"Tu Salud y La Nueva Ley: Conversación con el Presidente" ("Your Health and the New Law: A Conversation With the President")

President Obama to Participate in a Town Hall at the Newseum

President Barack Obama will participate in a historic town hall at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, March 6, at 11:30 a.m.

The town hall, "Tu Salud y La Nueva Ley: Conversación con el Presidente" ("Your Health and the New Law: A Conversation With the President"), will allow Latinos across the United States to ask the president questions about the Affordable Care Act.

The town hall will be televised, broadcast over radio and live-streamed over digital and social platforms in Spanish.

The town hall is hosted by The Asegúrate Campaign, a Latino outreach and enrollment effort of The California Endowmen, in partnership with the largest Spanish-language media outlets in the United States, including Univision, Telemundo and ImpreMedia.

Today, one in four Americans turns to ethnic media for news. On May 16, 2014, the Newseum, in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution, will open "One Nation With News for All," a new exhibit that tells the dramatic story of how immigrants and minorities used the power of the press to fight for their rights and shape the American experience.

"News for All" reflects the vibrancy and diversity of today's ethnic media, from ImpreMedia, the largest Spanish-language news company in the United States, to the black-owned Radio One network to the "Angry Asian Man" blog.

• News for All

Bring your group to the Newseum to sniff out the big stories! (Maria Bryk/Newseum)

Gold Medal Win for Newseum

The Newseum was recently honored with a gold medal in Courier magazine's annual Distinguished Dozen awards competition. The museum received the top honor in the Favorite Museum for Groups category for the second consecutive year.

The award's voters, comprised of tour operators and group tour leaders, appreciate the Newseum's offering of special group rates, dedicated group entrance, classes and team-building exercises and catered lunches. Voting was conducted at the end of 2013 by Courier, the official monthly magazine for the National Tourism Association (NTA).

The Newseum is not the only Washington, D.C., honoree. Readers also awarded the city bronze medals in the categories for favorite Big City and Faith-Based Destinations.

Winners of the 2014 Distinguished Dozen awards include destinations, attractions, hotels, and restaurants selected by National Tourism Association (NTA) tour operators as favorites.

• Group Tours

Be a Part of the Newseum's Next Exhibit

Ever imagined yourself in a museum? Here's your chance to be part of a new exhibit opening May 16, 2014, at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

We are seeking individuals willing to be photographed for inclusion in "One Nation With News for All," an exhibit that tells the dramatic story of how immigrants and minorities used the power of the press to fight for their rights and shape the American experience. Anyone 18 or older is welcome at the photo shoot.

The exhibit design will feature a canopy of photographs of real people to represent the diversity of today's ethnic media and the people who turn to ethnic media for news. Some of the photos may be used in promotional materials and ads.

Location: In front of the Newseum at 555 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., at the East end of the building next to the Canadian Embassy.
New Day and Same Time: Sunday, Feb. 9, 2014, 2 to 5 p.m.

Subjects must be at least 18 years of age and will be required to sign a photography release.

The Newseum cannot guarantee that every subject will be included in the final exhibit.

"One Nation With News for All" is presented in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution.

Beatles press conference at JFK, Feb. 7, 1964 (Courtesy The Associated Press)

50 Years Ago in News History: The Beatles in America

On Feb. 7, 1964, Beatlemania arrived in America.

The Beatles — John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — were newsmakers from the moment they stepped on U.S. soil. As fans chanted "We want Beatles!" and photographers snapped pictures, the band members were ushered inside Kennedy International Airport in New York for their first U.S. press conference.

But the press coverage of their arrival was not the first time Americans were exposed to the Beatles. Time and Newsweek were among the first U.S. publications to take notice of the Beatlemania craze sweeping England. Both magazines ran articles in mid-November 1963, after the group played a command performance before British royalty in London.

Reporters in the London bureaus of the U.S. broadcast networks also witnessed the hysteria and prepared reports on the phenomenon. NBC's "Huntley-Brinkley Report" aired a four-minute segment on the Beatles the evening of Nov. 18, 1963.

On the morning of Nov. 22, 1963, "CBS Morning News With Mike Wallace" ran a story on the group. The network planned to repeat the segment later that evening on Walter Cronkite's newcast, but breaking news that shots had been fired at President John F. Kennedy's motorcade in Dallas interrupted those plans. For nearly four days, all regular programming was canceled as the networks covered the death and funeral of the president. The segment on the Beatles finally aired Dec. 10 on the "CBS Evening News."

Less than two months later, Cronkite featured the group's triumphant arrival in the United States on his evening newscast. Two days later, the group performed live on the network's "Ed Sullivan Show," reaching a recording-breaking audience of 73 million.

