In a controversial executive action, President Gerald Ford pardoned
his disgraced predecessor Richard M. Nixon for any crimes he may
have committed or participated in while in office.

Ford later defended this action before the House Judiciary Committee, explaining that he wanted to end the national divisions created by the Watergate scandal.

President Richard Nixon (left) briefs the then House Minority Leader Gerald Ford at the White House October 13, 1973.

      
ROSS SIMPSON

On August 24, 1814, during the War of 1812 between the United
States and England, British troops entered Washington, D.C.
and burned the White House in retaliation for the American
attack on the city of York in Ontario, Canada, in June 1813.

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)

Though he had landed on the beaches of Normandy and been
wounded in battle fighting with the U.S. Army, Staff Sergeant
Marcario García was not yet a U.S. citizen when President
Harry S. Truman awarded him the Medal of Honor on August
23, 1945. García became the first Mexican national to receive
the American military’s highest honor.

Marcario García  (January 20, 1920 – December 24, 1972)

The modern United States receives its crowning star when
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation
admitting Hawaii into the Union as the 50th state. The
president also issued an order for an American flag
featuring 50 stars arranged in staggered rows: five six-
star rows and four five-star rows. The new flag became
official July 4, 1960.

President Dwight Eisenhower helps unfurl the new 50-star
flag on Aug. 21, 1959 after signing a proclamation making
Hawaii the 50th state of the union. At right is Daniel K.
Inouye, Democratic congressman-elect from Hawaii.