Reflections of History

Welcome to Reflections of History, a daily pod from @JMeacham looking back at critical events in history and culture that occurred on that same date in the past. Series premieres 4/4. Listen to the trailer + follow: link.chtbl.com/ROH

One year ago today, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court—the first Black woman to serve on the court in history. 🎧: link.chtbl.com/ROH

On this date in 1968, in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr's assassination, words from Senator Robert Kennedy's speech about the killing were published in newspapers across the country. 🎧: link.chtbl.com/ROH

On this day in 1933, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6101 to begin implementing legislation creating the Civilian Conservation Corps, a work relief program to combat unemployment. 🎧: link.chtbl.com/ROH

On this date in 1968, Robert Kennedy eulogized Martin Luther King Jr at a campaign stop in Indianapolis, speaking both to the crowd and to history. 🎧: link.chtbl.com/ROH

On this day in 1948, President Truman signed the Marshall Plan into law. Named after General and Secretary of State George C. Marshall, the initiative was designed to lift up a ravaged European continent, which included former enemies. 🎧: link.chtbl.com/ROH

On this date in 1968, in an address to the nation, Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not be running for reelection. Today on #ReflectionsOfHistory, Jon Meacham shares the fuller context of that speech. 🎧: link.chtbl.com/ROH

On this date in 1981, outside the Washington Hilton Hotel, President Reagan was shot along with three others: White House Press Secretary James Brady, Secret Service Agent Timothy McCarthy, and DC Police Officer Thomas Delahanty. 🎧: link.chtbl.com/ROH

On March 29, 1861, Abraham Lincoln moved toward provisioning Fort Sumter. It was, he recalled, the first decision that faced him when he walked into the President’s Office on the second floor of the White House. 🎧: link.chtbl.com/ROH

On this date in 1968, MLK and Rev. James Lawson led a march in Memphis to help with a sanitation workers’ strike. The demonstration turned violent. King and Lawson tried to call it off, but by day's end, a young Black man had been killed by police. 🎧: link.chtbl.com/ROH

157 years ago today, Andrew Johnson vetoed the 1866 Civil Rights Act, which sought to protect the newly freed. 🎧: link.chtbl.com/ROH

On this day in 1882, the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow died in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Long an architect of the American imagination, at least in popular circles, Longfellow wrote verses that resonated widely for generations. 🎧: link.chtbl.com/ROH

On this day in 1775, Patrick Henry delivered his ‘Give Me Liberty’ address, providing history deathless words about the American Revolution. 🎧: link.chtbl.com/ROH

Super powerful to hear the words of RFK and how they, still, ring true. #podcast podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ref…

On this date in 1968, a week after announcing his candidacy for President, Robert F. Kennedy arranged for the publication of a new paperback edition of “To Seek a Newer World,” a book of his essays and speeches on the issues of the day. 🎧: link.chtbl.com/ROH

On this date in 1861, three weeks into the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, his old colleague from the U.S. House, Alexander Stephens of Georgia, gave a speech in Savannah about the Confederacy that merits our attention today. 🎧: link.chtbl.com/ROH

On this day in 1854, the Republican Party was founded in Ripon, Wisconsin. It was in the tumultuous politics of the 1850s, when the U.S. was grappling with rising sectionalism largely over the future of slavery, that the party came into being. 🎧: link.chtbl.com/ROH

On this day in 1954, Senator John F. Kennedy, six years away from becoming president, spoke on St. Patrick’s Day in New York, linking his Irish heritage with the unfolding Cold War. 🎧: link.chtbl.com/ROH

On this day in 1751, James Madison was born in Virginia. First elected to public office during the Revolution, before his 25th birthday, he would spend the ensuing six decades in the crucible of American politics. 🎧: link.chtbl.com/ROH

On the evening of March 15th, 1965, Lyndon Johnson spoke in the chamber of the House of Representatives, calling for voting rights in the wake of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma. 🎧: link.chtbl.com/ROH

On this day in 1977, activist Fannie Lou Hamer died. Her testimony before officials of the Democratic Party in the summer of 1964 detailed the harrowing struggle of Black Americans to exercise the most fundamental of liberties: the right to vote. 🎧: link.chtbl.com/ROH