The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.
President Dwight Eisenhower, in 1953
![newsweek:
“You don’t [get back to normal] very quickly. You kind of hang your head. You feel like you let down the party, you let down the people in all 50 states, your supporters. You start dissecting the campaign, what did we do wrong, was there ever a chance to win against Clinton. You sort of go over that a million times. Sometimes it keeps you awake at night.” - Bob Dole on losing a presidential election.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_md1r64VqkX1qzs5cqo1_500.jpg)
“You don’t [get back to normal] very quickly. You kind of hang your head. You feel like you let down the party, you let down the people in all 50 states, your supporters. You start dissecting the campaign, what did we do wrong, was there ever a chance to win against Clinton. You sort of go over that a million times. Sometimes it keeps you awake at night.” - Bob Dole on losing a presidential election.
This is the way I do it,” he says. “I’m not saying this is the right way to do it, but this is the right way for me to do it.
Lincoln at Gettysburg
In November 1863, four months after the battle, President Abraham Lincoln came to Gettysburg to dedicate the national cemetery for the Union dead. In his remarks, he paid tribute to the brave men who died there and insisted that their sacrifice would increase the will of the people to fulfill America’s promise. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, a rhetorical masterpiece delivered in less than three minutes, defined the war as necessary for the survival of the nation and its ideals.
This rare photo from a glass plate negative by Matthew Brady is the first–and possibly only–photograph of Lincoln at Gettysburg.
Jackie Robinson
January 31, 1919 - October 24, 1972
Jack Roosevelt Robinson was the first African American to “officially” play in Major League Baseball. When he retired from the game, Jackie Robinson went on to champion the cause of civil rights from his position as a prominent executive of the Chock Full o’Nuts Corporation.
Robinson had grown increasingly impatient with what he regarded as President Eisenhower’s failure to act decisively in combating racism. In this letter, he expresses his frustration and calls upon the President to finally guarantee Federal support of black civil rights.
Shown here is Robinson’s 1958 letter to President Eisenhower, and a photo of Robinson with his son at the March on Washington D.C. in 1963.
Jackie Robinson passed away on this day, 39 years ago.
(via todaysdocument)
Obama not the first president to have his birthplace questioned
“Chester Arthur was dogged by rumors he was born in Canada. “How a British Subject Became President of the US” was published in 1884.”
— via @MentalFloss, on Tumblr here
The president whose accomplishments are confined to his inauguration
That’s William Henry Harrison, who was the first president to arrive by rail for his swearing-in, and who delivered what is still the longest inauguration speech in terms of words.
It may have helped kill him: He became ill and died just more than a month later.
But he couldn’t outrun a speeding bullet…
James Garfield, 20th president of the United States, “could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other hand simultaneously.
Source: “Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents” and RandomHistory.com
The Ten Awesomest Names of 19th Century Cabinet Members
Via Woot (names link to Wikipedia, visit the Woot post for more good stuff:
1. Columbus Delano
5. Elihu Root
10. Cave Johnson
The last president to rock a mustache was …
William Taft. Also, the last (and only) president to weigh 300 pounds.
Today’s random fact: John Hay is the only man to serve highly for three presidents who were assassinated: Abraham Lincoln (private secretary), James Garfield (assistant secretary of state) and William McKinley (secretary of state).
He also had a bad-ass mustache.
My name is 
