This Week In National Press Club History; Yeltsin, Aristide

June 20, 1991: Boris Yeltsin, the first popularly elected president to head the soon-to-be Russian Republic, tells a National Press Club luncheon that the Soviet Union’s only president, Mikhail Gorbachev, was "too slow and half-hearted with economic and political reforms…because along that path the system will take revenge on us.” Electrifying the packed audience, Yeltsin declares that “there will be no turning back from the path Russia has chosen.” His speech is short, but his answers are long, ranging from questions about the future of the Soviet Union to his religious beliefs. Five years later, the vanquished Gorbachev appears at the Club, having received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1990.

June 24, 2010: The Club celebrates the 25th anniversary of the merger of the Washington Press Club and the National Press Club at an evening reception sponsored by the History & Heritage Committee. Members of the negotiating teams recall the sometimes spirited talks that resulted in the agreement combining the historically rival organizations. The merger takes effect on July 1, 1965.

June 26, 1942: The exiled King Peter ll of Yugoslavia addresses a Club luncheon about his Nazi-occupied native country. The young monarch is currently serving in Britain’s Royal Air Force.

June 28, 1994: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the former and future president of Haiti, reviews American efforts to restore his victory in a democratic election that had been overturned in a 1991 coup d’etat. He urges the world to help Haiti move “from misery to poverty with dignity” and suggests that journalists can make a difference in bringing needed change to Haiti.

The National Press Club continues its practice, beginning in 1933, of inviting world leaders to address critical issues. Most recently the Club has hosted appearances by the presidents of Chile and Iceland. A visit by the president of the Republic of the Congo is scheduled for August 1, 2014.

June 28, 2006: The Club is invaded by “toons” at its Nickelodeon TV characters luncheon.

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 lobby displays of prominent speakers, events, panel discussions and its oral history project.

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