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On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 1, 1969
Fred Rogers, host of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” appeared before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications to oppose significant proposed cuts to funding for PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. [Youtube]
Sen. Pastore: All right, Rogers, you’ve got the floor.
Mr. Rogers: Sen. Pastore, this is a philosophical statement and would take about ten minutes to read, so I’ll not do that. One of the first things that a child learns in a healthy family is trust, and I trust what you have said that you will read this. It’s very important to me. I care deeply about children.
Sen. Pastore: Will it make you happy if you read it?
Mr. Rogers: I’d just like to talk about it, if it’s alright. My first children’s program was on WQED fifteen years ago, and its budget was $30. Now, with the help of the Sears-Roebuck Foundation and National Educational Television, as well as all of the affiliated stations — each station pays to show our program. It’s a unique kind of funding in educational television. With this help, now our program has a budget of $6000. It may sound like quite a difference, but $6000 pays for less than two minutes of cartoons. Two minutes of animated, what I sometimes say, bombardment. I’m very much concerned, as I know you are, about what’s being delivered to our children in this country. And I’ve worked in the field of child development for six years now, trying to understand the inner needs of children. We deal with such things as — as the inner drama of childhood. We don’t have to bop somebody over the head to…make drama on the screen. We deal with such things as getting a haircut, or the feelings about brothers and sisters, and the kind of anger that arises in simple family situations. And we speak to it constructively. (more)
Source: thepittsburghhistoryjournal
April 30: Happy Birthday Willie Nelson!
Musician Willie Nelson is 79 years old today. Watch his 1974 performance of “Bloody Mary Morning,” from the pilot episode of Austin City Limits.
At the time, no one could have predicted that the fledgling music show from Austin, Texas, would still be around and delivering great performances decades later.
Source: to.pbs.org
April 27, 2006: Construction Begins at One World Trade Center
Six years ago today, construction began on the 1,776-foot building formerly known as the Freedom Tower.
Last year, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, NOVA presented “Engineering Ground Zero,” which follows the construction of One World Trade Center (1 WTC) and the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. Watch the full episode.
Source: to.pbs.org
Happy Arbor Day!
President Theodore Roosevelt replanting a Bahia tree originally planted in 1874 in Riverside, California., ca. 1904
Another product of yesterday’s Take your Child to Work Day at the National Archives, our 8-year-old junior curator has this to say for his choice:
“I just thought it looked cool because of Teddy Roosevelt and all the people.”
What kind of tree would you like to plant today?
Source: research.archives.gov
April 27, 2011: President Obama Releases Birth Certificate
On this day last year, President Obama released his long-form birth certificate, in response to high-profile skepticism about his U.S. citizenship.
Watch last year’s NewsHour discussion with Jim Lehrer and The Washington Post’s Dan Balz on whether the “birther” issue is now settled.
Source: to.pbs.org
What Happened to the Single Autopsy Photograph of John Wilkes Booth?
The administration, led by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, ordered that a single photograph be taken of Booth’s corpse, says Bob Zeller, president of the Center for Civil War Photography. On April 27, 1865, many experts agree, famed Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner and his assistant Timothy O’Sullivan took the picture.
It hasn’t been seen since, and its whereabouts are unknown.
Photo courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Ed note: On this day in 1865, Booth was cornered in a Virginia barn and shot. He died from his wound the next day. Was Mary Surratt a Lincoln conspirator?
Source: smithsonianmag.com
Chernobyl in Pictures
Last year, on the 25th anniversary of the meltdown at Chernobyl, NewsHour science correspondent Miles O’Brien visited Chernobyl to see what life is like there now.
See the pictures from his visit and watch his report on the PBS NewsHour site.
Source: to.pbs.org
April 26, 1986: Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Disaster
During a test of Reactor number four on April 26, 1986, engineers lost control of the Chernobyl Power Plant, resulting in a series of explosions and fires.
Chernobyl is widely considered to be the worst nuclear plant accident in history. The meltdown was given the highest rating on the International Nuclear Event Scale, Level 7.
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011 is the only other event to receive a Level 7 rating.
Twenty-six years after the Chernobyl disaster, radiation levels continue to be unsafe in areas surrounding the plant, and meltdown-related environmental and health effects in the region persist.
Infographic: It’s estimated that Chernobyl’s nuclear meltdown released about 400 times more radiation than the Hiroshima bomb. However, it’s important to note that the immediate death toll was far greater for Hiroshima, since Hiroshima was a densely-populated city.
Source: to.pbs.org
Strike!
Today in 1947, the White House Bowling Alley opened during the Truman administration. Here are photos of the original alley, featuring two automatic lanes.
Another neat find from the archives is this photo of Walter Reed patients visiting the White House Bowling Alley in 1952.
Interested in White House architecture? The Truman Library is posting weekly photos of White House renovations here. Fascinating to see photos of a gutted White House during construction.
Source: trumanlibrary.org
APRIL 25, 1990: Hubble Telescope Launched into Space
Twenty-two years ago, the space shuttle Discovery placed the Hubble Telescope into a low orbit around Earth.
In 2009, the Hubble telescope was in need of repairs; ones never intended to be performed in orbit. That year, NOVA presented “Hubble’s Amazing Rescue,” the unlikely story about how the world’s most beloved telescope was saved.
Many people have gazed in awe at the Hubble Space Telescope’s photographs. But few laypeople realize just how much effort goes into preparing such images. To see how much effort goes into preparing such images, head on over to PBS.org for a NOVA scienceNow interactive feature, “How Hubble Sees.”
Image: NASA and STScI
Source: to.pbs.org
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