Television as a medium was just emerging during WW II and the early postwar years, still relatively unknown to the vast majority of people. Although President Franklin Roosevelt used it as early as 1939, broadcasting a campaign speech from the World’s Fair, he preferred the much more familiar medium of the radio to give his wartime “fireside chats,” which would not show him in his wheelchair. FDR’s successor, Harry Truman, was the first to start making full use of television.

On this day, October 5, in 1947, Harry Truman broadcast a televised address to the people of the United States, the first one ever by a president from the White House. Truman urged the American public to forego meat and eggs to help the devastated European continent recover.

“I know every American feels in his heart that we must help to prevent starvation and distress among our fellow men in other countries…. Their most urgent need is food.” Truman said. War-ravaged Europe was starting an unusually severe winter, and crops were failing over the entire continent. The U.S. took to exporting grain to help sustain Europe, and to make sure there would be enough of it left over, the Truman White House urged the people to consume less meat and eggs, so that the grain used to feed the animals could feed hungry Europeans instead.