The Checkers speech was an address made by United States Senator and Republican vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon on television and radio on September 23, 1952. Senator Nixon had been accused of improprieties relating to a fund established by his backers to reimburse him for his political expenses. With his place on the Republican ticket in doubt, the senator flew to Los Angeles and delivered a half hour television address in which he defended himself, attacked his opponents, and urged the audience to contact the Republican National Committee to tell it whether or not he should remain on the ticket. During the speech, he stated that regardless of what anyone said, he intended to keep one gift—a black-and-white dog which was named Checkers by the Nixon children, thus giving the address its popular name. Nixon got the idea for the Checkers reference from Franklin Roosevelt's Fala speech. Nixon's speech led to an outpouring of public support for him. He was retained on the ticket, which swept to victory in November 1952, keeping Nixon on the path which would lead to his own election as President sixteen years later. The Checkers speech was an early example of a politician using television to appeal directly to the electorate, but has since sometimes been mocked or denigrated.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkers_speech

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1039:

Henry III became Holy Roman Emperor following the death of his father, Conrad II. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_III%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor

1792:

Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver claimed Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest for Great Britain. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puget_Sound

1939:

The German ocean liner SS St. Louis, carrying 963 Jewish refugees seeking asylum from Nazi persecution, was denied permission to land in the United States, after already having been turned away from Cuba. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_St._Louis

1942:

The Battle of Midway , a major battle in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, began with a massive Imperial Japanese strike on Midway Atoll. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Midway

1989:

The People's Liberation Army violently cracked down on the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, leaving at least 241 dead and 7,000 wounded, and causing widespread international condemnation of the Chinese government. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

holystone (n): (nautical) A block of soft sandstone used for scrubbing the wooden decks of a ship http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/holystone

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

To insist on one's place in the scheme of things and to live up to that place.

To empower others in their reaching for some place in the scheme of things.

To do these things is to make fairy tales come true. --Robert Fulghum http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Fulghum