On October 5, 1947, President Harry S. Truman delivered the first-ever televised presidential address from the White House. On that there were only some 44,000 TV sets in U.S. homes.

In his speech, Truman called on Americans to conserve food to help hard-pressed Europeans, still recovering from the devastation caused by World War II and threatened with a massive winter famine. He asked the agricultural industry and distillers to reduce their grain use. And he asked all Americans to forgo eating meat on Tuesdays and eggs and poultry on Thursdays and to consume one fewer slice of bread every day. Truman went on to say that overeating and wastefulness would contribute to domestic inflation and scarcities abroad so that Europe’s battle and ours were one and the same.

From Politico here.