Writer Sinclair Lewis was born on February 7, 1885.  Lewis was the author of “Main Street,†“Babbitt,†“Arrowsmith,†and “Elmer Gantry,†among many other works.  He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930.  Lewis was one of three deceased laureates honored with after-dinner presentations at the dinner President and Mrs. Kennedy held for Nobel Prize winners in April 1962. Lewis has enjoyed somewhat of a Renaissance with readers rediscovering his chilling novel “It Can’t Happen Here†about a rise of a demagogue as president and the authoritarianism t ..read more

Stewart Udall, President Kennedy’s interior secretary and a prime promoter of the arts in Washington, D.C., was born on this day in 1920.  Udall, who continued his service through the Johnson administration, was an early advocate of conservation and environmental issues, including the publication of a landmark book, “The Quiet Crisis,†in 1963.  Udall and his wife, Lee, were nearly as active as President and Mrs. Kennedy in encouraging artists, especially poets.  They launched the President’s Cabinet Artist Series of distinguished cultural leaders at time when the nati ..read more

On the evening of January 15, 1953, President Harry Truman broadcast a farewell address to the nation.  Most of the remarks summarized the events during his presidential tenure, but he also talked about how he conducted himself in office.  At one point he said, “The greatest part of the President’s job is to make decisions—big ones and small ones, dozens of them almost every day.† And, he added, “The President—whoever he is—has to decide.  He can’t pass the buck to anybody.†Indeed, the slogan “The Buck Stops Here,†is the one most commonly associated ..read more

John F. Kennedy launched his presidential candidacy fifty-nine years ago today in the Senate Caucus Room at the Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.  In concluding his brief remarks, he said:  “For 18 years, I have been in the service of the United States, first as a naval officer in the Pacific during World War II and for the past 14 years as a member of the Congress. In the last 20 years, I have traveled in nearly every continent and country--from Leningrad to Saigon, from Bucharest to Lima. From all of this, I have developed an image of America as fulfilling a noble and ..read more

Al Smith, the New Yorker who rose from humble origins to become a successful governor and unsuccessful Democratic presidential nominee, was born on this day 145 years ago.  Smith, who quipped that his education was restricted to the Fulton Fish Market, made a run for president in 1924 and was his party’s standard bearer four years later.  The resulting loss was attributed to a number of reasons, including his Catholicism, his position on temperance (he was a “wetâ€), and perhaps his gravely-voiced New York persona.  Smith’s presidential campaign opened up the New York g ..read more

Ava Helen Pauling, the wife of Nobel laureate Linus Pauling and a noted activist in her own right, was born on this day in 1903.  In writing Dinner in Camelot: The Night America's Greatest Scientists, Writers, and Scholars Partied at the Kennedy White House, I came to know her and I was impressed by her life. Ava Helen—she was always known that way—was Linus Pauling’s student at Oregon Agricultural College (later Oregon State) and her influence on him was enormous.  In addition to taking control of his medical treatment when he was seriously ill with Bright’s Disease in 19 ..read more

The first serious effort at secession in the United States came not from the South, but from New England.  As a result of the economic impact of the War of 1812 and the seeming stranglehold that the southern states held in the national government, the Federalists from several states met at Hartford, Connecticut, to discuss their grievances.  The Hartford Convention began on December 15, 1814 and lasted nearly three weeks.  There were representatives from Connecticut, Massachusetts (the largest delegation), New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.  They urged several cons ..read more

 Louis Daguerre, the creator of the earliest form of photography, was born on November 18, 1787.  The French artist revolutionized the way we see the world when he perfected his process, which resulted in daguerreotypes, in the 1830s.   Over the next two decades, a mania was created as people were able to obtain, receive and trade images of people and sites.  Samuel F.B. Morse, a painter and later inventor of the telegraph, brought daguerreotype to the United States. Daguerre’s meticulous chemical process, which reflected mirror-like images, would be superseded by ..read more

There will be little fanfare but today marks the anniversary of the congressional approval of the new United States government under the Articles of Confederation in 1777. The seat of the government was then in York, Pennsylvania, and that’s where the document was drafted and approved.  It was quickly sent to the thirteen states for ratification, which took place over a little more than three years. Responding to the concerns over what they considered the tyrannical authority of the King George III, these first framers wanted to craft a government with little national authority and s ..read more

When the Great War ended on November 11, 1918, the euphoria quickly moved toward the post-war settlement.  Paris became the hub of the world as leaders and hangers-on flocked there, pressing concerns and special interests.  The Big Four, the leaders of the United States, England, France, and Italy, would have the pivotal role in drafting the Treaty of Versailles.  But there was scores of others, including Winston Churchill, seeking to rebuild his reputation and promote the interests of the British Empire; T.E. Lawrence, the legendary Lawrence of Arabia, with special interests ..read more