| 1792/03/14 |
Gov Thomas Johnson |
Work |
Commissioners to lay out the new City, Daniel Carroll, David Stuart and Thomas Johnson advertise for plans for the Capitol and for the President's Palace, offering a premium of $500 or a medal of that value for the best designs submitted for examination. |
|
|
|
| 1792/03/14 |
Daniel Carroll |
Work |
Commissioners to lay out the new City, Daniel Carroll, David Stuart and Thomas Johnson advertise for plans for the Capitol and for the President's Palace, offering a premium of $500 or a medal of that value for the best designs submitted for examination. |
|
|
|
| 1792/03/14 |
David Stuart (Virginia politician) |
Work |
Commissioners to lay out the new City, Daniel Carroll, David Stuart and Thomas Johnson advertise for plans for the Capitol and for the President's Palace, offering a premium of $500 or a medal of that value for the best designs submitted for examination. |
|
|
|
| 1792/07/00 |
James Hoban |
Architect |
James Hoban wins the competition to design the President's House, The White House. |
|
|
|
| 1795/00/00 |
George Washington |
Planning and Construction Supervisor |
The Central portion of President's Palace, built 1792-1800, is planned and constructed under the personal supervision of President George Washington. |
|
|
|
| 1800/11/01 |
John Adams |
Home |
John Adams and his wife move into the unfinished brick and stone shell of the White House. The basement, containing work and chamber spaces for cooks, housekeepers and servants, probably seems more inviting than the principal rooms. |
|
|
|
| 1801/04/00 |
Thomas Jefferson |
US President |
Thomas Jefferson opens the White House to the public in the spring of 1801. |
|
|
|
| 1803/04/00 |
Benjamin H Latrobe |
Architect |
Latrobe's first project at the White House is to replace a leaking slate roof that lets in buckets of water into the house. |
|
|
|
| 1804/06/00 |
John Lenthall |
Builder |
Digging for the west wing begins in the summer. Jefferson proposed attached service wings, expanded east and west as needed, or as funded, until they join the Treasury Department building and the War Department building. |
|
|
|
| 1804/06/00 |
Thomas Jefferson |
Architect |
Digging for the west wing begins in the summer. Jefferson proposed attached service wings, expanded east and west as needed, or as funded, until they join the Treasury Department building and the War Department building. |
|
|
|
| 1804/06/00 |
Benjamin H Latrobe |
Architect |
Digging for the west wing begins in the summer. Jefferson proposed attached service wings, expanded east and west as needed, or as funded, until they join the Treasury Department building and the War Department building. |
|
|
|
| 1807/00/00 |
Thomas Jefferson |
US President |
Thomas Jefferson creates a museum in the Entrance Hall of the White House, hanging artifacts brought back by Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and Zebulon Pike, that tell about the mysterious west that fascinates the public. |
|
|
Lewis and Clark Expedition |
| 1809/03/04 |
Dolley Madison |
First Lady |
4th President of the United States: 4 March 1809 - 4 March 1817 |
|
|
|
| 1809/03/04 |
James Madison |
|
4th President of the United States: 4 March 1809 - 4 March 1817 |
|
|
|
| 1814/08/23 |
Dolley Madison |
Heroine |
As British troops near, Dolley saves the 8 ft tall Stuart portrait of Washington. Bolted to the wall, she has the frame broken and the canvas rolled up. Two men from New York take it for safe-keeping. Dolley flees with the important papers. |
George Washington (Lansdowne) |
|
Battle of Bladensburg |
| 1814/08/24 |
British Army |
Belligerent |
British troops enjoy feasting on White House food using the presidential silverware and china before burning the President's House. |
|
|
Battle of Bladensburg |
| 1815/00/00 |
James Hoban |
Architect |
The White House's weakened walls are dismantled to the basement level on the E and W sides and on the N except for the central section. Most of the carved trimming, with scorch marks, was re-used. Almost all this was lost during the Truman rebuilding. |
|
|
|
| 1817/10/00 |
James Monroe |
Home |
President James Monroe moves into the new White House in the autumn of 1817. |
|
|
|
| 1824/11/23 |
James Monroe |
US President |
Lafayette arrives in Washington, DC where he is received at the White House by President James Monroe. |
|
|
Lafayette's Triumphal Tour of America |
| 1824/11/23 |
Marquis de Lafayette |
Guest of Honor |
Lafayette arrives in Washington, DC where he is received at the White House by President James Monroe. |
|
|
Lafayette's Triumphal Tour of America |
| 1825/09/06 |
John Quincy Adams |
US President |
Lafayette celebrates his 68th birthday at a White House banquet with President John Q Adams. |
|
|
Lafayette's Triumphal Tour of America |
| 1825/09/06 |
Marquis de Lafayette |
Guest of Honor |
Lafayette celebrates his 68th birthday at a White House banquet with President John Q Adams. |
|
|
Lafayette's Triumphal Tour of America |
| 1826/11/13 |
John Quincy Adams |
Health |
Dr Parmely presents himself as a dentist and President Adams takes the opportunity to have a decayed tooth drawn. Parmely also scaled off tartar from Adam's lower front teeth, and urged the drawing of another tooth, which Adams postponed till tomorrow. |
|
|
|
| 1826/11/13 |
Eleazer Parmly |
Work |
Dr Parmely presents himself as a dentist and President Adams takes the opportunity to have a decayed tooth drawn. Parmely also scaled off tartar from Adam's lower front teeth, and urged the drawing of another tooth, which Adams postponed till tomorrow. |
|
|
|
| 1830/00/00 |
Edmund Berkeley |
Life |
Mary Donelson, a relative of President Andrew Jackson, and Edmund Berkeley are playmates in the White House. |
|
|
|
| 1830/00/00 |
Mary Donelson Coffee |
Life |
Mary Donelson, a relative of President Andrew Jackson, and Edmund Berkeley are playmates in the White House. |
|
|
|
| 1841/04/06 |
John Tyler |
US President |
John Tyler takes the US Presidential Oath of Office, moves into the White House, and assumes full presidential powers, a precedent that would govern future extraordinary successions and eventually become codified in the Twenty-fifth Amendment. |
|
|
Death of US President William Harrison |
| 1861/03/04 |
Abraham Lincoln |
President |
16th President of the United States: 4 March 1861 - 15 April 1865 |
|
|
|
| 1864/11/21 |
Abraham Lincoln |
Author |
A Lincoln writes a condolence letter to Lydia Parker Bixby, a widow who was thought to have lost five sons in the Union Army during the American Civil War. |
Bixby Letter (Lincoln) |
|
|
| 1865/04/12 |
Abraham Lincoln |
US President |
Mr Lincoln speaks with William Bibb for two hours. "I love the Southern people more than they love me. My desire is to restore the Union. I do not intend to hurt the hair of the head of a single man in the South if it can possibly be avoided." AL |
|
|
|
| 1865/04/12 |
William Crawford Bibb |
Agent |
William Bibb meets with Abe Lincoln. "In five minutes after meeting him I had felt my prejudices fast melting away and being supplanted by a high appreciation of the man, ... of all previous men I had ever met, this was the noblest Roman of them all." WCB |
|
|
|
| 1865/04/14 |
Edwin M Stanton |
Secretary of War |
Secretary of the Interior John Palmer Usher and Secretary of War Edwin M Stanton are late to Lincoln's last cabinet meeting. |
|
|
|
| 1865/04/14 |
Gideon Welles |
Secretary of the Navy |
Lincoln begins a cabinet meeting with Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Treasury Hugh McCulloch, Attorney General Joshua Speed, Postmaster General William Dennison, and Assistant Secretary of State Frederick Seward. |
|
|
|
| 1865/04/14 |
Abraham Lincoln |
Union Commander in Chief |
Lincoln remarks that he has been urged to visit the theatre this evening, and ask Gen Grant if he would join the party. The General excuses himself, as he has a previous engagement and takes his leave, and some of the others follow him. |
|
|
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln |
| 1865/04/14 |
Ulysses S Grant |
Union General |
Lincoln remarks that he has been urged to visit the theatre this evening, and ask Gen Grant if he would join the party. The General excuses himself, as he has a previous engagement and takes his leave, and some of the others follow him. |
|
|
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln |
| 1865/04/14 |
Robert Todd Lincoln |
