Collection The First Ladies
Biographies & Portraits
The West Wing: 1975-1999
How Long? 1 minute
Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum/NARA
1979: Islamic militants stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran, and took Americans hostage. The West Wing once again became a crisis center as President Jimmy Carter and his staff planned a response.
RONALD REAGAN PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
1981: President Ronald Reagan announced the appointment of Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court in a Rose Garden ceremony. O’Connor became the first female to be sworn in as Supreme Court Justice on September 25.
1986: President Reagan and his staff watched a tape of the space shuttle Challenger launch from the West Wing offices on January 28 and with the nation mourned the horrific explosion.
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum/NARA
GEORGE BUSH PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
1991: The U.S.-led multinational force launched Operation Desert Storm on January 16 to begin the Persian Gulf War against Iraq. President George Bush transformed the West Wing into a strategic center to plan a build up and invasion that ended Iraqi occupation of Kuwait and forced Iraq’s acceptance of U.N. ceasefire terms that formally ended the war.
1995: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed. Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House was closed to traffic.
WILLIAM J. CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
1998: The U.S. House of Representatives approved two of four proposed Articles of Impeachment against President Bill Clinton. The president held a Rose Garden rally with supporters and later was acquitted of the two articles by the Senate.
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