Visitors can see excerpts from TV coverage of the Beatles' first U.S. visit in the Newseum's Bloomberg Internet, TV and Radio Gallery. Newspaper front pages on the event are featured in the News Corporation News History Gallery.

• Bloomberg Internet, TV and Radio Gallery
• News Corporation News History Gallery

The Newseum welcomed more visitors in 2013 than in any other year since the museum opened on Pennsylvania Avenue in 2008. (Maria Bryk/Newseum)

Record-breaking 2013 for Newseum

WASHINGTON — One of Washington's most popular attractions, the Newseum in 2013 experienced a five percent increase in visitors over 2012. More visitors came to the Newseum in 2013 than at any time in its five-year history on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Visitors experienced world-class exhibits such as "Three Shots Were Fired" and "Creating Camelot," both of which featured rare artifacts and images about the life, legacy and death of President John F. Kennedy.

Other exhibits launched in 2013 included "Make Some Noise" and "1963: Civil Rights at 50," commemorating the U.S. civil rights movement and the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. In November 2013, the Newseum opened "Anchorman: The Exhibit," which displays props, costumes and clips from the comedy hit "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" and explores the real-life challenges women faced when they moved into the anchor desk in the 1970s.

The Newseum routinely ranks among the top three attractions in Washington, D.C., according to tripadvisor.com.

Launched in 2013, the Newseum Institute provided a forum for educational programs and thought-leadership initiatives. The Institute also offers educational materials addressing the five freedoms of the First Amendment and the role of media in society.

Students from all 50 states and 16 countries visited the Newseum in 2013 and participated in the Newseum's free educational classes. The Newseum's Digital Classroom, a free online resource for students and teachers, experienced a 60 percent increase in users.

Newseum memberships also saw dramatic growth in 2013, with an increase of 52 percent over the previous year, as more individuals identified with the Newseum's mission and chose to support the Newseum through the annual Press Pass Membership program. Members enjoy a year of free Newseum admission and priority access to a wide variety of events and special programs at the Newseum, plus other exclusive benefits.

2014 promises to be an even bigger year at the Newseum.

While the popular "Anchorman: The Exhibit" will remain open through August 2014, four other temporary exhibits also are planned for 2014.

Jan. 17 – Dec. 28, 2014
"1964: Civil Rights at 50"
This exhibit about Freedom Summer will feature images captured by photographer Ted Polumbaum for Time magazine. Polumbaum's powerful images captured the 1964 clash between segregationists and civil rights activists who poured into Mississippi in a campaign to register blacks to vote.

April 25 – Sept. 1, 2014
"Pictures of the Year"
This photography exhibit showcases dramatic images of the people, events and issues that shaped the world in 2013. The display will spotlight the best news images from Pictures of the Year International (POYi), the oldest photojournalism contest in the world.

May 16, 2014 – Jan. 4, 2015
"One Nation With News for All"
The first-ever Newseum exhibit in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution will tell the story of how immigrants and minorities used the power of the press to fight for their rights and change American history.

Sept. 26, 2014 – March 29, 2015
"The Boomer List: Photographs by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders"
Acclaimed photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders's large-scale portraits will spotlight some of the most fascinating baby boomers, as the youngest members of that influential generation turn 50 this year.

Educating the public about journalism and the First Amendment is a primary focus for the Newseum. In March, a new learning module will be added to the Newseum's Digital Classroom. Focusing on women's suffrage, the module will include primary source documents and cross-discipline lesson plans for use in classrooms across the country. The website is a premier, free online resource for middle school, high school and college teachers and students searching for primary source material on core learning subjects.

Since opening on Pennsylvania Avenue, the Newseum has become a favorite Washington, D.C., venue for parties, events, conferences, movie premieres and weddings. In 2014, the Newseum will continue to function as the center for social and thought-leadership events in the nation's capital.

Contributing sponsorship support for "Civil Rights at 50" has been provided by Walmart and Altria Group.

"Pictures of the Year" was created in collaboration with the Donald W. Reynolds Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism.

AARP is the exclusive sponsor of "The Boomer List: Photographs by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders."

Remembering the Newspeople We Lost

1/

Richard Ben Cramer (1950-2013)
(Photo Courtesy The Associated Press)
Richard Ben Cramer won a Pulitzer Prize in 1979 for international reporting, but it was his classic book about the 1988 presidential campaign, "What It Takes: The Way to the White House," that earned him critical acclaim. Unlike most political books that focused on the process, Cramer provided intimate deals about the six candidates and the reasons they wanted to be president. "I wasn't asking them how many points did they need in Iowa. I was asking them about their Aunt Lucy or their Aunt Gladys," Cramer said.

