The major political events in North America. The inauguration of Harry Truman as President of the U.S. People gather in a large number to watch the new President. Scenes from the inauguration dinner, as President Truman makes fun of and mocks the radio commentator H.V. Kaltenborn who forecast that Dewey would defeat Truman. In humor, President Truman imitates Mr. Kaltenborn and the gathered crowd laughs and claps. View of Canada's Louis Saint Laurent as he succeeds MacKenzie King as Prime Minister in Canada. Buildings in the area. People gather in a hall and applaud.
During World War 1, Americans from various trades, including carpenters, painters, and women seamstresses, at work in an aircraft factory. Men and women work assembling Liberty aircraft engines to power DH-4 aircraft. Workers placing propellers on a row of assembled DH-4s in the factory. New DH-4s being started and tested on factory airfield. After testing, a DH-4 is painstakingly disassembled and packed for transport by train and ship to American units in France. In France, women carry airplane wings to an assembly shed where they are put back together and delivered to the flying units. Truckloads of aerial bombs being delivered to the airplanes. Armorers fusing and loading bombs under an airplane's wings, under watchful eye of the pilot.
Brigadier General Billy Mitchell taxis in a Boeing Model 15 ( or a Curtis P-1Hawk) airplane, after landing at an airfield. . Battle ships underway at sea. Mitchell organizes 1st provisional Air Brigade for bombing demonstration against battleship target.. Crews and airplanes train and prepare at Langley Field, Virginia. Soldiers load bombs under plane wings. Planes take off to bomb the obsolete U.S. battleship USS Alabama. View from airplane in flight as it drops phosphorus bomb on the Alabama. View from water as bomb strikes with huge explosion. Armorers prepare heavier bombs for the next demonstration. Planes take off and bomb the USS Alabama again. General Mitchell crouched down beside a bomb loaded on an airplane for new tests in 1923. General Pershing, Admiral Shoemaker, Assistant Secretary of War, Davis, and General Patrick on deck of the Ship, USS St. Mihiel (AP-32) to observe the tests. Views of planes dropping bombs on Battleship USS Virginia and the ship rolling over and sinking. Large formations of 1920s era Air Service aircraft in flight.
A deserted factory building. Sign 'For Sale' on one of the Unemployed men on bread lines during the Great Depression. Crowds gather as politicians and agitators hold outdoor rallies. Signs of various employment agencies over store fronts where men are gathered seeking work. Job seekers sitting on sidewalks outside possible workplaces. Men sleeping on lawn in public park. Police arrest agitators. President Franklin D Roosevelt speaks about the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Copy of the bill (S.598) establishing the CCC. Newspaper headlines passage of "Labor Army Bill." Another reads: "House Votes Reforestation Plan to Give 250,000 Jobs..." Employment news in various newspapers and magazines. A man talks on phone. Men queued up, in 1935, to join the CCC. A woman stops to converse with some of them. CCC recruits, supervised by U.S. Army personnel, line up to receive clothing and equipment, before starting several weeks of Army boot camp. They board trucks and vans. The Army sets up a mess line on a sidewalk where recruits eat before boarding a large double-decker bus. Recruits wave from several other buses as they depart for their respective training camps. Audio is present in some brief portions only in the second half of the clip.
Allies of the Pacific War Council met at the White House on June 25, 1942 Pictured with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (both seated) and Canadian Prime Minister, Mackenzie King, standing immediately behind and between them. Others, standing behind are: Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eelco N. van Kleffens, Australian representative, Stanley Melbourne Bruce. The tall man behind Prime Minster King, is British Vicount Halifax (Edward Wood). To his left is Chinese Foreign Minister T.V. Soong, and Manuel L. Quezon, President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines. The last person standing at the right, is Walter Nash, New Zealand's minister to the United States. Scene shifts to military leaders of the combined British and American General Staffs, meeting in the so-called Second Washington Conference (Code named Argonaut). Closeup of U.S. Army Chief of Staff, General George S. Marshall, conversing with lieutenant General Henry H (Hap) Arnold, Commanding General of the U.S. Army Air Forces. Another closeup shows U.S. Navy Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Ernest King, conversing with Admiral William D. Leahy, personal Chief of Staff to President Roosevelt. Glimpse of British Military General Staff members.
View of elderly people and orphan children entering a building. WPA or Works Progress Administration Public Improvements show new log houses at Mercer County Industrial Park, a commune or community helping men, women, and families affected by the depression. Women milk cows. Man plowing a field with two horses pulling a hand plow, to provide food for the common community. Line of men with hoes work in a garden. Scenes from Camp Fairchance at Low Gap in Boone County West Virginia (South of Madison and Danville) shows totem poles at the camp entrance, a boy blowing a bugle, boy orphans waking up in a bunk house and girl orphans eating together in a dining hall. Young girl children sewing. Children playing, swimming in a nearby stream or lake, and marching behind a band on the grounds of the camp. Camp buildings seen in the background. Trumpeter on wood frame lashed tower blows bugle as American flag is lowered.
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