On This Day. 1844: John Tyler, 54, married Julia Gardiner, 24, in a private ceremony in New York. It was the first time a sitting president had gotten married. Julia became the youngest First Lady (since eclipsed by Frances Folsom Cleveland, 21). 
You might not know that President Tyler, who was born in 1790 - 228 years ago - has two grandsons who are still alive
On This Day. 1934: Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Federal Credit Union Act, establishing the first credit unions. Begun during the depth of the Great Depression, it made badly-needed financial credit available to millions of Americans
When Americans showed leadership: On this day in 1948, President Truman ordered allied aircraft to begin the Berlin Airlift. It supplied food, medicine and other material to allied garrisons and the population in the western-controlled portions of that divided city
The airlift became necessary after Soviet troops blockaded West Berlin, cutting off road and rail access. It was a contest of wills between Truman and Soviet Premier Stalin. Allied planes would land as often as every thirty seconds around the clock. Stalin gave in after 11 months
On This Day. 1963: Standing in the shadow of the Berlin Wall, John F. Kennedy delivered one of the Cold War's greatest speeches: his defiant "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a Berliner) address to an audience of 450,000 West Germans /1
Looking contemptuously at the Berlin Wall, Kennedy said it showed the failure of the communist system and made it clear that America would stand by its West German allies. Here: JFK's phonetic scribbling of the most famous line of his address /2
The Berlin Wall - the most visible symbol of the Cold War and a hated symbol of communist oppression - was built in 1961 and stood for 28 years. Some 5,000 people tried to flee to the West; guards trained to shoot anyone fleeing killed, it is believed, an estimated 600 people
The flip-flop that contributed to George H.W. Bush's re-election defeat: On this day in 1990, the president said that taxes might be needed to curb growing federal deficits. In his 1988 campaign he famously said "Read my lips: no new taxes.”
On This Day. 1993: Bill Clinton ordered an attack on Baghdad. The president ordered the navy to hit Iraqi intelligence headquarters in the Iraqi capital—after learning that Iraq had plotted to kill former President George H.W. Bush during an April visit to Kuwait