Grieving son |
While visiting with his friend John Hay, the president's private secretary, Robert Lincoln is told that his father has been shot and he dashes off to the Peterson house. |
|
|
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln |
| 1869/02/08 |
Dr Samuel Mudd |
Conspirator |
President Johnson hands Mrs Mudd a pardon for her husband, Dr Mudd |
|
|
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln |
| 1869/02/08 |
Andrew Johnson |
President |
President Johnson hands Mrs Mudd a pardon for her husband, Dr Mudd |
|
|
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln |
| 1890/00/00 |
Lucretia Cromwell Stotesbury |
Owner |
Lucretia Roberts Cromwell buys Dolly Madison's fireplace from the White House. In 1911, it will be installed in the Stotesbury Mansion in Philadelphia. |
|
|
|
| 1905/03/16 |
Cornelia Bryce Pinchot |
Guest |
TR host Edith Wharton, George Cabot Lodge, his wife Mathilda, and Cornelia Bryce Pinchot for a literary salon. |
|
|
|
| 1905/03/16 |
Theodore Roosevelt |
Host |
TR host Edith Wharton, George Cabot Lodge, his wife Mathilda, and Cornelia Bryce Pinchot for a literary salon. |
|
|
|
| 1905/03/16 |
Edith Wharton |
Guest |
TR host Edith Wharton, George Cabot Lodge, his wife Mathilda, and Cornelia Bryce Pinchot for a literary salon. |
|
|
|
| 1913/03/04 |
Woodrow Wilson |
US President |
Woodrow Wilson serves as the 28th President of the United States, 1913 to 1921 |
|
|
|
| 1915/03/18 |
Cary Travers Grayson |
Life |
Still muddy from her walk, Edith B Galt meets President Woodrow Wilson during tea at the White House. Wilson, also muddy, was playing golf but returned early. |
|
|
Marriage of Edith Bolling Galt and Woodrow Wilson |
| 1915/03/18 |
Edith Wilson |
Guest |
Still muddy from her walk, Edith B Galt meets President Woodrow Wilson during tea at the White House. Wilson, also muddy, was playing golf but returned early. |
|
|
Marriage of Edith Bolling Galt and Woodrow Wilson |
| 1915/03/21 |
Woodrow Wilson |
US President |
"The Birth of a Nation" is screened at the White House for President Woodrow Wilson. "It's like writing history with lightning." - Woodrow Wilson |
The Birth of a Nation (film) |
|
|
| 1915/03/23 |
Edith Wilson |
Guest |
In the upper hall at the White House, Wilson shows Edith Galt the photograph of his tariff address to congress. "I told him the story ... and pointed out myself tucked away in a comer above his head." EBW |
|
|
|
| 1915/05/04 |
Edith Wilson |
Life |
Woodrow Wilson's Pierce Arrow brings Mrs Galt to dine at the White House. After diner, they sit on the South Portico unchaperoned. Woodrow tells Edith he loves her and ask her to marry him. She turns him down. |
|
|
Marriage of Edith Bolling Galt and Woodrow Wilson |
| 1921/03/00 |
Woodrow Wilson |
US President |
Until early 1921, Edith Wilson keeps the extent of the President's condition from the press and his opponents by restricting visitors, screening all his work and occasionally forging his signature. |
|
|
|
| 1921/03/00 |
Cary Travers Grayson |
Physician |
Until early 1921, Edith Wilson keeps the extent of the President's condition from the press and his opponents by restricting visitors, screening all his work and occasionally forging his signature. |
|
|
|
| 1929/03/04 |
Lou Hoover |
First Lady |
31st President of the United States: 4 March 1929 - 4 March 1933 |
|
|
|
| 1929/03/04 |
Herbert Hoover |
US President |
31st President of the United States: 4 March 1929 - 4 March 1933 |
|
|
|
| 1932/02/13 |
Winston Churchill |
Visitor |
Churchill is received at the White House by President Hoover. |
|
|
Winston Churchill's 1932 American Tour |
| 1933/00/00 |
Jo Davidson |
Sculptor |
Towards the end of 1933, Jo Davidson begins sculpting a bust of United States President Franklin Roosevelt at the White House in Washington, DC. |
Franklin D Roosevelt (Bust NYC) |
|
|
| 1933/03/04 |
Eleanor Roosevelt |
First Lady |
32nd President of the United States: 4 March 1933 - 12 April 1945 |
|
|
|
| 1933/03/04 |
Franklin D Roosevelt |
|
32nd President of the United States: 4 March 1933 - 12 April 1945 |
|
|
|
| 1933/03/06 |
Franklin D Roosevelt |
US President |
