http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLH14k5Vszg

On February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth, completing three orbits in just under five hours. Glenn orbited the earth as part of the Mercury Seven, who were a group of military test pilots selected by NASA in 1959 to become the first astronauts. Glenn went on to resign from NASA and in 1974 was elected to the Senate from his home state of Ohio, where he served until 1999. This video shows live footage from Glenn’s historic mission, including some radio transmissions between Glenn and mission control.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG3mjPaIwSk

On December 28, 1958, at Yankee Stadium in New York City, the 26th annual NFL championship game was played between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants. It was the first NFL playoff game to go into sudden death overtime. With a score of 23-17, the Baltimore Colts led by Quarterback Johnny Unitas, emerged victorious. The game became known as “The Greatest Game Ever Played.” This video shows highlight footage from the game.

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“The Greatest Game Ever Played” appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0IkxV6b_V8

Gone with the Wind is a film from 1939 based on Margaret Mitchell’s Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. Set in the 19th-century American South, the film tells the story of Scarlett O’Hara, the strong-willed daughter of a Georgia plantation owner, from her romantic pursuit of Ashley Wilkes, who is married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton, to her marriage to Rhett Butler. Set against the backdrop of the American Civil War and Reconstruction era, the story is told from the perspective of white Southerners. The film debuted on December 15, 1939, at the Loew’s Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. Gone With The Wind received positive reviews, and the film went on to win ten Academy Awards in 1940, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. Hattie McDaniel, who won Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy became the first African-American to win an Academy Award. Gone With The Wind is still considered the most successful film in box-office history. This video features live footage from the film’s premiere.

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Gone With The Wind’s Movie Premiere appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy-GMcgymKk

Edward Brooke, former Massachusetts senator during Richard Nixon’s administration, discusses how he became the first republican to openly ask President Nixon to resign on November 4, 1973, shortly after the Watergate Scandal. According to Brooke, Nixon had lost the confidence of the American people, and because of that he should “spare the country from impeachment proceedings.” He also describes Nixon’s response, recalling that the former president said that this would be “taking the cowardly way out.”

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Asking President Nixon to Resign appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pbp0hur9RU

On October 27, 1964, Ronald Reagan gave a speech in support of Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater that launched Reagan’s political career. The speech became known as “A Time for Choosing.” This video shows a clip from the speech in which Reagan discusses the Democrat’s attitude towards the Soviet Union, saying: “But every lesson of history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face. That their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight or surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand, the ultimatum, and what then?”

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Ronald Reagan Steps Into The Political Spotlight appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXEuEUQIP3Q

In 1969, beloved children’s television personality Mr. Rogers testified before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications. At the time, President Nixon had proposed funding cuts to the Public Broadcasting Service, which had originally been given a $20 million grant by President Lyndon Johnson. In his testimony, Rogers says: “I feel that if we in public television can only make it clear that feelings are mentionable and manageable, we will have done a great service for mental health”. When Mister Rogers had finished his remarks, Senator John Pastore, head of the Subcommittee, remarked: “Looks like you just earned the twenty million dollars”.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QazmVHAO0os

On September 26, 1960, John F. Kennedy–a young senator from Massachusetts at the time–and
Vice President Richard Nixon squared off in a hour-long debate–the first-ever televised presidential debate. While Kennedy looked confident, healthy and dapper; Nixon seemed sickly and underweight from a recent hospitalization. Approximately 74 million viewers noticed the difference. The debate rocketed Kennedy into the electoral spotlight and solidified the important role of television in politics. When Kennedy won the presidential election in November of 1960, he was reported to have said, “It was the TV more than anything else that turned the tide.”

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Televised Presidential Debate Between JFK & Nixon appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a-sFuzmloE

“The whole world is watching!” The 1968 Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago, Illinois. Both before and during the convention, rallies and marches were held primarily in protest of President Lyndon B. Johnson and his Vietnam War policies.  On the fourth day of the convention, demonstrators held the only rally for which they had a permit. When a boy attending the rally tried to lower a U.S. flag to half-mast, violent confrontations ensued between police and protestors.

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Background on the Trial of the Chicago Seven appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9LcAJOsFGg

On September 23, 1952, Richard Nixon, a California senator at the time, went on air to defend himself against accusations of an established fund–created by his backers–that would reimburse him for his political expenses. He says, “Not one cent of the 18 thousand dollars or any other money of that type ever went to me or my personal use.”

He famously states in his speech that the one gift he plans to keep a is a dog that his kids named Checkers: “A man down in Texas heard Pat on the radio mention the fact that our two youngsters would like to have a dog. And, believe it or not, the day before we left on this campaign trip we got a message from Union Station in Baltimore saying they had a package for us. We went down to get it. You know what it was? It was a little cocker spaniel dog in a crate that he’d sent all the way from Texas. Black and white spotted. And our little girl—Tricia, the 6-year-old—named it Checkers. And you know, the kids, like all kids, love the dog and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we’re gonna keep it.”

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Nixon’s ‘Checkers’ Speech in 1952 appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i9wPE7vlwA

Billie Jean King talks about being a female professional tennis player in the early 1970s. She discusses the famous 1973 tennis match called the Battle of the Sexes in in Houston, Texas where she beat her male opponent, Bobby Riggs: “By beating him, people started to change their hearts and minds…beyond tennis, it’s really more about society and how it helped be a symbol for change and I think there has been change. And we helped that change.”

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Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs: Battle of the Sexes appeared first on Witnify.