The first prez to appear on TV
Was not Truman, and not Kennedy
At the New York World’s Fair
(And nowhere beyond there)
Was a broadcast that starred Frankie D

Event: Franklin Delano Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to appear on television
Year: 1939
Learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_New_York_World%27s_Fair#Grand_opening

Why’d they fix it, if it wasn’t broke?
By the tests, it seemed a master stroke
Pepsi made them run scared
But they were not prepared
For the torrent of wrath they’d provoke

Event: New Coke is released
Year: 1985
Learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Coke

Not content to just sit there like freight
The jailed King carried on the debate
“Though by courts we’re dismissed
We will ever resist
It’s not justice if you have to wait”

Event: Martin Luther King Jr. writes “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
Year: 1963
Learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail

Baseball’s tough at a hundred degrees
But the dome blocked the sun (and the breeze)
There the Cougars beat Lew
Billie Jean won big too
And it even could house refugees

Event: The Harris County Domed Stadium (later called the Houston Astrodome) opens
Year: 1965
Learn more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrodome

Now, an island of flowers it’s not
But the sunshine they’ve certainly got
When you do there set forth
You go south to get north
And their voting with trouble’s oft fraught

Event: Ponce de León and his expedition become the first Europeans to sight what is now Florida
Year: 1513
Learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Ponce_de_Le%C3%B3n
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida