October 5

President Truman was the first sitting president to address the nation by the means of a live televised broadcast when he went on the air on the 5th in 1947. In this address, he used his time to urge his fellow Americans to not eat meat on Tuesdays or poultry on Saturdays. His reason for this request was to help people starving in other countries. I haven’t been able to ferret out the story behind his very specific request that Americans avoid meat on Tuesdays and poultry on Saturdays. Why didn’t he pick liver and Brussels sprouts? Nobody here likes either of them and if those people were really starving, they would pretty much eat whatever was put in front of them wouldn’t they?

On November 1, 1950, Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempted to assassinate Truman at Blair House.