This Week In National Press Club History

February 16, 2007: Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first elected woman head of state in Africa, reviews the accomplishments of her first year in office at a National Press Club luncheon, and looks ahead to Liberia’s future. Several other women heads of state have at some time addressed the Club, including former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, Foreign Minister and first woman Prime Minister of Israel, and most recently, Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, the first woman in that position, and former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

February 17, 1999: Long-time fighter for civil rights and sole surviving speaker from the March on Washington For Jobs and Freedom in 1963, U.S. Congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.) talks about his biography, "Walking With The Wind: A Memoir of the Movement," in one of several appearances at the National Press Club, most recently at the Book Fair and on The Kalb Report.

February 21, 2012: Danica Patrick, the first woman driver to lead a lap in the Indy 500 and to place 4th in that race, talks of her career as racer, model and advertising spokeswoman at a National Press Club luncheon. The National Press Club has also welcomed to the podium other woman sports champions, including tennis greats Venus Williams and Billy Jean King, who will attend the Sochi Olympics closing ceremonies next week as a representative of the United States.

This Week In National Press Club History is brought to you by the History & Heritage Committee, which preserves and revitalizes the Club’s century-plus history with up-to-date lobby displays, events, panel discussions and its oral history project.

For more information on the activities of the Committee, or to join it, contact Chair Gilbert Klein at [email protected].