Saturday, April 29, 2023

The Largest White House State Dinner on This Day in History

 

This day in history: In one of the largest White House state dinners in modern times, the President and Mrs. Kennedy hosted 173 scientists, educators and writers, including 49 Nobel Prize laureates from the Western Hemisphere on this day in 1962. President Kennedy made the famous remark, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge ever gathered at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." Dr. Linus Pauling, winner of the 1954 prize in chemistry, picketed outside of the White House in an anti-nuclear demonstration earlier in the day, then went inside to join the President for dinner. On greeting Dr. Pauling, Kennedy said, "I'm glad you decided to come inside."


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