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Take a HistoryPin tour of the reconstruction of the Blue Room in the White House.
The White House may look the same from the outside, but from 1947 through 1952, the interior underwent a complete reconstruction.
Read more about the reconstruction process on our Education Updates blog.
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From the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library:
John F. Kennedy, Jr. sits in the pilot’s seat of the Presidential helicopter during a weekend trip to Camp David in Frederick County, Maryland.
View more photos from the trip.
Photo Credit: Robert Knudsen/JFK Library.
Sunday marks the 52nd anniversary of the first American in space. On May 5th, 1961, Alan Shepard Jr. became the first NASA astronaut to be launched into outer space aboard the Freedom 7 spacecraft.
Launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Shepard was rocketed to an altitude of 116.5 miles. Shepard tested out altitude controls for five minutes and then parachuted to safety into the Atlantic Ocean. The entire trip lasted 15 minutes and 28 seconds, but gave the space program the confidence that they could continue to advance further missions and orbits.
You can share this special anniversary with your kids by visiting NASA’s Space Place, where they can learn about Alan Shepard, astronauts, outer space and more.
Image description: The Capitol and Library of Congress Jefferson Building on April 11, 1895 (above) and April 11, 2013 (below).
Photo by the Architect of the Capitol
Alexander Graham Bell is most famous for inventing the telephone. Even though his invention allowed us to hear each other’s voices, no one has heard his voice until now.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, through a collaborative project with the Library of Congress and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has identified Bell’s voice for the first time.
The museum has a collection of the earliest sound recordings ever made from Bell’s Volta laboratory. In the collection was a loose piece of paper with a transcript of a recording. The transcript was signed and dated by Bell and ending with “in witness whereof, hear my voice, Alexander Graham Bell.” This transcript was matched with a recently identified wax-on-binder-board disc that carries the initials “AGB” and the same date—April 15, 1885. The sound was recovered from the disc and matched to the transcript.
 and April 11, 2013 (below).
Photo by the Architect of the Capitol)