At 1:00 am, FDR orders the suspension of all banking transactions, effective immediately, no institution shall pay out or permit the withdrawal or transfer in any manner or by any device whatsoever, of any gold or silver coin or bullion or currency. |
|
|
American Bank Holiday of 1933 |
| 1934/00/00 |
Franklin D Roosevelt |
Subject |
At the end of 1933 and the beginning of 1934, Franklin Roosevelt sits several times for sculptor Jo Davidson at the White House. |
Franklin D Roosevelt (Bust NYC) |
|
|
| 1946/02/00 |
Winston Churchill |
UK Prime Minister |
January-March. Churchill travels to the United States and Cuba and visits President Truman at the White House. |
|
|
Winston Churchill's 1946 American Tour |
| 1959/05/06 |
Winston Churchill |
Speaker |
Churchill speaks on "Union of the English-Speaking Peoples" at the White House. |
|
|
|
| 1961/01/20 |
John F Kennedy |
US President |
35th President of the United States 20 January 1961 to 22 November 1963 |
|
|
JFK Presidential Election |
| 1961/01/20 |
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis |
First Lady |
35th President of the United States 20 January 1961 to 22 November 1963 |
|
|
JFK Presidential Election |
| 1962/02/14 |
Henry Francis du Pont |
Head the Fine Arts Committee |
Jackie Kennedy's televised tour of the Executive Mansion airs on CBS Television, unveiling a major restoration led by the First Lady. |
|
|
Jacqueline Kennedy's Restoration of the White House |
| 1962/02/14 |
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis |
Preservationist |
Jackie Kennedy's televised tour of the Executive Mansion airs on CBS Television, unveiling a major restoration led by the First Lady. |
|
|
Jacqueline Kennedy's Restoration of the White House |
| 1963/04/09 |
John F Kennedy |
US President |
After a vote of both houses of Congress, President John F Kennedy confers honorary American citizenship on Winston Churchill. Too ill to attend, Churchill's son Randolph accepts on his behalf at a White House ceremony. |
|
|
|
| 1963/04/09 |
Winston Churchill |
Life |
After a vote of both houses of Congress, President John F Kennedy confers honorary American citizenship on Winston Churchill. Too ill to attend, Churchill's son Randolph accepts on his behalf at a White House ceremony. |
|
|
|
| 1963/10/21 |
John F Kennedy |
President |
While having dinner with Ben Bradlee and his wife Tony, JFK ask Jackie to accompany him on a fund raising trip to Dallas, Texas. |
|
|
Assassination of John F Kennedy |
| 1963/10/21 |
Ben Bradlee |
Visitor |
While having dinner with Ben Bradlee and his wife Tony, JFK ask Jackie to accompany him on a fund raising trip to Dallas, Texas. |
|
|
Assassination of John F Kennedy |
| 1989/01/20 |
George H W Bush |
President |
41st President of the United States: 20 January 1989 - 20 January 1993 |
|
|
|
| 1993/01/20 |
William Jefferson Clinton |
President |
42nd President of the United States: 20 January 1993 - 20 January 2001 |
|
|
|
| 2001/01/20 |
George W Bush |
President |
43rd President of the United States: 20 January 2001 - 20 January 2009 |
|
|
|
| 2003/02/27 |
Frank Conroy |
Work |
During a White House ceremony, Frank Conroy accepts the National Humanities Medal on behalf of the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, the first university-based organization to be presented the Medal. |
|
|
|
| 2009/01/20 |
Barack Obama |
|
44th President of the United States: 20 January 2009 |
|
|
|
| 2011/07/15 |
Ruby Bridges |
Guest |
Ruby Bridges meets Barack Obama at the White House. While viewing the Norman Rockwell painting of her on display he tells her, "I think it's fair to say that if it hadn't been for you guys, I might not be here and we wouldn't be looking at this together." |
|
|
|
| 2014/06/06 |
Yuri Kochiyama |
Terrorist Supporter |
We honor the legacy of Yuri Kochiyama ... who dedicated her life to the pursuit of social justice. - Kiran Ahuja, Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders |
|
|
September 11th Attacks |
| 2017/06/01 |
|
|
From the Rose Garden, President Trump announces that the US will cease all participation in the Paris Agreement, and begin negotiations to re-enter the agreement "on terms that are fair to the US, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers." |
|
|
Climate Change |