2/

Roger Ebert (1942-2013)
(Photo Courtesy Sam Mircovich/Reuters)
Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert could determine a movie's fate with the flick of his thumb. His and the late Gene Siskel's trademark thumbs-up or thumbs-down rating system influenced millions of movie-goers. Two thumbs up was the equivalent of a four-star seal of approval. Ebert wrote more than 300 movie reviews a year and was planning a fourth book before he died. "Thank you for going on this journey with me," he said in his final blog. "I'll see you at the movies."

3/

Bill Eppridge (1938-2013)
(Photo Copyright R. David Marks, Courtesy of Monroe Gallery)
Life magazine photographer Bill Eppridge captured one of the most iconic moments in U.S. history: Sen. Robert F. Kennedy mortally wounded by an assassin's bullet. Eppridge's interest in photojournalism began in high school, where he took photos for the newspaper and yearbook. An internship in 1959 at Life began a professional career that lasted until the magazine folded in 1972. "What makes a picture is a moment that is completely spontaneous and natural and unaffected by the photographer," he said.

4/

Jack Germond (1928-2013)
(Photo Courtesy Ann Parks Hawthorne)
Former Baltimore Sun political reporter Jack Germond covered every presidential campaign since 1964. A throwback to early newspaper reporting, Germond was the go-to reporter on national politics. He wrote the syndicated "Politics Today" column with former Washington Post reporter Jules Witcover and provided a liberal voice on television's"The McLaughlin Group." "You could write your damn fingers off for 25 years and never have the same reach as television," he said.

5/

Stanley Karnow (1925-2013)
(Photo Courtesy Catherine Karnow)
In 1959, Stanley Karnow wrote a story for Time magazine about the killing of two U.S. soldiers in Bien Hoa. The men became the first U.S. casualties in the decades-long Vietnam War. Karnow, a Pulitzer Prize winner for his comprehensive coverage of U.S. involvement in the Philippines, later produced a blockbuster PBS documentary and companion book on U.S. involvement in Vietnam. "Nobody could have imagined then that some 3 million Americans would serve in Vietnam, or that nearly 58,000 would perish in its jungles and rice fields," he said.

6/

Anthony Lewis (1927-2013)
(Photo Courtesy The Associated Press)
Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Anthony Lewis once said he was "probably made to be a lawyer," as evidenced by his staunch advocacy of civil liberties and a thorough knowledge of Supreme Court issues, which he covered for The New York Times. His 1964 book "Gideon's Trumpet," based on the landmark case that gave defendants the right to legal counsel, was made into a movie and is still used in law schools.

7/

Al Neuharth (1924-2013)
(Photo Courtesy Dave Eggen/The Associated Press)
Al Neuharth was a driving force in newspaper innovation, journalism education and newsroom diversity. In 1982, he founded USA Today, the colorful, groundbreaking national newspaper that was originally derided as fast food journalism. USA Today became one of the most imitated newspapers in the country and No. 1 in print circulation. In 1989, Neuharth founded the Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to the First Amendment. In 1997, he founded the Newseum. "As a journalist, I had a wonderful window on the world," he said.

8/

John Palmer (1935-2013)
(Photo Courtesy Evan Agostini/The Associated Press)
Longtime NBC News correspondent John Palmer was known not only for his tireless coverage of the White House and major news events around the world, but for his graciousness and gentlemanly manner. Palmer worked for NBC from 1962 to 1990 covering five presidents, and reported on some of the biggest stories in history. In 1980, he scooped the rest of the media by breaking the news of the failed attempt to rescue the American hostages in Iran.

9/

Eugene C. Patterson (1923-2013)
(Photo Courtesy The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Eugene C. Patterson was one of a few brave southern editors who used his newspaper to support civil rights. In 1963, after a church bombing killed four young black girls in Birmingham, Ala., he wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial condemning the killing: "A Negro mother wept in the street Sunday morning. … In her hand she held a shoe … from the foot of her dead child. … Every one of us in the white South holds that small shoe in his hand." Said Patterson about the editorial: "It was the only time I was absolutely sure I was right."

10/

Pat Summerall (1930-2013)
(Photo Courtesy Dave Pickoff/The Associated Press)
Football player-turned-sports broadcaster Pat Summerall was half of one of the most recognizable and entertaining broadcasting teams in pro football. With John Madden, his play-by-play announcing partner, the deep-voiced Summerall called NFL games for 21 years on CBS and Fox. He spent 10 seasons in the NFL, and was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association's Hall of Fame. "John looks at it from a coach's angle. I bring a player's point of view," Summerall said about their broadcasting styles.

11/

Helen Thomas (1920-2013)
(Photo Courtesy Helen Thomas)
Helen Thomas was as much a Washington institution as the institution she'd covered since 1961. Called the "dean" of the White House press corps, she covered the administrations of 10 presidents, beginning with John F. Kennedy. Thomas was famous for her pointed questions and comments during press conferences, and for the red dresses she began wearing during President Ronald Reagan's administration. "To this day, when I make a speaking appearance, someone will ask me, 'Where is that red dress?'" she said.

