Today in History: September 23, Nixon’s ‘Checkers’ speech
It's 1952. Richard Nixon salvaged his vice presidential nomination by appearing on television from LA under the television lights in LA and waits for the red light to come on.
A secret expense fund has nearly ended his career. Facing expulsion from the ticket, he is about to bet everything on a dog named Checkers.
Also on this date:
In 1780, British spy John Andre was captured along with papers revealing Benedict Arnold’s plot to surrender West Point to the British.
In 1806, the Lewis and Clark expedition returned to St. Louis, more than two years after setting out for the Pacific Northwest.
In 1955, a jury in Sumner, Mississippi, acquitted two white men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, of killing Black teenager Emmett Till. Then two later admitted to the crime in an interview with Look magazine.