When Franklin Rooseveltdeclared“I want to peach for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking ” in a radio receiver address to the American the great unwashed on March 12 , 1933 , he was making account . The address — in which Roosevelt explained his reasoning behind call a banking vacation to reorganize the battered industriousness and to announce their reopening — was the first of FDR ’s “ fireside chats , ” which constitute agame - changing communications strategy and use of goods and services of technologyfor The White House . Roosevelt go around the news medium and spoke directly to the people , creating an air of calmness and confidence during the Great Depression and World War II ( though he never give a radio address near an actual fireplace ) . Here are eight other number one and breakthroughs in presidential communicating .
1. First State of the Union Address // George Washington
Article II , Section 3 of the Constitutionstipulates that the president “ shall from time to fourth dimension give to Congress information of the State of the Union and urge to their Consideration such measure as he shall pronounce necessary and expedient . ” The labor first fell to George Washingtoneight month afterhis inaugural . On January 8 , 1790 , the former superior general addressed Congress at the provincial capital of New York City . Because the res publica was unexampled , the addresscovered some basics of maintain a state . Washington called for the foundation of a standing regular army ; money to fund foreign relative ; a physical process for naturalize foreigner , “ [ u]niformity in the currency , weight , and measures , ” and “ the promotion of scientific discipline and literature . ”
2. First Telegraph Line // Abraham Lincoln
Congress authorized funding for Samuel F.B. Morse to build a test telegraphy between Washington , D.C. and Baltimore in 1843 . While Lincoln ’s may not have been the first governance to send or receive info via telegraph , it was the first to have a lineinstalled in the War Department , starting in May 1862 . ( Previously , public officials who wanted to telegraph a message had to endure in line in a clerk ’s office with everyone else . ) Throughout the Civil War , Lincoln used the billet extensively , starting his sidereal day by shifting through communication from various state governor and generals . Some nights , he even log Z’s in the telegraph elbow room . The wire also allow him to directly oversee the war , giving specific orders for movements and troop counts .
3. First Telephone Line // Rutherford B. Hayes
Fred A. Gower , the managing factor of Alexander Graham Bell , personally oversawthe initiation of the first telephone telephone line in the White House in 1877 . Gower help President Rutherford B. Hayes dial up Bell at a hotel in Providence , Rhode Island , in June of that year . fit in to theProvidence Journal , “ The President listened carefully while a bit by bit increase smile wind his lips , and wonder shine in his eyes more and more , until he took the lilliputian legal document from his ear , looked at it a moment in surprisal , and comment , ‘ That is fantastic . ’ ” The sound was connected permanently to the only other one in Washington , that of the Treasury Department .
4. First Radio Address // Warren G. Harding
Roosevelt was not the first president get wind over the air . That honour go to Warren G. Harding . On June 14 , 1922 , Hardinggave a speechto commemorate the unveiling of a remembrance to Francis Scott Key . Due to vexation that too many the great unwashed would desire to hear Harding talk for the locale to accommodate , the decisiveness was made to broadcast the speech on radio . in the first place , a transfer post was going to be build in Baltimore , but that was deemed too expensive . Instead , Harding ’s voice wastransmitted via telephoneto the Anacostia broadcast medium post and then from Anacostia pass around to the people of Baltimore . A few months later , Harding used the same channelize - to - Anacostia trick for his State of the Union , which , according to acontemporaryNew York Timesarticle , was “ pass along through relay race stations to a good part of the nation , ” including his tired of married woman .
5. First Televised Address // Harry Truman
There were 44,000 goggle box in the U.S. when President Harry Truman madethe first telecast primetime addresson October 5 , 1947 . Truman essentiallycalled on Americans to wipe out less , economize the country ’s excess food supplying for European land still recuperate from World War II . Truman intimate Americans skitter meat on Tuesdays and nut and poultry on Thursdays and prepare aside a gash of bread each day . He also suggest eatery cut the gratis bread and butter . “ We trust that self - ascendence is the best control , ” he say . “ From now on , we shall be test at every meal the degree to which each of us is willing to practise ego - restraint for the good of all . ”
6. First Email // Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton has often said that the first electronic mail he institutionalize as president was to spaceman John Glenn , who had recently boarded the International Space Station to test the effects of place on senescence . But asThe Atlanticconfirmed last twelvemonth , this is a complete myth . John Gibbons , Clinton ’s Science Advisor , explained , “ we want to introduce the President to email and the Net . So we fetch him over to the quondam EOB , and he sat down in front of this computer — it may have been the first prison term he seat down in front of a computer — and show him how email worked and gave him his email destination over across the street in the Oval Office . So he typed in his first electronic mail substance . It was something like , Bill Clinton , it ’s clip to come home for luncheon . sign , Hillary , something like that . I saved a transcript of it . That was his first e-mail . ” And in 1994 , theNew York Timesreportedon an e-mail that Clinton sent to the Prime Minister of Sweden . And in what was name as a break of netiquette even back then , it was “ COMPOSED ENTIRELY OF CAPITAL alphabetic character . ”
7. First Webchat // Bill Clinton
Almost incisively a yr after his purported exchange with Glenn , Clinton became the first presidentto take questions from Internet usersin a forum hosted by Democratic Leadership Council and the cyberspace company Excite@Home . Digital communications had boomed during his administration . In 1993 , 1.3 million electronic computer were connected to the web . By 1999 , 56 million were on-line . For 90 minute on November 8 , 1999 , a moderator sorted through query pose to Clinton and an help typed out his answers . ( The 53 - year - onetime president include to being “ technologically challenged . ” ) About 50,000 view the video provender . Clinton responded to a inquirer that the prospect of a repose agreement between Israelis and Palestinians were “ better than 50 - 50 . ” He also told “ Cynthia in Arizona ” that he was not squirrel away food for thought in preparation for the Y2 K computer crash .
8. First Tweet // Barack Obama
Barack Obama ’s 2008 presidential campaign made unprecedented use of societal media . When he was elect to agency , his stave institutedThe White House Twitter account , whilepolitical allieskept up his @BarackObama . Obama never post a tweet from his own digit , however , until a go of the Red Cross ’s Washington , D.C. headquarters on January 18 , 2010 . A Red Cross employee apparentlycoaxed Obamato rack up the “ send ” push on a tweet version , “ President Obama and the First Lady are here visiting our tragedy operation center flop now , ” differentiate the first tweet physically give birth by a U.S. president . On May 18 , 2015 , Obamaestablished his ownTwitter account , @POTUS .
