National Freedom Day is a United States observance on February 1 honoring the signing by Abraham Lincoln of a joint House and
Senate resolution that later became the 13th Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution. President Lincoln signed the Amendment
outlawing slavery on February 1, 1865, although it was not
ratified by the states until later.
On January 26, 1961, just about a week after his inauguration,
President John F. Kennedy appointed Janet Travell, 59 (above),
as his personal physician, making her the first woman in history
to hold the post.
Dr. Travell possessed an impressive resume that included
graduating with honors from Wellesley College, internships
in cardiology, a professorship in clinical pharmacology at
Cornell University and an established reputation as a pioneer
in the treatment of chronic myofascial pain.
Dr. Travell with President Kennedy.
Janet Graeme Travell (December 17, 1901 – August 1, 1997)
President Jimmy Carter granting an unconditional pardon to draft
dodgers.
On January 21, 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter grants an unconditional pardon to hundreds of thousands of men who
evaded the draft during the Vietnam War.
In total, some 100,000 young Americans went abroad in the
late 1960s and early ’70s to avoid serving in the war. Ninety
percent went to Canada, where after some initial controversy
they were eventually welcomed as immigrants. Still others
hid inside the United States. In addition to those who avoided
the draft, a relatively small number—about 1,000—of deserters
from the U.S. armed forces also headed to Canada.
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.”
