The Plot to Kill President Truman

Today’s post comes from Eric Rhodes, an intern in the National Archives History Office in Washington, DC. Assassins’ bullets have claimed the lives of four United States Presidents, and several other Presidents survived attempts on their lives. It is not widely known, but Harry Truman was the target of such a conspiracy. Thirteen years before … Continue reading The Plot to Kill President Truman

Application Denied!

Today's blog post was written by Sam Rushay, a supervisory archivist at the Truman Presidential Library. In the late summer of 1945, Frances Sarah Curtis of Mt. Rainier, MD, applied for a White House pass. Curtis, a Treasury Department employee in the Bureau of Public Debt (BPD), had worked in the White House File Room … Continue reading Application Denied!

Getting Ike into the Loop

Today's post comes from Christopher Abraham at the Eisenhower Presidential Library. “I am a newspaper reporter and I would like to know if anything unusual happened during either of President Eisenhower’s inaugural ceremonies.” —Anonymous   Have you ever seen a U.S. President lassoed by a cowboy? It likely qualifies as “unusual!” General Eisenhower related this … Continue reading Getting Ike into the Loop

The 1941 Christmas Tree: A Bright Light in Dark Times

  The Roosevelts had planned for a "more homey" lighting of the National Christmas tree on December 24 in 1941. FDR had directed that the tree be moved from the Ellipse to the White House grounds, just next to the South Lawn Fountain.  But after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, there … Continue reading The 1941 Christmas Tree: A Bright Light in Dark Times