12/

Lee Thornton (1942-2013)
(Photo Courtesy Lee Thornton)
Lee Thornton was a trailblazer in radio and television. She was the first black female journalist to regularly cover the White House for a major news network, and was the first black host of NPR's popular "All Things Considered." She retired in 2011 as the interim dean of journalism at the University of Maryland. Throughout her career, Thornton struggled with male-dominated newsrooms. "I tried appeasing it, fighting with it, bargaining with it, and in the end, resigning myself to it," she said.

13/

Abigail Van Buren (1918-2013)
(Photo Courtesy Phillips-Van Buren, Inc.)
Pauline Esther Phillips was known to millions of readers around the world as advice columnist Abigail Van Buren, or "Dear Abby." In 1956, Van Buren told editors at the San Francisco Chronicle that she could "write a better advice column than the one you've been printing." "Dear Abby" became one of the country's most popular columns, rivaling that of her twin sister — "Ann Landers."  "Everyday, I get letters from people who say, 'You changed my life,'" Van Buren said. "Now, that's important."

As 2013 comes to an end, the Newseum recognizes notable men and women who passed away this year whose contributions to journalism will not be forgotten.

Many of them are featured in Newseum galleries and exhibits and are honored separately from the journalists who were killed around the world trying to report the news. For a list of those names, please visit the Journalists Memorial.

• Journalists Memorial Gallery

Behind the Scenes with Will Ferrell

Will Ferrell visited the Newseum Dec. 3, 2013, to check out "Anchorman: The Exhibit" and visit with some of the Newseum staff who made the exhibit happen. Enjoy this behind-the-scenes look of his Newseum tour, and visit our Flickr page for even more photos!

Plan your visit to see it in person at newseum.org/visit.

• Anchorman: The Exhibit

Nelson Mandela during a visit to the Freedom Forum in 1993. (Newseum collection)

Remembering Nelson Mandela

He was called Madiba, a clan name that was used as a term of affection.

The world knew him as Nelson Mandela — the charismatic leader of the African National Congress, the first black person elected president of South Africa, and one of the most revered leaders in the world.

Mandela died Dec. 5, 2013. He was 95.

Mandela was born in the Transkei in South Africa on July 18, 1918, a son of the chief of the Thembu tribe. He joined the ANC in 1944 and later battled against the National Party's political system of racial separation, known as apartheid. Mandela went on trial for treason in 1956, and the ANC was banned in 1960. Mandela was acquitted in 1961, but three years later, he and others were sentenced to life in prison for "sabotage, treason and violent conspiracy."

"Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be won," Mandela said in 1961. "The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days."

Mandela's release from prison in 1990 after 27 years was a worldwide news event. By then, the chokehold of apartheid was slowly loosening its grip on South Africa's black majority. Almost immediately, Mandela picked up the struggle where he had left off, vowing to forever dismantle the policy of "apartness" that for decades had deemed the country's black majority less than human. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, which he shared with then-South African president F.W. de Klerk.

In July 1993 when he was in the United States to receive the National Constitution Center's Liberty Medal, Mandela was the featured guest at the Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan foundation that champions the First Amendment as a cornerstone of democracy, and the main funder of the operations of the Newseum. Mandela, who was running for president of South Africa, spoke about freedom in his country and around the world.

Adam Clayton Powell III, a former vice president of the Freedom Forum who is currently a senior fellow at the University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy, recalled a private moment before Mandela spoke.

"While we were being seated, the AP ran an update from the CODESA talks announcing they had just announced an election date the following April," Powell said. "So, I introduced him as 'the next president of South Africa.' He broke into a big grin, and then he covered the mic and said, 'No one has ever introduced me that way before.' I then covered my mic and said, 'Get used to it.'"

Few images better captured political change in South Africa than news photographs of South Africans waiting in long lines to vote in 1994 — the first time in the nation's history that the black majority, seven out of 10 people, had been allowed. One of the ballot boxes used in the historic election that Mandela won the presidency is part of the Newseum's permanent collection.

Mandela served one term as president of South Africa. He left office in 1999.

NORAD Tracks Santa

The Newseum is once again proud to be a member of the NORAD Tracks Santa team for 2013!

NORAD Tracks Santa began December 24, 1955, when an incorrect phone number encouraging children to call Santa on Christmas was printed in a local Sears Roebuck and Co. newspaper advertisement. Instead of Santa, the number actually dialed the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Air Operations Center, NORAD's predecessor organization, in Colorado Springs, Colo. Air Force Col. Harry Shoup, the commander on duty that night, informed callers he was not Santa, but told them he could look on his radar and tell them Santa's location as he made his Yuletide journey across the globe.

