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#OTD 7/10/1972 – Actor John Wayne visited with President Nixon and Dr. Henry Kissinger in the President’s Western White House office. (Images: WHPO-9560-5A and 10A)

#OTD 7/9/1973 – President Nixon witnessed Judge William H. Becker swear-in Clarence M. Kelley as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Federal Office Building, Kansas City, MO. Kelley served as the Bureau’s second director until February 15, 1978. (Image: WHPO-E1165-07)

#OTD 7/8/1970 – President Nixon met with Taos Pueblo Indian Tribal Council representatives and sent a Special Message to the Congress on Indian Affairs advocating for "self-determination without termination" as well as policies to put right "centuries of injustice." (Images: WHPO-3841-11 & 07) Read the special message online: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/special-message-the-congress-indian-affairs

#OTD 7/7/1971 – Searchlight on the move! President Nixon (Secret Service code name Searchlight) opted to drive his personal secretary Rose Mary Woods, valet Manolo Sanchez, and the family dogs in his golf cart from his Western White House office to the residence.

For more than 100 years, the Secret Service has used code names to refer to presidents and their family members. First Lady Pat Nixon was Starlight, Tricia Nixon Cox was Sugarfoot, Edward Cox was Seminole, Julie Nixon Eisenhower was Sunbonnet, and David Eisenhower was Sahara.

(Image: WHPO-6781-05A)

#OTD 7/6/1973 – President Nixon discussed U.S.-P.R.C. relations with Huang Chen, Chief of the People's Republic of China’s Liaison Office in the United States, at the Western White House. (Image: WHPO-E1181-18A)

#OTD 7/2/1973 – On the lawn outside his Western White House office, President Nixon witnessed the swearing-in ceremony of Dr. James R. Schlesinger as Secretary of Defense.

Dr. Schlesinger previously served as Chair of the Atomic Energy Commission and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1979, President Carter appointed him to the position of America's first Secretary of Energy.

(Image: WHPO-E1144-02A)

#OTD 7/1/1971 – Sammy Davis, Jr. and President Nixon met in the Oval Office to discuss drug abuse policy. Nixon also appointed Davis to the National Advisory Board of Office of Economic Opportunity. The two first met at New York’s Copacabana nightclub in 1954. (Image: WHPO-6729-11)

#OTD 6/30/1974 – For several hours, President Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev met alone and with advisors at Brezhnev’s dacha (vacation home) overlooking a Yalta public beach. In the afternoon, the Americans and Soviets took a two-hour cruise on a Soviet Navy yacht before retiring for the evening.

(Image: WHPO-E3211-29)

#OTD 6/29/1974 – President Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev participated in a signing ceremony for a "Long Term Agreement Between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. to Facilitate Economic, Industrial, and Technical Cooperation."

After the signing, the American and Soviet delegations traveled by Ilyushin Il-62 "Soviet I" aircraft from Moscow to Simferopol Airport, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, and then by motorcade to Brezhnev’s Black Sea vacation home, or dacha, in the Oreanda area of Yalta.

(Images: WHPO-E3197-04 and E3199-09)

As part of our celebration of the nation's 250th anniversary, we have a added a new video to our ARTIFACTS OF AMERICA playlist on YouTube.

Visit our website to learn about the second episode, featuring this Davison, Newman & Co. replica Revolutionary War era teapot that was gifted to First Lady Pat Nixon.

#OTD 6/18/1974 – Before the American delegation departed Jordan for the Azores, Portugal, First Lady Pat Nixon and Queen Alia Al Hussein visited the roman ruins at the Jerash Archeological Site located about 45km north of Amman, Jordan.

The ancient settlement, earlier known as Gerasa, is among the best preserved Greco-Roman provincial cities in the world. Sadly, in February 1977, Queen Alia died in a helicopter crash. She was 28 years old.

(Images: WHPO-E3107-16A and 28A)

#OTD 6/17/1974 – President Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon visited the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. Here, we see them participating in a memorial ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance commemorating the Jewish heroes and martyrs killed during World War II. (Image: NAID 194587)

#OTD 6/16/1973 – While President and Mrs. Nixon spent the weekend at their home in Key Biscayne, Florida, preparations were underway at the White House for the upcoming State Dinner in honor of Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party.

Here we see a White House calligrapher using an oblique pen to hand letter place cards for the dinner.

(Images: WHPO-E0993-02 & 03)

#OTD 6/15/1973 – President and Mrs. Nixon traveled to Pekin, Illinois for the dedication ceremony of the Everett McKinley Dirksen Congressional Leadership Research Center. Senator Dirksen served in the United States Senate from 1951 until his death in September 1969. Prior to the Senate, he served in the United States House of Representatives during the years 1933-1949.

(Images: WHPO-E0991-14A & 18A)

Tomorrow, June 13, 2026 - 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Join us for our "A250 Conversations: Forgotten Founders" event! Entrance to the event is included in the discounted museum admission of $17.76. Active members of the military (with ID) and children age 4 and under receive free admission.

Happy Anniversary to Tricia and Edward Cox! On June 12, 1971, President and Mrs. Nixon’s daughter Tricia married “Eddie…[her] first and last love” in the first White House Rose Garden wedding.

One year later, the Coxes celebrated their first wedding anniversary over dinner with the President and First Lady on the presidential yacht USS Sequoia.

(Images: WHPO-6574-33 & WHPO-9350-13)

#OTD 6/11/1971 - White House Chefs Henry Haller and Heinz Bender, and pastry chef Maurice Bonté of Le Perigord in New York City, worked right up to the deadline putting finishing touches on Tricia Nixon and Edward Cox's monumental six-tier wedding cake that stood 6' 10" in height.

The top tier featured a miniature gazebo modeled after the one the couple exchanged their vows under in the White House Rose Garden the following day. The actual gazebo is now in the garden here at the Nixon Library.

(Image: WHPO-6548-19A)

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