We lost a legend on this day in 2003

To give you an inkling of the type of man Mr. Rogers was, in 1969 a $20,000,000 grant – which had been set aside for the future Corporation for Public Broadcasting – was about to be cut in half, in response to significant proposed cuts by President Nixon. Mr. Rogers, still largely unknown at that time, went before a congressional committee headed by the tough-minded Senator John Pastore (D-R.I.). With an honest and vulnerable six-minute plea to help give the children programming that would help them manage their angry feelings, Rogers turned the hard-boiled senator into a wide-eyed child, and the $20,000,000 was approved.

Fred Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003)