which
became referred to as the Warren Commission, after its leader,
Chief Justice Earl Warren.

Gerald Ford (left) looks on as Chief Justice Earl Warren
presents the Commission’s report to President Lyndon
Johnson.