President
Wilson talks with a pilot circling overhead in
a demonstation of air-ground communication on
November 22, 1918.
National Archives
The White
House installed its first telegraph office in 1866.
The White
House staff started using typewriters in 1880.
Electricity
was installed in the White House in 1891.
President
Coolidge was the first chief executive to make a radio
broadcast from the White House in 1925.
President
Roosevelt broadcast his fireside chats from the Diplomatic
Reception Room in the White House during the Great
Depression.
Electric
vacuum cleaners were used for the first time on White
House carpets in 1922.
The White
House acquired its first electric refrigerator in
1926.
Technicians
installed air conditioning in the White House’s
private quarters in 1933.
President
Truman used the White House as a film backdrop for
presidential addresses and hosted a televised tour
of the newly renovated White House with news reporter
Walter Cronkite in 1952.
President
Eisenhower gave the first televised presidential news
conference in 1955; the first live televised news
conference was broadcast during the Kennedy administration.
