President Harry S. Truman addressed the nation in the first
live, coast-to-coast television broadcast. (AP)

On September 4, 1951, President Harry S. Truman’s opening speech before a conference in San Francisco was broadcast across the nation, marking the
first time a TV program was broadcast from coast to coast. The speech
focused on Truman’s acceptance of a treaty that officially ended America’s
post-World War II occupation of Japan.

According to the CBS television network, the broadcast, via then-state-of-the-
art microwave technology, was picked up by 87 stations in 47 cities.

U.S. President Truman addresses the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco.

CAMILLE
BOHANNON

The Japanese surrender ceremony aboard the USS Missouri.

Japanese foreign affairs minister Mamoru Shigemitsu (center) signs
the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, Gen. Richard K. Sutherland
(left) observes.

Japan surrendered to the U.S. aboard the USS Missouri, ending
World War II. The war ended six years and one day after it began.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur signs the Japanese surrender document.

President Harry S. Truman proclaiming this day in 1945 as V-J Day.

Lyndon B. Johnson was nominated to run for the presidency at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. His running mate would be
Hubert H. Humphrey. Former Vice President Johnson had assumed the reigns
of government in November 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

                                                

September 4, 1964

   

During the War of 1812 between the United States and England, British troops
enter Washington, D.C. and burn the White House in retaliation for the
American attack on the city of York in Ontario, Canada, in June 1812.

When the British arrived at the White House, they found that President James Madison and his first lady Dolley had already fled to safety in Maryland.

Soldiers reportedly sat down to eat a meal made of leftover food from the
White House scullery using White House dishes and silver before ransacking
the presidential mansion and setting it ablaze.

James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751– June 28, 1836)

Remains of the White House after the fire of 1814.

On August 17, 1998, President Bill Clinton (above) become the first sitting
president to testify before the Office of Independent Council as the subject
of a grand-jury investigation.

The testimony came after a four-year investigation into Clinton and his wife
Hillary’s alleged involvement in several scandals, including accusations of
sexual harassment, potentially illegal real-estate deals and suspected
“cronyism” involved in the firing of White House travel-agency personnel.

The independent prosecutor, Kenneth Starr, then uncovered an affair
between Clinton and a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky,
when questioned about the affair, Clinton denied it, which led Starr to
charge the president with perjury and obstruction of justice, which in
turn prompted his testimony on August 17.

President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office, 1997.