05/01/2016
Thank you, President Kennedy for playing the Woman Card in 1962....hope everyone enjoys tonight's WHCA dinner.... President Obama never disappoints!
"Until 50 years ago, only men could attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner—even though the WHCA counted female members who paid equal dues. To protest the injustice, in March 1950 Dan Kimball, undersecretary of the U.S. Navy, hosted an event for women journalists who had been excluded from the annual bash. In 1962, at the urging of Helen Thomas, the first female White House correspondent, President Kennedy refused to attend until the ban on women was lifted. Thomas was named the first female president of the WHCA in 1975."
http://www.history.com/news/history-of-the-white-house-correspondents-dinner
On the eve of the 2012 White House Correspondents' Dinner, find out more about the origins and evolution of the annual event.