Future President Peirce is born - Time Magazine debuts - This Day in History – Nov 23rd

Back in 1804, Hillsborough, NH welcomed future 14^th president Franklin Pierce, who would later hold an administration that improved trade relations with Canada along with acquisitions of territories of Arizona, New Mexico and the Gadsden Purchase of 1853.

President Peirce and his wife Jane endured family tragedy within their household.  According to history.com, “In 1834, Pierce had married Jane Means Appleton and the couple had three sons. The first, Franklin, died in infancy; a second, Frank Robert, died at age four from typhus; and their third son, Benny, was killed in a train wreck from which Pierce and his wife narrowly escaped. The string of tragedies led Pierce to drinking. He also suffered from chronic nervous exhaustion. By the end of his term, a Philadelphia Enquirer reporter described Pierce as "a wreck of his former self...his face wears a hue so ghastly and cadaverous that one could almost fancy he was gazing on a corpse." Upon leaving office in 1857, Pierce was asked what he would do next; he allegedly replied "there's nothing left [to do] but get drunk." The effects of alcoholism led to his death in 1869 at the age of 65.”

Life Magazine’s first issue debuts 

Back in 1936, the publishers of photograph–enhanced Life Magazine premiered their first issue with an image of the Fort Peck Dam which was shot by photographer, Margaret Bourke-White.  The American publisher of this magazine along with Time magazine was Henry Luce wanted to display a connection between both of these publications. 

According to history.com, “Life magazine was an extension of Time magazine in which Time displayed the story while Life displayed the pictures.  In the words of Luce himself, the magazine was meant to provide a way for the American people "to see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events ... to see things thousands of miles away... to see and be amazed; to see and be instructed... to see, and to show..." Luce set the tone of the magazine with Margaret Bourke-White's stunning cover photograph of the Fort Peck Dam, which has since become an icon of the 1930s and the great public works completed under President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.”

Click here to see a look at the best life magazine covers of all time.

All History facts provided from the link below:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/franklin-pierce-is-born?catId=9