On March 4, 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, Franklin
Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 32nd president of the
United States. In his famous inaugural address, delivered outside
the east wing of the U.S. Capitol, Roosevelt outlined his “New
Deal”—an expansion of the federal government as an instrument
of employment opportunity and welfare—and told Americans that
“the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Although it was a
rainy day in Washington, and gusts of rain blew over Roosevelt
as he spoke, he delivered a speech that radiated optimism a
nd competence, and a broad majority of Americans united
behind  their new president and his radical economic proposals
to lead the nation out of the Great Depression.

On December 12, 1963, a vinyl long-playing record (“LP”) called
John Fitzgerald Kennedy: A Memorial Album set a record for
album sales. A total of 4 million copies sold in the first six days
of its release.

The album included recordings of some of Kennedy’s most
memorable speeches, as well as memorial tributes to the
president broadcast in the aftermath of his assassination on 
November 22, 1963. The recordings included excerpts from his
inaugural address and his campaign debates with Richard Nixon
as well as highlights from speeches on a variety of topics.

Each copy of the album cost 99 cents and the proceeds went to
the Joseph Kennedy, Jr., Foundation for Mental Retardation.

Suez Canal inauguration oil Painting with Ottoman Turkish, Egyptian and French Flags.

The Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean and the Red seas,
was inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony attended by French
Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III. 

In 1854, Ferdinand de Lesseps, the former French consul to Cairo, secured an agreement with the Ottoman governor of Egypt to build
a canal 100 miles across the Isthmus of Suez. An international team
of engineers drew up a construction plan, and in 1856 the Suez
Canal Company was formed and granted the right to operate the
canal for 99 years after completion of the work.

Construction began in April 1859, and at first digging was done by
hand with picks and shovels wielded by forced laborers. Later,
European workers with dredgers and steam shovels arrived.

Rare actual photo of the Suez Canal November 16, 1869

On January 20, 1961, on the newly renovated east front of the
United States Capitol, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was inaugurated
as the 35th president of the United States.

The ceremony began with a religious invocation and prayers, and then 
African American opera singer Marian  Anderson sang “The Star-
Spangled Banner,” and Robert Frost recited his poem “The Gift
Outright.” Kennedy was administered the oath of office by 
Chief Justice Earl Warren.

During his famous inauguration address, Kennedy, the youngest candidate
ever elected to the presidency and the country’s first Catholic president, 
declared  that “the torch has been passed to a new generation of 
Americans” and appealed to Americans to “ask not what your
country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

TIM MAGUIRE