1978: NOAA announces gender-neutral hurricane naming system
Federal News Network presents a daily update of important moments in the history of the U.S. government.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced to Congress that he was authorizing the largest armaments production in the history of the U.S. on this date in 1942, about a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor which pushed the country fully into World War II. With the nation’s Pacific fleet decimated by the Japanese air raid, Lord William Beaverbrook, the British minister of aircraft production, and members of the British Ministry of Supplies, met their American counterparts in Washington and pressed Roosevelt to double U.S. armaments and industrial production. Beaverbrook preached ways of circumventing red tape to boost efficiency. The president announced to Congress that the first year of the supercharged production schedule would result in 45,000 aircraft, 45,000 tanks, 20,000 antiaircraft guns, and 8 million tons in new ships. Congressmen were stunned at the proposal.
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