From this act of timely kindness emerged a program that today is institutionalized throughout NORAD, which took over operations from CONAD in 1958. Each year since, NORAD has dutifully reported Santa's location on Dec. 24 to millions of children and families across the globe who inquire as to his whereabouts.

• Official NORAD Santa Tracker

Virginia O’Hanlon, c. 1897 (Courtesy James Temple)

Is There a Santa Claus? Yes, Virginia

Editor's Note: "Is There a Santa Claus?" is the most reprinted newspaper editorial in American journalism. In the spirit of that tradition, the Newseum has published the story behind it since 2007. It remains one of our most popular stories online.

American journalism's best-known editorial, a timeless tribute to childhood and the Christmas spirit, marked its 116th anniversary this year.

The editorial was published beneath the headline "Is There a Santa Claus?" in 1897 in the New York Sun, a gray but lively newspaper that began as a penny paper in 1833. The editorial's author was Francis Pharcellus Church, a veteran journalist who was assigned to write a reply to a letter from an 8-year-old named Virginia O'Hanlon.

"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus," Virginia had written. "Papa says 'if you see it in the Sun, it's so.' Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?"

"Virginia, your little friends are wrong," Church replied. "They have been afflicted by the skepticism of a skeptical age."

A few sentences later, Church invoked the editorial's most memorable passages: "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus."

"Is There a Santa Claus?" was given an obscure place in the Sun, in the third of three columns of editorials on Sept. 21, 1897. It was oddly timed, too — an editorial about Santa Claus appearing in September, three months before Christmas.

But over the years, the editorial became a classic in American journalism, and easily the most memorable item ever published in the Sun. That venerable newspaper folded in January 1950.

The Sun remained a storied name in American journalism, and the name was revived in April 2002 by owners of a new conservative-oriented daily in New York. The resurrected Sun laid claim to its predecessor's legacy, adopting its logo — which proclaimed the Sun "shines for all" — and its elaborate nameplate.

"Yes, Virginia," the Associated Press said of the new newspaper, "there is a New York Sun again."

The new Sun lasted just six, money-losing years in New York's hypercompetitive media market and published its final issue on Sept. 30, 2008. Thus, "Is There a Santa Claus?" outlived two incarnations of its natal newspaper.

So what explains such longevity? Why is the editorial so endlessly appealing?

Several answers offer themselves.

"Is There a Santa Claus?" lives on because it's such a rarity — an all-around cheery story, one without villains or sinister forces.

For many adults, the editorial stirs memories of Christmases past, when they, too, were young believers.

The editorial also offers a connection to a time quite different from ours, a time before jet aircraft, television and the Internet. It is somehow reassuring to know that what was engaging in 1897 remains appealing now.

The editorial lives on as a reminder of the lyrical heights that journalism, on occasion, can reach.

W. Joseph Campbell, a former Newseum scholar, is a tenured professor in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C. He is the author of several books, including "Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misrepresented Stories in American Journalism" and "The Year That Defined American Journalism: 1897 and the Clash of Paradigms," in which the story of "Is There a Santa Claus?" is told.

• Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus
• Special Program: "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus"

Three-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr. salutes his father's casket. (Courtesy The Associated Press)

50 Years Ago in News History: President Kennedy is Assassinated

On Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed while riding in a motorcade in downtown Dallas. Kennedy was in the city to mend a feud within the Texas Democratic Party and to rally support for his re-election bid.

At 12:34 p.m. CST, United Press International issued the first bulletin, which signaled a tragic day for the country and an unprecedented day for broadcast news:

"Three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade today in downtown Dallas."

Newspaper reporters and photographers scrambled to cover the story from outside the Texas School Book Depository, where the shots originated, and Parkland Hospital, where Kennedy was rushed to the emergency room. TV journalists raced to landline telephones to relay updates as the story unfolded.

The three major networks at the time, ABC, CBS and NBC — with their four days of non-stop coverage — established television as the primary source for breaking news. Two days after the assassination, about 93 percent of NBC viewers witnessed the shooting of suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald live on their screens. TV cameras focused on every aspect of the tragedy gave Americans an unprecedented opportunity to stay informed and mourn the loss of the country's 35th president.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination, the Newseum will feature exhibits, programs and events that explore media coverage of his presidency, home life and death.

• "Three Shots Were Fired" chronicles the assassination from newspaper field coverage to the live broadcasts of Kennedy's funeral and burial. Never-before-seen artifacts, including Abraham Zapruder's camera, are on display.
• "Creating Camelot" features private images of the Kennedy family from the collection of photographer Jacques Lowe. From 1958 to 1961, Lowe took more than 40,000 photos of the Kennedys' memorable public appearances and unseen private moments.

• An accompanying Newseum-produced film, "A Thousand Days," recounts the youthful glamour the Kennedy family brought to the White House.

