For the first time in U.S. history, a debate between major party
presidential candidates is shown on television.

The presidential hopefuls, John F. Kennedy, a Democratic senator
of Massachusetts and Richard M. Nixon, the vice president of
the United States, met in a Chicago studio to discuss U.S.
domestic matters.

On July 18, 1940, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who first took office
in 1933 as America’s 32nd president, was nominated for an unprecedented third term. Roosevelt, a Democrat, would
eventually be elected to a record four terms in office, the
only U.S. president to serve more than two terms.

Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower
(October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969)

Eight days after his inauguration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
gave his first national radio address, or “fireside chat” (above), broadcast directly from the White House during the Great
Depression.  He began that address simply: “I want to talk for a
few minutes with the people of the United States about banking.”
He went on to explain his recent decision to close the nation’s
banks in order to stop a surge in mass withdrawals by panicked investor’s worried about possible bank failures. The banks would
be reopening the next day.

Roosevelt thanked the public for their “fortitude and good temper
during what he called the “banking holiday.”

In 1931 Herbert Hoover signed a bill into law officially adopting “The
Star Spangled Banner” as the national anthem of the United States 
of America.

Herbert Clark Hoover
(August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964)

Hoover served as the 31st president of the
United States from 1929 to 1933.