Weekly Historical Highlights (January 14 through 20)
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January 17, 1910
Representative Edith Starrett Green of Oregon was born on this date in Trent, South Dakota. From the time that she was elected to the 84th Congress (1955–1957), through her service in the nine succeeding Congresses, Green left her mark on almost every education bill enacted and eventually earned the epithet “Mother of Higher Education.” Among her major legislative triumphs, were the National Defense Education Act of 1958 which established loans for impoverished college students and graduate fellowships for college instructors in math and the sciences. She also authored both the landmark Higher Education Act of 1965 and Title IX of the 1972 Higher Education Act, the latter of which prohibited federally funded colleges and universities from discriminating against women.
January 17, 1952
On this date, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress in the House Chamber. The occasion marked the third time that Churchill spoke before Congress—more than any other foreign dignitary in congressional history. Churchill, who had coined the cold war term “Iron Curtain” to describe the Soviet Union’s grasp on Eastern Europe, implored Congress to support Western European re-armament in the face of Moscow’s continued threat to the continent. He believed the Anglo-American alliance was the keystone to the defense of democracies worldwide. “Bismarck once said that the supreme fact of the 19th century was that Britain and the United States spoke the same language,” Churchill told the assembled Representatives and Senators. “Let us make sure that the supreme fact of the 20th century is that they tread the same path.”
January 18, 1782
Daniel Webster, a House Member from New Hampshire during the 13th and 14th Congresses (1813–1817), as well as a Representative from Massachusetts from the 18th through the 20th Congresses (1823–1829), was born on this date in Salisbury, New Hampshire. Webster, who trained as a lawyer, became one of the great orators of the 19th century as both a Member of the U.S. House and, later, the Senate. His words, delivered in an 1825 address commemorating a monument on the site of the Bunker Hill battlefield, are emblazoned above the Speaker’s rostrum: “Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests and see whether we also in our day and generation may not perform something worthy to be remembered.”