The exhibits are open now through Jan. 5, 2014.

• On Nov. 20, Bob Schieffer, chief Washington correspondent for CBS News and moderator of "Face the Nation," and Clint Hill, a former Secret Service agent who was in the presidential motorcade on Nov. 22, 1963, will share their memories of that day. This program is sold out. Follow it on Twitter at #JFK50.
• On Nov. 22, the Newseum will host "JFK Remembrance Day," featuring a number of daylong events. Follow the programs on Facebook and Twitter at #JFKNewseum.

• JFK

Washington Ideas Forum

Newseum Hosts Washington Ideas Forum Nov. 13-14

The Newseum is pleased to partner with The Atlantic and the Aspen Institute to host the fifth annual Washington Ideas Forum Nov. 13 and 14, 2013.

Following the bruising government shutdown and the troubled rollout of the Affordable Care Act, the event will bring together government leaders — from both sides of the aisle — as well as top business and media voices for two days of conversation about the serious challenges facing the country — and the possible paths forward.

Visit the 2013 Washington Ideas Forum online to preview featured speakers for 2013 and watch highlights from 2012. This year’s event will be live streamed for those unable to attend in person. Follow the conversation on Twitter via @Atlantic_LIVE, @AspenInstitute and @Newseum and join in using #IdeasForum.

Free Admission for Veterans at the Newseum

Free Admission for Veterans at the Newseum

This offer has expired.

WASHINGTON — In honor of our nation's armed services, all veterans and active duty personnel will receive free admission for themselves and one guest on Nov. 11, 2013.

Complimentary tickets are available only at the admissions desk. Military ID, another form of military-service credential, or military uniforms are required.

Find out for yourself why everyone is calling the Newseum the best experience Washington, D.C., has to offer. Each of the seven levels in this magnificent building is packed with interactive exhibits that explore how news affects our shared experience of historic moments.

Don't miss "Three Shots Were Fired," an exhibit that examines news coverage of the events following President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

The "Creating Camelot" exhibit showcases former White House photographer Jacques Lowe's intimate, behind-the-scenes images of John and Jacqueline Kennedy and their children.

In the Big Screen Theater, "A Thousand Days" recounts the youthful glamour the Kennedy family brought to the White House.

Like all Newseum tickets, veterans tickets are valid for two consecutive days.

This offer is not valid in conjunction with other discounts. Limit four, same-day discounted tickets per transaction.

Judith Bellas and James McLaughlin of Burke, Va., won tickets to the premiere of National Geographic Channel's "Killing Kennedy" at the Newseum. (Maria Bryk/Newseum)

Red Carpet Evening for Sweepstakes Winners

Two lucky Newseum fans got the red carpet treatment at the Oct. 28 premiere of National Geographic Channel's "Killing Kennedy." Judith Bellas of Burke, Va., was selected as the grand-prize winner of the Newseum's "JFK's DC Sweepstakes," which included two tickets to the premiere of the highly anticipated film about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Bellas and her husband, James McLaughlin, watched the film in the Newseum's Annenberg Theater along with celebrity guests, including stars Rob Lowe, Michelle Trachtenberg and Will Rothhaar; "Killing Kennedy" author and Fox News host Bill O'Reilly; and the film's cast, writer and director.

"We had a wonderful time!" Bellas said.

The sweepstakes prize package also includes a VIP tour of the Newseum's JFK exhibits; two nights at the Monaco Washington, DC; tickets to other top attractions in the nation's capital, including the National Building Museum, International Spy Museum and Madame Tussauds; and tickets for city tours with Big Bus Tours, Bike and Roll and Washington Walks.

If you want to be among the first to learn about future events, contests and other Newseum happenings, subscribe to our e-newsletter, and never miss a scoop.

75 Years Ago in News History: 'War of the Worlds'

Watch video:

• "War of the Worlds" 1938 Radio Broadcast

Seventy five years after actor and director Orson Welles scared the daylights out CBS radio's nighttime listeners with his Halloween eve dramatization of the science-fiction novel "War of the Worlds," the power of the realistic-but-phony radio broadcast of an Earth invasion from Mars still endures.

On Oct. 30, 1938, Welles and fellow actors of The Mercury Theatre on the Air performed the dramatization that was written to sound like news bulletins. Though CBS announced several times that the broadcast was a dramatization, the bulletins sounded so authentic — and the actors' performances so convincing — that thousands of panicked listeners believed Martians had landed in New Jersey.

Ninety-two radio stations carried the drama. When it ended, most of them, as well as newspapers and police departments across the country, were swamped with callers seeking clarification and demanding to know if the world was ending.

"Officials of the electric company received scores of calls urging them to turn off all lights so that the city would be safe from the enemy," The Knoxville Journal reported the next day.

After the broadcast, Welles and CBS were roundly criticized. Hundreds of letters and telegrams were sent to the four-year-old Federal Communications Commission. In studies and surveys conducted weeks after the broadcast, some listeners cited the authenticity of the news bulletins as the reason for their fear. But the broadcast did not frighten everyone. About 40 percent of the letters sent to the FCC, and 90 percent of those sent to the Mercury Theatre, were positive.

In the months following "War of the Worlds," Mercury Theatre became "The Campbell Playhouse" through a corporate sponsorship by the Campbell Soup Company. Welles went to RKO Pictures, where he later directed and starred in "Citizen Kane," the critically acclaimed film inspired by newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst.

Seventy five years after its debut, "War of the Worlds" remains a testament to the power of radio as a broadcast medium.

The story of the "War of the Worlds" broadcast is told in the Newseum's News Corporation News History Gallery.

"War of the Welles," a new KPCC radio documentary that goes behind the scenes of the radio classic, can be heard on Southern California Public Radio.

• New 'War of the Worlds' documentary — 'War of the Welles' — goes behind the scenes of the 1938 radio classic
• News Corporation News History Gallery

Express Best of 2013

Newseum Voted Among the Best in 2013

WASHINGTON — The Newseum was voted one of Washington, D.C.'s most popular museums in an annual poll conducted by Express, a free daily newspaper issued by The Washington Post.

Readers named the Newseum the city's best "non-Smithsonian museum" in the Arts category. The museum also earned top honors in the "most underrated tourist attraction" and was recognized for its gift store.

For complete poll results, please visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/express/

Hank Greenspun Terrace on Pennsylvania Avenue (Sam Kittner/Newseum)

D.C. Open For Business, Despite Shutdown

WASHINGTON — Despite the first government shutdown in 17 years which has forced the closing of many D.C. museums and cultural institutions, numerous attractions, including the Newseum, remain open to tourists.

The Newseum experienced only one group cancellation for the first day of the shutdown, but it also added another group for that day. Walk-in traffic has been brisk. Groups are being booked for the remainder of the week and for upcoming visits. The Newseum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

Other popular destinations that are open today include:

• The Corcoran Gallery of Art
• The National Museum of Women in the Arts
• Kreeger Museum
• Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens
• The Phillips Collection
• The International Spy Museum
• National Geographic Museum
• Crime Museum
• National Building Museum
• Koshland Science Museum (open Wednesday –Monday)
• George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens

All of these destinations include paid admission. D.C.'s public bus and rail system remains open.

This photo of John F. Kennedy at a 1959 press conference in Omaha, Neb., was widely used on his presidential campaign materials. Credit: Estate of Jacques Lowe

Newseum Hosts JFK Day, Other Events, to Mark Anniversary

WASHINGTON — On Friday, Nov. 22, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Newseum will host "JFK Remembrance Day," featuring a number of daylong JFK-themed discussions with authors, journalists and filmmakers.

All events are included with museum admission.

The Newseum also will rebroadcast in real time three hours of CBS News's live television coverage from Nov. 22, 1963, including the unforgettable moment when legendary anchorman Walter Cronkite reported to the nation that the president was dead.

A full schedule of events will be available as new programs are added.

Schedule of Events

10 a.m.: Screening of "One PM Central Standard Time," narrated by actor George Clooney.
Documentary Theater (90 minutes)

11 a.m.: Gallery Talk: Creating Camelot
Concourse Level (20 minutes)

11:30 a.m.: Dean Owen, author of "Reflections on the Life, Assassination and Legacy of John F. Kennedy," participates in a panel discussion and book signing.
Knight TV Studio (60 minutes)

Noon: Screening of "John F. Kennedy A Legacy Remembered," a 30-minute special produced by Voice of America.
Documentary Theater (30 minutes)

1 p.m.: Screening of "President Kennedy Has Been Shot" and a panel discussion with filmmaker Gerardine Wurzburg.
Documentary Theater (60 minutes)

1:40 p.m.: CBS News footage of the events on Nov. 22, 1963, shown on the 90-foot high screen.
New York Times–Ochs-Sulzberger Family Great Hall of News (180 minutes)

2:00 p.m.: Gallery Talk: Three Shots Were Fired.
Sixth Floor (20 minutes)

3 p.m.: James Swanson, author of "End of Days," participates in a panel discussion and book signing.
Knight TV Studio (60 minutes)

3:30 p.m.: Screening of "As It Happened."
Documentary Theater (90 minutes)

• JFK

"Making a Change"

Newseum Institute Launches Civil Rights Learning Module

WASHINGTON — On Friday, Aug. 30, 2013, the Newseum Institute will add a new civil rights-focused learning module to its online education resource, Digital Classroom. Called "Making a Change," the module will be available to classrooms across the country for teachers and students studying the civil rights movement.

