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The first fireside chat
White House, Diplomatic Reception Room · Washington, D.C., United States · 1933-03-12
Roosevelt explained the bank holiday directly to radio listeners, the first of thirty broadcasts that changed how presidents talk to the country.
The record
| Date | 1933-03-12 |
|---|---|
| Place | White House, Diplomatic Reception Room, Washington, D.C., United States |
| Coordinates | 38.8977, -77.0365 (landmark-level precision) |
| Scope | Local interest |
| Sources | Wikipedia |
| Added | 2026-08-14 · source: editors |
Coordinates are given at landmark level. A landmark-level coordinate points at the structure; a city-level one points at the settlement, not at a parcel.
Finding photographs
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- Wikimedia Commons — freely licensed images, with the licence stated on every file. This is the only source we republish from.
- The reference article — its own illustrations, and its citations to archives.
- Image search filtered to reusable licences — useful for tracing which institution holds a picture.
- National and municipal archives of United States, and the picture desks of newspapers published there at the time.
Check the licence before you reuse anything. A photograph being online, or being old, does not make it free; in most countries a 1960s press photograph is still in copyright.
Footage
Newsreel and archive film of events like this often survives. Search YouTube for this event If you find good footage, send us the link and we will attach it to this page.
Time layers at this place
One place, several moments in time. This location has 14 recorded time layers between 1924 and 1964 — slide through them:
- 1924 — First Division Monument
- 1931 — District of Columbia War Memorial
- 1933 — “The only thing we have to fear”
- 1933 — The first fireside chat this page
- 1933 — Martin's Tavern
- 1940 — Dumbarton Oaks
- 1941 — “A date which will live in infamy”
- 1950 — attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman
- 1954 — The Army-McCarthy hearings
- 1961 — “Ask not what your country can do for you”
- 1963 — “I have a dream”
- 1963 — I Have a Dream
- 1963 — March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
- 1964 — The Civil Rights Act is signed
Seeded by the editors. This entry was compiled by us from public reference works and is labelled as such, not presented as a reader’s contribution. Sources are listed on the entry. If you know more, or we have it wrong, tell us — corrections are published.
You can add to this page
This entry is a skeleton on purpose. If you were there, if your family was, or if you simply know the place: photographs (yours or ones you have the right to share), comments and corrections to the record above, and observations — what the place was like before, after, what the books get wrong. Everything is read by a person before publication and credited the way you ask.
What readers have added
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Do you know something about White House, Diplomatic Reception Room, Washington, D.C.?
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Nearby in United States
- The Civil Rights Act is signed (1964)Washington, D.C.
- Nixon resigns (1974)Washington, D.C.
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- attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman (1950)Georgetown
- First Division Monument (1924)