President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his first "fireside chat"
on this day in history, March 12, 1933, to reassure and inform
a nation reeling from the effects of the Great Depression.

This was the first in a series of broadcasts in which FDR
spoke plainly and directly to every American within the
sound of his voice.

According to Britannica, the term "fireside chat" was coined
by Harry Butcher of the CBS radio network.  

Bronze sculpture of a man listening to the 1930s valve radio. This sculpture by George Segal at the Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial, Washington, DC, commemorates the famous
fireside radio chats during the Great Depression.

On November 19, 1863, at the dedication of a military        
cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the
American Civil War,  President Abraham Lincoln
delivered one of the most  memorable speeches in
American history. In fewer than 275 words, Lincoln  
brilliantly and movingly reminded a war-weary public
why the Union had to fight, and win, the Civil War. 

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought some four months
earlier, was  one of the single bloodiest battle of the
Civil War. Over the course  of three days, more than
45,000 men were killed, injured, captured or went
missing.        

The battle also proved to be the turning point of the war:
General Robert E. Lee’s defeat and retreat from Gettysburg
marked the last Confederate invasion of Northern territory
and the beginning of the Southern army’s ultimate decline.       

ED DANAHUE

Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.)
(January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)

On December 12, 1963, a vinyl long-playing record (“LP”) called
John Fitzgerald Kennedy: A Memorial Album set a record for
album sales. A total of 4 million copies sold in the first six days
of its release.

The album included recordings of some of Kennedy’s most
memorable speeches, as well as memorial tributes to the
president broadcast in the aftermath of his assassination on 
November 22, 1963. The recordings included excerpts from his
inaugural address and his campaign debates with Richard Nixon
as well as highlights from speeches on a variety of topics.

Each copy of the album cost 99 cents and the proceeds went to
the Joseph Kennedy, Jr., Foundation for Mental Retardation.