Digital Classroom is a free, cross-disciplinary resource featuring interactive timelines, archival videos and downloadable historical front pages, emphasizing historical connections, media literacy and civics.

In the "Making a Change" module, students and teachers have access to three online interactives, nine lesson plans, 40 archival newsreels and interviews, and more than 200 historical front pages and images. An interactive timeline highlights 100 seminal events in the civil rights movement and allows students to explore print and video news reports that add critical context to key moments. By exploring a civil rights media map, students will be able to compare and contrast how news publications such as The Afro-American and The Washington Post covered such news events as the 1963 March on Washington and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

For teachers, the site offers comprehensive yet flexible lesson plans designed for middle, high school and college classrooms. These standards-aligned lesson plans will help teachers enhance student engagement with Newseum content, their communities and their peers across the country. As part of the "Making a Change" module, students can submit their own civil rights class work, news reports and local events for inclusion in the interactive timeline and map.

Earlier this month, the Newseum opened "Make Some Noise: Students and the Civil Rights Movement," an exhibit that explores the new generation of student leaders in the early 1960s who fought segregation by exercising their First Amendment rights and making their voices heard. The display features a section of the original F.W. Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., where in 1960 four African-American college students launched the sit-in movement, and a bronze casting of the Birmingham, Ala., jail cell door behind which King penned his famous "Letter From Birmingham Jail" in 1963.

The Newseum's Digital Classroom was made possible by the Ford Foundation. More about the Newseum's civil rights initiatives can be found at newseum.org/civilrights.

• Digital Classroom
• Newseum Institute and the First Amendment Center
• Make Some Noise: Students and the Civil Rights Movement

Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech. (Courtesy The Associated Press)

Five Freedoms of First Amendment on Display at March 50 Years Ago

Fifty years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom of his dream of racial equality — setting a historic milepost in the civil rights movement and in the nation's repudiation of the legal and historical stain of slavery.

The means, mechanism and methods of that Aug. 28, 1963, speech were the five freedoms of the First Amendment, given new definition and impact in that moment by an elegant and moving voice.

King's speech was rooted in a religious and philosophical belief of equality: "When the architects of our Republic wrote the magnificent Constitution and Declaration of Independence," King said, those Founders promised "that all men — yes, black men as well as white men —would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Clearly, the right of free speech ensured that an entrenched and powerful system of bigotry backed by laws of segregation and the historical customs of separation could not silence its critics. The rights of assembly and petition guaranteed that hundreds of thousands of marchers — an amazingly diverse group, in peaceful protest on that day and others — could not long be stopped, dispersed or silenced by government forces.

And the amendment also provided that a free press, while shamefully slow in many cases to rise to the challenge, ultimately would document the terrible legacies of slavery — poverty, unemployment and fractured families — as well as provide a living room view of the horrific death spasms of a segregated society. There was no avoiding the evening news views of police dogs and fire hoses loosed on fellow citizens, the magazine articles with indelible images of lynched men, and the newspaper stories and photos of bombed churches and bloody Freedom Riders.

It is no stretch to say that our First Amendment freedoms were never so much in evidence, never more important, and never so essential in providing and protecting the means by which a nation could confront its worst demons without government direction, interference or control.

Just 100 years after the Civil War tore at the fabric of the Union, those freedoms provided the path for the nation to take corrective action by a new set of laws to protect voting rights and against discrimination, and to set in motion new attitudes. Little more than one century after a nationwide controversy was sparked in 1901 when President Theodore Roosevelt invited noted African-American educator Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House, the nation saw the election in 2008 of an African-American president, Barack Obama.

To be sure, the effort toward equal rights goes on, as does the role of our five core freedoms in that work.

At a number of programs surrounding the opening of "Make some Noise," a new exhibit at the Newseum noting the events of 1963, speakers and panelists reminded us that the march was not just for "freedom, but also about "jobs." Fifty years later, unemployment for minorities still exceeds by far the jobless rate for whites.

Speakers at the National Mall events commemorating the March expanded the call for equality to all minorities, to gays and to immigrants. Critics also assailed the U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this year to end what many see as the essential voter rights protections of the Civil Rights Act of 1965.

Today's legislative and social battles over the major issues of our day are both fueled by First Amendment freedoms and tempered by the "safety valve" aspect of those same rights. We have thus far avoided using those freedoms to avoid the great fear of the Founders, the "tyranny of the majority" that by force, heredity or royal claims had so paralyzed social progress in their time, and which even today plunge many nations into violent convulsions.

Panelists in a July 29 program at the Newseum theorized that King's closing words echo strongly down the halls of our history, because he spoke both to issues and aspiration in great American experience in self-governance, one rooted in five basic freedoms: religion, speech, press, assembly and petition. He put it this way:

"When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every city and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, Free at last, Great God almighty, We are free at last."