Past presidential visits to MIT
President Barack Obama's visit to MIT this week will be only the second time a sitting U.S. president has appeared at the Institute, and the first such visit that is not for a Commencement speech. President Bill Clinton was the Commencement speaker in 1998. MIT has also hosted these other visits by past or future presidents: Harry Truman was scheduled to speak here while he was in office at MIT's mid-century convocation, but canceled the appearance because he was afraid he would be upstaged by the appearance of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He did appear for a speech years later, in 1956, as an ex-president. Franklin Roosevelt made an appearance at MIT long before his presidency, in 1916, for the dedication of MIT's campus, when he was assistant secretary of the Navy. George H. W. Bush appeared at MIT in 1981, to address the annual dinner meeting of the...