President John F. Kennedy introduced a new era of White
House communications when he hosted the first live
televised presidential press conference on this day in
history, Jan. 25, 1961.

President Ronald Reagan, wife Nancy and Chief Justice
Warren Burger during the 1981 oath of office ceremony.

On January 20, 1981, minutes after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration
as the 40th president of the United States (above) the 52 U.S.
captives held at the U.S. embassy in Teheran, Iran (above)
were released, ending the 444-day Iran Hostage Crisis.

On November 4, 1979, the crisis began when militant Iranian
students, outraged that the U.S. government had allowed the
ousted shah of Iran to travel to New York City for medical
treatment, seized the U.S. embassy in Teheran.

Robert Clifton Weaver (December 29, 1907 – July 17, 1997)

On January 13, 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed
the first African American cabinet member, making Robert C.
Weaver (above) head of the Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD), the agency that develops and implements
national housing policy and enforces fair housing laws.

In keeping with his vision for a Great Society, Johnson sought
to improve race relations and eliminate urban blight. As many
of the country’s African Americans lived in run-down inner-city
areas, appointing Weaver was an attempt to show his African
American constituency that he meant business on both counts.

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.

MIKE GREACIA

On January 7, 1999, the impeachment trial of President Bill
Clinton, formally charged with lying under oath and
obstructing justice, began in the Senate. As instructed
in Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, Supreme Court Chief
Justice William Rehnquist was sworn in to preside (below),
and the senators were sworn in as jurors. Congress had only
attempted to remove a president on one other occasion:
the 1868 impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson,
who incurred the Republican Party’s wrath after he proposed
a conservative Reconstruction plan.